STOCK MARKETS — Yellow metal offers little direction

Both the Vancouver Stock Exchange resource and composite indexes drifted sideways over the week ended May 3.

The composite index edged down 4.56 points to 1,075.52 while the resource index managed a 2.58-point gain to 1,709.21.

Gold offered little direction to the market, finishing little-changed at the US$375-per-oz. level.

Golden Unicorn Mining took the top trading spot once again, with more than 3.8 million shares changing hands.

Sellers outnumbered buyers, however, driving the issue down 64 cents to 80 cents.

The company has not offered any further details on Cee Gee Mine’s Wildhorse property in the Fort Steele mining division of southeastern British Columbia, so rumors of a diamond find there remain unsubstantiated.

Golden Unicorn, which can acquire a 51% interest in Cee Gee, has nevertheless hired a security company to carry out a 24-hour surveillance on the property. Whether this is simply theatrics remains to be seen. Whatever the case, the market action is giving short-sellers something to smile about. For the week ended April 29, the short position in the company jumped 118,261 shares to 384,976.

The market took notice of drill results from La Fortuna, a gold-silver-copper project in Mexico, pushing San Fernando Mining up $1.75 to $7. The company released final assays on its recent stepout drilling, including 66.9 ft. grading 0.21 oz. gold per ton (up from the initial estimate of 0.12 oz.) and 87.9 ft. grading 0.14 oz. gold (up from 0.12 oz.).

San Fernando has also developed a close relationship with Ace Developments, which is pursuing the acquisition of a high-grade polymetallic prospect in Peru and a precious metals project in Surinam.

Ace finished off 2 cents at 93 cents.

El Condor Resources slipped 38 cents to $5.75 and St. Philips Resources lost 25 cents to close at $2.40 amid a waiting game for the results of Pegasus’ due diligence on the South Kemess gold-copper project in British Columbia. Pegasus expects to complete the study by the May 31 deadline, at which point it will decide if it will proceed with the previously announced takeover offer for all the shares of El Condor at $7.50 each.

St. Philips, which owns a 40% interest in South Kemess, was not included in the takeover.

An independent engineering report, which estimates the Nova mine in Slovakia contains a 95,000-oz. gold-equivalent reserve, helped Kingston Resources add 6 cents to 75 cents.

Kingston can earn a minimum 50% interest in the underground mine, and work over the past two months has outlined an additional 500 ft. of mineralized strike length on the mine’s main vein.

Delta Gold Mining lost ground, finishing off 63 cents at $4.75. The company, along with joint-venture partner Marcopper Mining, is applying for the right to explore and develop three properties in the Southeast Mindanao gold belt in the Philippines.

Partners War Eagle Mining and Great Western Gold both traded down after releasing further results from their Saskatchewan property.

The best count returned 4 macros in a 143-lb. sample from Pipe 29. Although the joint venture admitted the results are relatively low when compared with some of the numbers released from projects in the Northwest Territories, they note that easier access to the property could make a significant difference to project economics.

Shareholders weren’t so sure, however, with 63 cents being knocked off War Eagle at $5.25 and 88 cents being knocked off Great Western at $5.13. Alberta-listed Takla Star Resources did well, jumping 40 cents to close at $1.80.

The company recently sold an additional 12.5% interest in its Edmonton and Ram River blocks in Alberta to Montreal-listed Fairstar Explorations. The price: $350,000 and 100,000 shares.

Fairstar now holds a 25% interest in Takla’s Christina, Edmonton, Ram River, Pincher and Legend blocks, which total 4 million acres of Alberta metallic mineral permits.