Venture climbs in August 29 to Sept. 2 period

Vancouver – The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index climbed 58 points in the August 29 to September 2 period on four days of gains to end at 1,810.36 points. Volume perked up somewhat from the week prior with an average of 71 million shares traded daily.

Chesapeake Gold had the highest outright gain of the week, climbing $2.24 for an all-time closing high of $14.05 after hitting a brief all-time trading high of $15.25. The company is working to advance its Metates gold-silver-zinc project in Mexico with a 25,000-metre drill program and a prefeasibility study due in late 2011. With measured and indicated resources of 17.2 million oz. gold, 467 million oz. silver and 3.4 billion lbs. zinc, the project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped disseminated gold and silver deposits. According to a March update, Metates is estimated to cost US$3.2 billion to develop and could produce an average of 744,000 oz. gold a year for 20 years.

The next biggest value gainers had significantly smaller gains than Chesapeake, with Gold Canyon Resources coming in third on a 56¢ rise to $3.24. The company released more results from the Portage zone at its Springpole project, with hole 11-71 hitting 286 metres grading 1.03 grams gold per tonne fro 149 metres depth. Oriented at 220 degrees true north at a minus 60 degree angle, hole 11-71 indicates that earlier drilling on the Portage zone hit the low-grade southwest fringe of the deposit and that it actually dips northeast and is wider than previously thought.

Belo Sun Mining climbed 35¢ to $1.48 in the period on 7.8 million shares traded as it continues to advance its Volta Grande gold project in Brazil. The company reported in the period that it is fully financed to complete 90,000 metres of drilling using the 11 drills on site, it has contracted out a feasibility study, and has expanded its land package to 1,305 sq. km. Belo also released more drill results from the project, including 30.8 metres grading 11.14 grams gold in a new structurally controlled zone in the eastern part of the Grota Seca deposit.

Animas Resources got a boost after announcing a major shareholder was doubling his investment in the company. Mexican investor Ernesto Echavarria is buying $3.4-million worth of Animas shares at 20¢ to increase his holdings to 40% of the company. The company has also announced that John Wilson has been appointed president of Animas and that the company has launched a prefeasibility program on its Santa Gertrudis gold project in northern Mexico. Animas’ share price climbed 14¢ or 74% to 34¢ on roughly 1.5 million shares traded.

Goldex Resources was the most active stock with 10.3 million shares traded. The latest burst of activity follows multiple spurts of trading in recent weeks, including 11.3 million shares traded on July 25 and 10.6 million shares on August 17. The company only released its management discussion and analysis report during the period, though it recently reported high-grade gold hits from its El Pato project in Guatemala. The company’s share price rose 2¢ to 10¢ in the period with 97.5 million shares issued.