Gold near 16-year high, keeps market active

The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index, along with its junior miner-explorer component, had a relatively even week, closing out the Oct. 20-26 trading period at 1,652.62, up just over two points from the previous week’s close. The session saw average daily trading volume of 38 million shares.

Gold prices surged over the week to almost a 16-year high, touching US$429.15 per oz. on the New York Spot Market before giving back a little ground to close at US$426 — still up almost six bucks from a week earlier.

A surging euro, record oil prices (cracking through US$55 per barrel), and growing concern about the American economy fuelled the flight to bullion.

Silver mirrored gold’s trend, setting a new 6-month high and closing out the session at US$7.31 per oz., up 12 over the week. Platinum endured a bumpy ride over the week, trading between US$838 and US$851 per oz. before closing at US$843. Palladium closed the week at US$213 an oz., equalling the previous week’s close.

Copper looked to take back some of its losses from the setback experienced in the previous trading period, closing up a penny at US$1.30 per lb.

Some 24 Venture-Exchange-listed juniors saw new yearly highs for the period under review, compared with 58 companies setting new 52-week lows.

Trading volume honours again went to OntZinc, which saw 15.8 million shares cross the floor. The aspiring base metals miner announced an agreement with Anglo American to buy Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting for $325 million. Acquisition of HudBay’s copper-zinc operations in Manitoba would boost OntZinc’s status as a producer. The stock gained half a penny to close at 14.5.

The second most active trader, Noront Resources, saw volume of 7.6 million shares. The top percentage gainer rose a whopping 30, or 167%, to close at 48 per share. Drilling on the Windfall Lake project in Quebec uncovered a new zone of gold mineralization in the first hole –a 13.4-metre intercept of semi-massive sulphides grading 8.55 grams gold per tonne. The mineralization was encountered at a depth of 400 metres, beneath known gold zones.

Dia Bras Exploration traded almost 4 million shares, closing up a penny at 75. The company posted results from 20 of 33 holes drilled on its Bolivar property in Mexico. The latest results returned high-grade copper-zinc mineralization within massive sulphide lenses occurring along two parallel fault structures. Grades of 2-6% copper and 3-37% zinc were encountered over widths of 1-6 metres.

Another percentage leaders among juniors was Murgor Resources, up more than 67%, or 5, to close at 12.5 per share, with 2 million shares changing hands. The company inked a deal to acquire a 60% stake in Noront Resources’ Kashabowie Lake gold project in northwestern Ontario. The project is contiguous with some of Murgor’s ground in the area.

Topping the value gainers was Randsburg International Gold, up 61, or 68.5%, to close at $1.50 on volume of 675,000 shares. Drilling at the Titan project, northeast of Sudbury, encountered significant intersections of iron (average: 27.4%) and titanium (11.2%) mineralization over the entire 261 metres of hole RA2-04.