Pangea jumps on Barrick Gold offer

On the back of stronger tech stocks, the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index climbed 135.9 points, or 1.3%, during the June 28-July 4 report period. The broad market ended the holiday-shortened week at 10,301.41.

Also up was the gold and precious metals sub-index, which rose 83.86 points to 4,458.36. Gold traded a London morning fix of US$287.70 per oz. on July 5, a gain of $1.35 over the week. Along for the ride were Barrick Gold, up 70 to $26.75, and Placer Dome, up 20 to $13.95. Kinross Gold remained unchanged at $1.32.

Pangea Goldfields took top spot as the most actively traded issue, with 6.7 million shares, worth $45.7 million, crossing the floor. The junior announced it had become the target of a friendly $204-million takeover bid by Barrick, with which it shares the promising Golden Ridge project in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria Gold Fields district. Pangea rose $2.25 to $6.85, just 15 shy of Barrick’s bidding price.

Also up on the takeover news was Tiomin Resources, which shares management with Pangea. The junior has four heavy mineral sands projects in Kenya, in each of which Pangea owns a 20% net profits royalty. Tiomin closed up 35 at 90.

The TSE’s metals and minerals sub-group rose 2.47 points to 3,383.73. Base metals were generally quiet, except for nickel, which rose 9 to US$3.72 per lb. on the London Metal Exchange. In step with nickel’s climb, Falconbridge rose 5 to $19.05, whereas Inco slipped 30 to $23.30. Sherritt International remained unmoved at $4.60.

With copper down a penny at US80 per lb., producer Rio Algom slipped 10 to $17.40. Likewise, zinc producer Cominco dropped 35 to $20.05 as zinc prices fell 1 to US51 per lb. on the morning of July 5.

Juniors Miramar Mining and Cambiex Exploration both benefited from the flurry of investor attention being paid to the Hope Bay gold project in Nunavut. The companies share ownership of the project, which already hosts an estimated 4.3 million oz. gold (in 12.8 million tonnes). Under way is an aggressive drill program, which has produced numerous multi-ounce gold intercepts. The latest include 6.7 oz. gold over a true width of 9.8 ft. and 6.5 oz. gold over a true width of 4.6 ft. Miramar gained 24 to settle at $1.24 over the report period. Cambiex didn’t fare as well; it was ahead only a penny to sit at 43.

Going the other way was Tahera, a diamond company active in Canada’s North, which lost 2 to reach 14. The junior hasn’t been able to benefit from strong interest in northern diamonds as much as its competitors, in part because of the large number of shares outstanding (169.2 million at the end of 1999), which have made it difficult to raise financing. Nonetheless, the company continues to advance its Jericho project.