Buying trend buoys junior exchange

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange rallied near the end of the week ended July 22, with investors buying select diamond and gold-related stocks. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index gained 11.45 points, or 1.02%, and closed at 1,128.64.

Knight Resources jumped 20 and closed the week at 45 with 2.9 million shares changing hands. The company reports that six surface grab samples taken from its West Raglan project in Quebec returned high nickel grades. The samples were taken from locally transported boulders and rubble near the end of a 3-km-long electromagnetic conductor. Highlights included 3.41% nickel, 2.91% copper, 0.09% cobalt, 3.3 grams palladium and 0.84 gram platinum per tonne from sample 3, and 3.42% nickel, 0.62% copper, 0.13% cobalt, 1.6 grams palladium and 0.35 gram platinum from sample 6.

Blackstone Ventures added 2 to its value and closed at 18 with 2.2 million shares traded. The junior recently inked a letter of intent with a wholly owned subsidiary of Falconbridge to explore two large nickel-copper-cobalt projects in Norway.

Shares in Shear Minerals tumbled 25 and closed at 90 on 2.2 million shares. Investors sold off the junior following news that Toronto-listed Cumberland Resources failed to find any significant diamond values in its kimberlites on the Meliadine East project in the Churchill province. Shear holds a 51% stake in the Churchill diamond project with Stornoway Diamonds and BHP Billiton. Stornoway ended the week at $1.40, down 34 on 1.1 million shares traded.

Spider Resources closed unchanged at 11 with 2.1 million shares traded. The junior, along with equal partner KWG Resources, is in the midst of a 10-hole drill program at the McFauld’s Lake massive sulphide project in the James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario. KWG ended the week at 13, down a penny, with 422,000 shares traded.

Donner Minerals added 3 to close at 18 with 1.7 million shares traded. The junior’s joint venture partner at the South Voisey Bay project in Labrador, Falconbridge, has started geological and geophysical follow-up of previously identified airborne electromagnetic anomalies. Falconbridge can earn a 50% interest in the entire South Voisey Bay project by spending $23 million over five years.

American Bonanza Gold Mines finished the week at 29, up 2, on 1.6 million shares. The company is doing underground drilling at the Copperstone project in Arizona, designed to upgrade the D-Zone resource into a reserve.

Desert Sun Mining closed at $1.17 up 5 with 1.2 million shares changing hands. The company has closed a $5 million underwritten private placement financing. Proceeds will be used to expand the exploration program following the recently announced discovery at Morro do Vento in Brazil, and for working capital. The company’s common shares will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday, July 23 under the trading symbol “DSM” and will be concurrently delisted from the TSX Venture exchange.

Cardero Resources rose 23 to 84 on a volume of 1.2 million shares. Cardero got a boost from the latest results from the Olaroz silver project in northwestern Argentina, where drill hole 6A yielded 13.5 metres grading 556.5 grams silver per tonne.