Junior market ends bearish slide

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange managed to find a few points while the major bourses rallied over the week ended Oct. 22. The S&P TSX Venture Exchange composite index tacked on 2.33 points, or 0.26% of its value, to close at 905.01.

Spider Resources ended the week up a penny to 6 with 3.4 million shares traded. The junior reported encouraging rock-sample values from its Wawa diamond property in northern Ontario. Spider’s stock sold off after De Beers Canada announced that exploration drilling on the Spider 3 project claims had failed to hit any kimberlites and that it would no longer be working property.

Montreal-based Dia Bras Exploration closed at 15, up 1 on 2.8 million shares. The junior explorer has an option agreement with SAGEM, a private Guinean company, to earn a 60% interest in the 125-sq.-km Banankoro exploration permit.

Starcore Resources lost 1 and closed at 2 on a volume of 1.5 million shares. The company is earning a half-stake in the Legris Lake platinum palladium and gold property, near Thunder Bay, Ont. The property consists of 10 claims covering 22 sq. km on the Legris Lake mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex.

Gallery Resources closed at 14, up 5 on a volume of 1.1 million shares. Investors are waiting for drill results from the company’s Bruce Pond property, an epithermal gold prospect in Newfoundland. Earlier this month, the junior kicked of a 5,000-metre, 30-hole drill program.

Starfield Resources lost 3 and closed at 38 on 895,000 shares. The junior is using magnetic susceptibility measurements in subtle alteration zones to identify areas of low-sulphide platinum-group-element mineralization at its Ferguson Lake property in Nunavut. As a result, several new layers of platinum-and-palladium-rich mineralization have been identified in hole 135, which returned 10.18 metres averaging 3.66 grams palladium and 2.44 grams platinum per tonne.

Snowfield Development lost 2 and closed at 11 on 824,000 shares. Snowfield has acquired 102 mineral claims totaling 47 sq. km from Virgin Diamonds in return for $25,000 in cash, 100,000 shares of Snowfield, and a 2% gross overriding production royalty. The claims are in northwestern Quebec.

Vedron Gold closed flat at 10 on 766,000 shares. The junior announced that Toronto-listed Placer Dome has begun follow-up drilling on the Buffalo Ankerite property, on which Vedron holds a net smelter royalty. The Buffalo Ankerite property is near Timmins, Ont., directly south of the Fuller property, where Vedron established a 700,000-oz. gold resource between 1996 and 1998.

Kensington Resources added 11 to close at $1.11 on 764,000 shares. The company has a stake in the Forte la Corne diamond project in Saskatchewan, where drilling is under way.

Island Mountain Gold Mines remained flat at 10 with 746,000 shares changing hands. Trenching along the extension of the Bonanza Ledge statigraphic horizon on the company’s property near Wells, B.C., has uncovered large quartz veins containing pyrite, arsenopyrite and galena. Drilling will begin this fall. Island Mountain is earning a half-interest in the property from International Wayside Gold Mines.