Venture slides in May 28 – June 1 period

VANCOUVER — The S&P TSX Venture Composite Index swung back into the red in the May 28 to June 1 period, dropping 17.68 points to end at 1,291.59 on three days of gains and two days of losses. Volume kept in line with the week before at a modest average of 68 million shares traded per day.

Goldquest Mining continued its impressive run for a second week, adding 34¢ to the 34¢ it had gained the week before for an astounding climb from 6¢ to 74¢ in two weeks of trading. Goldquest was also the most-traded company for another week, with 33.2 million shares traded for a company with only 110.1 million shares outstanding. The company wasted no time in taking advantage of the gains, arranging a $5-million financing at 45¢ that it soon increased to $5.7 million. All this activity continues to stem from a single drill hole from its Las Tres Palmas project in the Dominican Republic. Hole LTP 90 returned 231 metres grading 2.4 grams gold per tonne from 33 metres and ended in mineralization.

And while Goldquest popped on a single hole, others climbed on no news at all. American Vanadium climbed 27¢ to 64¢ on no news to claw back most of what it lost in April and May. The company had been hovering around 70¢ for several months before dropping to its 52-week of of 34¢ in late May. American Vanadium is advancing the Gibellini vanadium project in Nevada. The company put out a feasibility study on the project in November and continues to advance the project.

Meanwhile, Oro Mining‘s share price more than doubled on no news, climbing from 6¢ to 13¢ on modest volume. Oro controls the 1,180-sq.-km Taunus project in Mexico’s Sinaloa State, on which it is working to complete a preliminary economic assessment. A January resource estimate covering all zones at the project outlined 4.4 million indicated tonnes grading 1.74 grams gold for 244,000 oz. gold and 2 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.84 gram gold for 52,600 oz. gold. The company raised $7.9 million at 11¢ per unit in February.

Companies didn’t just go up on no news though, with Lions Gate Metals dropping 21¢ to 28¢ in the week on a scant 13,000 shares traded in 8 trades. The company traded as low as 27¢ on the last day, marking a 52-week low for the British Columbia explorer. On the Monday following the drop the company managed to regain 7¢ to close at 35¢ after trading as high as 49¢ on 5 trades and 6,300 shares traded.

Prominent Yukon explorers Atac Resources and Kaminak Gold both saw encouraging share price gains in the period. Atac ended up 29¢ at $3.19 despite four days of losses thanks to a 56¢ gain on the last day of the week. The company announced in mid-May it had started its 15,000-metre phase one exploration program at its Rackla gold project. Kaminak Gold had a 17¢ gain to $2.17 thanks also to a big gain on the last day of the week. Kaminak closed a $6.3-million financing at $2.10 per share in the period, with the over-allotment option fully exercised.