Laclustre golds take shine off mining sector

Solid strength in the base metal sector, however, pushed the metals and minerals index slightly higher to 3739.89 pts, while the TSE composite index was also higher by 6.67 pts at 3942.05 pts. Retreating precious metal issues helped lead the gold index 39.84 pts lower to 6211.63 pts. Tarnished bullion prices didn’t provide much support for golds either. The second London fix was $366.20(US) per oz, a drop of just over one dollar from last week’s price.

A post-court-decision rally involving the shares of Corona Corp. gave up some ground this week, but Corona A shares continued to see active trading with the close at $8.50 on a volume of more than seven million shares. LAC Minerals was also lower at $11.75 on a volume of nearly a million shares.

The shares of Canada’s largest gold producer, Placer Dome, backed off slightly to close at $18.25, while another super-producer American Barrick remained unchanged at $30.75.

With an underground exploration program under way on its Eagle River property in Ontario’s burgeoning Mishibishu gold camp, Central Crude gained nearly 70 cents to close at $5.63. Hemlo Gold has increased its stake in that company.

Another junior gold player with a promising deposit in British Columbia’s very active Sulphurets area is Newhawk Gold Mines. That Vancouver company’s shares remained unchanged at $4.10 this week. There’s been plenty of action at the nearby property held by Calpine and Consolidated Stikine.

Some strong gold intersections reported this week from High River Gold Mines’ Snow Lake gold project in Manitoba failed to generate much of an increase in that company’s share price. High River was up only 1 cents to $1.60.

Still awaiting a counter-bid from Amax Inc., the shares of Falconbridge Ltd shed 37 cents to close at $38.13. That price is still well above Noranda’s $37 per share bid for all of the Sudbury nickel miner’s shares. Speculators are hoping a Noranda-Amax bidding war will develop driving up Falconbridge’s share price even further. Meanwhile, the share price of another major nickel producer Inco Ltd. was unchanged at $22.88.

Cominco Resources International which this week gained control of a major porphyry copper deposit in Chile, saw its share price gain only 5 cents to close at $3.55.

With drilling under way on its recently acquired Minago nickel deposit in northern Manitoba, Black Hawk Mining moved up to $1.70 this week on moderate volume.

The shares of Aur Resources backed off to $9.63 following news that the company will increase the damages sought in a lawsuit against Societe Miniere Louvem. A preliminary drill-indicated tonnage figure released by Aur this week suggests an 18 million ton deposit grading 2.8% copper and 2.8% zinc exists on the Louvicourt Twp. property. Aur recently amended its legal proceedings against Louvem and St. Genevieve by increasing the damages sought from them to $80 million. St. Genevieve slipped to $1.90, while Louvem moved lower to $5.63.

Boosted by better second-quarter earning, Metall Mining saw active trading in its shares with the close at $13.12. Management attributed its strong showing in the quarter to good performance of investments in Teck Corp., Cominco Ltd., and the Copper Range Co., in Michigan.

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