Junior exchange edges up

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange posted modest gains over the week ended Dec. 10. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index tacked on 6.05 points, or 0.63% of its value, and closed at 966.24.

Pan Asia Mining closed at 9, up 2 on a volume of 3.8 million shares. The company recently agreed to a private placement of up to 2 million units priced at 5 each for gross proceeds of $100,000. A unit comprises one share and one non-transferable share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to buy an additional share for 10 over one year. A portion of the proceeds will be applied to the 701 diamond joint venture in China.

Guyana Goldfields jumped 5 to close at 45 with 1.9 million shares crossing the floor. The company holds both the Peters and Aurora gold mining projects in Guyana, and intends to use cash flow from the former to fund the continued exploration, expansion and development of both projects. Guyana Goldfields is also active at the Coronation Gulf base-metal/platinum-group-element property in Nunavut, where it is earning a half-interest by spending $1.5 million on exploration over three years and making cash and share payments.

American Bonanza Gold Mining closed flat at 16 with 1.7 million shares changing hands. The company has resumed exploration and development at its Copperstone project in Arizona, and contractors will begin dewatering the existing underground decline shortly. Soon, drilling, blasting and mining will begin, extending the decline to the bonanza-grade D-Zone target area.

Canadian Royalties lost 8 and closed at $2 on a volume of 1.6 million shares. The stock has traded heavily over the past month, since the disclosure of drill results from the Mesamax nickel-copper-platinum-palladium discovery zone at the Expo Ungava property in northern Quebec.

Rhonda remained flat at 18 with 1.5 million shares traded. The company has proposed raising up to $540,000 in a private placement by selling up to 3 million flow-through units at 18 per unit. Rhonda holds mineral exploration properties in the centre of the Coronation Diamond play in Nunavut, as well as in the Temagami region of Ontario and the Courageous Lake region of the Northwest Territories.

Expatriate Resources lost 2 and closed the week at 9 with 1.3 million shares traded. The junior has teamed up with a private group to explore for emeralds on its Finlayson base metal project in the Yukon.

Desert Sun Mining found a penny and closed at 51 with 1.1 million shares traded. It is half-way through its first round of drilling at the Jacobina gold project in Brazil, where eight areas are being tested. So far, seven holes totalling 1,500 metres have been completed in the area of the former Canavieiras mine. Drilling is to be completed by Christmas.

Diagem International Resource dropped 1 and closed the week at 16 with 970,000 shares traded. The company recently made an agreement to market all of its alluvial diamond production from Brazil through privately owned Natural Diamond of Antwerp, Belgium.

Arctic Star Diamonds tumbled 8 and closed at 37 on 803,000 shares. The junior has a stake in several early-stage projects in northern Ontario and Manitoba.