Toronto Stock Exchange -December 1-7

The S&P/TSX composite index managed to etch out a 42-point gain to finish the Dec. 1-7 period at 11,489 points. But much of the gains came early in the period when gold was touching new highs and the material sector overall looked strong.

Things changed as time progressed, however, as worries over crippling government debt in Greece led investors back to the U.S. dollar, sending gold prices lower. On the more positive side for investors, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney announced that the Bank would keep borrowing costs at the historically low rate of 0.25% and said he didn’t anticipate raising rates until the middle of next year.

Gold was unable to hold onto gains made earlier in the period, losing US$23 to end the week at US$1,142.50 per oz. The Global Gold index followed the metal price down as it finished 9 points lower at 356.

The diversified miners didn’t fare much better, finishing the period off 20 points at 958 as the price of copper, nickel and lead all fell. The price of aluminum was up marginally to US95¢ per lb., while tin and zinc prices were flat.

It was a good period for International Royalty shares, as a $640-million cash offer from gold-royalty company Franco-Nevada sent its shares up 53% to $7.06. As is generally the case with takeover bids, Franco-Nevada shares didn’t fare as well, falling roughly 10% to $25.86. The deal values International Royalty’s shares at $6.75 apiece — a 54% premium to the company’s 20-day volume-weighted price.

While currently International Royalty’s revenues come from nickel royalties, the company has a 0.473%-3.15% sliding scale royalty on Barrick Gold’s 18-million-oz. Pascua Lama gold project.

Crew Gold’s shares weren’t so fortunate. The company saw its share price fall by almost 40% to 16¢ after announcing it had to issue roughly 2 billion shares to a loan trustee to deal with its large debt. The debt restructuring leaves the company with a total of 2.14 billion shares outstanding and roughly $108 million in long-term debt.

Almaden Minerals’ recent financing was better received. The company announced it will raise $2.6 million via a private placement. The equity issue will give the company $13.5 million in cash that it plans to put to work at exploration projects in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Almaden shares were up 47% to $1.15 for the period.

San Anton Resources had to watch its share price dip steadily over the period after announcing a scoping update at its Cerro Del Gallo project in Mexico. The company said a pit optimization study for the project identified 51 million tonnes of in-pit resources with an average grade of 0.69 gram gold and 14.8 grams silver for 1.54 million gold-equivalent oz.

TSX most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Eastern Platin	ELR	42572	1.05	0.87	0.88	-0.05
B2Gold	BTO	40151	1.46	1.22	1.30	+ 0.08
Barrick Gold	ABX	37715	50.53	43.20	44.63	-0.23
KinrossGold	K	29785	23.47	20.82	21.02	0.00
Yamana Gold	YRI	27212	15.00	12.88	13.21	-0.78
Eldorado Gold	ELD	27187	15.50	13.47	13.83	-0.22
HoriznsGBear	HGD	25158	4.25	3.41	4.13	+0.13
Victory Nickel	NI	23952	0.23	0.17	0.20	+ 0.01
New Gold	NGD	22662	4.39	3.80	3.81	+ 0.11
HoriznsGBull	HGU	22555	17.33	13.64	14.08	-0.87

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Nuinsco Res	NWI	3491	0.09	0.06	0.08	+ 60.0
Intl Royalty	IRC	16005	7.24	4.28	7.06	+ 53.4
Almaden Mnls	AMM	1287	1.37	0.77	1.15	+ 47.4
Crystallex Int	KRY	3794	0.45	0.32	0.41	+ 46.4
Talon Metals	TLO	401	0.58	0.40	0.58	+ 45.0
Mundoro Cap	MUN	3577	1.40	0.85	1.27	+ 44.3
Ursa Major Min	UMJ	205	0.12	0.09	0.09	+ 28.5
Moneta Porcpn	ME	3476	0.44	0.29	0.39	+ 25.8
Grandview Gld	GVX	932	0.12	0.09	0.10	+ 25.0
Firstgold	FGD	290	0.05	0.05	0.05	+ 25.0
Crew Gold	CRU	1587	0.22	0.16	0.17	-39.2
San Anton Res	SNN	182	0.32	0.25	0.25	-28.5
Coalcorp Mng	CCJ	16234	0.54	0.34	0.38	-20.8
Aquila Res	AQA	7245	0.41	0.29	0.31	-18.4
Erdene Res Dev	ERD	2004	0.35	0.25	0.27	-18.1
Kimber Res	KBR	505	1.83	1.22	1.37	-16.9
Yukon-Nev Gold	YNG	22211	0.25	0.19	0.20	-16.6
Pediment Gold	PEZ	1458	1.73	1.32	1.39	-16.2
Stingray Coppr	SRY	204	0.62	0.52	0.52	-16.1
Genco Res	GGC	1287	0.61	0.40	0.50	-15.2

+ 2.39

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
PotashCpSask	POT	6102324	127.93	+ 10.03
Agrium	AGU	5118657	63.79	+ 5.05
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	386226	41.02	+ 2.52
Intl Royalty	IRC	16005454	7.06	+ 2.46
Silver Std Res	SSO	1262241	25.14	+ 2.46
Cameco Corp	CCO	5542276	32.71
Imperial Metal	III	906060	11.40	+ 1.25
Seabridge Gold	SEA	255160	28.03	+ 1.19
Mag Silver	MAG	1358019	7.02	+ 0.76
Osisko Mng	OSK	11717367	8.38	+ 0.70
IShCOMEXGTr	IGT	39705	119.00	-3.20
Royal Gold	RGL	14036	53.90	-2.83
First Quantum	FM	2319885	80.00	-2.33
Coeur d Alene	CDM	179012	21.92	-2.15
Inmet Mining	IMN	1924054	61.20	-2.15
Franco-Nevada	FNV	4297509	26.30	-1.98
Newmont Mng	NMC	205827	54.52	-1.98
CentralGold-T	GTU_U	71219	47.36	-1.70
IAMGold Corp	IMG	20025697	18.44	-1.45
Horizns G Bull	HGU	22555118	14.08	-0.87