Breakwater gains while St Andrew loses value

The week of Jan. 19-25 saw the price of gold rise US$2.25, to US$424.50 per oz., where it closed in the afternoon in London. The gold index was up 1.8 points and finished at 198.25. The diversified metals and mining index also rose, by 3.7 points, to 264.69 points. The S&P-TSX composite index fell 9.7 points to end at 9,125.1 points.

Breakwater Resources led the way in volume, trading 24.9 million shares and finishing a penny higher at 61. Unionized employees at the Myra Falls mine, near Campbell River, B.C., now have a labour agreement, which will be in effect until the end of March 2008.

St Andrew Goldfields fell 7, or 40%, to close at 10.5 on a volume of 22.6 million shares. The company is exploring the Clavos property, near Timmins, Ont.

Wheaton River Minerals closed up 7, at $3.91, on a volume of 21.9 million shares. Wheaton signed a merger agreement with Goldcorp in December 2004. Goldcorp shareholders are scheduled to meet Feb. 10, and Goldcorp’s offer to merge with Wheaton has been extended to Feb. 14. Goldcorp is recommending its shareholders reject Glamis Gold‘s offer to buy all of Goldcorp’s shares. Goldcorp dropped 3 over the period to close at $17.48, while Glamis fell 26, to $19.63.

Bolivar Gold traded 11.7 million shares (10.4 million on Jan. 25) to close unchanged at $1.90. At the end of January, power will be available at its Choco 10 property in Venezuela and testing of the entire mill circuit will begin.

Northgate Minerals was down 2 to close at $1.78 as it reported exploration results from its Kemess gold-copper mine. A higher-grade zone in the northeastern corner of the proposed Kemess North open pit was found to extend 50-70 metres farther than previously thought.

TVI Pacific was up 1, at 11, on a volume of 10.3 million shares following news its Chinese subsidiary, Hunan Pacific Geological Exploration, had been granted a qualified explorer licence. As a result, the company can apply for rights to explore mineral tenements anywhere in China. In addition, TVI has acquired an exploration property adjacent to the 217 property in Inner Mongolia (217 is jointly held by Jinshan Gold Mines and Ivanhoe Mines).

Ivernia rose 18 to $1.48 on a volume of 2.8 million shares. The company is increasing the rate of prestripping at its 51%-owned Magellan lead property in Australia so that higher-grade material can be produced starting at year-end (one year earlier than planned). Magellan has a reserve of 12 million tonnes grading 6.8% lead.

Glencairn Gold rose 5.5 to close at 53 on a volume of 2.9 million shares. Once the Bellavista mine in Costa Rica is operating at full capacity later this year, Glencairn expects its annual gold production to top 100,000 oz.

Nevsun Resources fell 14%, closing at $2.67 on a volume of 2.3 million. The price is adjusting after rising 24% a couple of weeks ago. The Eritrean government is allowing exploration to resume after a 4-month hiatus; however, it can now buy up to a 30% stake in properties, whereas the previous percentage was capped at 20.