MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — WESTERN MARKETS — Valerie among juniors to shine on VSE

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index edged up 0.73 of a point, or 0.2%, to close at 406.79 for the report period ended Sept. 21. The mining index tumbled 3.63 points, or 1.3%, to finish the week at 271.22.

Meanwhile, the combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange continued its bullish charge, tacking on 61.34 points, or 2.25%, to close at 2793.33.

Valerie Gold jumped 15 cents to close the week at 81 cents. The market is hot on the company’s recently acquired low-grade gold-copper Santa Barbara property in Ecuador. The property was optioned from Toronto-listed-TVX-Normandy.

Altoro Gold added 3 cents to its value and closed at 30 cents. A phase-1 exploration program has begun on the company’s Pedra Branca platinum-palladium project, 250 km southwest of the port city of Fortaleza, Brazil. The first phase will include trenching and channel sampling of known platinum group metal-bearing chromitite and serpentinite outcrops.

Internationoal Jaguar Equities closed at 15 cents, up 6 cents. The company has initiated a drill program on a low-grade copper-silver porphyry target in the Taseko Lakes region of British Columbia.

Starcore Resources closed at 29 cents, up 4 cents. The company has completed six additional drill holes on its Samuels Lake platinum-palladium property in northern Ontario. The holes were designed to test the main ultramafic intrusion, where a down-hole electromagnetic survey identified the presence of a large conductive body. Assays are pending. Joint-venture partner ProAm Explorations tacked on 3 cents to close at 29 cents.

Chapleau Resources rose 7 cents to close at $1.27. The company has recently completed a 6-hole drill program on the Car property near Cranbrook, B.C. Assays are pending. Chapleau also intends to drill a minimum of two holes on its Cruz property, also near Cranbrook, to test lead-zinc soil anomalies.

Pan Asia Mining closed at 25 cents, up 3 cents on high volumes of trading. (The company has not reported any recent material changes.)

Alberta-listed Oro Nevada Resources jumped 30 cents to close at $1.30. The company has decided to get into the high-tech industry by investing in a company that develops and markets data warehousing technology. Oro Nevada will change its name to Martlet Venture Management.

Great Basin Gold closed at $2.20, up 12 cents. The company is in the midst of a 50,000-ft. drill program on its wholly owned Ivanhoe property in Nevada’s Carlin trend.