TSX Venture Exchange december 19-20

With precious metals trading in a tight range and base metals weakening slightly, the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index managed to post a modest gain of 25.23 points to close the Christmas-holiday shortened Dec. 19-20 trading session at 2,846.28. Average daily trading volumes strengthened on the week to 76.8 million shares.

The weekly new highs versus lows tally continued to tip toward the bullish side with 34 junior board explorers reaching new 52-week highs compared with 28 that slid to yearly lows.

The uranium buzz propelled Sparton Resources to top trader by volume with more than 5.4 million shares changing hands on the abbreviated session. The stock gained 51% to close up 9.5 at 28 following the announcement it was evaluating uranium-bearing coal ash from three power generating stations in China.

Following further results from its El Corazon project in Ecuador, shares of Skeena Resources dropped 6.5 to close at 23 apiece on volume of 5.3 million. Recent drilling returned up to 2 metres of 20.7 grams gold per tonne.

Consolidated Gold Win Ventures shed a couple of pennies to close at 17.5 per share on trading volume of almost 5.2 million. The stock recently saw a rally based on a visual description of drill core from its South Dolly Varden gold-copper project, in Elko Cty., Nev. Its president has also confirmed plans to invest $1 million into the company.

Shares of Blue Note Mining notched up a couple of cents to close at 47 apiece on trading volume of over 4.9 million. It plans to reactivate the past-producing Caribou and Restigouche lead-zinc mines in New Brunswick.

Junior uranium hunter Northwest Mineral Ventures gained 16%, or a dime, to 71 per share on volume of 4.3 million. In addition to discovery of a uranium-mineralized zone on its North Rae project in Quebec, it identified five radioactive structures on its properties in Niger.

Searchgold Resources gained 26% over the trading session, closing up 3 to 14.5 per share on volume of almost 4.3 million. It recently began drilling its African gold projects in Gabon and Guinea. The company also plans alluvial diamond operations next year in Guinea with partner Mano River Resources.

Shares of uranium producer UrAsia Energy spiked to new highs, closing up 20 at $5.00 apiece on volume of 4.1 million in the shortened trading session. It recently boosted resources at its South Inkai uranium project in Kazakhstan by 69%.

Also buoyed by the uranium rally, Trigon Uranium gained 39% to close the session up 31 at $1.11 per share on volume of 3.8 million. The diamond explorer recently branched out into uranium with projects in Utah and plans to place its gem projects in a new company.

MAG Silver gained 90 per share to close at $6.00 on two-day volume of 411,000. Stepout drilling with partner Peoles on the Juanicipio silver joint venture intersected a significant mineralized vein.

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Frontier Pacif	FRP	1760	0.72	0.48	0.69	+53.3
Sparton Res	SRI	5445	0.345	0.20	0.28	+51.3
Solex Res	SOX	1219	1.11	0.72	1.05	+45.8
Trigon Expl Cn	TEL	3796	1.13	0.82	1.11	+38.7
Currie Rose Rs	CUI	365	0.37	0.275	0.37	+34.5
Waseco Res	WRI	1532	0.46	0.35	0.45	+32.3
Ultra Uranium	ULU	96	0.79	0.54	0.78	+32.2
Green Valley	GVY	16	0.105	0.105	0.105	+31.2
Vedron Gold	VG	222	0.39	0.27	0.35	+29.6
Northern Conti	NCR	1520	0.64	0.47	0.61	+28.4
Marum Res	MMU	2706	0.15	0.095	0.12	-31.4
Goldbrook Vent	GBK	1645	0.24	0.16	0.185	-30.1
Amanta Res	AMH	146	0.36	0.26	0.26	-27.7
Newcastle Mnls	NCM	156	0.15	0.11	0.11	-26.6
Skeena Res	SKE	5342	0.32	0.23	0.23	-22.0
Phoenix Mat	PMM	2335	0.165	0.12	0.125	-21.8
Ivana Vent	ANA	144	0.36	0.275	0.28	-21.1
Great Sthn Ent	GSR	1713	0.045	0.04	0.04	-20.0
Camphor Vent	CFV	138	1.53	1.21	1.24	-20.0
Aumega Discov	AUM	23	0.28	0.265	0.265	-19.7

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Nautilus Minls	NUS	434495	5.90	+1.05
Mag Silver	MAG	411058	6.00	+0.90
JNR Res	JNN	1717494	2.80	+0.58
Exeter Res	XRC	699678	2.30	+0.40
Keegan Res	KGN	135560	3.22	+0.37
Solex Res	SOX	1218835	1.05	+0.33
ECU Silver Mng	ECU	1860113	3.30	+0.31
Trigon Expl Cn	TEL	3795774	1.11	+0.31
Aranka Gold	ARK	179100	4.00	+0.30
Bravo Vent	BVG	703495	1.29	+0.26
Aurelian Res	ARU	134091	31.87	-0.38
Camphor Vent	CFV	137800	1.24	-0.31
Coral Gold	CGR	27600	3.25	-0.30
Thunder Sword	THU	48800	1.54	-0.21
Rainy River Rs	RR	319124	5.59	-0.21
Arizona Star	AZS	323600	14.00	-0.20
Altius Mnrls	ALS	82363	10.60	-0.20
Northern Dyn M	NDM	163135	9.55	-0.20
Polymet Mng	POM	119426	3.56	-0.19
Osisko Explora	OSK	279188	9.00	-0.18

TSX-V most active issues

			VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Sparton Res	SRI	5445	0.345	0.20	0.28	+0.095
Skeena Res	SKE	5342	0.32	0.23	0.23	-0.065
Cons Gold Win	CGW	5196	0.195	0.16	0.175	-0.02
Blue Note Mng	BN	4914	0.47	0.44	0.47	+0.02
Northw Min Vt	NWT	4312	0.75	0.56	0.71	+0.10
Searchgold Res	RSG	4276	0.15	0.115	0.145	+0.03
Simberi Gold	SAU	4244	0.16	0.125	0.125	-0.005
UrAsia Energy	UUU	4108	5.09	4.69	5.00	+0.20
Strateco Res	RSC	4064	3.04	2.75	2.96		0.04
Trigon Expl Cn	TEL	3796	1.13	0.82	1.11	+0.31