Toronto Stock Exchange March 14-20

The Toronto Stock Exchange failed to keep its head above the 12,000-mark but managed to end the March 14-20 report period 22.67 points better at 11,929.32 amid recovering metal prices. The gold index regained 6.11 points to 274.45, as the yellow metal added US$12.25 to make US$555.75 per oz. The diversified miners climbed 13.89 points to 439.28.

EuroZinc Mining saw an unusually heavy 40.5 million shares climb 17 to $1.86. Index-tracking funds snapped up shares following the company’s addition to the S&P-TSX Composite Index. Similar increases in traffic were seen by the other recent additions. Silver Wheaton gained 62 to $11.15 on volume of nearly 13 million shares, Alamos Gold advanced 56 to $10 on 5.6 million shares, and UEX fell 16 to 4.83 on 6.4 million shares.

Silver Wheaton will still be entitled to buy silver from the San Martin gold mine in Mexico after Goldcorp sells the mine to Venture exchange-listed Starcore International Ventures for US$26 million. Goldcorp climbed 71 to $32.16. Elsewhere in Mexico, Alamos cut some good intersections during definition drilling on the Mulatos gold project.

On the merger front, Weda Bay Minerals climbed 30 to $2.70, after French miner Eramet announced a friendly $2.70-a-share bid. Eramet is after Weda’s 90% stake in the Halmahera nickel-cobalt laterite deposit in Indonesia.

Regalito Copper jumped 89, or 15%, to $6.83 after Japanese partners Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui Mining & Smelting launched a friendly US$6-per-share offer aimed at picking up the Regalito copper deposit in Chile.

A subsidiary of Italian Thai Development has inked an $85.3-million deal to acquire Asia Pacific Resources, which is developing the Udon Thani potash deposit in Thailand. Asia Pacific rose two pennies to 13.

Relations between Adastra Minerals and First Quantum Minerals were not as cordial, with Adastra snubbing the latter’s sweetened takeover bid. Adastra advanced 23 to $2.62, while First Quantum added $1.85 to make $38.85.

Inco and Falconbridge still await regulatory clearance for their mega-merger. Falconbridge tacked on 57 to hit $38.67. For its part, Inco gained 72 to $54.26.

Campbell Resources was the period’s biggest percentage loser, dipping 5.5, or 26%, to 15.5. The Quebec-based gold miner lost $21.3 million during 2005, mostly owing to $18.5 million in writedowns on the Copper Rand copper project and Discovery gold property in Quebec. The company’s creditor protection has been extended until the end of May.

Not far behind were the warrants of HMZ Metals, which dropped 25% to 3; the common shares lost 2 to 18. MHZ is still trying to sort out an unauthorized $1.8-million transfer from its Chinese joint venture to partner Hechi in mid-2005. An independent accounting audit and review of its Chinese operations is planned.

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Frontera Cp wt	FCC.WT	1152	0.55	0.25	0.46	+76.9
Ur-Energy	URE	6266	1.95	1.33	1.89	+42.1
Candente Res	DNT	2445	1.11	0.79	1.03	+32.0
Teal Expl & Mg	TL	776	4.00	3.25	4.00	+31.1
Globex Mng	GMX	659	5.30	4.33	5.30	+30.2
Uranium Prt wt	U.WT	652	2.30	1.71	2.22	+29.8
Mercator Mnls	ML	1604	1.70	1.22	1.69	+29.0
African Copper	ACU	69	1.98	1.55	1.95	+28.2
Cancor Mines	KCR	315	0.25	0.19	0.25	+25.0
Birim Goldfl	BGI	442	0.57	0.45	0.56	+24.4
Campbell Res	CCH	6426	0.20	0.11	0.155	-26.1
HMZ Metals wt	HMZ.WT	113	0.03	0.03	0.03	-25.0
Opawica Expl	OPW	6851	0.18	0.135	0.135	-22.8
Golden Str wtA	GSC.WT.A	168	0.68	0.52	0.56	-20.0
Tahera Diam	TAH	22690	0.77	0.60	0.64	-15.7
Rex Diamond	RXD	724	0.14	0.11	0.11	-15.3
Euro Res	EUR	11	0.92	0.81	0.81	-14.7
Brazilian Diam	BDY	23	0.40	0.34	0.34	-12.8
Fortune Mnrls	FT	245	2.85	2.32	2.40	-11.1
Cambior wtC	CBJ.WT.C	219	1.05	0.93	0.94	-10.4

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Teck Comin B	TEK.SVB	7807786	74.78	+5.08
Inmet Mining	IMN	1734233	33.45	+4.06
Teck Comin A	TEK.MVA	19807	77.00	+3.75
Lundin Mng	LUN	295000	23.75	+2.40
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	7008986	30.04	+1.99
First Quantum	FM	772271	38.85	+1.85
Silvercorp Mtl	SVM	1744395	14.24	+1.60
Boliden AB	BLS	13429	16.02	+1.53
Agnico-Eag wt*	AEM.WT.U	24050	9.60	+1.47
Aur Res	AUR	3056203	13.89	+1.44
Cameco Corp	CCO	6967388	39.98	-1.37
Royal Gold	RGL	22567	33.05	-0.85
Central Gold-T	GTU.UN	16443	23.12	-0.84
Centerra Gold	CG	530785	35.05	-0.65
Denison Mines	DEN	1248770	13.30	-0.60
Major Drilling	MDI	497761	24.20	-0.55
FNX Mining	FNX	2644556	12.80	-0.51
Corriente Res	CTQ	628303	4.35	-0.47
Aber Diamond	ABZ	579071	45.03	-0.47
Potash Cp Sask	POT	1538197	100.01	-0.41

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE
EuroZinc Mng	EZM	40561	1.97	1.68	1.86	+0.17
Bema Gold	BGO	25650	5.29	4.65	5.16	+0.46
Tahera Diam	TAH	22690	0.77	0.60	0.64	-0.12
Eldorado Gold	ELD	16659	5.17	4.76	5.00	+0.05
Kinross Gold	K	16654	11.48	10.62	11.27	+0.54
Breakwater Res	BWR	16243	1.26	0.97	1.22	+0.23
Barrick Gold	ABX	15789	31.68	29.99	30.95	+0.45
Silver Wheaton	SLW	12924	11.42	10.42	11.15	+0.62
Goldcorp	G	12121	33.07	31.15	32.16	+0.7 1
Weda Bay Minls	WDA	11211	2.73	2.33	2.70	+0.30