CDNX continues bull run (January 29, 2001)

Canada’s junior exchange ended the Jan. 17-23 period on an up-note, with all indices posting gains. The Canadian Venture Exchange composite index tacked on 78.1 points, or 2.5%, and closed the period at 3155.64. By comparison, the mining index soared 237.74 points, or 4.3% to close at 5765.97.

JNR Resources topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers. The Dale Hoffman-led company ended the week at 9, down 2 on a volume of 3.1 million shares. JNR has a joint venture with Kennecott Canada on several uranium properties in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. Work has just begun on the joint venture’s Moore Lake and Lazy Edward Bay projects and will include a total of 3,500 metres of diamond drilling.

A big percentage loser, Cantex Mine Development closed at 18, down 8 with 1.9 million shares traded. The company’s joint-venture partner, Toronto-listed Falconbridge, says it intends to terminate its work in Yemen. It considers the country “inhospitable and dangerous to its employees and contractors.”

Kenrich Mining hit a new 52-week low of 5 before recovering to close the week at 7, up a penny over the previous week’s close. Trading was heavy, with 1.6 million shares crossing the floor. The junior holds the Corey property, north of Stewart in northwestern British Columbia. Situated only 10 km south of the Eskay Creek gold-silver mine, the property hosts the favourable Hazelton group of rocks.

Shore Gold jumped 29 on news that hole 4 of a drill program targeting the Star diamond property in Saskatchewan cut an impressive 539 metres of kimberlite. The junior ended the week at 81, with 1.4 million shares changing hands.

Poplar Resources traded heavily and lost 4 to close at 19 on a volume of 1.3 million shares. The company’s subsidiary, North Star Diamonds, has begun a re-evaluation of its Bottenbacken palladium project in central Sweden.

The latest trench results from the El Tambor property in Guatemala brought the shares of Radius Explorations back to life. The Simon Ridgeway-led company ended the report period up 2 to 74, with more than 1.2 million shares changing hands. Situated 40 km north of Guatemala City, El Tambor covers a series of low-sulphidation, epithermal gold zones hosted by deformed Paleozoic-aged schists. New trench results from the Bridge zone returned up to 85 metres grading 3.59 grams gold per tonne.

Muskox Minerals tumbled 55 during a selloff, which left it at $2.80 after the exchange of 875,000 shares. Stock in the junior fell on news that the first 11 holes drilled at the Keel 1 West geophysical anomaly on the Muskox layered intrusion in Nunavut returned only low-grade copper-nickel-platinum mineralization.

Pan Asia Mining closed down a penny to 9 on a volume of 859,000 shares. Open-pit mining is still in progress on the 701 diamond project in China. Recently, several large diamonds were recovered, the largest of which weighed 33.2 carats.

Taking a breather after posting solid gains in the previous week, Starfield Resources remained steady at 67 on 824,000 shares. The company has expanded its Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-palladium-platinum-cobalt project in Nunavut.