Venture manages gains in Oct 3 – 7 period

Vancouver – Tentative signs of economic calm were enough to give the TSX Venture Composite Index a gain of 5.33 points in the October 3 to 7 period, the first week in the black since August. The index remained volatile in the period however, dropping 133.82 points in the first two days to hit 1,333 points – the lowest since November 2009 – before recovering to end the period at 1,472.50 points. Volume dipped somewhat to an average of 90.6 million shares traded daily, thanks largely to a steep drop on the Friday before the long weekend.

As hints of optimism emerged, several stocks made significant gains on little or no news. Anfield Nickel was by far the biggest value gainer of the week despite releasing no news since August, climbing 93¢ to $4.99, to within a penny of its 52-week high. In August the company released a scoping study on its Mayaniquel nickel project in Guatemala that outlined an NPV of US$606-million and an IRR of 14.1%. The study was based on a long-term nickel price of US$8.25 per lb. nickel. In late September nickel prices hit a 52-week low of US$7.95 per lb., but recovered to around US$8.50 per lb. in early October.

Recent spin-out Tigray Resources also had a big week on no news, taking second place in value gains with a 56¢ rise to $1.66 for a roughly 50% gain. Canaco Resources spun out its Ethiopian assets into Tigray in early September, while the new entity just closed a $5.25-million non-brokered private placement. The company issued 5 million units at $1.05 each, with units containing a share and a warrant exercisable at $1.50 and $2 depending on the date.

Always active Exploration Orbite was the most traded stock with 14.5 million shares traded as it managed gains of 55¢ to close at $2.01. The company received conditional approval for listing on the TSX, and on the Monday after the period it announced that it had switched its alumina plant from a batch process to a semi-continuous process. Orbite is working to prove the viability of its patented process of extracting alumina from clay. The company has a 52-week share price range between 40¢ and $5.69.

Generally moderately traded Selwyn Resources saw a huge bump in activity to become the second-most traded stock with 13.6 million shares traded after Pan Pacific Metal Mining sold off 13 million shares at 14.5¢ apiece. The significant sell-off had little effect on the company’s share price, which ended flat at 15¢ after going up then down 2¢. Pan Pacific still holds 50 million shares, or 12.9% of Selwyn, which is developing the Selwyn lead-zinc deposit in the Yukon and working to reactivate the ScoZinc mine in Nova Scotia.

Chesapeake Gold continued its retreat after an impressive run in recent weeks. The company went from around $12 in late August to a brief high of $18.80 in Sept. 23 before falling back down to as low as $12.50 on Oct. 5. Overall the company dropped $1.65 in the period to end $13.85. Chesapeake is developing the sizable Metates gold project in Mexico’s Durango State.