STOCK MARKETS — VSE gets jitters in wake of selloff

Western markets remain nervous in the wake of the sell-off that lopped more than 10% from Vancouver indices in the space of a few days during the first week of June.

Share prices continued their slide through the report period ended June 18, with the Vancouver Stock Exchange resource index dropping almost 30 points to 2,253.40, while the composite index fell 47.07 points to 1,273.64.

Arizona Star Resource provided one of the few bright spots in the market with a stunning $3.21 jump to $6.50.

The company, along with 49% joint-venture partner Bema Gold, reported that the first hole of a deep drilling program on the Aldebaran property in Chile intersected 1,805 ft. (starting at 492 ft.) grading 0.067 oz. gold per ton and 0.69% copper.

The drill hole is part of a 40,000-ft. program designed to test copper-gold mineralization encountered below the drilled-off Cerro Casale oxide gold deposit, which hosts an estimated 104 million tons grading 0.019 oz. gold.

A number of high-flyers did some backtracking over the report period.

Mexican explorer Farallon Resources dipped as low as $12.50 before rebounding to $14.45 for a loss of $1.05 on the week.

Farallon, which touched a high of $20.25 in May, recently started a diamond drilling program on its Campo Morado project in Mexico’s Guerrero state. The initial objective is to drill off the Reforma gold-silver massive sulphide deposit, which is estimated to host at least 3 million tons grading 1.14% copper, 0.14 oz. gold and 7.2 oz. silver.

Summex Mines, which is contesting Farallon’s ownership of the property through a lawsuit, slipped 15 cents to close at $2.55.

Companies falling under Frank Lang’s promotional umbrella all slipped: Valerie Gold Resources, the most prominent of the group, fell $2.80 to $18; Emperor Gold dropped $1 to $4.80; Cream Minerals slid 95 cents to $6.25; and Sultan Minerals dipped 34 cents to $1.86.

Sellers, impatient over the wait for a start to drilling at the Project #44 property in Nain, Labrador, traded NDT Ventures down to $3.50 for a loss of 61 cents. NDT is earning a 51% interest in the Project #44 property from Alberta-listed Takla Star Resources, which slipped 30 cents to close at $7.55.

Residents of Nain have already voted 64% in favor of the proposed drilling program, and NDT expects the town council to give its final approval soon.

The initial drill program will include 15 holes to test two areas containing multiple geophysical conductors correlating with two zones of sulphide mineralization at surface.

Indomin Resources, bucking the downward trend, added $1 to close at $6.65 following reports of the recovery of two macrodiamonds from an infill hole on its 30%-owned Sunda Shelf alluvial diamond project, off the coast of Southeast Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Higher than normal trading volume and the recent price drop in Prime Equities International is reportedly tied to previous share purchases by Murray Pezim.

Pezim was apparently unable to pay for the stock, and his brokers were forced to sell the shares into a dropping market. Prime, which had been trading close to the $5 level at the end of May, edged up 6 cents over the report period to close at $2.46.

Preliminary drill reports from the Okak property in Labrador were not much help to joint-venture partners Castle Rock Exploration and United Compass Resources. Both issues closed down, with Castle Rock off 34 cents at $1.28 and United Compass slipping 40 cents to $1.60.

The joint venture reports that the first three drill holes intersected multiple zones of mineralized pyrrhotite (iron sulphide), and lesser concentrations of pentlandite (nickel iron sulphide) and chalcopyrite (copper iron sulphide) associated with layers of pyroxenite.

Assays are pending and the joint venture plans to move the drill to test another target, in the central part of the claim block.