Venture finds gains despite the gloom

Vancouver – Shrugging off poor job numbers from the United States and worries of a spreading debt crisis in Europe, the S&P TSX Venture Exchange Index managed its best period in months between July 4 and 8. The index ended up 80.63 points at 1,984.81 after four days of gains were offset by a 1.1-point drop on the final day. Volume average was down to about 82.4 million shares traded daily thanks to a significant drop on July 4 related to the closed US markets.

A single step-out hole helped send Atac Resources up $1.40 to $8.70, making it the biggest value gainer of the period and having it approach its all-time high of $9 hit in November. Hole 10, targeting the Conrad zone of Atac’s Rackla project in the Yukon, hit 114.9 metres grading 3.15 grams gold per tonne from 176 metres depth. Atac drilled the hole 100 metres east of Conrad discovery hole 8 that hit 21.1 metres averaging 8.03 grams gold from 41 metres downhole last fall. The step-out result is just the first of many expected this year as Atac works through a $25 million exploration program as it looks to establish that its Rackla project hosts multiple Carlin-type deposits.

Rainy River Resources also gained some ground on drill results after reporting a 1.5-metre intercept grading 1,335 grams gold and 76.7 grams silver per tonne from 42 metres below surface. The company drilled the bonanza-grade hit in the Western area of its Rainy River project in Ontario, roughly 800 metres northwest of the Beaver Pond zone. Other results from the area included 10.5 metres grading 4.4 grams gold and 22.5 metres averaging 3.9 grams. Rainy also helped boost Northern Superior Resources after agreeing to complete a $500,000 financing as part of an option agreement. Northern Superior gained 17¢ or 55% to end at 47¢ and rank as the third highest percentage gainer of the period.

The top percentage gainer spot was snagged by Bolero Resources, which climbed 33¢ or 150% to 55¢ on 4.7 million shares traded. The company announced it had started work on its Red Chris South prospect, contiguous to Imperial Metals’ sizable Red Chris copper-gold project in northern British Columbia. Bolero has planned mapping and sampling on the western part of the project that was not explored last year, with four 400-metre holes to follow shortly. Bolero secured the 52.6-sq.-km land package by paying $33,000 in cash and issuing 465,000 shares.

Lumina Copper climbed $1.10 in the period to $7.05 after releasing several long intercepts from its Taca Taca copper-gold-molybdenum project in Argentina. Hole 14 hit 254 metres grading 0.95% copper, 0.2 gram gold and 0.02% molybdenum, hole 16 cut 187 metres grading 0.99% copper, 0.1 gram gold and 0.013% molybdenum, and hole 17 returned 84 metres carrying 1.81% copper, 0.27 gram gold and 0.04% molybdenum.

Regularly active Orbite Exploration was the heaviest traded stock in the period with 10.7 million shares traded as it gained 44¢ to end at $3.70. The company, which is in the midst of changing its name to Orbite Aluminae, closed a $57.5-million bought deal private placement in the period. The financing had Orbite issuing 18 million special warrants at $3.20 each that can be exchanged for a share and a half-warrant at any time.