Toronto Stock Exchange Thunderwood, Greenstone react to stringer

Mining types who met in Toronto at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention got the tonic they were looking for at the end of an otherwise depressing week. As gold slipped to US$354 per oz. during the period ended March 26, and miners were told to expect tighter restrictions on credit, partners Thunderwood Resources and Greenstone Resources had some encouraging news.

It came today (March 27) with the announcement of a 681.6-ft. massive sulphide intersection at their equally-owned Scott Lake joint venture near Chibougamau, Que. While grades of 0.45% copper and 0.74% zinc are sub-economic, Thunderwood President John Heslop says the grades point to the possibility of a new massive sulphide discovery.

Speculation on the Scott Lake results sparked a 33 cents increase this week in the price of Thunderwood shares which advanced to $1.18 on a volume of more than two million shares. Greenstone also advanced, to $2.83, on almost half a million shares before slipping back to $2.70.

Thunderwood is a sister company of Aur Resources, which at the time of the announcement was preparing to collar two shafts at its Louvicourt Twp. joint venture project with Societe Miniere Louvem.

While the Aur issue was even this week at $4, Louvem parent St. Genevieve Resources was active after selling an additional one million shares of Louvem to Noranda Minerals. With 5.1 million Louvem shares in hand, Noranda owns 28.2% of Louvem while St. Genevieve’s interest has dropped to 47% from 50%. Shares of St. Genevieve dropped 4 cents today to 98 cents.

Freewest Resources also lost 15 cents, as the company ceased drilling on its Benoit Twp. gold project in northern Quebec where a 162.5 ft. intersection averaging 0.15 oz. was reported recently. A reported accumulation of bird droppings at the bottom of Lac Pusticamica has hampered drilling there.

Meanwhile, despite concerns over gold prices and expectations regarding corporate profits, share values moved upward today for the fifth successive session. The composite 300 index advanced 18.33 points to 3486.25 on a volume of 28 million shares.

Aside from supply problems, the gold market is being affected by the resurgent U.S. dollar, according to Martin Murenbeeld, author of The Gold Monitor newsletter. Because of weaknesses in the German mark, the dollar has improved by nearly 4% on its index since February.

“In short, gold markets will have to allow for the possibility that the U.S. dollar is not going to be a positive factor for gold once again in 1991,” says Murenbeeld.

Today, as the gold-silver index advanced 19.13 points to 5186.83, a number of precious metals issues posted modest gains. They included American Barrick Resources, Hemlo Gold and Placer Dome, which all added 13 cents. The A shares of Corona bucked the trend by dropping 25 cents to close at $5.

On the base metal front, Inco was down 25 cents to $37.38 even though analysts expect nickel supplies to tighten in the near future. The drop in the price of Inco shares coincided with a 16.83-point decline in the metals and minerals index, which closed out the week at 3179.47.

Also on the active list this week were Deak Resources, which closed up by 6 cents to 50 cents, and Princeton Mining, down 13 cents to $2.13. Hitting new lows were Goldex Mines and Central Crude; Goldex ended the week down 10 cents at 95 cents while Central Crude climbed to $1.63 after bottoming at $1.50 In other news, United Coin Mines borrowed $3.2 million from DCC Equities Ltd. for one year at the chartered bank prime rate plus two percentage points. DCC has been given warrants entitling it to purchase 3.1 million United Coin shares at 60 cents for 18 months and can nominate a member to the United Coin board.

Goldcorp Investments of Toronto acquired an additional 888,500 common shares of Wharf Resources, raising its stake in Wharf to 8.7 million shares.