Venture ends down slightly in Jan. 17-21 period

Vancouver – The January 17 to 21 period saw the TSX S&P Venture Exchange fall 5.38 points after two days of losses outweighed three days of gains to have the board end at 2265.58 points.

Volume was high at an average of 186 million shares traded daily. After all those trades only 18 companies hit new 52-week lows while 136 hit new 52-week highs.

Empire Mining surged 20¢ or 48.8% to close at 61¢ after releasing results from the first drill hole at the Bursa project in Turkey. The hole returned 47.4 metres grading 2.02% copper, 0.96 gram gold per tonne and 21.64 grams silver per tonne, including 8 metres grading 9.1% copper, 4.68 grams gold and 95.3 grams silver. The company announced it would add a second rig to accelerate the 1,000-metre drill program. Empire is earning a 65% interest in the project from Anatolia Minerals Development.

Reservoir Capital jumped 55¢ to close at $2.20 after announcing progress on two projects. A review of the company’s Deli Jovan project in Serbia showed that small-scale mining could be successful in producing 30,000 oz. gold per year if historic widths and grades can be sustained. Funding for the development of the project will come from Orogen Gold, which can earn a 75% interest in the project by spending $3.5 million on exploration within 42 months. Reservoir also released an update on feasibility work at its Brodarevo hydroelectric projects in Serbia.

Just shy of the most-traded Venture-listed company, KWG Resources had 26.5 million shares traded as its share price climbed 3¢ to 13.5¢. KWG issued an update on development at its Big Daddy chromite project in northern Ontario, including the start of an 8,640-metres drill program over 12 holes. KWG also reported that Xstrata’s testing to evaluate the marketability of the ore showed a high yield of direct shipping-grade lumpy chromite ore. KWG invited the chiefs of five first nations in the Ring of Fire area to join the board of directors of its subsidiary that controls the project.

Edging out KWG in total volume, Allana Potash had 26.9 million shares traded as the company swung up as much as 26¢ before ending up 4¢ at 94¢ without releasing news in the week. On Jan. 24, however, the company released significant drill results from its Ethiopian Dallol potash project for the second time in two weeks. Hole 10-8 hit 2 metres carrying 31.6% KCI and 7.5 metres averaging 22.1% KCI in two distinct intersections. The results follow up on hole 10-07 that hit 9.2 metres grading 23.42% KCI, then 6.7 metres carrying 22.04% KCI.

In the rare earth market, Stans Energy was up 48¢ to $2.13 after announcing it would be buying a rare earth processing plant the week before. Stans has reached an agreement with the majority owners of the Kyrgyz chemical metallurgical plant to buy 100% of the the rare-earth processing plant, including a rail terminal, for US$5.5 million. The plant historically produced 80% of the former Soviet Union’s rare earth products. Stans also wholly owns the nearby Kutessay II rare earth mine.