TSX Venture Exchange April 11-17

Soaring metal prices propelled the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index to a closing high of 3,091.31 over the April 11-17 session, up 44.01 points, or 1.4%. Average daily trading volumes were also bolstered to 82.7 million shares over the period.

Junior explorers performed strongly over the week, with 163 reaching new 52-week highs, and just 10 sinking to new annual lows.

Running hard on recent surface-sampling results, Plexmar Resources again took the week’s top trading honours, gaining 4, or 11%, to close at 39.5 on volume of 14.6 million shares. Trench sampling on the company’s Bolsa del Diablo project in Peru returned high-grade gold (over 300 grams) across a couple of metres, with other surface results of up to 23 grams gold in altered volcanics.

Shares of Strateco Resources shed two pennies to close at $1.09 apiece on volume of over 11.5 million. Planned release of drill results from its Matoush uranium project, in Quebec’s Otish Mountains region, has been deferred until early May. The holes on the uranium-bearing structure, previously drilled by Uranerz in the mid-1980s, show high radioactivity over the mineralized sections (up to 24,000 maximum counts per second over 15 metres in MT-06-2) and the company reports handling of the core is prohibited for two weeks while it degasses radon.

Trading up 52 or 21% to close at $3.05 per share, ECU Silver Mining continued its strong gains on volume of over 11.4 million. Underground drift sampling on the Veta Oriente vein at its Santa Juana mine, in Mexico’s Durango state, returned up to 30 grams gold over a half-metre, along with a number of other significant gold and silver mineralized samples.

Buoyed by strong zinc and silver prices, Yukon Zinc traded almost 9.3 million shares and gained a nickel to close at 75 per share. The company is planning development of its Wolverine zinc-copper-lead deposit in the eastern Yukon.

Shares of Typhoon Exploration saw volume of almost 8.3 million over the week, gaining 19, or 28%, to close at 86 apiece. Drilling at its Fayolle project, in the Rouyn-Noranda region of northwestern Quebec, has tied into a new high-grade lens returning up to 18.7 metres of 42.7 grams gold.

Aurogin Resources rallied 82%, or 23 per share, to close the week at 51 on volume of almost 6.5 million. The company has begun heap-leach pad construction at its El Sastre gold project in Guatemala. The company plans on mining the El Sastre main zone, a high-grade, near-surface oxide gold deposit hosting an indicated resource of 370,000 tonnes of 4.1 grams gold plus 1.17 million inferred tonnes grading 3.1 grams gold.

Posting volume of 4.4 million shares over the week, Santoy Resources gained 15 to close at 87. The company has started to drill its Bow River thermal coal project in the Lac La Ronge area of north-central Saskatchewan.

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		Volume(000s)	High	Low	Close	Change
Belvedere Res	BEL	420	0.72	0.44	0.72	+89.4
Aurogin Res	AUQ	6457	0.54	0.295	0.51	+82.1
Appalaches Res	APP	3609	0.14	0.075	0.14	+75.0
Contl Precious	CZQ	972	2.61	1.30	2.60	+67.7
MBMI Res	MBR	1548	1.47	0.74	1.25	+62.3
Golden Arrow R	GRG	1100	1.20	0.66	1.11	+60.8
Donner Metals	DON	211	0.49	0.305	0.48	+60.0
Gold Canyon	GCU	1605	0.63	0.40	0.58	+50.6
Golden Arch	GAI	1444	0.25	0.125	0.21	+50.0
Arcturus Res	AZN	631	0.11	0.08	0.11	+46.6
Odyssey Res	ODX	3892	0.36	0.215	0.225	-36.6
Westward Expl	WWE	1924	0.155	0.10	0.10	-35.4
Diadem Res	DRL	168	0.42	0.345	0.345	-29.5
C2C Zeolite	CZC	75	0.07	0.05	0.05	-28.5
Strike Minls	STK	35	0.10	0.09	0.09	-28.0
Buck Lake Vent	BUC	195	0.09	0.06	0.065	-27.7
Eagle Rock Ex	ERX	28	0.55	0.51	0.51	-27.1
Western Troy C	WRY	49	0.72	0.48	0.48	-26.1
Resolve Vent	RSV	36	0.47	0.33	0.35	-25.5
African Metals	AFR	14	0.60	0.455	0.455	-25.4

TSX-V greatest value change

		Volume	Close	Change
Contl Precious	CZQ	971700	2.60	+1.05
Laramide Res	LAM	1211496	8.00	+0.89
Thunder Sword	THU	89700	2.20	+0.63
Arizona Star	AZS	708908	11.66	+0.61
Alberta Star D	ASX	2520951	2.65	+0.56
Forsys Metals	FSY	3159432	2.88	+0.54
Marathon PGM	MAR	75000	4.24	+0.54
Intl Barytex	IBX	285084	2.80	+0.52
ECU Silver Mng	ECU	11428356	3.05	+0.52
MBMI Res	MBR	1548426	1.25	+0.48
Mega Uranium	MGA	925477	9.45	-0.80
Mag Silver	MAG	2127568	2.87	-0.61
Coral Gold	CGR	127474	5.30	-0.60
Urbana Corp	URB	19500	2.00	-0.50
Rockvale Res	RR	936421	2.60	-0.39
Birch Mountn	BMD	516178	9.27	-0.33
Western Prospc	WNP	226100	3.95	-0.32
Pitchstone Exp	PXP	290799	1.93	-0.31
Nayarit Gold	NYG	205102	1.39	-0.31
Palmarejo Gold	PJO	175445	9.70	-0.30

TSX-V most active issues

		Volume(000s)	High	Low	Close	Change
Plexmar Res	PLE	14644	0.425	0.28	0.395	+0.04
Strateco Res	RSC	11557	1.18	0.87	1.09	-0.02
ECU Silver Mng	ECU	11428	3.20	2.10	3.05	+0.52
Yukon Zinc	YZC	9267	0.75	0.63	0.75	+0.05
Typhoon Expl	TOO	8296	1.15	0.77	0.86	+0.19
Aurogin Res	AUQ	6457	0.54	0.295	0.51	+0.23
Bard Vent	CBS	5022	0.165	0.13	0.135	+0.01
Coalcorp Mng	CCJ	4852	0.71	0.65	0.68	-0.04
Slam Exploratn	SXL	4838	0.285	0.19	0.255	+0.035
Santoy Res	SAN	4393	0.90	0.71	0.87	+0.15