Montreal Exchange Market moves ahead

A second consecutive holiday- shortened trading week seems to have been to the liking of investors on the ME, where the market portfolio and mining and minerals index recorded gains of about 18 pts and 22 pts, respectively. Trading was light-to-moderate (between 4.7 million shares to 5.9 million shares), except on the American July 4 holiday when the day’s volume dipped to 2.5 million shares.

Two companies with gold mines in northwestern Quebec, D’Or Val Mines and Perron Gold Mines, have announced that approval has been given by the respective boards of directors for an amalgamation into a new yet-to-be-named corporate entity. Shareholders of the two Hughes-Lang companies will vote Aug. 4 on the amalgamation plan. D’Or Val closed unchanged at 62 cents on 3,600 shares, while Perron slipped 2 cents to 72 cents on a volume of 15,200.

Volume leader on the week, at 968,200 shares, was Falconbridge Ltd., which intends to buy back a 24.7% stake currently held (directly and indirectly) in the nickel company by Placer Dome. Cost to Falconbridge, which gained $1.38 to $27.88, will be about $960 million. Placer Dome traded 226,200 shares, moving up 13 cents to $16.63.

Normetal Mining Exploration, which traded 4,000 shares and lost 2 cents to 33 cents , reports completion of a 6-hole drill program on its Bassignac property in Destor Twp. Normetal’s sister company, La Sarre Mining Exploration, says it has an option to acquire 30% of the shares of Solbec Mining Exploration, which is in the process of increasing its shareholding in Poirier Mining Exploration, whose main asset is a former producing copper- zinc mine in Poirier and Joutel twps. in northwestern Quebec. La Sarre dropped 5 cents to 12 cents with 3,600 shares changing hands.

Encouraging drilling results have been reported by Denn’or Exploration from the East Sullivan property in Bourlamaque Twp., where probable and possible reserves to date stand at 522,193 tons grading 0.16 oz gold per ton. Trading 2,000 shares, Denn’or gained 3 cents to 25 cents .

Moving along in its 2-to-3-year deep-drilling program on property in the Kirkland Lake, Ont., area, next to the old Kerr Addison gold mine, is Armistice Resources, which fell 3 cents to 87 cents on a volume of 24,700. (Armi stice rights traded 282,700 on the week.) An existing shaft, rehabilitated to 1,250 ft, is being extended, with plans calling for the shaft to eventually reach 4,100 ft. Underground drilling is in progress.