Montreal Exchange Amer. Reserve bid

Announcment of a takeover bid of its partner in the Paymaster project at Timmins, Ont., helped American Reserve Mining gain 38 this week. American, which closed at $2.10 on a volume of 109,700, has bid $4.50 per share for all of the outstanding common shares of TSE-listed Associated Porcupine Mines. The companies are involved in a deep-drilling exploration program at the northeastern Ontario property.

Dull market activity during the report period saw the ME’s market portfolio drop more than 12 pts, and the mining and minerals index decline more than 29 pts. Daily trading volumes slipped as the week wore on, reaching as low as 3.2 million shares.

Augmitto Explorations, which is hoping to have its Beauchastel gold project in production next year, reported it has entered into an agreement with Forbex Mining Resources to acquire a 51% interest in the Bazooka property lying directly west of the Beauchastel site. Augmitto traded 17,000 shares, falling 2 to $1.

Recently updating probable and possible reserves to 5.6 million tons at the Goldboro gold property in Nova Scotia were Orex Exploration and TSE-listed Onitap Mining Resources. Orex closed unchanged at 95 with 68,500 shares changing hands.

Confirming the presence of gold mineralization at the Courville property northeast of Val d’Or, Que., with its own recent drilling program was Finor Exploration, which closed unchanged at 35 , trading 21,900 shares. Finor is earning a 30% interest in the property from Parquet Resources, which closed unchanged at 12 on a volume of 36,200.

Among the trading leaders this week, with 373,600 shares changing hands, was Wrightbar Mines, which closed unchanged at 23 . Wrightbar is involved with Belmoral Mines in a couple of gold exploration projects. Belmoral slipped 6 to $1.48 on 19,000 shares.