TSX Venture Exchange April 4-10

With geopolitical uncertainty pushing up prices for gold, energy and most commodities, investors had a field day buying and selling shares of junior resource companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Prices are reasonable, relative to shares of larger companies on the senior boards, and a new field season is providing plenty of exploration news. The TSX Venture Composite Index gained 107.45 points to close at 3,047.30 over the April 4-10 trading session.

Plexmar Resources was the most-active issue, up 19.5 at 35.5 after reporting positive sampling results from the Bolsa Del Diablo project in Peru. The best results from recent sampling at the early stage prospect were 304 grams gold per tonne from a 2-metre channel sample and up to 23.2 grams gold in altered volcanic rocks.

Silver remains in vogue with investors, with ECU Silver Mining capitalizing on the trend. The junior’s shares were up 68 at $2.53 after reporting initial drilling results from a skarn target at the Velardena project in Mexico. The highlight was 68.6 metres averaging 1.08 grams gold and 1.01% zinc, including 14.4 metres of 4.02 grams gold and 1.73% zinc.

Trade Winds Ventures was up-lifted 16 to 66 by high-grade values from near-surface drilling at its M Zone prospect at Detour Lake, Ont. The best hole returned 64.38 grams gold per tonne over an 8-metre core length, with the other holes intersecting narrower intervals of mineralization.

Yukon Zinc was on the most-active list for yet another week, but only up a penny at 70. The company’s core asset is the advanced Wolverine zinc-copper-gold-silver project in the Yukon Territory.

The highest value-gainer was Aurelian Resources, which more than tripled to $3.05 from 79 after reporting some spectacular results from an initial drill program at the FND epithermal gold-silver discovery at the Condor project in southeastern Ecuador. The highlights were 237 metres averaging 4.14 grams gold, and 60 metres averaging 3.42 grams. Days later, the company announced it had arranged a $10-million, bought-deal private placement financing through Dundee Securities and Canaccord Capital.

Shear Minerals almost doubled to 68 from 37.5 over the session as the company and partner Stornoway Diamond reported exploration success at their Churchill diamond project in northern Canada. A 19.9-kg till sample from the Sedna Corridor on the project returned 3 macrodiamonds and 159 microdiamonds. The majority of the stones are described as clear and colourless, and dominated by octahedron shapes. Drill-testing is scheduled to begin shortly.

Laramide Resources, already one of the highest-priced juniors on the Venture Exchange, was up $1.22 to $7.11. The company holds a number of uranium projects, including its flagship Westmoreland copper-gold-uranium project in Queensland, Australia.

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		Volume(000s)	High	Low	Close	Change
North Am Metal	NAM	132	0.30	0.26	0.30	+400.0
Aurelian Res	ARU	9388	3.30	0.79	3.05	+301.3
Plexmar Res	PLE	26781	0.39	0.15	0.355	+121.8
Shear Minls	SRM	3159	0.68	0.375	0.68	+78.9
Selkirk Metals	SLK	2542	1.27	0.76	1.26	+72.6
Golden Odyss M	GOE	434	0.465	0.28	0.465	+72.2
Archangel Dia	AAD	161	1.17	0.61	1.17	+67.1
Conquest Res	CQR	3762	0.22	0.13	0.205	+64.0
Contl Precious	CZQ	539	1.55	0.91	1.55	+63.1
Diadem Res	DRL	194	0.49	0.32	0.49	+58.0
Mengold Res	MNI	12	0.35	0.285	0.285	-35.2
Proam Expl	PMX	16	0.12	0.12	0.12	-29.4
Abitibi Mng	ABB.H	276	0.095	0.08	0.08	-27.2
Grayd Res	GYD	1608	1.54	1.11	1.12	-26.3
Huntington Exp	HEI	27	0.25	0.18	0.18	-25.0
Abington Vent	ABV	392	0.29	0.215	0.215	-24.5
Planet Expl	PXI	196	0.77	0.60	0.61	-23.7
Yankee Hat Ind	KHT	2034	0.23	0.16	0.18	-23.4
Ripple Lk Diam	RLD	103	0.32	0.23	0.23	-22.0
Fortuna Silver	FVI	2403	2.20	1.70	1.78	-21.9

TSX-V greatest value change

		volume	close	change
Aurelian Res	ARU	9388045	3.05	+2.29
Laramide Res	LAM	2080553	7.11	+1.22
Skye Res	SKR	663415	8.50	+1.20
Energy Metals	EMC	1441844	6.99	+1.07
Arizona Star	AZS	731465	11.05	+0.99
Polymet Mng	POM	3596176	3.90	+0.84
Birch Mountn	BMD	1103754	9.60	+0.80
Mega Uranium	MGA	1384606	10.25	+0.77
Win Eldrich Mn	WEX	383953	2.89	+0.69
ECU Silver Mng	ECU	15862351	2.53	+0.68
Mag Silver	MAG	818728	3.48	-0.95
Pearl Ex & Pr	PXX	249937	6.10	-0.85
Fortuna Silver	FVI	2402737	1.78	-0.50
Mexgold Res	MGR	476405	6.99	-0.45
Northern Dyn M	NDM	591712	7.24	-0.42
Coral Gold	CGR	131028	5.90	-0.40
Uruguay Mnl Ex	UME	59875	5.10	-0.40
Grayd Res	GYD	1608090	1.12	-0.40
Nova Uranium	NUC	566089	3.74	-0.38
Avino Silver	ASM	526956	3.72	-0.36

TSX-V most active issues

		Volume(000s)	High	Low	Close	Change
Plexmar Res	PLE	26781	0.39	0.15	0.355	+ 0.195
ECU Silver Mng	ECU	15862	2.87	1.91	2.53	+0.68
Trade Winds Vt	TWD	13194	0.76	0.49	0.66	+0.16
Yukon Zinc	YZC	12280	0.78	0.66	0.70	+0.01
Strateco Res	RSC	11665	1.31	0.69	1.11	+0.29
Aurelian Res	ARU	9388	3.30	0.79	3.05	+2.29
Frontier Pacif	FRP	7917	0.70	0.52	0.61	-0.01
Raymor Ind	RAR	7393	1.38	0.95	1.23	+0.28
Century Mining	CMM	6980	1.80	1.30	1.4 8	-0.30
Antoro Res	ORE	6911	0.185	0.125	0.18	+0.05