Toronto Stock Exchange April 6-12

The TSX composite index finished the April 6-12 period lower, if only slightly. The index was off roughly 50 points, closing out the period at 12,148.66 owing to lower oil prices.

Copper and zinc prices were also softer for the period while aluminum, nickel and tin all made modest gains. The net result was a lower Capped Metals & Mining index, with the group of diversified miners falling by 6 points to 1,150.01.

Gold, however, performed well as it was up roughly US$25 to US$1,158. That movement lifted the Global Gold index by 5 points and it finished the period at 334.98.

Crowflight Minerals gained 31% over the period on news that China’s Jinchuan Group is offering $150 million in cash to acquire the junior nickel miner. Jinchuan is China’s largest producer of nickel, cobalt and platinum, and it wants to secure Crowflight’s Bucko Lake nickel mine in Manitoba. The offer values Crowflight at 26¢ a share — a 57% premium to the company’s 20-day volume-weighted average trading price before the offer was made.

Staying with nickel, Hard Creek Nickel enjoyed a solid period as the company’s shares rose 55% to finish at 59¢. The gains came on the release of an updated preliminary assessment study on its Turnagain nickel project in B.C. The study recommends an open-pit mine milling 87,000 tonnes per day and puts the net present value of the project at US$715 million using a 8% discount rate. The project would produce an average of 35,000 tonnes of payable nickel metal per year at a cost of US$3.30 per lb.

Katanga Mining also made significant gains over the period, although the company was at a lost to explain them. The miner with significant copper assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had faced serious economic stress after the financial meltdown of 2008, but investors seem to be coming back to the stock as of late. While the company made an official release on April 12 stating it was not aware of any material reasons for the stocks gain -it was up 28% to $1.15 for the period -the company did release a technical report at the beginning of the month. That report outlined an increase in production capacity to 150,000 tonnes of copper by end of the second quarter in 2011.

Centerra Mining, however, didn’t fare so well. The gold miner with its flagship gold mine, Kumtor, in Kyrgyzstan, saw its shares fall by 16% to $11.15 for the period after protestors and opposition leaders overthrew incumbent president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. While Centerra said that operations at Kumtor were continuing as normal, the market sell off could well have been tied to the appearance that the new leaders will have stronger ties with Russia. Centerra had recently completed an agreement with Bakiyev’s government, which gave the state a 33% interest in the mine.

TSX most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Crowflight Mnl	CML	39414	0.25	0.17	0.21	+ 0.05
Eastern Platin	ELR	30110	1.72	1.57	1.59	-0.01
Mercator Mnls	ML	26146	2.57	2.10	2.44	+ 0.18
Western C Coal	WTN	24564	6.38	5.58	6.28	-0.10
First Metals	FMA	22020	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.00
Cline Mng	CMK	21098	2.27	1.65	2.05	+ 0.21
Eldorado Gold	ELD	20564	14.56	12.50	14.06	+ 1.42
Equinox Minls	EQN	19950	4.47	4.02	4.37	+ 0.24
New Gold	NGD	17033	5.30	4.72	5.16	+ 0.36
Yamana Gold	YRI	16132	10.77	10.24	10.48	+ 0.19

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Homeland Enrgy	HEG	12126	0.12	0.07	0.10	+ 66.6
Hard Creek Ni	HNC	1662	0.65	0.37	0.59	+ 55.2
Avnel Gold	AVK	655	0.29	0.20	0.28	+ 47.3
Freegold Vent	ITF	556	0.14	0.09	0.14	+ 40.0
Erdene Res Dev	ERD	3403	0.66	0.40	0.56	+ 36.5
INV Metals	INV	5222	1.03	0.70	1.02	+ 36.0
Linear Metals	LRM	819	0.20	0.14	0.19	+ 35.7
Crowflight Mnl	CML	39414	0.25	0.17	0.21	+ 31.2
Katanga Mng	KAT	8923	1.17	0.84	1.15	+ 27.7
Golden Queen	GQM	736	1.35	0.95	1.25	+ 27.5
Talon Metals	TLO	149	0.35	0.30	0.30	-25.0
Genco Res	GGC	1366	0.41	0.30	0.34	-20.9
Crystallex Int	KRY	1986	0.49	0.37	0.38	-20.8
Crescent Gold	CRA	73	0.17	0.14	0.14	-17.6
Centerra Gold	CG	8806	13.70	10.00	11.15	-16.4
Acadian Mng	ADA	1320	0.08	0.07	0.08	-11.1
Petaquilla Mnl	PTQ	5032	0.54	0.46	0.49	-10.9
Baffinland Irn	BIM	8788	0.75	0.66	0.66	-10.8
Mediterrn Res	MNR	1005	0.11	0.09	0.09	-10.0
Pac Rim Mining	PMU	366	0.22	0.19	0.19	-9.5

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
IShCOMEXGTr	IGT	11700	113.55	+ 2.69
Seabridge Gold	SEA	254214	28.31	+ 2.54
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	4415364	60.58	+ 2.21
Royal Gold	RGL	39351	51.69	+ 1.55
CentralGold-T	GTU_U	11527	46.80	+ 1.42
Eldorado Gold	ELD	20563898	14.06	+ 1.42
Boliden AB	BLS	10037	15.60	+ 1.39
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	2859223	18.75	+ 1.38
Goldcorp	G	12378119	40.18	+ 1.31
Barrick Gold	ABX	14805683	40.90	+ 1.20
First Quantum	FM	2296831	82.75	-3.82
Agrium	AGU	2911687	68.48	-2.92
Inmet Mining	IMN	1377217	59.15	-2.25
Centerra Gold	CG	8805982	11.15	-2.20
PotashCpSask	POT	4845562	114.46	-1.64
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	238864	52.14	-0.96
Harry Winston	HW	812470	10.18	-0.91
Teck B	TCKB	11758791	45.44	-0.76
Labdr Iron Mns	LIM	1722199	6.85	-0.67
Virginia Mines	VGQ	444458	7.43	-0.65