Toronto Stock Exchange Minews remain bullish at expense of weak U.

Amid all the rhetoric at the Venice economic summit, little concrete support is developing for the battered U.S. dollar. U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker conceded that the Venetian pow-wow will do little in developing ne w initiatives for foreign exchange rates.

The result has been a firming price for gold bullion, which closed the day at $457 (US). As witnessed during the past several weeks, volatile bullion prices took repeated stabs at the $440-$445 level, but failed to break out on the downside thereby confirming what many believe to be a major resistance level.

For the day, the tse gold and silver index closed down marginally to 8,469.59 pts. The composite index was also off, closing at 3,709.79 pts; down 8 pts for the day. For the week however, the composite was up by a slight 9 pts.

The bellweather gold issues all appeared stronger at the opening today, but failed to maintain any momentum. The majority were either basically unchanged or marginally weaker. However most issues have recovered from testing lows during the past couple of weeks.

Hemlo Gold Mines was steady at $22.88. The issue, which came out at $19.50, is still far off its 1987 high of $31.50. Hemlo, which owns the Golden Giant mine at Hemlo, has embarked on its much expected acquisition strategy. Fuelled by immense cash flow from the Golden Giant, this company is expected to become much larger in the days to come. First move is a 7% purchase of Viceroy Resources for $15 million. Viceroy, which has been a stellar performer, is developing a major heap leach mine in the U.S. The issue closed at $21.50.

Corporate restructuring at Royex Gold has left the company as the flagship of its mining group, supplanting International Corona Resources. Both issues were steady at $5 and $39.75 respectively. Look for another major mining acquisition from this group. Corona raised $50 million (US) in Europe last month.

One of the highest fliers this week has been Rea Gold which raced to a new high of $7.13 — up $1.75 on the day. Rea and partner Minnova are cutting excellent silver values on their Adams Lake play in B.C. During the week, Rea traded more than 1.3 million shares.

News that Orofino Resources has optioned a gold property near the Arctic Ocean from Canuc Resources did little for either issue. Canuc and Orofino were respectively 34 cents and 84 cents . Echo Bay Mines had the same property under option several years ago, but dropped it after completing a major drill program.

Seabright Resources, which poured its first gold bar in Nova Scotia, was quiet at $10.75. The pour is the first in that province in more than 40 years. Although skeptics still abound as to the projects viability, it is off and running. A change in the board of directors of Osisko Lake Mines helped move the issue to 44 cents on good volume of 67,000 shares. Robert Fasken, former chairman of Camflo Mines, has become chairman of Osisko. He and his board have raised a small amount of money and plan to reactivate the company.

Muscocho Explorations continues to meet with encouragement at its Mishibishu area gold project near Wawa, Ont. The issue closed at $5.38. Results from the first underground raise have yielded impressive results. The first 95 ft of raise has returned an average grade of 2.5 oz gold per ton across a 6.7-ft wide zone.

Another active trader was Sikaman Gold which announced improved reserve figures for its gold properties in Ghana, Africa. The issue soared to a new high of $7.25 before plummeting right back to $6 by the close.