Alberta Stock Exchange Argus big trader

The Winter Olympics may be over, but Argus Resources led the pack this week trading over 1.2 million shares in three days. Those are big numbers for an Alberta listing and they reflect continued drill successes at Argus’ Esker Lake gold prospect east of Contwoyto Lake in the Northwest Territories.

With temperatures in the –40 degrees Celcius range, Argus is drilling an interesting prospect with similar geology to Echo Bay’s Lupin mine. According to recent reports, the company recently drilled a 350-ft hole that intersected sulphide mineralization between 126 ft and 172 ft.

That may explain why the Argus issue gained 60 cents on 768,300 shares to close at $1.40

The Pundata Gold issue also responded well to drill results at the company’s 60%-owned Spanish Mountain, Nev. joint-venture with Trio Gold.

The best results from the Main zone include 26.2 ft of 1.049 oz gold per ton including 13.1 ft of 1.698 oz and 3.3 ft of 1.505 oz. As a result, Pundata gained 5 cents on 96,300 shares to close at 30 cents .

The joint-venture partners have agreed to amalgamate to form an as yet unnamed new company. While all the details haven’t been revealed, the new company will be headquartered in Calgary and will issue approximately 5.5 million shares in exchange for all Pundata and Trio shares issued.

Under some other proposals, Trio shareholders will be entitled to receive five shares in the new company for every seven Trio shares now held. The Trio issue remained steady closing at on 41,200 shares.

To reflect a recent diversification into into spring water products and industrial minerals, Halifax-based Torene Gold is changing its name to AquaGold Resources, the company has said.

The company is currently awaiting a cost estimate for underground exploration and mill expansion at the Harrigan Cove gold property. A former producer, it has yielded 8,000 oz gold from 13,000 tons milled.

Torene gained 30 cents on 31,000 shares traded to close at $1.80.

Despite news of a joint venture with Parklane Technologies at Beardmore, Ont., the Sweany Gold issue remained stalled at 5 cents . By spending $530,000 on a program scheduled to begin this month, Parkland can earn a 60 cents interest in the property.

Sweany says Ausgold Recovery Systems is carrying out metallurgical testing on ore from the Regina Mines tailings deposit and results are expected by March 15.