Montreal Exchange Market gains

Trading activity related to resource issues turned positive for the week ended March 6, with the mining and mineral index gaining 93.5 points. The general market portfolio index also shone, closing with a gain of 45.4 points. Daily trading volumes ranged between 5.4 million and 9.2 million shares. Disappointing news was received from the three partners drilling the Douay property in Quebec’s Casa Berardi region, with the latest results (four new holes) failing to match those from the first three holes. Operator Inco traded 336,300 shares and jumped $2.75 to $30.63, Societe d’Exploration Miniere Vior slipped 38 cents to $1.59 on more than 1.8 million shares, and Cambior dropped 38 cents to $16.75 on 123,400 shares.

Cache Explorations and Parquet Resources reported encouraging drilling results from a newly discovered zone on their Courville gold property northeast of Val d’Or, Que. Trading 28,900 shares, Cache fell 9 cents to 74 cents, while Parquet closed unchanged at 20 cents with 42,500 shares changing hands. Parquet also announced it has entered into an option agreement with Noranda Exploration covering Parquet’s copper-silver-zinc property in Duparquet Twp., north of Rouyn- Noranda, Que. Noranda may earn a 50% interest in the property. Noranda Exploration is a unit of Noranda, which gained 75 cents to $21.88 on 199,700 shares.

The four partners involved in the Fontana gold project in Quebec’s Duverny Twp. announced an exciting intersection: 45.3 ft. of 0.48 oz. gold per ton. One of the partners, Jilbey Industries, moved up 10 cents to 50 cents on 149,500 shares, while another project partner, St. Genevieve Resources, gained 25 cents to $1.45 on 89,700 shares.

In the Harker-Holloway area of northeastern Ontario, Noranda Exploration, Freewest Resources and Newmont Mining reported favorable results from 11 additional holes drilled to test the Lightning gold zone on the contiguous Holloway and Teddy Bear properties. Trading 592,000 shares, Freewest jumped 60 cents to $3.20.

Elsewhere in northeastern Ontario, Armistice Resources is making plans to extract a 10,000-ton bulk sample from the Sheldon 185N zone of the company’s Virginiatown gold property. Access to the zone will be gained through a crosscut from the 2,050-ft. level. Armistice closed unchanged at 31 cents on 342,200 shares.