TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE MARCH 9 – 15

The TSX composite index finished the March 9-15 period 12 points higher at 12,051. The strength of the index coincides with global investors increasingly heralding the Canadian economy for its perceived strength. Such faith in Canada could be seen in the loonie’s rise to US97.88¢.

Other news helping to keep markets healthy was the belief that the U.S. Federal Reserve will confirm its plans to keep interest rates at historically low levels, and the European Union’s move to help debt-ridden Greece.

As confidence in the global recovery continues to solidify, so do base metal prices and the companies that mine them. Copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, lead and zinc prices all protected their recent gains and the Capped Metals & Mining index rose by 4 points to 1,108.94.

The news wasn’t quite as good for gold, however, as the yellow metal dipped — although it did remain above the US$1,100 mark, finishing the period at US$1,104.25.

Third party economic analysis of Cline Mining’s New Elk Coal mine in Colorado, and a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, made the company the market darling for the reporting period. Cline’s shares shot up 58% to finish at 95¢ after announcing the project could supply metallurgical coal to the steel market for at least 20 years.

The mine is set to go into production in the fourth quarter of this year with the forecast of 2.7 million tonnes of coal being turned out annually by 2013. Cap costs at the project were pegged at US$65 million while the net present value came in at an eye-popping US$1.04 billion using a 10% discount rate.

The discovery of a new gold zone tends to do well for a company’s share price, and Minco Gold was no exception. The company’s shares shot up 28% to finish the period at $1.20 after announcing that the discovery had been traced over 6 km at its Oujiaba project in China. Highlight assays from the channel samples included 13.2 grams gold over 10 metres and 1.18 grams gold over 4.7 metres.

The market’s confidence was also bolstered for Candente Resources which closed a financing that netted it over $6 million. Candente’s shares were up 26% for the period to 49¢ after announcing it would use the new funds to resume exploration and development at its copper projects in Peru.

News that Apollo Gold will be acquiring Linear Gold in an all-share offer that values Linear at $102 million, weighed down Apollo’s shares price. Apollo, which has a producing gold mine near Timmins, Ont., saw its shares fall 12% to 37¢ for the period after announcing it would give Linear shareholders 5.7 Apollo shares for each Linear share. If completed, the deal would create a mid-tier producer in the near-term as Linear had been slated to get its Goldfields project in Saskatchewan into production by 2013.

TSX most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
First Uranium	FIU	43601	1.86	1.45	1.66	+ 0.15
Lundin Mng	LUN	33757	5.26	4.60	5.05	+ 0.39
Yamana Gold	YRI	23247	10.48	10.07	10.18	-0.26
Uranium One	UUU	22117	2.89	2.65	2.83	-0.03
Barrick Gold	ABX	17969	40.90	39.36	39.87	-0.97
Eastern Platin	ELR	16282	1.46	1.36	1.43	-0.05
KinrossGold	K	14304	19.36	17.81	17.97	-1.39
Western C Coal	WTN	12817	4.53	4.15	4.53	+ 0.28
Goldcorp	G	12154	41.92	39.45	40.00	-1.34
Chariot Res	CHD	11964	0.66	0.64	0.65	0.00

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Cline Mng	CMK	5452	0.95	0.60	0.95	+ 58.3
Diamond Fields	DFI	2929	0.10	0.06	0.06	+ 50.0
Mundoro Cap	MUN	441	1.26	0.93	1.21	+ 34.4
Minco Gold	MMM	2523	1.55	1.00	1.20	+ 27.6
Treasury Metal	TML	238	0.86	0.61	0.84	+ 27.2
Candente Res	DNT	1829	0.50	0.37	0.49	+ 25.6
Aeroquest Intl	AQL	319	0.63	0.46	0.55	+ 22.2
Caledonia Mng	CAL	2915	0.07	0.06	0.06	+ 20.0
DynacorGoldM	DNG	657	0.19	0.16	0.18	+ 20.0
Colossus Minls	CSI	4963	6.73	5.34	6.35	+ 19.3
Armistice Res	AZ	368	0.37	0.29	0.30	-21.0
Volta Res	VTR	4529	1.30	1.05	1.11	-15.2
Avnel Gold	AVK	792	0.17	0.14	0.17	-15.0
Linear Metals	LRM	371	0.19	0.16	0.17	-15.0
BRC DiamondCr	BCD	46	0.13	0.09	0.13	-13.3
Intl Tower Hil	ITH	2550	6.70	5.80	5.93	-12.7
Nuinsco Res	NWI	696	0.08	0.07	0.07	-12.5
Etruscan Res	EET	701	0.51	0.41	0.43	-12.2
Golden Peaks	GL	130	1.00	0.85	0.87	-12.1
Apollo Gold	APG	10899	0.41	0.37	0.37	-11.9

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
PotashCpSask	POT	5071372	127.51	+ 6.18
Agrium	AGU	4910307	73.11	+ 3.31
First Quantum	FM	1909419	88.18	+ 1.50
Imperial Metal	III	506962	16.07	+ 1.50
Inmet Mining	IMN	2190370	59.50	+ 1.29
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	287887	50.90	+ 1.04
Colossus Minls	CSI	4962652	6.35	+ 1.03
NovaGold Res	NG	3979423	7.29	+ 0.81
Jaguar Mng	JAG	2226983	11.48	+ 0.79
Altius Mnrls	ALS	587969	9.25	+ 0.70
IShCOMEXGTr	IGT	29445	110.55	-2.58
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	2563704	59.12	-2.45
Major Drilling	MDI	399009	25.50	-2.42
Newmont Mng	NMC	26490	50.83	-2.09
CentralGold-T	GTU_U	11918	45.55	-1.75
Franco-Nevada	FNV	1648465	26.75	-1.59
Kinross Gold	K	14303790	17.97	-1.39
Goldcorp	G	12154293	40.00	-1.34
Royal Gold	RGL	33047	46.35	-1.30
Silver Std Res	SSO	606900	17.38	-1.09