STOCK MARKETS — Foreign plays add heat to VSE

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index was up 12.4 points, or 0.99%, over the report period ended Feb 25, to close at 1,263.05. The resource index gained 46.17 points, or 1.98%, finishing at 2,381.2.

The combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange rose 49.8 points, or 1.79%, to 2,835.8.

Alberta-listed Gitennes Exploration closed at $6.95, up $1.20. The company is in the midst of a 2,000-metre drill program at its Virgen gold property in northern Peru. The first two holes intersected the targeted breccia zone.

Current drilling is being carried out near a gold soil anomaly, where surface sampling yielded 20 metres of 19 grams gold per tonne. Sampling at the nearby Main breccia zone returned 2.9 grams over 130 metres.

A second phase of diamond drilling on the Dolores project in Mexico’s Chihuahua state continues to confirm the continuity and grade of gold mineralization over a 500-metre-long section of the Main zone, within the much-larger Chabacan target. Minefinders reports that the best intercept graded 2.06 grams gold and 32.2 grams silver over 96 metres, including 36 metres grading 5.14 grams gold and 111.5 grams silver. Minefinders is exploring Dolores as part of an arrangement with Toronto-listed Echo Bay Mines, pursuant to which the latter can earn a 60% interest. Minefinders closed up $1.40 at $4.70.

Northern Crown Mines was up 11 cents to $1.33 after releasing assay results for the first 22 holes of 46 reverse-circulation (RC) holes drilled during the past month at the Guadalupe project in Mexico’s Sinaloa state. Results included 28.68 grams gold and 53 grams silver over 6.1 metres in the Zapote zone, and 38.7 metres grading 2.31 grams gold and 78.4 grams silver in the Guadalupe zone.

An airborne geophysical survey over the Norgiant project area, 150 km east-northeast of Val D’Or, Que., has confirmed multiple electromagnetic (EM) anomalies, which display strong conductivity throughout the 240-sq.-km area.

The EM conductors appear to flank a non-conductive banded iron formation.

Gold Giant Minerals closed up 15 cents at 67 cents, while partner Norcal Resources tacked on 16 cents at 79 cents.

Recent RC drilling at East Africa Gold’s Kitongo gold prospect in Tanzania has confirmed a 20-to-45-metre-thick mineralized zone over a minimum length of 400 metres, around the Kitongo anticline structure. Results included 43 metres of 4.2 grams gold. East Africa traded as high as 82 cents before pulling back to 46 cents, a gain of 8 cents.

Drilling of a previously untested geophysical conductor on the Lynn Lake property in Manitoba by Consolidated Callinan Flin Flon Mines has returned a 10.46-metre intercept averaging 0.19 oz. gold, 0.61 oz. silver, 0.5% copper and 0.17% zinc. Consolidated Callinan was up 42 cents to $1.45.

Alberta-listed Mid-North Resources, which holds a back-in right to a 25% interest, closed at 83 cents, up 13 cents.

A first phase of drilling, comprising 36 RC holes, has begun at First Quantum Minerals’ Bwana M’kubwa project in Zambia’s copper belt. The drilling is targeting the on-strike extensions of the former-producing open-pit copper mine. The issue was relatively unchanged at $3.19, up 3 cents.

Partners Consolidated Trilogy Ventures and US Diamond both finished down after releasing final gold assays for the first drill hole into the Condor project in Chile. Results from the 632-metre-long hole included 33 metres grading 0.59 gram. Consolidated Trilogy was down 21 cents to 90 cents, while US Diamond lost 20 cents at 75 cents.