U.S. markets, June 3-7

Markets rallied mainly on statistics from the U.S. Labor Department showing 175,000 jobs were added in May, up from 149,000 in April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.88% to 15,248.12, while the S&P 500 Index rose 0.78% to 1,643.38 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.39% to 3,469.22. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index dropped 1.62% to 105.62. 

Shares of Mountain Province Diamonds got a lift after CEO Patrick Evans appeared on Business Television on May 30 to talk about Gahcho Kué, the company’s joint-venture diamond mine project with De Beers Canada in the Northwest Territories. Mountain Province ended the trading week US25¢ higher at US$5.43 per share.

Fortuna Silver Mines advanced US37¢, or 11.6%, to US$3.54 on no news. With assets in Mexico and Peru, the company says it’s one of Latin America’s fastest-growing silver producers and forecasts production will grow from 4 million oz. silver and 20,700 oz. gold, plus base metals, to about 5 million oz. silver and 26,000 oz. gold, plus base metals, by 2014. On May 22 the company reported that exploration drilling at the Trinidad North discovery at its San Jose mine in Mexico is intercepting high-grade mineralization over wide widths, including 39.3 metres grading 736 grams silver per tonne and 4.76 grams gold, and 8.8 metres of 1,240 grams silver and 6.94 grams gold.

Midway Gold advanced 8.3% to US$1.17 on news of receiving another permit for its Pan Gold project in Nevada. On May 30 the company said it had received its Class I air quality operating permit, bringing it a step closer to starting gold production in 2014. The company said that the public comment period for Pan’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) was closed and that the response “was overwhelmingly positive.” The comments will be incorporated into the final EIS, Midway added, with the project’s permitting schedule remaining on track for a record of decision by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management later this year.

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