Venture dips in first week of 2011

Vancouver – The shortened first week of trading in the New Year saw the S&P TSX Venture Exchange experience a slight hangover after the holiday rally, down 62.46 points between January 4 and 7 to end the period at 2225.39 points.

Volumes were back to a brisk pace, averaging 164 million shares traded daily. Despite the dip in the market there were only 22 Venture-listed companies that hit new 52-week lows, while 153 hit new highs.

New Millennium Capital had the biggest value gains the week, climbing 58¢ to $2.58. The gains, however, in part simply offset a 40¢ dip the Friday before, when the company announced it would seek to extend an exclusivity period with Tata Steel on the development of its taconite projects in Labrador. The new week saw the exclusivity period firmed up until the end of February, but more significantly, the company received provincial approval on its environmental impact statement for phase 1 of the direct shipping ore project, with production expected by the second quarter of next year. Federal agencies confirmed that no federal-level environmental assessment is required.

Great Western Minerals was the most active company on the Venture for the second week in a row, with 29.1 million shares traded. Great Western is still working to acquire Rare Earth Extraction, having mailed out the official offer documents to company shareholders the week before. Rare Earth Extraction holds a 74% stake in the Steenkampskraal monazite mine in South Africa, on which Great Western already has the exclusive rights to all rare earth products produced there. Despite the active trading, and some significant price swings, Great Western’s share price ended as it started at 58¢.

Brookemont Capital had a busy week after announcing that work has started on its Tanzania property and it had acquired a contiguous 7,300-hectare land package in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. The company saw 14.8 million shares traded as it climbed 13¢ or roughly 56% to close at 36¢. Brookemont’s 63.4-sq.-km Handeni North project in Tanzania borders Canaco Resources‘ gold project to the northeast. The company is conducting early stage work to prepare the project for later drilling.  The company acquired the Cariboo property for $15,000 and 3 million shares.

Loncor Resources climbed 40¢ to $2.50 on 500,000 shares traded after releasing drill results from its Ngayu gold project in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Results from the Makapela prospect, focusing on a quartz vein being mined by artisanal miners in the pits, included 4.3 metes grading 64 grams gold per tonne from 85 metres and 5.9 metres grading 5.14 grams gold from 30 metres, both true widths. At the Yindi prospect, a single drill result returned 10.3 metres grading 1.54 grams gold and then 16.5 metres grading 3.66 grams gold, both true widths.

Pele Mountain Resources saw 23.2 million shares traded on its way to gaining 21¢ or 63.6% and end at 54¢. The company announced that it would soon be releasing an initial rare earth oxide resource estimate for its wholly-owned Eco Ridge uranium and rare earth project in Elliot Lake, Ontario. Pele Mountain stated that its goal is for Eco Ridge to be a uranium mine with rare earth by-products.