Toronto Stock Exchange: Market takes the high road with golds at

Wednesday close, Nov 5

The golds were behind the wheel and helped steer the market out of last week’s doldrums. Over the week, the gold and silver index made a gain of over 200 pts to settle at 5,211.29. Though the widely- followed composite 300 was off 2.07 pts today, it made a net gain of 50.59 pts over the week to close at 3,060.70. Metals and minerals fared well with a gain of 7.64 pts on the day with oil and gas logging in a 10.26 pt gain. On the Montreal spot market gold closed the day at $405(US)-bid and $407(US)-ask.

With two recent investment letters bullish on Madeleine Mines and talk of senior financing in the wind, shares of this company which plans to bring the Lac des Iles platinum- palladium project near Thunder Bay Ontario into production have been hopping. Over this past week, a gain of $1.20 was made with over 200,000 shares changing hands for a new high of $5.75. Some three weeks ago Madeleine was trading around the $3.70 level. Today Madeleine closed at $5 after a dip of a quarter.

The week was also good for Heenan Senlac Resources which gained 27 cents to reach $1. There’s talk Heenan is acquiring a property in the Lac des Iles area. In today’s trading a nickel was lost for a close of 87 cents .

TVX Mining which has interests in a Brazilian property where the presence of platinum has been indicated was again the most active trader of the week, the third in a row. Over the week TVX was trading unchanged at $1.84, while 4 cents was lost on the day for a close of $1.80.

It won’t be long now until Lac Minerals meets International Corona Resources in the Ontario court of appeal regarding the ownership of the Page-Williams mine. Earlier this week, however, rumors were flying fast and furious that the two wouldn’t keep their Nov 17 court date as an out-of-court settlement had been reached. Lac, however, has quashed the rumor. Belle Mulligan, Lac vice-president of investor relations tell us there is no basis to the recent rumor of an out-of-court settlement. She says that the possibility of such a settlement has existed from day one, but there are no discussions going on between the two companies concerning the matter.

Lac Shares moved up $2.50 over the week and at one point reached $29.25. In today’s trading, 13 cents was dropped for a close of $27. Corona shares were down 63 cents on the week to $26.38, but made up for it today with a gain of $1.88 for a close of $28.25.

In other Hemlo news, shares of Golden Sceptre and Goliath Gold, which share a 50% interest in the Golden Giant mine, were busy and better this week. Golden Sceptre was up $1.13 to new high at $16, while Goliath took a 75 cents jump to new-high at $16.50. Rumors still abound, as previously mentioned in this column, that these two companies with Noranda Inc which holds the remaining 50% of the Golden Giant, are planning to come up with a new public Hemlo company.

Noranda moved up 63 cents on the week to $20.88 and made waves in today’s trading with over 1.2 million shares trading hands for a gain of 38 cents to close at $21.25, just 50 cents shy of its 52-week high. Today, Golden Sceptre moved up 38 cents to $15.25 while Goliath was ahead 50 cents to $16.25.

Teck Corp saw its B shares dip 50 cents over the week to $23.50 with trading unchanged today. The company is making a unit offering in Europe to raise about $60 million which will be applied against short term bank borrowings arranged in connection with the purchase of Cominco shares. Meanwhile, Highland Crow Resources in which Teck has a 24.9% interest, new highed at $5.50 this week on a gain of 15 cents . The company has a $3.3 million exploration program under way at the Pickle Crow mine in the Pickle Lake area of Ontario. Highland closed at $4.85 today after a 10 cents drop.

Echo Bay Mines has announced a new common share offering with an international flavor to help finance its recent acquisition of Tenneco Inc’s gold properties in North America. Some 3.6 million common shares are to be issued in Canada, the U.S. and in Europe. The company has also announced a offering of flow-through units to raise funds for its 1987 $45.2 million exploration program in this country. Echo Bay closed at $29.13 on the day after a 13 cents gain.

In Quebec, NSR Resources is drilling underground at its Rand Malartic gold property. The shares moved up 2 cents over the week to 62 cents , but closed today at 60 cents .

Nickel producers Falconbridge Ltd was up a quarter to $18.25 in today’s trading while Inco traded unchanged at $17.63.