Investors bail out of junior stocks

Vancouver — A lack of buyers, combined with a wave of sell orders, pushed Canada’s junior exchange to its largest weekly point decline of the year. During the report period ended July 23, the Standard & Poor’s-TSX Venture composite index plunged 58.22 points, or 5.4% of its value, to close at 1,047.15.

A falling gold price prompted investors to sell shares in American Bonanza Gold Mining. The company recently raised $2 million to advance the Copperstone project in Arizona, which hosts an estimated resource of 2.1 million tons grading 0.58 oz gold per ton. Stock in the junior closed at 16, down 3 on a heavy 2.4 million shares.

Anaconda Uranium added 2 to close at 7 with more than 1.7 million shares changing hands. The company is the midst of a corporate reorganization that includes a 1-for-3 rollback of its shares and a name change to Anaconda Gold. Anaconda then plans to acquire the Lingman Lake and Borthwick Lake gold properties in the prolific Red Lake camp of northern Ontario. The proposed price tag comes in at $4 million post-consolidated shares.

Western Pacific Gold ended the week unchanged at 3 on just over 1.6 million shares. The junior is working the D’Aguilar gold project, some 150 km north of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia.

Dynacor Mines jumped 6 to 85 on 688,000 shares. A 3,000-metre drill program is under way on the Tumipampa gold-copper project in Peru, where the company aims to test several hydrothermal gold-bearing veins intersecting several sedimentary formations in contact with a porphyritic granodioritic intrusive rock.

Anooraq Resources failed to get a boost on news that its joint-venture partner, privately held African Minerals, had cut 70 metres of favourable Platreef rocks in its first drill hole and 155 metres in the second hole on the Rietfontein nickel-copper-platinum-palladium property in South Africa. Assay results are still pending. Anooraq dropped 8 to finish at 79 .

Artic Star Diamond added 3 on news that the company has earned a 20% working interest in the diamond projects held by Charles Fipke-run Metalex Ventures in the Attawapiskat region of northern Ontario. The junior closed at 28 on 669,000 shares.

Newly renamed, Seabridge Gold lost 52 to close at $2.30 on 415,000 shares. Over the past few years, the junior has acquired several North American properties with total resources of some 14 million oz. gold. In a recent development, the junior purchased the Tundra gold project in the Northwest Territories from Newmont Mining and Total Resources. Seabridge agreed to pay US$2.5 million for the advanced project, plus another US$3 million at a production decision, or if the price of gold rises to US$400 per oz.

Shares of Silver Standard Resources came crashing back to earth, losing $3.09 to close at $7.20 on weak volume. The company has picked up a 43.4% stake in the Pirquitas project in northern Argentina.

Diamond explorer Kensington Resources added 11 to reach $1.28 on 531,000 shares. The company recovered a 3.35-carat diamond from its 141 kimberlite pipe in Saskatchewan. The diamondiferous body lies on the Fort la Corne joint-venture property, held 10% by UEM, 5.5% by Toronto-listed Cameco, and 84.5% equally between Kensington and De Beers.