Montreal Exchange : New-look Massval rises

Wednesday close, Oct 8 A deal to buy into a promising high-grade gold deposit pushed Massval Resources to 45 cents , its highest level in five years, as it traded a hefty 1,399,000 shares before closing at 35 cents .

Two weeks ago the company announced a deal to earn up to a 49% interest in Placer Development’s Eastmain property northeast of Chibougamau, but the significance of the deal took a while to sink in. The Eastmain property already has about 1.2 million tons of reserves grading 0.32 oz gold per ton and Placer pulled some more high-grade holes over respectable widths earlier this year.

Massval is going to consolidate its stock on a 3-for-1 basis and change its name to MSV Resources, then fund the project with $8 million to earn its full interest.

Aiguebelle Resources continued to drop like a stone this week hitting a year low of $1.50 before closing down 44 cents at $1.60 on 109,100 shares. It’s been having trouble getting its Yvan Vezina gold mine to run at its designed capacity.

Aiguebelle says it may be amalgamating with a subsidiary of Cambior Inc., but even that news failed to halt the stock’s slide.

Cambior itself just keeps rolling along moving up $1.75 to a new high of $15.75 on 173,700 shares. Cambior was only listed two months ago, just when the gold price took off.

The proposed deal to amalgamate with Aiguebelle, however, may raise questions about the company’s political mandate. Cambior was formed when the Quebec government spun off the gold assets of the state-owned mining company, Soquem. Cambior promised it would not in any way be an instrument of government policy, but the move to bail out Aiguebelle could be seen as politically motivated in an area of high unemployment.

Gordex, the New Brunswick heap leach pioneer, was off 4 cents to $2.05 on 29,200 shares. The company was using some new technology in its gold recovery process and there are reports that some bugs in the system are giving it troubles.

Explorations Minieres du Nord was up 9 cents to 50 cents on 215,400 shares. It’s heavily involved in the Mattagami Lake area, and Noranda’s recent announcement that it plans to put a new high-grade zinc orebody there into production has given it a good boost. The company has got some good gold values from a 3,000-ft drill program.

Stabell Resources says it will be receiving $4 million from a limited partnership to be used in surface and underground exploration on its Dubuisson property near Val d’Or. It was unchanged at 45 cents on 25,600 shares.

Vassan Resources plans to invest $2 million in its Hummingbird property in Malartic Twp where drilling has returned values as high as 0.69 oz gold per ton over unspecified widths