Venture ends down slightly in Dec 5-9 period

Vancouver – The S&P TSX Venture Composite Index finished off the December 5 to 9 period at 1,547.31 points, down 9.57 points after dropping on four days and rallying on the fifth. Volume was up slightly at an average of 93.7 million shares traded daily.

Rye Patch Gold‘s brazen move to snap up claims that Coeur d’Alene Mines accidentally let lapse had the junior in the spotlight. Rye Patch climbed to as high as 84¢ before ending the period up 31¢ at 70¢ to be the highest percentage gainer of the period, while the 21.2 million Rye Patch shares that changed hands made it the most active stock on the index. Rye Patch is claiming that it staked 30.3 sq. km of land around Coeur’s Rochester silver project in Nevada after Coeur failed to pay the annual claim maintenance fee. The companies have since launched lawsuits against each other.

As a snapshot of the current state of global exploration, drilling contractor Energold Drilling reported in its third quarter results that quarterly revenue jumped 188% to $47-million, while actual drilling for the first nine months of 2011 is up 85% to 451,400 metres.  The results helped propel the company’s share price up 72¢ to $4.89 in the period to take the highest value gain title, while the week before the company’s stock price climbed 44¢ to $4.17. Energold noted that the majority of its drilling continues to be on brownfield mine sites, but an increasing portion is coming from frontier-oriented programs in West Africa and South America.  

Luna Gold saw heighted activity after announcing a resource update on its Aurizona gold mine in Brazil, ending up 4¢ at 65¢ with 6.9 million shares traded. The resource now stands at 78 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 1.26 grams gold for 3.17 million oz. gold, plus 15.2 million inferred tonnes at 1.47 grams gold for 720,000 oz. gold, representing a 250% increase in the measured and indicated and a 79% increase in inferred resources. The company also recently reported drill results including 23 metres grading 4.04 grams gold and 71 metres averaging 1.69 grams gold.

Columbus Gold sparked some interest after announcing it had restructure terms on its Paul Isnard project and was initiating a 15,000-metre drill program there, with the company’s share price climbing 16¢ to 82¢. The company reports that a new royalty agreement between Columbus and Iamgold‘s local subsidiary has several improved provisions, while an amended earn-in agreement with Auplata allows Columbus to secure 100% of the project by simply paying $1.5-million. The company also recently sold its Nevada Summit gold project to Agnico-Eagle for US$8.5-million.

Trelawney Mining and Exploration was hit hard after releasing drill results from its Cote Lake deposit. Results included 4 infill and eight expansion holes, with several infill holes hitting diabase dikes that broke the continuity of mineralization.  Infill results included 583 metres grading 0.77 gram gold and 119.4 metres grading 0.89 gram gold, while step-out results included 77 metres grading 1.35 grams gold and 114 metres averaging 0.81 gram gold. The company ended down 43¢ at $3.07 on just under 4 million shares traded to have the biggest value drop on the index.