Venture dips slightly in March 28 – April 1 period

Vancouver – The relatively subdued March 28 to April 1 period had the S&P TSX Venture drop 15.63 points after two days of losses outweighed three days of gains to have the board end at 2,298.40 points. Volume averaged out to a recent low of 137 million trades daily while the bears and bulls were fairly even with 51 Venture-listed companies hitting 52-week highs and 59 hitting 52-week lows.

Saturn Minerals was by far the busiest stock with 27.6 million shares traded as the company announced it had discovered an 89-metre coal intersection at 44.7 metres depth on the Overflowing property at its Saskatoba project in western Manitoba. The company reports that the intersection is one of the longest single coal intersections ever reported in Canada. Hole 227-01, drilled in the same north-central part of the property, hit 39.9 metres of coal from the same depth. Saturn saw its share price more than double on the day of the news before ending with a 10¢ or 41.6% increase at 32¢.

Richfield Ventures had the biggest value gains, climbing $1.45 to $7.93 after the company announced a formal joint venture agreement with Silver Quest Resources. Richfield controls 100% of the southern portion of the Blackwater gold project in British Columbia, but only 75% of the Davidson property in the northern portion of the property after earning into the property from Silver Quest. The two have approved an $8.6 million work program on the property, with Silver Quest contributing $1.8 million. On the first day of trading after the period, NewGold made a takeover offer on Richfield, valuing the company at $550 million.

In rare earth news, Pacific Wildcat Resources climbed steadily after releasing significant drill results from its Mrima Hill project in southeastern Kenya. The drilling was part of the company’s due diligence to acquire a 70% stake in the project. Hole 3 cut 30 metres grading 8.85% total rare earth oxides including yttrium (TREO), hole 7 hit 40 metres carrying 5.58% TREO, hole 6 cut 43 metres grading 5.25% TREO and hole 2 intersected 30 metres grading 6.49% TREO. Pacific Wildcat’s share price climbed 57¢ or 51.8% to $1.67 on 7.8 million shares traded.

Guyana-focused Reunion Gold continued its strong gains after announcing a $35 million bought-deal financing with BMO Capital Markers and Dundee Securities at $1.75 per share. Reunion will put the money towards advancement of its historic Matthews Ridge manganese project in Guyana that hosts multiple non-compliant resource estimates and some apparently salvageable facilities. Reunion Gold climbed 60¢ or 35.3% in the period to end at $2.30, while it has climbed from around 70¢ in late February after releasing trenching results from the project.

Moving out of the single digits, Barker Minerals climbed 6¢ or 120% to close at 11¢ on 18.5 million shares traded after releasing sample results from its projects in central B.C.  From its Cariboo lead-zinc project, representative intermittent chip sampling returned 8 metres grading 29 grams silver, 20% zinc and 6% lead, and from its Black Bear project, grab samples graded as high as 4354.28 grams silver per tonne and 59% lead, and a chip sample returned 1292.57 grams silver and 37.1% lead over a one-metre width.