Junior board takes a breather

After almost five months of continual gains, the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index took a break, pulling back 2.6%, or 56.95 points, to close the Thanksgiving holiday-shortened Oct. 4-7 trading session at 2117.97. Average daily trading volume remained strong however, at 52.5 million shares over the week.

The trend of buoyant junior mining share prices continued over the session, with 51 touching new 52-week highs and 41 companies dropping to annual lows.

The volume leader for the week was Consolidated Abaddon Resources, trading over 6.8 million shares and holding steady to close at 25 per share. The uranium-focused junior recently entered a letter of intent with International Uranium on its Huard-Kirsch Lakes project on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin. IUC has an exclusive option to acquire a 51% interest in the property, about 20 km northwest of the McArthur River mines, and 40 km southwest of the Cigar Lake mines. Geophysics conducted in early 2005 indicated three conductors with a combined strike length of up to 15 km; follow-up surveys by IUC are scheduled over the winter.

Aggregate and limestone developer Birch Mountain Resources saw over 4.1 million shares change hands to grab second spot among most actives, gaining 33 to close at $6 per share. The company announced an agreement with the Fort McKay First Nation, granting rights to market product from its Muskeg Valley quarry and from the Hammerstone project, still awaiting approval. Birch Mountain’s quarry projects are located near the booming oil sands projects of northeastern Alberta. Limestone is used by the oil developers for road construction, aggregate and in flue gas scrubbing to remove impurities.

Freewest Resources Canada posted volume of just over 4 million shares over the week, shedding 2.5 to close at 20 per share. Drilling on the N-zone at its Clarence Stream project, in southwestern New Brunswick, yielded results of up to 7.9 grams gold per tonne over 9 metres within a broader zone of 21.5 metres averaging 4.3 grams gold. Mineralization is associated with quartz stockworks and veins in an altered sedimentary and volcaniclastics assemblage intruded by a gabbroic sill. The company also reported trenching results from its Windfall project in northwestern Quebec, a joint venture with Murgor Resources. Channel sampling returned up to 4 metres grading 85.8 grams gold on the F-11 zone.

Northwestern Mineral Ventures traded over 3.6 million shares, gaining 16 to close at 76 per share. A recently signed letter of intent has the company acquiring the Firefly uranium-vanadium project in southeastern Utah. The project consists of the past-producing Firefly and Gray Daun mines, which operated from the 1950s to 1970s. Also, recent soil sampling on its Picachos silver-gold project, in Durango state, Mexico, has expanded the size of a large polymetallic anomaly to over 4.5 sq. km.

Dia Bras Exploration gained 50%, or 11, to close at 33 per share on volume of almost 1.4 million shares over the week. The northern Mexico-focused junior announced drill results of 10.7 metres grading 26.8% zinc, 0.85% copper, 24.3 grams silver per tonne and 0.8 gram gold from its Bolivar project in Chihuahua state.

Norsemont Mining continued its climb, gaining 48 to close at $4.08 per share on volume of almost 1.3 million shares. Recent drilling at its Constancia copper-molybdenum-gold project in southern Peru, under option from Rio Tinto, encountered significant copper mineralized intercepts.

Shares of IMA Exploration tumbled 65, to close at $3.15, following Aquiline Resources‘ rejection of the company’s offer of 3.5 million shares and warrants plus $1 million to settle the litigation claim on the Navidad silver project in Argentina.