TSX falls on global fears

The TSX Composite Index resumed its moribund ways as it fell 19 points to finish at 12,387.54 points for Sept. 6-9 period.

Continued worries over European and U.S. debt levels played on investor’s fears, and gold even lost some of its luster in the sell-off. The purported safe-haven metal fell US$20 to close at US$1,859.5 for the period. Gold miners, however, didn’t feel the pain as the Global Gold Index rose 8 points to wind up at 447.43 points.

The diversified miners represented in the Capped Metals & Mining Index also managed to trend upwards, if only slightly, as the Index was up 9 points to 1,150.83. That move came as the prices for nickel, tin, lead and zinc were higher. Prices for copper and aluminum, however, were slightly off.

Auryx Gold was one of the good news stories for the period, even if a metal not included in the company’s name was responsible for the positive momentum. The company announced the discovery of two distinct zones of massive iron-oxides and saw its share price rise 18% to 65¢ as a result. The two zones are overlying and peripheral to the known Otjikoto gold deposit, which is a deposit at a project of the same name in Namibia. The company says geophysical work suggests iron-oxide mineralization could have a strike length of 6-km. One zone is a 5 metre to 30 metre thick unit of semi-massive to massive iron-oxides while the other is 5 metres to 20 metres thick unit of semi-massive to massive iron-oxides. Preliminary metallurgical test work suggests that the magnetite can be easily concentrated to 65% by crushing to 8 mm and magnetic separation.

The drill was also kind to Rio Novo Gold and the market took notice, sending the company’s shares up 18% to $1.17. Rio Novo did find the metal in its name as it announced highlight intercepts of 2.51grams gold over 16.9 metres at the Morro do Carneiro target and 1.53 grams gold over 14 metres at the Vira-Saia target. Both targets are situated at its Almas gold project in the Brazilian state of Tocantins. The company is looking to become a gold producer in the short term by bringing Almas and its Guarantã Gold Project in Brazil’s Mato Grosso province into production. Both projects have solid infrastructure, main grid hydropower and are situated in mining friendly jurisdictions.

And a third metal helped to lift Entrée Gold’s market cap. The metal was copper and the results came from its Ann Mason copper molybdenum porphyry deposit in the Yerington district of Nevada. The results were good enough to boost Entrée’s fortunes by 17% as its shares closed at $2.26. The results came out of three deep diamond drill holes and returned long intercepts of 448 metres to 814 metres averaging from 0.35% to 0.43% copper equivalent. Drilling at the property is being done with an eye towards upgrading the inferred resource of over 7 billion lbs of copper as well as increasing the global resource. An updated resource estimate is due out in the first quarter of 2012.