STOCK MARKETS — VSE gives up ground as gold price takes

Responding to an inquiry into the Vancouver Stock Exchange by the British Columbia government, the B.C. Securities Commission has proposed amendments to the Securities Act.

The amendments include the hiring of five more people in order to increase enforcement capacity as well as implementing real-time reporting of trades by company insiders.

Insiders currently report trading activity only once a month, while electronic reporting would be filed instantaneously, giving investors a real-time warning in the event insiders are selling their holdings. The VSE and the Securities Commission also plan to hold a series of public hearings over the next three months in order to receive public input. The government inquiry, headed by commissioner James Matkin, is continuing and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, with gold taking a breather in the US$390-395 range and diamond issues generally quiet, the Vancouver Stock Exchange gave up some ground during the week ended July 13.

The resource index dropped more than 61 points to close at 1,367.73 while the composite index closed down 31.89 points at 1,019.03.

San Fernando Mining bucked the general down-trend, hitting a high of $2.93 before closing up 79 cents at $2.91. The company recently completed a private placement of one million shares at $1.25 and is negotiating with American Barrick with respect to San Fernando’s La Fortuna mine project in Mexico. A proposed merger with Toronto-listed Granduc Mines should help Cazador Explorations raise the required capital to bring the Keystone gold project in Manitoba into production. Cazador was halted at $1.02 prior to the announcement, down 18 cents on the week.

Golden News Resources was unable to come up with a reason for the lambasting its share price took over the period. The issue plunged to a low of 91 cents before recovering to $1.47 for a net loss of $1.08. The company recently acquired an option to buy a copper in-situ leach project in Mexico. A fight is brewing between partners Wayside Gold Mines and Antilles Resources over payment of $250,000 to the vendor of the Pacaraima concession in the Kilometre 88 region of Venezuela. Antilles alleges Wayside failed to make its share of the payment by the deadline and that, as a result, Antilles is sole owner of the concession.

Wayside closed down 18 cents at 44 cents while Antilles slipped a penny to close at 99 cents.

The share price of Leicester Diamond Mines took a turn for the worse with the company announcing the temporary shutdown of its Leicester joint venture near Kimberley, South Africa, as a result of repeated breakdowns. The issue dropped 65 cents to close at $1.85.

Two separate groups announced plans to acquire an 80% interest in the Kasperske Hory gold deposit in the Czech Republic. Subsequently, Prime Equities International elected not to proceed with the acquisition, leaving Royalstar Resources and Paramount Ventures and Finance with the right to acquire an 80% interest in the project.

Preliminary studies indicate the project could produce in the order of 140,000 oz. gold per year with operating costs of about US$180 per oz. Drill-indicated and inferred reserves are estimated at more than 10 million tons grading 0.22 oz. gold per ton.

Royalstar closed up 8 cents at $1.31 while Paramount jumped 27 cents to close at 85 cents.

Prime Equities went on to announce it has reached an agreement to acquire the Hasbrouk Mountain gold-silver project in Nevada from Homestake Mining. The project contains an estimated preliminary geological resource of about 10.2 million tons grading 0.038 oz. gold per ton.

Prime managed to hit a new high of $7.25 in our report period before settling back at $6.38 for a net loss of 25 cents.

Diamond Fields Resources plans to raise up to $7.1 million through a private placement of 1.3 million units at $5.50 each. The company plans to use the proceeds to fund further work on its diamond prospects, including its sea diamond concessions in Namibia.

The issue lost 75 cents to close at $6.25.