Junior exchange breaks downward spiral

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange managed to chase away the Grinch over the week ended Dec. 22 as investors showed a renewed interest in speculative issues. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index tacked on 3.02 points, or 0.19% of value, and closed at 1,662.13.

Pelangio Mines closed down half a penny at 45.5 with 2.7 million shares traded. In the new year, the junior aims to launch a 10,000-metre drill program over its Detour Lake properties in northwestern Ontario. Immediately west of the project, joint-venture partner Trade Winds Ventures has a rig turning on the Block A property. The first hole is targeting the M zone at an 800-metre depth. Trade Winds ended the week at 78, down 2 on light volume.

Majestic Gold managed to recover from the previous week’s 94 hair cut, tacking on 19 to close at 73 with 2.71 million shares traded. Investors unloaded the stock after the junior announced that four holes drilled into the Ceske Brezovo prospect in Slovakia failed to return any significant gold mineralization.

Making a nice percentage move, Eastfield Resources added 8 to close at 37 on 2 million shares traded. The junior holds the Lorraine-Jajay project in British Columbia, which hosts a resource of 32 million tonnes grading 0.66% copper and 0.25 gram gold per tonne. Eastfield can earn up to a 75% stake by spending $4 million on exploration, paying $550,000 in cash or shares, and completing a feasibility study.

Spider Resources ended the week up a penny at 13 with 2 million shares traded. The junior and its joint-venture partner, KWG Resources, are working their Spider 3 base metal prospect in the James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario. KWG closed at 32, up 6 on a volume of 1.6 million shares.

Investors sold shares in IMA Exploration following news of the results from the first four holes sunk on the Navidad project in the Patagonia region of Argentina. The drill holes tested two areas 1,200 metres apart at the Navidad Hill and Galena Hill targets. At Navidad Hill, hole 1 intersected 68.4 metres grading 111.1 grams silver per tonne. On the same section, hole 2 intersected 48 metres averaging 97.8 grams silver. Shares in the junior dropped as low as $1.42 before recovering to close out the week at $1.67, down 26 on a volume of nearly 2 million.

Coronation Minerals closed at 34.5, up 15 with 2.4 million shares traded. The company and its partner, Guyana Goldfields, discovered a new copper-silver zone in the Strike Lake Fault area of its Coppermine River project in Nunavut. The first grab sample graded 33.8% copper and 17.2 grams silver per tonne. Guyana failed to rally on the news, losing 21 to close at 93 with just over 200,000 shares traded.

Quaterra Resources ended the week flat at 45.5 on a volume of 1.4 million shares. In January 2004, the company will launch a 5,000-metre drill program on its Nieves silver project in Mexico’s Zacatecas state.

Axmin closed at $1, up 2 on 1.3 million shares traded. Axmin’s Bouroum gold deposits in Burkina Faso, West Africa, are being developed in conjunction with Toronto-listed High River Gold Mines’ Taparko deposit. The companies envisage an operation cranking out some 91,000 oz. gold per year for 7.5 years. Running at the rate of a million tonnes per year, the mine would tap into reserves totalling 6,752,100 tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold per tonne via three pits at Taparko. Similarly, three pits on the Bouroum permit, 49 km to the northwest, would target at least 110,000 oz. gold.