Investors gobble up tasty juniors

TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE

Continuing its mid-summer rally, the TSX Venture Exchange pushed to an almost 5-month high of 1920.07, up 9.4 points over the Aug. 16-22 trading session, on 36.4 million shares traded.

The balance between new lows versus highs swung towards the bulls over the week, with 78 Venture-Exchange-listed explorers sinking to new annual lows, whereas 47 junior companies rallied to new 52-week highs.

Riding renewed investor focus on Saskatchewan diamonds, junior Forest Gate Resources was the volume leader on the week with 6.7 million shares traded, gaining 3 to close at 34 per share. Drilling on the southern boundary of its Eastside property discovered the “Duke” kimberlite that extends onto an adjacent property held by Shore Gold. Based on its magnetic signature, just under half of the new pipe appears to be on Forest Gate’s ground. Diamond analysis results are pending from drilling on the Dizzy pipe.

Golden Cariboo Resources traded just over 6.6 million shares over the session. The reactivated junior continued its rally, up almost 11 to close at 29. The company has shifted much of its focus to gas wells in the Calgary area, but also holds the Bar gold-lead-zinc project in central B.C., which it recently acquired from Eagle Plains Resources.

Capturing some of the market attention given to Nevada’s Cortez-Battle Mountain Trend, Staccato Gold Resources traded 4.8 million shares and gained a nickel to close at 18.5. Investors rallied around the stock following news that Placer Dome has outlined 11 drill sites on Staccato’s Long Peak gold project.

Alberta Star Development was up 68%, gaining 16 to close at 39.5. With no new exploration results, investors are watching its recently acquired Glacier Lake iron-oxide-copper-gold property near the company’s Contact Lake project in the Northwest Territories. The project is close to the past-producing Echo Bay silver mine and the Eldorado uranium-silver mine. Stacatto has launched a geophysics program on the land package.

Kensington Resources continued to garner investor interest following the recent announcement of merger plans with fellow Saskatchewan diamond explorer Shore Gold. Shares in Kensington gained 11 to close at $3.28 per share.

Trading in Mountain Boy Minerals soared to almost 2.6 million shares, to gain a whopping 119% and close at 70 per share. The company coat-tailed on news that Pinnacle Mines will receive a $2-milllion investment from Chinese mining company Zijin. Pinnacle and Mountain Boy are joint-venture partners on the Silver Coin project in northwestern B.C.

Shares of North American Gem slipped 23% to 11.5 over the week. The company signed a letter of intent to earn a 50% interest in Strathmore Mineral‘s Duddridge Lake and Hall Lake uranium projects in Saskatchewan.

Randsburg International Gold gained 96 to close at $3.95 per share following the discovery of more diamonds on its Victory diamond project in Brazil’s Goias state. Auger testing of a weathered eclogite unit returned four gem-quality diamonds weighing a total of 4.5 carats.