Tahera stock churns as Jericho project approved

The week of June 9-15 saw a lot of trading, with the 10 most-active companies all trading over 7 million shares. The spot price for gold in the afternoon on June 15 in London closed at US$386.50, down US$5.85 from a week previously.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up on June 15 by 97.93 points for the day, however for the week it closed down by 21.76 points, at 8,390.24 points. The TSX gold index closed down 5.54 points to finish the day at 192.72 points. The diversified metals and mining index closed at 217.04, up 2.88% for the day on June 15, but down 3.16 points over last week’s close.

Diamond junior Tahera Mining led the way in trading volume but closed down 4 at 36 on a volume of 32 million shares. The company’s proposed Jericho diamond mine in the Northwest Territories has received development approval and the company has penned an exploration and development agreement with De Beers to explore for other deposits in the vicinity of the Jericho pipe.

Guyana Goldfields released more drill results indicating high gold values at shallow depth on its Aurora property in Guyana. One hole cut an impressive 46.5 metres of 5.82 grams gold per tonne from surface. The issue closed up 5 to $1.55 as 8.4 million shares changed hands.

Metallica Resources closed up 11.3%, or 13, to $1.28 with a volume of 7.8 million shares traded. The shares recovered after plunging last week following an announcement that the company was denied an explosives operating permit for its Cerro San Pedro project in Mexico.

Ashton Mining of Canada traded 728,000 shares and saw its value jump 14.2%, or 20, to $1.60 as it reported encouraging results from a 5.11-tonne mini-bulk sample collected from the Renard 3 kimberlite in Quebec. The sample graded 1.53 carats per tonne and the largest diamond weighed 1.82 carats.

Arctic gold miner Miramar Mining pulled out of its steady slide by period’s end, but the shares still lost 20, or 18%, to settle at $1.35. The company has announced that it will close its Giant mine in Yellowknife in mid-July, about six months ahead of schedule.

Shares in Tiomin and Adastra Minerals (formerly America Mineral Fields) both received a shot in the arm on the period’s final day. Tiomin gained 2.5 to 39.5 after it privately placed 12 million units at 35 a piece for proceeds of $4.2 million. The money will go toward advancing its Kwale titanium project in Kenya. Production is slated for 2006. Adastra secured title for the Kolwezi copper-cobalt tailings project in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the Ministry of Mines. The company has also paid the first US$5 million payment to state-owned Gcamines; another US$10 million is due once the project is fully funded and a positive production decision is reached. The late recovery wasn’t enough to keep the shares from falling 5 to $1.55. Adastra’s payment comes in the wake of a recent failed coup attempt in the DRC.