Trading Summary (July 10, 2003)

Toronto’s gold stocks nudge up 0.05 of a point to 167.99 on Thursday, just one of two subindices to do so; the other was the utilities subindex, up 0.07 points. The small advance was powered by a dollar gain by gold to US$344.30 per oz. in New York. The base metal miners joined the rest of the exchange, dropping 1.09 points to 130.26.. Overall, the S&P/TSX Composite Index ended 45.75 points lower at 7,071.54.

Gabriel Resources plummeted 31, or 11%, to $2.52 before shares were halted during late afternoon trade. Reuters reported on Thursday that the Romanian Prime Minister said his government did not like a recent parliamentary report giving Gabriel a conditional thumbs up for the Rosia Montana project. The issue saw a trading volume of around 1.8 million shares.

UEX Corp. jumped 2.5, or more than 45% of value, to 8. There was no news out of the recently begot Athabasca Basin uranium explorer; the company is a joint venture between Saskatchewan’s Cameco and Vancouver-based Pioneer Metals. For their part, Cameco shares were off 40 at $43.25, while Pioneer ended a penny higher at 8.

Also heading south were Golden Star Resources, off 8 to $4.05, and Orvana Minerals despite good news from each. Based on a recently completed independent feasibility study, Denver-based Golden Star will proceed with development of a mine at its Wassa project in Ghana. Initial production is slated for early 2004. Orvana reported the first gold pour from its Don Mario gold mine in southeast Bolivia.

As for the major gold producers, they put in mixed results. On the plus side were Barrick Gold, up 6 to $23.71, and Placer Dome finished a quarter richer at $16.31. Kinross Gold rounded out the trio with a 27 fall to $8.51.

The base metal miners were nearly unanimous in their losses. Alcan saw the most action, falling $1.5 to $41.75 as it prepares for what might be a long battle to acquire French rival Pechiney.

Zinc miner Breakwater Resources stood out, gaining 2 pennies, or 10.5%, to make 21. The company recently paid US$5 million toward its US$22.6 million term credit facility with proceeds from the sale of its interests in the Tonawanda and Lapa properties. The remaining balance is US$17.6 million.