TSX rises on strength out of China

The TSX Composite index rose 84 points to 12,296.72 for the Dec. 10-14 period as stronger that anticipated manufacturing numbers out of China outweighed fears over the looming fiscal cliff south of the border.

Stronger economic signals from China did little to lift the fortunes of gold miners, however, as the Global Gold Index was off a point to 298.55, with the price of gold falling US$8 to US$1,697.00 per oz.

The news did ripple through to the base metals market with China being the largest consumer of copper. The red metal’s price was up a penny to US$3.68 per lb. and the Capped Metals & Mining Index was up 33 points to 985.59 points.

Torex Gold hit the highest grade intercepts yet at its Morelos gold project in Mexico and its share price reflected the results. The company’s stock was one of the period’s most actively traded and its price climbed 5¢ to $2.16. The results came out of the Media Luna and Media Luna West targets and were highlighted by 21 metres grading 30.31 grams gold, 12.2 metres grading 15.56 grams gold and 5.2 metres grading 28.6 grams gold.

Shares in Stornoway Diamond rallied after a big find at its Renard diamond project in Quebec. The company’s shares were up 27% to 65¢ after announcing it had discovered one of the most valuable stones yet at the project. A 9.78 carat diamond with a value of $7,000 was recovered during the processing of a bulk sample. Roughly one third of the bulk sample has been processed and 11 diamonds larger than 1.8 carats have been recovered so far. The bulk sampling is being done as part of the company’s plan to convert inferred mineral resources to the indicated category.

Vancouver-based Alderon Iron Ore is getting closer to a power supply for Kamistiatusset project in the Labrador Iron Trough. The company hired Nalcor Energy to do stage three engineering and assessment of the proposed power supply — a process that could take up to eight months. Investors were encouraged by the news and sent the company’s stock price 25% higher to $1.68. Construction is expected to start towards the end of next year on the mine that will cost $988.9 million to build.

And Centamin had a rough period, although things were shaping up at press time. The company’s stock was off 33% to 55¢ for the period thanks to a shortage of diesel and working capital, forcing it to close its Sukari gold mine. The stock began to rebound, however, when it announced that the mine would resume normal operations in the coming days. The lack of diesel came after the Egyptian General Petroleum halted supplies of fuel to the mine saying the company owed roughly US$65 million for past diesel deliveries. Centamin called the actions illegal and arbitrary and says that it will not have to pay the amount.