Alberta Stock Exchange Stratabound again

Drill results at the CNE zinc- lead-silver property near Bathurst, N.B., appear to have brought some post-Christmas cheer to the shareholders of Stratabound Minerals.

During the holiday week ended Dec 26, shares of Stratabound climbed to $1.70 from $1.45 on a volume of 2,500 after the company released assays from nine holes.

With open pit reserves standing at 210,000 tons grading 7.60% zinc, 2.98% lead and 2.92 oz silver per ton above the 130-ft level, President Stan Stricker is confident that those reserves can be increased.

Most recent results included 85.3 ft of grade 8.24% zinc, 3.89% lead and 3.97 oz silver per ton. A 42-ft intersection in a separate hole also yielded 1.81% copper.

Meanwhile, trading patterns of other exploration companies were not so kind to the shareholders involved. Pan East Resources, for example, which posted the session’s largest volume of 734,800 shares, dropped 19 cents before closing at $2.10. Pan East recently optioned what it regards as a promising Northwest Territories uranium property from Falconbridge Ltd. and Kerr Addison Mines.

Pan East has agreed to spend $1.5 million over three years to earn a 51% interest. But it can go up to 60% for an additional $1 million.

The volatile Borealis Exploration issue was down by 49 cents to close at $2.75 just two weeks after it traded at $3.40. Borealis recently added to its portfolio of gold exploration project, one million shares of Amcan Insurance Services.

The Kingswood Exploration was relatively inactive, dropping 2 cents even though the company is expanding its interests in Val d’Or, Que., near the Aur Resources/ Societe Miniere Louvem massive sulphide discovery.

Under an agreement with Consolidated Abitibi Resources, Kingswood is earning 55% in claims south of the old East Sullivan copper-zinc mine. The company has also been working on other deals, in connection with that area.

There has been no word yet from Aur Resources on metallurgical tests from Savanna Resources’ Turner-Albright project in Oregon. However, Savanna was a big trader this week and the company’s share price was slightly better at 63 cents .