Trading Summary (March 20, 2003)

Toronto’s energy stocks helped pull the S&P/TSX Composite Index 22.1 points higher as investors watched the early stages of the war in Iraq unfold on Thursday. The mining issues were not so fortunate. The golds dropped 2.47 points to 154.51 and the diversified miners shed 1.55 points to 128.33. Only the Materials subindex joined the miners in the red.

Placer Dome was the most traded gold miner falling 31 to $13.49 on nearly 2.1 million shares. Northern Orion Explorations grabbed a penny to make 20.5 as the only other miner to make the TSX’s top ten traded list.

Canada’s remaining gold majors put in losses. Barrick Gold dropped 17 to $22.23 and Kinross Gold ended 3 cheaper at $8.57.

Standing out with gains were NovaGold Resources, plus 17 or 5.2% of value to $3.45. Eldorado Gold made a dime to reach $2 even. Eldorado is set to join the S&P/TSX Composite Index. The change will take effect on March 21.

Inco was far and away the busiest base metal issue shedding 68 to $29.60 on the backs of about 1.35 million shares. The nickel miner announced on Thursday that it will proceed with development at its Voisey’s Bay deposit while admitting that cost estimates have grown by about 14%.

Most of the others index members put in similar losses.

On the diamond watch, Mountain Province Diamonds and joint venture partner, De Beers Canada Exploration, report cutting more kimblerlite south of the Faraday kimberlite body in the Northwest Territories. Mountain Province shares ended 13 higher at $2.06.

Shares in DiamondWorks continued to climb adding 21 to make $1.68. The company reports that it is not aware of any specific event that would be the source of its recent elevated trading activity. The company does suggest perhaps it may be market anticipation of the company’s year end financial results due out by the end of March.

Canada’s junior exchange lost the gains it made yesterday with advancers loosing to decliners 240 to 273. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index shed 3.72 points, or 0.35%, and closed at 1,059.30 with 37 million shares traded.

Spider Resources was the day’s volume leader with 4.5 million shares traded. The junior and joint venture partner KWG Resources have launched a 1,000 metre diamond drilling program on their Spider #3 base metal prospect in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario. Spider tacked on 3 and closed at 14.

Winslow Resources tacked on 5 and closed at 23 with 1.1 million shares changing hands. The company recently inked a deal with Bright Star Ventures regarding six mineral crown grants which cover the northwestern corner of the Tulameen ultramafic complex, situated near Princeton, British Columbia. The option agreement provides for total payments of $15,000 and issuance of 50,000 shares in Bright Star stock. Winslow will retain a 2.5% NSR interest in these mining claims in the event of commercial production. The Tulameen complex is considered to have an excellent potential for PGE and gold-copper deposits.

IMA Exploration remained steady at $1.00 with almost 1.1 million shares traded. Soil sampling has identified a highly anomalous area at its Navidad project in Patagonia, Argentina, that measures 1,200-by-500 metres with values consistently greater than 2 grams silver per tonne. These high silver values in soil samples correlate very well with anomalous copper (greater than 50 ppm) values. The soil samples were taken at 50 metre intervals along lines spaced 200 metres apart. IMA plans to increase the density and size of this soil grid in order to better define drill targets in combination with geological mapping, rock sampling, trenching, and geophysics.