Trading Summary (July 21, 2003)

A US$4.05-per-oz. gain by gold to US$351.10 per oz. in New York pushed Toronto Gold index 4.65 points, or 2.8%, higher to 171.61 on Monday. The diversified miners couldn’t keep pace, adding 0.97 of a point to make 135.56. With just four subindices ending in the red, the TSX Composite index gained 21.31 points to 7,135.96.

Eldorado Gold ranked as the nation’s most traded mining issue, climbing 7 to $2.65 with just short of 4.1 million shares traded. Bema Gold was next with nearly 4 million shares finding their way 13 higher to $2.10. Ivanhoe Mines took the bronze, climbing 20 to $3.60 with about 2.75 million shares on the go.

On Monday, Ivanhoe boosted its estimate of contained gold at the Turquoise Hill project in Mongolia by 24%; contained copper grew by 45%. Inferred resources are pegged at 2.4 billion tonnes grading 0.61% copper and 0.14 g/t gold, at a 0.3% copper equivalent cut-off. Another 509 million tonnes of indicated resources in the Southwest Zone grad e 0.4% copper and 0.59 gram gold per tonne.

Golden Star Resources put in a 34 or plus-9% gain to hit $3.94. The company recently announced it would go ahead with development of the Wassa gold project in Ghana.

Southwestern Resources climbed 55 to $11.35 after releasing results from metallurgical test work on sulphide-rich gold mineralization from its Boka gold project in China. Gold recovery via milling and conventional cyanide leaching from the massive sulphide mineralization is pegged at 98.3 %

Falconbridge added a nickel to make $18.20 in thin trading after posting higher second-quarter earnings of $56 million up from $38.5 million a year earlier. The increase is thanks to higher nickel prices and a one-time $12-million tax recovery.

Canada’s junior exchange managed to start the trading week off on an up tick despite declining stocks beating advancing issues by a 288-to-265 margin. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index added 4.66 points, or 0.42%, and closed at 1,118.44.

Blackstone Ventures added half a penny to close at 18 on nearly 2.2 million shares traded. The junior recently inked a letter of intent with a wholly owned subsidiary of Falconbridge to explore two, large, nickel-copper-cobalt projects in Norway.

Investors sold off shares in Shear Minerals following news that Toronto-listed Cumberland Resources failed to find any significant diamond values in its kimberlites on the Meliadine East project in the Churchill province. Shear holds a 51% stake in the Churchill diamond project with Northern Empire Minerals and BHP Billiton. Northern Empire ended the day at $1.38, down 16 on 337,712 shares traded, while Shear plunged 21 to 81 on nearly 1.6 million shares traded..

Spider Resources ended the day unchanged at 11 with 633,000 shares traded. The junior and joint venture partner, KWG Resources on working their Spider #3 base metal prospect in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario.