Montreal Exchange (August 19, 1991)

Mixed trading marked the week ended Aug. 13, with the market portfolio gaining 2.7 points and the mining and minerals index dropping by 18.6 points. Daily volumes, weakest during the middle of the report period, ranged between 2.5 million and 6.6 million shares.

The ME reported that for July, the dollar value traded in equities amounted to $1.2 billion, off slightly from June but up from July of last year. The market portfolio rose by 2.2% in June and the mining and minerals index also showed a gain for the month.

Large gold producer Placer Dome, among the week’s volume leaders, was down by 13 cents to $14.63 on a volume of 244,300. The company reported increased gold production for the first six months of 1991 but a drop in earnings for the same period.

From the Rouyn-Noranda, Que., area, Globex Mining reported signing an option agreement with Noranda Exploration, a unit of Noranda, whereby the latter may earn up to a 70% interest in the former’s Lyndhurst mine project (containing an old copper producer). Trading 300 shares, Globex closed at 31 cents. Noranda slipped by 50 cents to $19 on 78,800 shares.

A new calculation of chromium reserves at the Reed-Belanger property south of Thetford Mines, Que., where an exploration program last winter outlined a zone 550 metres in length, was announced by Canchrome Mines. Total reserves (probable and possible) now stand at 5.5 million tonnes grading 6.6% Cr2O3. Canchrome, trading 19,000 shares, slipped a penny to 67 cents.