Toronto Stock Exchange January 16-22

The TSX Composite Index fell 49.59 points to 12,705.77 over the Jan. 16-22 trading period, as material and industrial shares were off. Energy shares also factored into the decline, as the price of crude oil closed below US$52 a barrel. Oil prices, however, were gaining at presstime, as cold weather in the east was expected to increase heating demand.

The Bank of Canada left its benchmark lending rate at 4.25% for a fifth consecutive meeting. The bank says it expects growth to accelerate 2.5% in the first half of the year from 1.6% in the second half of 2006.

The gold price trended downward mid-week, but recovered, and ended US$12 higher for the period. But the recovery didn’t come in time to lift the Global Gold Index — it finished the period down 4.54 points at 305.19.

The Capped Metals & Mining Index made marginal gains for the period, up 5.69 points to 611.86 despite continued weakness in the price of copper. Aluminum, nickel, tin and lead prices all made gains. Copper for March delivery fell 6.3% as demand for the metal continues to soften, especially in the U.S.

Tiomin Resources was the most actively traded stock for the period, with roughly 35 million shares trading hands. The Toronto-based company gained 2 rising to 13 after being the previous period’s largest loser by percentage. Tiomin has been losing share value since announcing it was reviewing its options at its Kwale mineral sands project in Kenya. The company failed to meet some of its financing conditions for the project because of legal and bureaucratic delays.

Bema Gold and Kinross Gold were the next two most popular miners on the index, trading 34 million and 24 million shares, respectively. Bema’s second-largest investor announced that it was opposing the Kinross takeover unless Kinross increased its bid by 10%. Bema says thus far the bid has received a 95% approval rating from shareholders. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the proposed takeover on Jan. 30.

Richview Resources suffered the biggest loss by percentage for the period. The company is in the midst of a scoping study at its Thierry copper-nickel project near Pickle Lake, Ont. The company’s shares fell 32% or 14 to 15.

On the positive side, Ontex Resources shot up 68% to 26 after announcing drill results from its 100%-owned Brookbank gold deposit in the Beardmore-Geraldton area of northern Ontario. Intervals from the drill program ranged from 2.8 metres grading 3.03 grams gold per tonne to 3.2 metres averaging 6.85 grams gold.

Cross Lake Minerals also made significant gains; its shares rose 22% to 55 after the company announced it had received formal approval for the reopening of its QR gold mine in B.C.

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Ontex Res	ONT	2567	0.32	0.15	0.26	+67.7
Niocan Inc	NIO	182	0.78	0.40	0.50	+25.0
Virginia Mines	VGQ	908	5.50	4.30	5.30	+24.1
Cross Lake Mnr	CRN	830	0.59	0.45	0.55	+22.2
Aura Gold	ORA	2344	0.90	0.66	0.80	+21.2
Forsys Metals	FSY	7550	6.90	5.08	6.40	+19.1
Tiomin Res	TIO	34806	0.145	0.095	0.125	+19.0
Coalcorp wt	CCJ.WT	4976	0.25	0.19	0.22	+18.9
Formation Cap	FCO	6976	0.57	0.47	0.55	+18.2
Candente Res	DNT	406	1.25	1.10	1.25	+17.9
Richview Res	RVR	3737	0.21	0.135	0.15	-31.8
Energem Res	ENM	35	0.60	0.50	0.50	-19.3
Baffinland Irn	BIM	843	3.00	2.54	2.57	-18.4
North Atlc Res	NAC	134	1.62	1.28	1.40	-17.6
Grande Cache C	GCE	2888	0.86	0.70	0.74	-15.9
Rubicon Mnrls	RMX	1570	0.76	0.62	0.63	-14.8
Golden Str wtA	GSC.WT.A	1450	0.04	0.025	0.03	-14.2
Duluth Metals	DM	594	1.07	0.92	0.92	-14.0
Sierra Minls	SIM	102	0.38	0.30	0.31	-13.8
Intrepid Mnrl	IAU	2845	0.69	0.49	0.56	-13.8

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
ISh COMEX G Tr	IGT	15004	74.07	+2.57
Fronteer Dev G	FRG	3132064	11.79	+1.37
Aur Res	AUR	3786126	22.48	+1.34
Fording C C T	FDG.UN	1463873	25.15	+1.15
Virginia Mines	VGQ	907615	5.30	+1.03
Forsys Metals	FSY	7549581	6.40	+1.03
Pan Am Silv wt	PAA.WT	15831	18.41	+1.01
Sherritt Intl	S	4586259	12.87	+0.93
Shore Gold	SGF	5090008	7.13	+0.91
Pan Am Silver	PAA	951074	29.90	+0.88
Potash Cp Sask	POT	944444	163.21	-6.56
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	5072435	42.89	-2.48
Alcan	AL	5107478	56.21	-2.41
First Quantum	FM	2821706	56.20	-2.08
Royal Gold	RGL	20392	35.93	-1.64
Cameco Corp	CCO	8716229	44.27	-1.48
Goldcorp	G	17941812	29.80	-1.085
Gammon Lk Res	GAM	3955672	18.41	-1.04
Yamana Gold	YRI	21816765	14.08	-0.93
Aber Diamond	ABZ	497399	40.83	-0.82

TSX most active issues

6.19

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Tiomin Res	TIO	34806	0.145	0.095	0.125	+0.02
Bema Gold	BGO	34187	6.59	6.27	6.47	+0.17
Kinross Gold	K	23454	14.90	14.16	14.58	+0.41
Yamana Gold	YRI	21817	15.01	13.69	14.08	-0.93
First Nickel	FNI	19186	1.06	0.76	0.94	+0.09
Goldcorp	G	17942	31.03	29.40	29.80	-1.085
Breakwater Res	BWR	16892	1.75	1.57	1.69	-0.06
Crystallex Int	KRY	15702	3.75	2.64	3.54	-0.25
Blue Pearl Mng	BLE	14904	9.00	8.03	8.18	-0.03
Eldorado Gold	ELD	11464	6.60	6.44	+0.15