TSX Venture falls below 600, July 20-24

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index declined for a fifth week, closing down 5.8% — or 36.3 points to 592.48 points — while markets weathered declining commodity prices.

Goldstrike Resources saw heavy trading trading after reporting visible gold in half of the holes drilled at its greenfield Plateau South project, 300 km east of Dawson City, Yukon. The shares peaked at 20¢ before falling back to 16¢ at close on Friday. 

The drill program was intended to step out on mineralized stockwork zones and breccia, which returned intercepts of 10 metres at 10.9 grams gold per tonne, and 7.6 grams gold over 9 metres in previous programs.

Canadian underground gold miner Banks Island Gold provided an update on July 24 regarding a 240-cubic-metre discharge of water and sediments into the environment after a mining stope failed at its Yellow Giant gold mine on Banks Island, B.C. The news drove shares down to 52-week lows at 8¢, before closing at 11¢. At press time, shares had dropped to 8¢.

Due to a pollution abatement order issued by the B.C. Ministry of Environment, the company has switched to backfilling the underground Tel mine, which has a void space available for six months of production. 

Ore processing is delayed because of a stop order on the mines’ processing plant made by the B.C. Ministry ofEnergy & Mines on July 16. The company expects this delay will impact production and gold sales for July. 

Brazil Resources rose 11% before closing at 57¢ a share after announcing it will pick up 100% of the Whistler gold project, and associated assets in central Alaska, 150 km northwest of Anchorage, from greenfield explorer Kiska Metals. Under the proposed deal, Brazil will issue 3.5 million shares valued at $1.6 million.

The copper-gold porphyry has a pit-constrained, indicated resource of 79.2 million tonnes grading 0.51 gram gold per tonne, 1.97 grams silver per tonne and 0.2% copper, and an inferred resource of 145.8 million tonnes grading 0.40 gram gold, 1.75 grams silver and 0.2% copper.

GWR Resources shares rose 67% from 3¢ to 5¢, after it closed a $300,000 private placement and mobilized exploration teams into its copper-gold Lac La Hache property, 10 km northwest of Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine in B.C.

The company plans to drill five holes to test the near-vertical AZS structure in 25-metre stepouts below an 8-metre intercept of 3.6% copper, 3.4 grams gold and 19 grams silver.