Toronto Stock Exchange (March 30, 1992)

Aber Resources President Grenville Thomas and associates Christopher Jennings and Robert Gannicott set out during the week ended March 24 to prove that diamond exploration is more than just the flavor of the month.

While Aber is looking for diamonds around the Dia Met project in the Northwest Territories, Thomas and company are planning to revive dormant Southernera Resources to continue the search in both northern Canada and South Africa.

Excitement over the Dia Met’s Lac de Gras kimberlite find, where Aber is active, kept Aber just 20 cents below a 52-week high of $1.50. Jennings and his colleagues plan to buy 59% of Southernera, which closed up 20 cents at 50 cents.

While a 200-ton sample from the Dia Met play was en route for testing in Colorado, the Toronto market was being spooked by the debt problems facing real estate and resource conglomerate Olympia and York Developments Ltd. As nervous investors bailed out of bank stocks, the composite 300 index fell 14 points during the report period to 3437.84. However, hints of government assistance to Olympia and York and a stronger Canadian dollar helped pull the market out of a 3-day slump. Today, March 25, the index was up 14.46 points to 3452.30 after 35.1 million shares worth $301 million changed hands. With the exception of a few notables, including Franco-Nevada, it was mostly one-way traffic in the precious metals sector where stocks came under pressure from gold’s recent slide to US$338 per oz. Among the casualties were Cambior and LAC Minerals, which bottomed at $7 and $6.88 respectively. Royalty specialist Franco-Nevada advanced to $24.75 after it and sister Euro-Nevada secured a royalty interest in the Ivanhoe gold mine in Nevada. But today’s London closing of $345.25 couldn’t prevent Franco from sliding 13 cents. Euro-Nevada was unchanged at $15.38. The acquisition was announced just after Galactic Resources tabled plans to sell its 50% Ivanhoe stake to Newmont Mining for $13 million. Newmont is also set to pay Cornucopia Resources $6.7 million for the remaining half interest. Galactic edged up 2 cents to 24 cents.

International Corona emerged among the volume leaders after agreeing to reward Homestake Mining if a rival bidder steps in to buy Corona before July 15. Corona was up 15 cents to $4.85, after trading 3.3 million shares in the report period. Should a rival bidder emerge, Corona would pay Homestake the greater of US$10 million or 10% of the excess of any competing bid exceeding $6.28 for all the common shares.

Placer Dome also made the volume standings after two large blocks — one of 800,000 at $11.50 a share and another of 400,000 shares at $11.62 each — were crossed by Bunting Warburg. Placer Dome was up 25 cents to $11.25. Transpacific Resources, a penny stock specializing in coal processing systems, nudged out Corona as this week’s volume leader after trading almost 3.6 million shares. The issue rallied to 10 cents after Transpac granted Intracan Corp. of Toronto and its Indian partner a licence to use technology developed by Transpac at coal mines in India. But Transpac fell to 5 cents today.

There was good news for shareholders of Saskatchewan uranium miner Cameco, which rallied to a new high of $17 before falling back to $16.88. Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting also peaked at $6.13.

Zinc-lead-coal miner Curragh Resources was active this week after a block of one million shares was crossed by RBC Dominion Securities at $3.05 per share. The second block of 1.6 million was crossed earlier by Sprott Securities at $3.50. Curragh was unchanged at $3.25 today.

Shares of Aur Resources hit a new low of $2 this week as Aur and partners Societe Miniere Louvem and Teck prepared to start sinking two shafts at the Louvicourt Twp. massive sulphide project in Quebec.

Having awarded the contracts to Dynatec Mining and Entrepreneur Miniere Talpac of Val d’Or, Aur expects the exploration shaft to get under way next month. At $2.70, Louvem is also close to its annual low of $2.38. Financing for the $50-million shaft project is in place now that Teck has agreed to earn a 25% interest in the copper-zinc property. However, although Teck’s B shares were among the most active issues this week, they fell to a 52-week low of $16.75. The A shares also bottomed at $16.75. Orofino Resources acquired 2.7 million shares of Nova-Cogesco Resources, thus raising its stake to 2.8 million shares or about 18% of the shares outstanding. Orofino trades at around 6 cents.