Wall Street rises, Sept. 19–23

U.S. equities gained momentum as the U.S. Federal Reserve maintained interest rates, fuelling higher commodity prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 0.8% to 18,262.45 and the S&P 500 Index rose 1.2% to 2,164.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.2% to close at 5,305.75. The spot gold price advanced 2%, or US$27.10, to US$1,337.10 per ounce. The November contract for crude oil rose 3.4% to US$44.48, while the November contract for Brent oil edged up 0.2% to US$45.89 per barrel.

Dominion Diamond shares surged 17% to US$9.29, after the company reported that the process plant at its Ekati mine restarted ahead of schedule, and that it sold the largest diamond ever recovered from that mine, in the Lac de Gras region of the Northwest Territories.

The Ekati plant resumed operations at full capacity on Sept. 21 — three months after the company suspended plant operations after a fire on June 23. The cost of repairs to the plant totalled US$15 million.

During this time, Dominion implemented a strategy to mitigate the impact of the fire on production and cash flow for the current fiscal year. It lowered operating and capital costs by delaying mining activities at the Lynx and Pigeon pits, while mining and stockpiling higher-value ore from the Misery Main pit and Koala underground. The plant will process ore from the latter two areas for the rest of the year, with the company noting it has 750,000 tonnes of stockpiled ore from Misery Main and Koala.

Meanwhile, Dominion announced it sold a 186-carat gem quality diamond for US$2.8 million during its most recent sale in September. The company found the stone in early June while processing feed from the Pigeon kimberlite.

Primero Mining shares climbed nearly 9% to US$1.64 on the back of positive exploration results at its Black Fox gold mine near Timmins, Ont., and the San Dimas gold-silver mine in Durango, Mexico.

At Black Fox, the Deep Central zone is now delivering production ore and Primero has found more high-grade mineralization to the west, with results returning 28.1 grams gold per tonne over 2.7 metres and 4.6 gram gold over 5.4 metres.