Toronto Stock Exchange (April 06, 1992)

Taking their cue from Teck (TSE) and its chairman, Norman Keevil, investors moved into the market during the week ended March 31 to buy up shares of Aur Resources.

Teck has shown confidence in Aur by agreeing to spend $55 million on the Louvicourt Twp. base metal project in Quebec in return for a 25% project interest. Keevil recently bought 10,000 shares for his own account at $2.50 each. Having decided that what is good enough for Teck and Keevil is good enough for them, investors exchanged 1.7 million shares of Aur, driving the issue up to $2.38 from a low of $1.88.

Aur perked up on what was otherwise a disappointing week for base metals issues and the market in general. Spooked by statistics indicating that the economy isn’t picking up as quickly as many had hoped, the market continued to mark time today, April 1, after taking a big fall earlier in the week. The composite 300 index was down 0.27 points to 4311.87 after 23.2 million shares, valued at $218 million, changed hands.

The market was clearly influenced by falling base metals stocks, which sent the metals and minerals index sliding down 88 points during the report period. Hardest hit was Inco, which is celebrating 90 years in the nickel mining business. Inco remained at $33.50 after giving up $1.38 throughout the week. Cominco and Noranda were also unchanged at $19.88 and $17, respectively. Breakwater Resources, this week’s volume leader, seems to be benefiting from growing confidence in the Vancouver company’s ability to restructure its heavy debt load. Trading more than 2.5 million shares, Breakwater advanced to 66 cents before slipping back to 63 cents. Arimetco International Chairman Roy Shipes says he will spend some of the $25 million raised through a new stock issue by Arimetco, to do a feasibility study at Breakwater’s mothballed Caribou zinc mine in New Brunswick.

Pending the outcome of the debt restructuring, Shipes has agreed to manage Breakwater while attempting to build Arimetco into major player in the copper market, which, according to First Marathon Securities analyst John Lydall, remains the one very bright spot in an otherwise bleak metals markets. Although active, Arimetco was was off slightly today, falling 10 cents to $4.90.

Gold issues fared better this week as the yellow metal rose US$3 per oz. to US$344 in London. Buoyed by buying in the Middle East and Europe, platinum also posted a US$6.75 increase before closing at US$360.25 per oz. Among the best performers in the gold sector were American Barrick Resources and Pegasus Gold. Barrick built on its performance by adding 25 cents today, while Pegasus remained even at $14.63. LAC Minerals, the most active issue among major gold stocks, was also stalled at $7.25. Placer Dome was down 13 cents despite a recommendation from Midland Walwyn analyst Michael Jalonen. “We believe the potential of five million oz. of geological reserves at the Pipeline deposit (at the 60%-owned Cortez mine in Nevada) is not fully reflected in Placer’s share price,” he said.

In other news, Joutel Resources made the active list as Aur Resources tabled results from six holes drilled near the old Joutel copper mine in Quebec. While zinc values in a massive sulphide zone are uneconomic, Aur is expected to continue drilling within a shallow dipping horizon this summer. Joutel was unchanged at 11 cents on a volume of 30,200.

Zinc-lead miner Curragh Resources was active amid speculation that the federal government will agree to guarantee at least half of the amount Curragh needs to develop a new ore zone at its Faro mine in the Yukon. Government sources have indicated that if Curragh wants the guarantees, it will have to put its request in writing. But as Faro is central to the Yukon economy, the betting is that Curragh will get what it wants. At $3, Curragh is trading close to a 52-week low of $2.75.

Cornucopia Resources agreed to sell half of its 50% interest in the Ivanhoe property at Carlin, Nev., to gold miner Newmont Mining for US$6.7 million. As a result, Newmont will own 75% of Ivanhoe with Cornucopia holding the remaining 25%. Cornucopia was down 7 cents to 65 cents.