Trading Summary (November 26, 2003)

Helped by another jump in the golds, the TSX Composite index rose 38.05 points to close at 7,860.39 on Wednesday. Results were mixed across the market, but all the resource sectors moved higher.

The TSX Gold index was the star performer, picking up 9.66 points to punch out at 235.62, a gain of over 4%. The broad TSX Materials index — the mines, forest products, and chemicals — was the second best sector, rising 3.52 points to 146.76, with the TSX Mining and Metals group tacking on 3.36 points to finish at 191.70.

Gold bullion was fixed at US$396 per oz. in the London afternoon session, and added a fraction in later Comex trading. The jump in the gold price was good across-the-board for the Toronto gold stocks, which all rose. The winner in percentage terms was Golden Star Resources, which rose 66 to 9.46. Golden Star announced on Tuesday that it had concluded agreements with Venture-listed Mano River Resources and private Geo Services International to farm in on exploration properties in Sierra Leone and Mali.

Kinross Gold and Bema Gold were also in the news, as Bema’s president Clive Johnson told an analysts’ conference that the two companies expected to return the problem-plagued Refugio gold mine in Chile to production. Kinross was up 67 at $11.58, and Bema added 24 to finish at $5.35.

The merger between Cambior and junior developer Ariane Gold was approved by Ariane shareholders on Wednesday, bringing Cambior the Camp Caiman gold project in French Guiana. Cambior, which is offering one of its shares for every 2.91 shares of Ariane, rose 20 to $4.54; Ariane was 7 higher at $1.54.

Following dismissal of its appeal by the British Columbia Supreme Court, Barrick Gold agreed to pay the judgment in the breach-of-contract dispute brought against subsidiary Homestake Canada by Inmet Mining. The courts have awarded $82 million plus interest and costs, a total of $111 million, to Inmet over the aborted sale of Inmet’s Troilus gold mine in north-central Quebec to Homestake.Barrick still rose on the day, closing 99 higher at $29.15.

There was less news on the base metal front. The big winner among the base metal miners was Cameco, which added $2.41 to close at $62.66.

Tensions continue in the nickel market, a state of affairs that always rebounds in producers’ favor. Inco was up a buck at $43.15, Sherritt International tacked on 14 to close at $5.29, LionOre Mining International rose 11 to $7.01, and Falconbridge, which starts contract talks with the union at its Sudbury operations next week, picked up 32 to close at $25.27.

Off the indexes, TVI Pacific was among the most actively traded stocks. TVI, which has taken up interests in Chinese gold properties, rose a penny and a half to 21 on a volume of 6.2 million shares.

Canada’s junior exchange rallied to a new all time high as investors love affair with speculative gold issues reached new heights. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index surged 25.78 points, or 1.56%, and closed at 1,656.91.

Investors unloaded shares of Trio Gold. Shares in the junior plunged 7 to close at 17 on a volume of nearly 2.1 million. A speculative buy recommendation from analyst Ron Wortel of Investrend Research affiliate eResearch failed to rally the stock. The initiating report set a price target at $0.50. Trio owns a 100% interest in the Rodeo Creek property that lies 3 km northwest of the Dee gold mine at the north end of the Carlin Trend, in Elko County, Nevada. The first hole of an on going drill program failed to return any signifcant values.

A rising bullion price propelled American Bonanza Gold Mines to a new 52-week high. Shares in the junior added 2 to close at 44.5, on a volume of 2 million. The company is currently in the midst of an underground drilling program on its Copperstone gold project in Arizona. Work is also on going on the junior’s Gold Bar property located in the Battle Mountain-Eureka mineral belt in central Nevada.

ECU Silver moved to a new 52-week high adding 4.5 to close at 28.5 on 1.8 million shares traded. The company holds several silver properties in Mexico.