Alberta Stock Exchange Durvada moves ahead

Although gold slipped below US$400 per oz. after reaching US$406 earlier in the week, a number of Alberta issues benefited from a rally sparked by continuing tensions in the Middle East. During the week ended Aug. 14, Durvada Resources was a big winner. Trading over 169,000 shares, it closed up 53 cents at $2.73. Back in June, Durvada poured the first gold bar at its Heap Leach mill site in southwestern Nevada and similar gold pours were expected to occur until the end of September.

Following the announcement of channel-sampling results at Gold Vessel’s Golden Eagle mine in western Arizona, the Gold Vessel issue also moved up sharply. Trading on a volume of 7,500 shares, the A shares gained 25 cents to close at 75 cents.

The company says leachable gold reserves are being developed along the entire strike length of the Golden Eagle mine which contains about 5,000 ft. of underground workings.

The volume leader this week with 678,500 shares exchanged was Savanna Resources. While Savanna is still looking for a joint venture partner at its Turner- Albright gold-copper-zinc-cobalt deposit in southern Oregon, there were no new announcements from the company this week. Savanna closed up 9 cents at 49 cents.

While Flag Resources was ignored by investors, the company has rights to a sizable chunk of land in an area 40 miles northeast of Sudbury where staking activity has been heavy.

A number of companies, including Flag, Teck and Falconbridge Ltd. are positioning themselves to explore a large anomaly that is thought to be related to others in the Sudbury, Ont., basin. However, Teck and Falconbridge have yet to announce any plans or budgets relating to their staking activity.

Meanwhile, the BMR Gold issue moved up 15 cents on almost 100,000 shares before ending the week at $1.20. Drilling resumed recently at its American mine property, south of Las Vegas, Nev., where two drill rigs are currently at work. Preliminary reserves over 15% of a multi-shear zone system stand at 350,000 oz. gold grading 0.087 oz. per ton. Of the other volume leaders, Gunnar Gold gained 6 cents to close at 25 cents while Tyrae Resources closed up 5 cents at $1.

Also, Kingswood Exploration, down 1 cents today, has raised $1.1 million for exploration on its properties following a flow-through financing agreement with Union 111 Mining Exploration & Co.