Toronto Stock Exchange Gold shares rebound after bout of profit-

The bout of volatility was reflected in the gold and silver index which took a beating earlier in the week to the 7100-point range before recovering today to 7231.73 points — up 99.02 points for the day.

Overall trading activity remained quiet and steady with an 11.82-point rise in the composite index to 3951.66 points. Metals and minerals took a beating on news of further weakness in copper and nickel prices.

Gold shares, which have been the mainstay of the TSE for the past few weeks, were hit by a wave of profit-taking. Buyers stepped in today, clearly anticipating that the bullion rally will continue in the near future. In fact, the gold equity market correctly discounted the recent gold rally months ago as the gold and silver index made strong gains while gold languished around $380 just two months ago.

American Barrick Resources remained a favorite, gaining 50 cents to $36.50. LAC Minerals was at the top of the volume list again, trading more than 500,000 shares today and 4.3 million during the week ended Dec 6 to close at $13.75. Rumors that Minorco was buying LAC shares last week sparked a buying frenzy in LAC’s shares. Street talk this week, likely from disgruntled arbitragers, is that Gordon Capital stage managed the rumor in order to get LAC’s shares up to $14 so as to sell LAC’s unit offering announced last month.

Other senior golds were also firm today. Placer Dome advanced to $20.88. The company plans to explore an advanced stage gold deposit in Tanzania. Corona Corp.’s A shares were also winners, moving up to $10.25.

Investors remained spooked by nickel. Although a possible over- reaction, traders unloaded nickel shares on easing nickel prices which dipped below $4 this week.

Despite talk from Inco Ltd., the world’s largest producer, that supply-demand fundamentals for the metal remain in good shape, Inco’s shares tumbled to $31.88. A new $179-million nickel mine in Sudbury is expected to produce 40 million lb of nickel per year by 1993.

Aur Resources and Louvem lost some of their shine as prices weakened to $12.38 and $9.50 respectively. Louvem is controlled by St. Genevieve Resources. The Louvicourt discovery, made by Aur in June, is now burdened by lawsuits between all three companies.

Easing copper prices took some spark out of Metall Mining which fell to $12.63. Metall owns the large Copper Range facility near White Pines, Mich.

Shareholders of Westfield Minerals remained upset over the selling of the company’s mining assets to Northgate Exploration. Westfield has cash and liquid assets of about $40 million following the sale, and no debt. Some shareholders are also concerned that Westfield and its cash hoard are now part of the Bronfman empire, controlled by bankers and accountants, not mining executives. Westfield was unchanged at $1.31.

Central Crude made a small gain to $6.50. Hemlo Gold Mines, Crude’s largest shareholder, picked up more shares in the company to boost its stake to 41%. Central Crude and Hemlo are developing a future gold mine in the Mishibishu area west of Wawa, Ont. Hemlo Gold was also firm at $17.75.

Giant Yellowknife, control of which is for sale, says costs have been significantly lowered at its mines in Timmins and Yellowknife. The issue slipped a quarter to $11.50.

Euro-Nevada Mining was firm at $8.75. The company holds royalties on key properties owned by Barrick in Nevada. The North property is the site of a major find hosting in excess of four million ounces of gold.

Redstone Resources, which has been on the new high list for the past several weeks, eased back below $2 to $1.96. Gordon Capital has just completed an 800,000- share offering at $1.70 through its Paris office.

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