Montreal Exchange TVX given boost

Trading during the first days of the new year was off to an inauspicious start, with the general market portfolio index slipping by more than 21 points for the week ended Jan. 8. The mining and minerals sub-index fared even worse, dropping by almost 43 points. Daily volumes ranged up to 4.1 million shares. Consolidated TVX Mining shot up by 25 cents to $4.85 on 5,000 shares as shareholders gave approval of a merger with Inco Gold, a unit of Inco (TSE). The new company, to be called TVX Gold, will have producing gold mines in Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Chile. The new fairly large producer will also count three promising Canadian gold exploration projects in its property portfolio. Nickel giant Inco fell $1.25 on the week to $28 on a volume of 90,500.

MSV Resources says it has been offered a $1.7 million grant from the Quebec government to cover 50% of the cost of a 96-mile-long winter road from Temiscamie to MSV’s Eastmain gold project in northern Quebec, near James Bay. Trading 16,400 shares, MSV gained 4 cents to 34 cents.

The Eastmain project contains proven and probable reserves of about 950,000 tons grading 0.35 oz. gold per ton. MSV says an underground operation at a rate of 400 tons per day is planned, with the ore to be transported to Chibougamau, Que., about 185 miles to the southwest, for processing.

Numerous juniors continue to languish in a weak market, including Armistice Resources, which has a gold project in northeastern Ontario and which closed at 11 cents; Greater Lenora Resources, which was 40 cents bid, 45 cents ask on the week and which is focusing its exploration efforts on a project in Saskatchewan; and Parquet Resources, which has optioned its Courville gold property near Val d’Or, Que., and which ended the week at 8 cents.

At the Lightning zone of the Holloway gold prospect in northeastern Ontario in which Freewest Resources and Noranda (TSE) are two of the partners, drilling is set to start up again this month. Freewest, trading 25,000 shares, closed unchanged at $2.89. Noranda was down by 63 cents to $16 on 178,700 shares. The third partner in the project is COATS-listed Teddy Bear Valley Mines.