Venture edges down in Aug 9-13 trading week

Vancouver – The S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell slightly on the week, ending down 8.44 points to close at 1457.05 after two days of losses outweighed three days of gains. The daily trading volume average was roughly the same as last week at a relatively slow 74 million.

The bears-versus-bulls balance improved slightly over last week, but still remains skewed with 31 Venture-listed companies hitting new highs while 159 hit new lows.

A single hole extension sent Creso Exploration stocks into a frenzy with over 12 million shares traded. The single assay result from hole 1 at its Minto gold project in northeastern Ontario returned 82.5 metres grading 13.3 grams gold per tonne uncut (11 grams gold cut at 31.1 grams) from 509 metres depth, including 8.3 metres averaging 35.2 grams gold. The result indicates a deeper area of significant gold mineralization than previous holes. The company, which debuted in June, was up 5¢ after gaining 14¢ the Friday before the news came out to close at 87¢.

Kaminak Gold had a breakout week, jumping 92¢ in four days before dropping 19¢ to end at an all-time high of $2.30 on 4.3 million shares traded. The company released the latest results from its Coffee project that included several high-grade intercepts and newly identified targets from sampling. Results included 35 metres grading 6.3 grams gold on the Double Double zone. The company was trading as low as 33¢ a year ago.

Maudore Minerals saw strong gains after releasing an updated resource for its Comtois gold project near Val d’Or, Quebec. The new inferred estimate more than doubles the contained gold after the company factored in deeper drilling and lowered the grade cut-off because of higher gold prices. From surface to 150 metres depth the resource contains 4.89 million inferred tonnes grading 3.2 grams gold. Below that sits a further 3.25 million inferred tonnes grading 6.8 grams gold, bringing the total to just over 1.2 million contained oz. The company’s stock price rose 62¢ on 89,000 shares traded in the three days following the release to end at $4.22.

Probe Mines stock price doubled after news broke that it and joint venture partner Noront Resources will split their property in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire. The two had become joint venture partners in early 2009 as a solution to a dispute about property ownership from an earlier joint venture. Noront will get properties around its Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper deposit while Probe will retain the Black Creek chromite deposit. Probe Mines’ stock price jumped 35¢ on 2.7 million trades to close at 70¢.

West African gold companies remain active following last week’s news of a proposed merger between Kinross Gold and Red Back Mining. Based in Mali, Great Quest Metals reached an all-time high of $1.31 after gaining 27¢ on 1.6 million shares traded without releasing any news. The latest news from the company came in late July when it released results of a sample program at its Sanoukou gold project, where nine samples averaged 1.42 grams gold and reached as high as 5.73 grams gold.

Avion Gold, also based in Mali, had a busy week with 5.6 million shares traded to end up 6¢ at 54¢ after releasing July production numbers. The company produced roughly 8,770 oz. gold in July from its Tabakoto/Segala operations and expects to produce a total of 46,700 oz. this year. Avion also announced it had awarded a contract to double plant throughput to 4,000 tonnes per day with an expected completion in 2012.