Venture flat in June 4-8 period

VANCOUVER — The S&P TSX Venture Composite Index was virtually unchanged in the June 4-8 period, ending up a little over a point at 1,292.93 points. Volume also saw little change, in line with recent weeks at an average of 69 million shares traded daily.

Silver miner Aurcana was the most traded stock with 12.5 million shares traded after announcing it had started open-pit mining at its Shafter project and had hit high-grade silver intercepts at the mine. The latest news comes not long after the company reported record profits of US$2 million last quarter thanks to production at its La Negra silver-copper-lead-zinc mine in Mexico as it continues to advance its Shafter project in Texas. News of the open-pit mining at Schafter, plus an intercept of 9.1 metres grading 801.26 grams silver per tonne at the project, helped propel Aurcana to a 52-week high of $1.10 before ending at $1.02. The company has 449.8 million shares outstanding.

Sitting on the opposite end of the volume spectrum, Fortress Minerals climbed $1.19 to $5.20 to be the highest value gainer on a scant 10,180 shares traded. The company released no news, and had no trades on two of the days in the period. With 14.8 million shares outstanding Fortress has seen numerous days in recent weeks with no trades, and has kept in the $3.95 to $4.10 range for the past three months. The company sold off its Russian gold assets in 2010 and now has no exploration programs or properties, a deficiency the TSX has given Fortress until October to fix. The company does, however, have $23 million in cash to help find a property thanks to the sale of its Russian assets and a $15-million financing in early 2011.

Hana Mining climbed 16¢ to end at 86¢ as its share price continues to recover from a poorly received PEA for its Ghanzi copper-silver project in Botswana. When Hana released the PEA its share price plunged $1.29 to 42¢ in a day, with higher-than-expected costs weighing on the study. Since dropping, insiders have been snapping up Hana stock. Most notably, Cupric Canyon Capital has bought up almost 7 million more shares at between 47¢ and 85¢ to bring its total holdings to roughly 17.1 million or 17.2% of outstanding shares, and Vladimir Iorich bought 3 million shares at 49¢ through Pala Investments to bring his holdings to roughly 19.4 million shares or 19.5% of outstanding share. On the management side, Hana’s CEO Marek Kreczmer bought 70,000 shares at between 42¢ and 45¢, director David Kong bought 188,000 shares at between 60¢ and 71¢, and director Alexander Davidson bought 50,000 shares at 39¢.

Cadillac Mining spiked as much as 14¢ before ending up 11¢ at 27¢ on no news. The company last saw significant gains in February after announcing it had hit 73 metres grading 1.08 grams gold per tonne and 82 metres averaging 1.25 grams gold in two holes at its Goldstrike project in southwest Utah. At the time the company climbed from around 8¢ to 50¢ before quickly falling down to around 20¢. The company recent closed a $421,000 financing, which will go towards a 5,000-metre drill program on its Goldstrike project.