Trading Summary (November 05, 2003)

A plus-1% gain by the golds helped the Toronto Stock Exchange 3.99 points higher to end at 7,867.68. On the flip side, the diversified miners ended 2.48 points, or 1.29%, lower at 194.63.

Tahera remained heavily traded on Wednesday, with more than 45 million shares jumping 8, or more than 38%, to a new 52-week high of 29.5.Last month, the company reported the discovery of another diamondiferous kimberlite body at the Jericho property in Nunavut. Six holes cut the dyke, yielding five stones from 7.6 kg of core; however, none of the results explains the indicator mineral trains found in the Bird Lake area.

Fellow diamond explorer Brazilian Diamonds (formerly Black Swan Resources) was the next closest mining issue, jumping a nickel to make 75 with more than 9.2 million shares traded. On Monday, the company made its last payment to De Beers’ in association with its acquisition of Mineraao do Sul, which included the Canastra 1 diamondiferous kimberlite plus 490 sq. km of kimberlite prospecting licenses in the Serra da Canastra region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Preparations are underway for trial mining of Canastra 1.

Wednesday’s trading session also saw some impressive percentage gainers. Bolivar Gold advanced 40, or 18%, to a new 52-week high of $2.60. The company released more encouraging results from exploration drilling on its Choco gold property in Venezuela. The company also said that some 19.75 million warrants issued as part of a previous special warrant financing will begin trading on the TSX on Nov. 6. The warrants are exercisable at $1.75 apiece, and expire on Aug. 25, 2008.

Pure Gold Minerals added 2 pennies, or about 24%, to hit 10.5. Not to be outdone, Caldera Resources shot up 3.5, or 30%, to 15. Caldera recently reported encouraging exploration results from two diamond exploration projects in Western Australia and the Victoria River Downs Project in the Northern Territory.

Tenke Mining topped that with a 68, or 34%, rise to a new year-high of $2.70. On Tuesday, Tenke announced that Phelps Dodge plans to exercise its option to acquire a 70% interest in Lundin Holdings, which holds a 55%-istake in the Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tenke will retain a 30% stake in Lundin, and will be carried up to a decision to build, after which time it will become a contributing partner. Measured, indicated and inferred resources at Fungurume exceed 540 million tonnes grading 3.5% copper and 0.27% cobalt.

It was Minco Mining & Metals that took the prize though, adding 66, or 56%, to reach a new year-high of $1.84 on 1.8 million shares. On Wednesday, Minco signed a series of deals with the Gansu Provincial government and two other local companies to explore and develop the Anba gold deposit in the Yangshan gold field in Gansu, China. Minco can pick up a 40% interest in Yangshan Gold Mining, which will acquire the deposit for US$6 million.

Canada’s junior exchange hit yet another new all time high as investors continued to buy gold explorers. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index tacked on 17.4 points, or 1.09%, and closed at 1,608.75.

Investors bid up shares in Sparton Resources. The junior recently reported that kimberlite indicator minerals have been found in till samples taken from its 100% owned property located in the Otish mountains of northern Quebec. Following the news the junior agreed to sell two million special warrants at a price of $0.43 per unit. Each special warrant holds one share and one warrant. The warrants are exercisable at $0.54 for a period of two years. The company then went back to the well raising another $1.54 million. Sparton ended the day at $1.63, up 38 on 2.4 million shares traded.

A nice percentage gainer, Trio Gold added 9 to close at 30 on nearly 2 million shares traded. At last report. the company re-evaluated the geological and technical data on its 100% owned Rodeo Creek property located on the northern portion of the Carlin Trend. Based on the re-evaluation of the property the company is now targeting a high-priority geological and geochemical anomaly on the southern portion of the property. Phase one of the 2003 drill program will test a major mineralized fault system which has been traced for 1100 meters across the property.

With copper prices hitting a three year higher, investors continued to buy shares in Taseko Mines. Back in July, the Hunter Dickinson led company launched an exploration drilling program over its Gibraltar copper property, near Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia. The program was designed to test several areas adjacent to the previous porphyry copper deposits, which produced 1.8 billion lbs of copper and 19 million lbs of molybdenum over 27 years of operation on the Gibraltar property. Taseko ended the day at $1.26, up 18 on nearly 2 million shares traded.