Venture sees straight gains in Oct 24-28 period

Vancouver – A long-awaited deal on EU debt helped push the S&P TSX Venture Composite Index up 96.98 points in the Oct. 24-28 period to reach 1,629.89 points after five straight days of gains. Volume was also up somewhat, with an average of 99.4 million shares traded daily.

Clear stand-out CB Gold topped the volume, value and percentage gain indicators in the period following exceptional drill results and a big cash injection. The Colombia-focused company climbed $1.14 or 168% to $1.82 on 20.7 million shares traded to easily reach an all-time trading high after reporting an intercept of 115 metres grading 7.57 grams gold per tonne from 31 metres depth in a new mineralized zone at its Vetas gold project. The property sits 10 km south of what was Ventana Gold’s project before it was acquired for $1.5 billion earlier this year. Following the drill hits, Ross Beaty made an $11 million investment in the company at $1.10 a share, further driving the share price upwards.

Atacama Minerals saw a big boost following a thorough restructuring, with a new management team and property package. The company climbed 38¢ or 70% to 93¢ after announcing that the people who led Red Back Mining to a $7.1 billion takeover would be taking the helm at Atacama, including Richard Clark as CEO, Simon Jackson as president, Alessandro Bitelli as CFO, Kevin Ross as chief operating officer and Hugh Stuart as vice-president of exploration. Along with the change in personnel, Atacama will be buying Sirocco Gold, a private company created by Red Back’s former executives to explore gold prospects and acquisitions targets in West Africa.

Gold Canyon Resources climbed steadily in the period, up 66¢ to end at $2.95 after releasing more drill hits from its Springpole project northeast of Red Lake Ontario. The company hit 106 metres grading 3.36 grams gold from 130 metres downhole in an infill hole testing the Portage zone at the property. Gold Canyon currently has four drill rigs on site, looking to complete some 14,000 metres of drilling this season before completing a resource update some time in late 2011.

St. Eugene Mining saw 15 million shares traded after Claude Resources agreed to acquire all St. Eugene shares it did not already own in a deal valued at $19 million. St. Eugene shareholders are to get 0.0789 of a Claude share, valuing the junior at 14.5¢, while Claude will increase its stake in the Amisk gold project, with a 921,000 indicated oz. gold equivalent resource grading 0.95 gram gold equivalent, from 65% to 100%. St. Eugene’s stake in the Tartan Lake gold project will be transferred to a new subsidiary.

Maudore Minerals has continued a strong recovery, climbing $1.02 in the period to $5.02 after dipping to as low as $3.30 in the early October doldrums. The company will be incorporating 140,000 metres of drilling from its Comtois project into an updated resource soon, while continuing step-out drilling and metallurgical testwork. The previous resource estimate on Comtois outlined 8.1 million inferred tonnes grading 4.6 grams gold for 1.2 million contained oz. gold. In the period Rex Harbour increased its share ownership of Maudore by 1.77% to give it 11.55% of issued and outstanding common shares.