TSX Venture Exchange Sept. 18-24

The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index rode the rising tide of gold and the Canadian dollar to finish the Sept. 18-24 trading session up 85.16 points at 2,834.44. Average daily trading volumes climbed slightly to 92.5 million.

Those numbers sat in contrast to the venture market’s bearish trend: 58 juniors hit new lows over the session, while only 18 reached new highs.

Trading volume continued to be dominated by juniors with projects in the vicinity of Noront Resources’ Double Eagle project in Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands. Since the end of August, when Noront released initial field observations of 26 metres of visible copper in core from the first hole drilled, Noront has remained comfortably seated as one of the venture board’s top traders, moving 57 million shares in four days for a session gain of 27. This week, Noront’s neighbours, including MacDonald Mines Exploration, Spider Resources, KWG Resources, Probe Mines , Freewest Resources Canada, Canstar Resources , and Fancamp Exploration, also moved as top traders, though this session saw all of them finish down.

On Sept. 19, Noront announced that the Double Eagle discovery hole also contains significant platinum, palladium, and gold. And the end of the period saw more news — full results from the first two holes at Double Eagle, including 57.9 metres grading 2.02% nickel, 1.4% copper, and 1 to 5 grams per tonne platinum, palladium, silver, and gold. The news depressed the company’s share price slightly.

Junior West Hawk Development saw its share price double on news that Dongfei Wang from the Lu’An Mining Industry, a Chinese gas and coal-focused company, joined the management team of subsidiary West Hawk Energy. When the stock resumed trading, it spiked at 40, up from 19 on 3.8 million shares traded. West Hawk then announced an energy and coal chemical agreement with Lu’An to develop three energy and clean coal chemical facilities in China and North America.

Two major announcements from Iberian Minerals moved its price up 18 to close the session at $1.60. Iberian announced a US$115-million deal to buy 92% of the issued shares of Compania Minera Condestable, owner-operator of the Condestable copper mine in Peru, from Trafigura, which will also provide Iberian with a US$20-million loan to develop Aguas Tenidas, Iberian’s copper-zinc-lead-silver mine in Spain. To complete financing for Aguas Tenidas, Iberian raised its credit line with Investec Bank to US$200 million.

Groundbreaking at its new Chivo mine moved Impact Silver up 43, or 34%, to close the session at $1.63. Chivo will be the third silver-producing operation at the company’s Royal Mines of Zacualpan mining complex, some 100 km southwest of Mexico City. The mine is expected to contribute production of 60 tonnes per day by early 2008.

And Searchgold Resources, a junior with a market capitalization of only $33 million, moved 29.9 million shares over the session on news of strong drill results from its Bakoudou-Magnima gold project in Gabon.

TSX-V most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
MacDonald Mns	BMK	75304	0.49	0.21	0.325	-0.105
Spider Res	SPQ	73064	0.16	0.07	0.11	-0.06
KWG Res	KWG	66049	0.14	0.065	0.075	-0.085
Noront Res	NOT	40550	4.99	2.50	3.60	-1.13
Searchgold Res	RSG	24458	0.37	0.22	0.285	+0.06
Probe Mines	PRB	20448	1.55	0.65	0.92	-0.23
VMS Vent	VMS	19866	0.465	0.25	0.37	-0.02
Freewest Res	FWR	14710	0.33	0.21	0.24	-0.11
Canstar Res	ROX	13766	0.215	0.12	0.155	-0.095
Fancamp Expl	FNC	13338	2.55	1.19	1.74	-0.81

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
United Reef	URP	3070	0.18	0.08	0.165	+153.8
West Hawk Dev	WHD	4109	0.43	0.175	0.40	+86.0
Cons Fortress	CFR	36	0.275	0.22	0.275	+66.6
Midland Expl	MD	75	0.68	0.59	0.64	+52.3
Mill City Intl	MC	452	0.20	0.13	0.20	+48.1
Strongbow Expl	SBW	49	0.61	0.45	0.50	+47.0
Intl KRL Res	IRK	1055	0.225	0.14	0.225	+45.1
TNR Gold	TNR	972	0.37	0.24	0.37	+45.1
New Shoshoni V	NSV	249	0.29	0.22	0.29	+45.0
Torch Rvr Res	TCR	190	0.455	0.355	0.39	+44.4
Ripple Lk Diam	RLD	136	0.07	0.02	0.02	-55.5
KWG Res	KWG	66049	0.14	0.065	0.075	-53.1
Canstar Res	ROX	13766	0.215	0.12	0.155	-38.0
Superior Diam	SUP	140	0.33	0.25	0.25	-37.5
Carat Expl	CRZ	62	0.70	0.40	0.40	-36.5
Temex Res	TME	4460	0.75	0.45	0.53	-36.1
Zappa Res	ZPA	844	0.145	0.09	0.09	-35.7
Spider Res	SPQ	73064	0.16	0.07	0.11	-35.2
Paragon Minls	PGR	721	0.44	0.26	0.27	-34.1
Intl Samuel Ex	SAZ	10	0.07	0.05	0.05	-33.3

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Pan Oce Exp	POE	1420714	5.37	+0.62
Whitemud Res	WMK	35500	10.50	+0.50
Cons Thomp Irn	CLM	910432	5.55	+0.50
Roca Mines	ROK	1113322	3.10	+0.49
Gobimin	GMN	137660	2.82	+0.48
JNR Res	JNN	938202	2.80	+0.48
Northland Res	NAU	165967	4.09	+0.43
Arizona Star	AZS	195219	12.50	+0.42
Crosshair E&Mg	CXX	1784223	1.86	+0.38
Mansfld Mnrls	MDR	818060	3.63	+0.36
Seabridge Gold	SEA	85106	30.05	-2.26
Pac Booker Min	BKM	19480	10.50	-1.23
Noront Res	NOT	40550203	3.60	-1.13
Fancamp Expl	FNC	13337948	1.74	-0.81
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	13032	6.00	-0.41
Osisko Explora	OSK	389957	5.45	-0.33
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	196896	6.75	-0.32
Temex Res	TME	4460400	0.53	-0.30
Avalon Vent	AVL	168915	1.55	-0.26
Northern Plat	NTH	13300	0.79	-0.26