Toronto Stock Exchange: Gold in the driver’s seat steer market

Wednesday close, Oct 22 The golds were back in the driver’s seat today and helped transport th e widely followed composite 300 up 5.07 pt to a close of 3,021.60. The gold and silver index was up 42.22 pt to a close of 5,172.19. The price of the yellow metal closed on the Montreal spot market at $425(US)-bid $427(US)- ask. The oil and gas index was up 7.92 pt to 2,705.78, while the metals and minerals index took it on the chin with a 1.97 pt drop to reach 2,113.89, its lowest level since early last month.

With some 2.7 million shares changing hands, TVX Mining formerly Treasure Valley Explorations, was this week’s most active trader. Its shares moved up a quarter over the week to new high at $1.65 on the news that a Brazilian company, 49% held by TVX has signed a letter of intent with a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc to explore a property in Brazil where the presence of platinum has been indicated. In today’s trading shares moved up 2 cents to $1.47 on a volume of 92,600.

Closer to home Madeleine Mines which plans to bring its Lac des Iles platinum-palladium bet into production near Thunder Bay, Ont. was up 20 cents on the week to reach $4.10. Meanwhile, rumor has it there are good results coming out of the Scramble gold project, a joint venture in which Madel eine is involved. The property is located right beside the airport in Kenora, Ont. In today’s trading Madeleine was off 15 cents to $3.85.

Now that the Teck Corp.-led group has completed its acquisition of Cominco shares, Teck President Norman Keevil Jr has named Robert Hallbauer as Cominco’s new president. Cominco lost 13 cents over the week to settle at $13.38 and in today’s trading it was down another 13 cents to $13.25. Teck, meanwhile, saw its B shares move up 38 cents on the day to $24.50.

Trading has been halted since Friday on shares of Vestgron Mines, which is 62.5% held by Cominco. Late last month Alberta-listed Zenmac Zinc made a bid of 50 cents per share for all Vestgron outstanding shares, but this past Friday a 65 cents per share bid was put in by a Halifax-based private holding company called CanEast Capital. When trading was halted in Vestgron on Friday the shares were priced at 75 cents each.

Balance sheet woes have sparked Denison Mines to agree to sell its profitable subsidiary, Lake Ontario Cement, to the number two cement company in France. Denison President John Fowler tells us the $83.4 million to be gained from the sale will go to help ease debt problems and to meet other existing commitments. Over the week class A shares were down 63 cents to close at $5.75, while in today’s trading a quarter was gained for a close of an even $6.

Dome Mines fared well on the week with a 50 cents gain to reach $9.63, while in today’s trading 13 cents was lost for a close of $9.38. The Dome group of companies is predicting gold production of 553,000 oz this year, up from the 466,000 oz produced last year. This will bring the group’s share of total Canadian production to over 19% (see front page story). Subsidiary Campbell Red Lake was off 50 cents on the week to $28 with trading unchanged today. Sigma Mines was up a quarter to $14 and Kiena Gold Mines was down by a quarter to reach $26.25.

The date is drawing near for Lac Minerals to meet International Corona in the court of appeal regarding Mr Justice Richard Holland’s decision of last spring to transfer the Page-Williams mine to Corona. Over the week, Lac shares were down 88 cents to $24.75, while Corona was off $1.25 to $26.88. Today’s trading was up 38 cents to $25.13, while Corona gained 63 cents to $27.50.

Viceroy Resources made a big gain of $1.25 this week to new-high at $7.38. Drilling resumed at its Castle Mountain open pit heap leach gold project in San Bernardino Cty, California and the company has just announced the discovery of a new deposit area, called the Lesley Ann, located east of the Jumbo South deposit. Today shares closed at $7 after a drop of 38 cents .

A discovery in south-central Newfoundland of stratabound gold mineralization has been announced jointly by Westfield Minerals, project manager, The Coniagas Mines and Anglo Dominion Gold Exploration. A 5,000 ft drill program to test the mineralized zone is under way. In today’s trading Westfield was up a nickel to $1.45, Coniagas traded unchanged at $5.25, while Anglo Dominion was unchanged at $2.10.

Placer Development was active with 92,800 shares traded on the day and a gain of 88 cents to $31.38. Pacific Trans Ocean new-highed at $2.93 with a gain of 9 cents on a volume of 179,700.