More issues soar to new heights

The recent spat of record-breaking continued through the Oct. 8-14 report period, with some issues achieving the milestone on significant percentage gains.

Junior Corriente Resources was among the highest percentage gainers, rising 92, or 49% of value, to a new 52-week high of $2.78. Subject to regulatory approval, an unnamed investor will buy 2 million treasury shares at $1.95 apiece. Also, Catherine McLeod-Seltzer has resigned from the company’s board, only to be replaced by shareholder Anthony Holler, who runs ID Biomedical (IDB-T), a biotechnology company that has watched its market capitalization rise by $650 million since Holler took the helm.

Intraday trading saw Canadian Zinc soar past its 52-week high; however, by the period’s end, the issue had reversed course to settle at 74 for a gain of 16 on the week. The roller-coaster ride came on mixed news: the junior has arranged a $2.5-million equity financing and has indirectly become the centre of a lawsuit involving its Prairie Creek volcanogenic massive sulphide project in the Northwest Territories. Regarding the financing, Haywood Securites shall try to place 2.5 million flow-through shares and 2.5 million units at 50 each. A unit consists of a share and half a warrant, with two full warrants being exchangable for one share, inside of 18 months of the deal’s closing, at 60. At Prairie Creek, First Nations groups are seeking to have the company’s water permit revoked on grounds they were not adequately consulted during the review process; nor were recommendations by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review board and the Ministry of Indian Affairs and Northern Development incorporated by the approving panel.

Two other junior issues showing notable gains were Southwestern Resources and Jaguar Nickel, which rose $3.67 to $23.92 and 24 to $1.29, respectively. A recent private placement by Newmont Mining is behind Southwestern’s renewed momentum, whereas the latter is banking on nickel laterite in Guatemala, having just begun a 250-hole drill program to bump up and expand known resources.

Producers also made significant strides over the period, particularly Ivanhoe Mines, which jumped $2.75, or 31% of value, to a new annual high of $11.49. The company announced more stellar results from its Turquoise Hill copper-gold project in Mongolia, with three holes cutting as much as 244 metres grading 2.88% copper and 1.13 grams gold per tonne. The holes were collared in the northern extension of the Hugo deposit (formerly the Far North zone), and each pulled up gold-rich bornite mineralization in quartz-veining.

Breakwater Resources also raised the bar, though it was unable to hold on and, by period’s end, had slipped to 66. The gain, which brings the issue’s rise in the past two periods to 26, came on no news. The producer last reported to the market in early August, when it announced a five-fold increase in second-quarter earnings.