Exploration results lift Venture board

Vancouver — Trading on the TSX Venture Exchange got a lift during the trading session Nov. 1-7, thanks to exploration results that caught the attention of investors. The end of October helped too, as the month has a tradition of trading volatility going back to Mark Twain’s times. Twain’s folksy anecdote that October is “one of the particularly dangerous months to invest in stocks” (the others being all the other months) hasn’t been put to rest, even after a century.

With this particular October put to rest, November was off to a good start, with the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index gaining 39.89 points to close at 2,030.33 over the session.

Cypress Development was the most active trader, up a nickel at 11. The company has gold and gold-silver properties in British Columbia and Nevada, but has focused much of its recent efforts in the Red Lake gold camp of Ontario. An exploration crew has been mobilized to the junior’s 80%-owned McKenzie Island property. Geochemical sampling was recently completed, and the next stage of work calls for detailed geophysics to refine targets for subsequent drilling.

Next on the most-active list was NEMI Northern Energy & Mining, which also gained a nickel to close at $1.75. The company released details of a feasibility study for its wholly owned Trend coal property near Tumbler Ridge, in northwestern B.C. The study showed robust rates of return for a proposed mine that would produce coking coal.

Royal Standard Minerals got a 20 boost to 83 after announcing it had optioned a land package near its most advanced asset, the Goldwedge project in Nevada’s Nye Cty. The new land package covers an epithermal gold system previously explored by several major companies over the past few decades.

Quebec-based Typhoon Exploration has been generating some high-grade gold results from its wholly owned Fayolle property near Rouyn-Noranda, Que. The latest was a 25.1-metre intersection grading 43.5 grams gold per tonne, which includes two 1-metre intervals grading 378.8 grams and 455.2 grams gold, respectively. The company says these results suggest potential for a “Sigma-type jewelry box” lens, which means small but rich pods of gold mineralization similar to those historically found at the old Sigma mine in the nearby Val d’Or camp.

Solitaire Minerals fell back 3 to close at 11 over the session. The company has Alberta permits considered prospective for roll-front type uranium mineralization.

The largest percentage gainer was Montreal-based Gold Hawk Resources, which jumped 16 to 27 after announcing plans to acquire (subject to a due diligence review) the past-producing Tamboraque silver-lead-zinc-copper mine in Peru. The project includes a mill and other mine-related assets.

Arizona Star Resource was once again among the largest value gainers, this time gaining 68 to close at $5.69. Barrick Gold‘s recent bid for Placer Dome was a shot in the arm for Arizona Star, as Barrick appears to be more amenable than former partner Placer to develop the large Cerro Casale gold-copper project in Chile. Arizona Star owns 25% of Cerro Casale.

Laramide Resources was up 95 to $5.85, reflecting investor interest in the company’s flagship asset, the Westmoreland copper-gold-uranium project in Queensland, Australia. The advanced project ranks as one of the 10 largest uranium deposits in the nation.