TSX Venture falls, Jan. 4-8

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index stayed near the lowest point in its history, falling 2.1%, or 10.99 points, to a 514.77-point weekly close.

In macroeconomic news, Chinese top state advisor Li Wei, president of the State Council’s Development Research Center, said in a report that China would face “great difficulty” in achieving growth above 6.5% over 2016 to 2020, due to slowing global demand and rising Chinese labour costs.

Spot gold prices touched a nine-week high before closing up US$37.70, or 3.6%, at US$1,097.9 per oz. gold. Gold rose sharply as it did for eight of the last 10 new years, strengthened by fears in China’s stock market and geopolitical uncertainty between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Brent crude oil slumped to 11-year lows, falling US$3.74, or 10%, to US$33.55 per barrel, driving down the C$/US$ exchange rate to multi-year lows of 71¢ to the dollar. Copper followed suit, falling 4.6% to US$4,485.5 per tonne, amid mounting fears of a slowdown in China.

Southern Arc Minerals stood out in the value-added category, rising 25%, or 8¢, to a 40¢ close after a $1-million, non-brokered private placement that the company says will be used for general working capital.

The company is advancing its two main assets in Indonesia, which include the West Lombok, a resource-stage property with several gold-rich copper porphyry and epithermal gold prospects, and the East Elang, a grassfields property it holds in partnership with Vale International, next to Newmont Mining’s Elang and Batu Hijau deposits. 

Last month Southern Arc applied for more prospecting licences throughout the Hokkaido and northern Honshu regions of Japan.

Euromax Resources gained 7¢, or 25%, to a 35¢ close, fuelled by a positive feasibility study at its Ilovica deposit in Macedonia.

The gold-copper porphyry deposit is the country’s first greenfields development project in over 30 years.

Details of the study indicate a US$440.1-million after-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate, and a 17.8% after-tax internal rate of return.

Initial capital expenditures for the project amount to US$474.3 million.

The results came soon after the company secured an off-take agreement of its concentrate, which helped secure a US$215-million facility from the German United Loan Guarantee Scheme.

Focus Ventures had nearly the most shares traded after a prefeasibility study for its Bayovar12 phosphate joint-venture project in northwestern Peru.

The company saw almost 4 million shares change hands before it closed down 5¢, or 42%, to 7¢ per share.