INSIDER TRADING — Royal insiders buy shares

Recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that four executives of Royal Gold (RGLD-Q) picked up shares in September and October.

Odin Howell, director, exercised 2,500 options at US$4 to hold 546,680 shares directly; John Skadow, officer, bought 300 shares at US$3.75 to hold 4,060 shares directly; James Stuckert, director, purchased 9,124 shares indirectly at US$3.50 and another 5,000 shares directly at US$4.50 to hold a combined 1.6 million shares; and Thomas Loucks, officer, bought 1,000 shares at US$4.50 to hold 350,778 shares.

Other transactions reported in recent filings include the following:

• Nord Pacific (NPF-T) — Pierce Carson, officer, bought 20,000 shares at US72-75 cents to hold 192,000 shares, and Raymond Jenner, officer, bought 10,000 shares at US69 cents to hold 15,000 shares.
• Nord Resources (NRD-N) — Pierce Carson, officer, bought 20,000 shares at US$1 to hold 56,040 shares.
• Homestake Mining (HM-N) — Eric McClintock, director, sold 4,000 shares, both indirectly and directly, at US$14.19 to hold a combined 8,230 shares.
• U.S. Energy (USEG-Q) — Nick Bebout, director, bought 2,500 shares indirectly at US$2.94 to hold a total of 24,246 shares, both indirectly and directly.
• Earth Sciences (ESCI-Q) — Robert Lowdermilk, director, bought 200,000 shares at US56 cents to hold 671,774 shares.

  Meanwhile, recent reports by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) show that two executives of Vencan Gold (VCG-M) have beefed up their holdings in that company. Kenneth Baird, director, acquired 200,000 shares under a plan at 40-65 cents to hold 870,000 shares, and John Francis, officer, exercised 36,000 options at 25 cents and was granted 36,000 options at 32 cents to hold 75,000 options and an unspecified number of shares.

  Other transactions reported by the OSC include the following:

• Verena Minerals (VMCO-C) — Walid El Koury Daoud, director, sold 599,400 shares at 25 cents and was issued 600,000 shares from the company’s treasury at 25 cents to hold 600,000 shares, and Elmer Salomao, director, sold 800,600 shares at 25 cents and was issued 800,000 shares from the company’s treasury at 25 cents to hold 954,780 shares.
• Viceroy Resource (VOY-T) — Ronald Netolitzky, director, exercised 80,900 options at $2.17-2.50 and sold 78,000 shares at $3.40-3.70 to hold an unspecified number of options and 1.38 million shares.