Venture board has hard week

Vancouver – The second week of June did not start well for the S&P TSX Venture Composite Index, which fell for the first three days of the June 7-11 period before managing two days of positive movement. By the end of the week the board was 4.52 points at 1460.4. Daily trading volumes remained soft, averaging 82.9 million.

The market’s bearish sentiment came through clearly in the comparison of new peaks versus new valleys – over the week 180 Venture-listed companies fell to new 52-week lows while just 24 climbed to new highs.

Medoro Resources (MRS-V) was the week’s top trader, moving 21 million shares to climb 2¢ to 73¢. The company amended its joint-venture acquisition of the assets of bankrupt Colombian miner Frontino Gold Mines; instead of splitting the US$200-million price tag evenly with privately-held Gran Colombia Gold, Gran Colombia will now pay the entire amount and will get 95% ownership. Medoro can increase its stake from 5% to 50% by providing its half of the cost at any point within the next year. Medoro also announced results from its infill and expansion drill program at the Marmato gold project and plans for a 1-for-3 share rollback. The company has 414 million shares outstanding.

Rainy River Resources (RR-V) bucked the negative trend, gaining 21¢ to finish at $6.25 on news of further high-grade intercepts from the 433 zone at the company’s namesake project in northwest Ontario. A hit returning 128.5 grams gold per tonne over 5.5 metres extended the zone’s plunge to 500 metres while an intercept grading 76 grams gold over 1.5 metres added 100 metres to the zone’s eastern strike extent.

Drill results from Indonesia extending the Miwah Main gold zone roughly 100 metres to the north did nothing for East Asia Minerals’ (EAS-V) share price, which lost $1.09 over the week – more than any other junior company – to close at $6.04. Hole 29 cut 104 metres grading 1.07 grams gold, defining a 600-metre north-south width for the zone that reaches across 1.2 km east to west.

ATW Gold (ATW-V) closed the sale of its Burnakura gold mine in Western Australia to Australian company Jinka Minerals, for A$5 million. ATW brought the mine into production in March 2009, two years after purchasing it from previous owners unable to make the operation run economically, but six months later put it on care and maintenance after a revised block model indicated mineralization much less consistent than previously thought. At the time ATW was also dealing with the legal fallout of a cancelled merger and the economic strains of a merger-contingent loan that the company had difficultly repaying. In the last year the company’s share price has fallen to below 10¢ from 80¢.

After two years of suspended operations pursuant to the Ecuadorian mining mandate, Salazar Resources (SRL-V) received authorization to restart exploration activities and now has renewed title to its mining concessions. In April 2008 Ecuador suspended all exploration activities in order to review its mining law, not long after Salazar discovered the El Domo deposit. Drilling prior to the work suspension informed an initial inferred resource of 4.1 million tonnes grading 3.48 grams gold, 76.3 grams silver per tonne, 2.51% copper, 4.55% zinc, and 0.47% lead. Now the company is embarking on an 18,000-metre drill campaign. The news lifted Salazar’s share price all week to finish up 40¢ at $1.12.