TSX Composite higher for June 14-18 period

The TSX Composite Index finished the June 14-18 period higher as gold rose to record highs and the situation in Europe continued to brighten.

More positive news also came out of China when the country signaled that it may be open to allowing its currency to appreciate. The Yuan’s subsequent rise and the dollar’s demise helped spur on gold, and oil also received a boost from signs that Chinese demand for crude will pick up in the summer.

But interest in gold and oil failed to translate into interest in the base metals. Copper, aluminum, nickel and zinc prices all fell for the period and the Capped Metals and Mining Index was off modestly to 903 points.

The higher gold price coincided well with developments at Banro‘s Twangiza project in the DRC. The company announced that a re-furbished gold mill was en route from Australia and would arrive in Africa by July. Banro says it’s on schedule to finish construction of the first phase at the mine in the fourth quarter of 2011. The mine is set to process 1.3 million tonnes of ore per year. Banro has outlined 6.7 million oz. of measured and indicated resources along the 210 km long Twangiza-Namoya gold belt. Its shares were up 19% to $2.15 for the period.

Another of the period’s big winners was Avalon Rare Metals. The Toronto-based company was up 29% to $2.65 for the period in which it announced a revised resource estimate that shows its Nechalacho Rare Earth Element deposit at Thor Lake in the Northwest Territories to be the world’s second largest rare earth element deposit in terms of total rare earth oxides and the third largest in terns of niobium.

Optimism over Volta Resources new drill program at its Nassara prospect on the Danyoro permit in Burkina Faso had the company up nearly 20% to $1.34 for the period. The new 3,5000 metre program will follow up on a recent trenching campaign that returned a highlight assay of 1.95 grams gold per tonne over 25 metres.

Anatolia Minerals now has the land titles it needs for its Copler Gold mine in Eastern Turkey and the market signaled its approval by sending the company’s shares up 19% to $6.05 for the period. The company now has titles to all the private land within the footprint of the mine’s first phase of development. Anatolia will move the village north of the mine site.

On-going labour disruptions forced Gammon Gold to shutdown its El Cubo operation indefinitely. The news had the expected impact on the company’s shares, sending them down 14% to $6.76 for the period. Gammon called the demands being made by the workers “untenable” and blames the union’s poor productivity for spoiling the economics of the mine. Gammon has already fired 397 union workers and is in the process of filing criminal charges against seven union executives.