MINING MARKETS AND INVESTMENT NEWS — Western markets — Western markets slide into dog days of summer

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index dropped 8.53 points to close at 511.51 over the report period ended July 21. Cowering in the claws of a bearish market, the mining index shed 10.85 points to close at 365.61.

Meanwhile, the combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange dropped 26.01 points to close at 2069.23.

Enthusiasm for Winspear Resources’ Snap Lake project in the Northwest Territories is still pushing the company’s stock onto the VSE’s most-active list. Winspear’s issue rose 29cents, closing at $1.54. In related news, Winspear has begun its summer exploration program on the Carat property, which adjoins the BHP-Dia Met Minerals claim block. Winspear can earn a 60% interest in Carat from Toronto-listed Tyler Resources. The company has budgeted $540,000 for exploration, which will consist chiefly of detailed till sampling.

Donner Minerals released a drilling update on the first phase of exploration at its South Voisey’s Bay project. To date, about one-third of the 22,500-metre drilling program has been completed. No significant massive sulphides have been intersected. Donner’s issue dropped 20cents to close at 89cents. Nor did the company’s partners there fare well. Alberta-listed Northern Abitibi Mining lost 14cents to close at 34cents; Major General Resources dropped 4cents to 36cents; NDT Ventures slipped 2cents to 20cents; and Cypress Minerals lost 6cents, closing at 25cents. Latitude Minerals secured group bragging rights for the week by picking up a penny to close at 45cents.

Auspex Minerals and joint-venture partner International Vestor Resources released initial drill results for a surface program at their Feitais polymetallic deposit in Aljustrel, Portugal. Highlights include: hole FS 600A which hit 103.7 metres grading 0.94% copper, 0.87% lead, 3.25% zinc, as well as 37.3 grams silver and 0.71 gram gold per tonne at a depth of 350.2 metres. Included within this interval were numerous intercepts of higher grade zones. The partners have budgeted $1.8 million for exploration, which will involve 6,000 metres of surface drilling, metallurgical testing, environmental data collection and engineering evaluations. Auspex gained 4cents to close at 3cents, whereas International Vestor was up 5cents at 56cents.

Alberta-listed Savana Resources announced the discovery of a series of gold anomalies trending north-south for about 20 km on its Brokopondo property in Suriname. The anomalies were identified through a regional stream-sediment sampling program. The strongest zone measures 8 sq. km, with individual samples grading as high as 25,000 part per billion (ppb) gold. Background levels are about 19 ppb. The company is gearing up for detailed surveys to better define the anomalous zones. Savanna gained a penny in heavy trading to close the week at 8cents.