Venture sees steady gains throughout January

Vancouver – The S&P TSX Venture Composite Index continued its steady January climb into early February, finishing the January 30 to February 3 period up 36.2 points at 1,665.11 points. The gains put the index back to a level not seen since early November, while the fairly steady climb since mid-December is the longest period of stable gains in a year. Volume continues to climb, adding roughly 3 million over the week prior to bring the average daily trading volume to 135 million shares.

Atac Resources saw the biggest value gains of the week, climbing as much as $1.45 before ending up 93¢ at $3.47 with 4.3 million shares traded. With no news out the company was forced to issue a press release clarifying that there were no material changes that would explain the gains. The company released the last of its 2011 dill results from the Rackla gold project in mid-December, which included 44.2 metres grading 4.42 grams gold per tonne. The company plans to drill roughly 30,000 metres at the project in 2012, but will not be able to drill the project until mid-May. Atac’s stock price hit a high of $10.34 in July 2011 before plummeting to a low of $2.22 in mid-December.

Papuan Precious Metals was also up significantly in the period on no news, up 11¢ or 85% to end at 25¢ on roughly 767,000 shares traded. The company has not released news since late November, when it reported copper float sample results from its Waria River target including 10.49% copper, 0.33 gram gold, and 10 gram silver per tonne. The company spiked to a brief high of 79¢ in August 2011 after announcing drill hole 7 from its Kuliuta project hit 189 metres of “porphyry-copper style mineralization with visible copper”. The company’s share price quickly fell back down after continual delays in releasing assay results from several holes, including hole 7, which still have yet to be released. The company hit a 52-week low of 13¢ just before its rise last week.

Calibre Mining continues to ride a wave of activity following its drill results of January 20, being the highest-traded company on the index for the third week in a row. The activity has also brought contined gains, up another 5¢ to end at 54¢ after hitting a high of 60¢ in the period. Results from the company’s Nicaraguan property, in which B2Gold is earning 51%, include 261.7 metres grading 0.78 gram gold and 0.3% copper from surface and 276.8 metres grading 0.5 gram gold and 0.22% copper from surface.

Lumina Copper continues to push the bounds of its share-price chart, climbing 46¢ to end at $14.59 after briefly matching its all-time high of $15, reached equally briefly in mid-December. Like its fast-moving peers during the period, the company released no news, though copper prices recovered well in January. The metal climbed from roughly US$3.40 per lb. to as high as US$3.87 per lb. in the month. Lumina Copper is developing the fast-growing Taca Taca copper project in Argentina and has seen its share price climb from $5.50 in early October.