Trading Summary (February 27, 2003)

The Toronto Stock Exchange bounded higher on Thursday, with the TSX Composite index up 73.86 points to 6,582.19, a gain of just over 1% on the day.

The golds still moved against the rest of the market, and were the only sector to lose ground on Thursday. The TSX Gold index fell 2.59 points, or about 1.5% of value, to 173.10.

Only Meridian Gold, which picked up a dime to close at $18.75, rose among the component stocks. Meridian announced that it and AngloGold had reached an agreement to sell the Jerritt Canyon gold mine to junior (and new producer) Queenstake Resources. Queenstake was up 2 at 32, and in New York AngloGold climbed 12 to $31.63.

Trading was fairly active in the golds, with seven of the eleven companies on the index showing trading volumes over a million. Placer Dome continues to be the most actively traded of the golds, with 2 million shares crossing the floor; it fell 24 to $14.17.

Glamis Gold was the biggest loser among the producers, shedding 73 and finishing at $16.80. The other gold to take a heavy hit was development-stage junior Gabriel Resources, which was off 30 at $3.44, a decline of 8%. On Tuesday it had released an update of the feasibility study on its Rosia Montana gold project in Romania.

Over on the base metal side, Ivanhoe Mines continues to bounce around; it fell 12 to $3.36 today, sliding back after touching $3.60 at the open on Wednesday. Just before the Wednesday open, Ivanhoe announced a resource estimate of 1.6 billion tonnes averaging 0.63% copper and 0.17 gram gold per tonne at its Turqoise Hill deposit in Mongolia. Just over 500 million tonnes is in the indicated category, grading an average 0.4% copper and 0.59 gram gold.

With the exception of Noranda, which lost 2 to close at $13.43, the other base metal stocks were all in positive territory. The big winner was Aur Resources, which jumped 12 to close at $3.95, and the other smaller players had good days: Sherritt International was up 14 at $4.79 and LionOre Mining International added 17 to close at $5.90.

Canada’s junior exchange closed the day with advancers loosing to decliners 310 to 331. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index dropped 2.23 points, or 0.2%, and closed at 1,102.34, with 44.6 million shares traded.

American Bonanza Gold Mining lost 4 and closed at 25 with 1.2 million shares traded. The company recently completed its 1,608 ft. drill program on the Pamlico project in Nevada. Highlights include 1.62 oz. gold per ton over 3 ft and 2.79 oz. of gold per ton over 1 ft.

TNR Resources lost a penny and closed at 16 with 1.02 million shares crossing the floor. The junior has kicked off exploration at its Opikeigen Lake project near Pickel Lake Ontario. A crew has mobilized to the area to conduct an extensive IP survey over the Fort Hope Mine and previously discovered gold-zones. TNR is earning a 50% interest in the project from Slam Exploration and Pure Gold Minerals.

Canadian Royalties finished up 25 to $2.05 with 916,150 shares traded. The company tabled assay results from a new massive sulphide discovery located 25 km west of the Mesamax discovery in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. The high grade interval of drill hole TT-02-02 assayed 2.0% nickel, 1.91% copper, 0.11% cobalt, 0.6 gram platinum and 2.62 grams palladium per tonne over 22.03 metres. The new mineralized zone, dubbed the “Tootoo Zone”, is the third and westernmost new massive sulphide occurrence discovered by the company since commencing work in the region in 2001.