Trading Summary (February 28, 2002)

A 161.05-point gain by the Communications & Media subindex wasn’t enough to stave off a 9.39-point loss by the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday. The Gold & Precious Minerals subindex fell 73.2 points or 1.2% to 5,972.52, one of six declining indices on the TSE. The Metals & Minerals subindex dropped 25.46 points to settle at 4,661.16. TSE 300 composite closed at 7,637.5.

The busiest miner on the day was Placer Dome falling 37 to $18.58 on just more than 3.1 million shares. Placer recently posted a US$29-million profit during the fourth quarter of 2001, but US$301 million in writedowns pushed the company US$133 million into the red for the year.

Right behind was Falconbridge, which regained 14 to $17.24 with just fewer than 3.1 million shares traded. On Wednesday, Falco announced that after five years at the helm, Oyvind Hushovd was replaced by Derek Pannell. Pannell is also president of Noranda, which currently owns 57% of Falconbridge. For its part, Noranda grabbed back 7 to hit $16.76 on fewer than 1 million shares.

TVX Gold grabbed the last spot on the TSE’s top ten traded list. The issue was unchanged with more than 2.7 million shares bought and sold. The miner has bee given the go-ahead to implement a new mining plan at its Stratoni base metal operation in Greece. The plan was approved by a government-appointed team from the National Technical University of Athens.

In the junior ranks, Yamana Resources slipped 1.5 to 11.5. On Thursday, the company announced an agreement in principle to sell to Coeur d’Alene Mines, the high-grade Martha underground silver mine on the Bacon property in the southern Patagonia region of Santa Cruz, Argentina. Also under the deal, Coeur would buy about 10% on a fully diluted basis, of Yamana, for US$600,000.

Bema Gold gained 3 pennies to 81. The company has completed a brokered private placement of flow-through shares for gross proceeds of about $1.5 million. The funds will go toward drilling at Monument Bay, which is slated to begin in early March. Bema can earn up to a 70% stake in the project from Wolfden Resources.

Among the remaining major base metal miners just Inco and Alcan saw more than 1 million shares change hands. Inco ended unchanged at $29.80 while Alcan dropped 33 to $64.86. On Wednesday, Inco named Farokh Hakimi as its new chief financial officer and executive vice-president. Hakimi succeeds George Halatisis, who is moving to another firm.

Canada’s junior exchange continued to gain ground on heavy volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index jumped 6.24 points, or 0.6% to close at 1117.98.

Aurcana topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers, adding 2 to close at 13 on just over 1.2 million shares. The junior received positive results from a large geochemical soil sampling and ground geophysical program at the San Carlos copper-gold porphyry-skarn project in Mexico.

Augusta Resources added 2 to close at 19 on just over 1 million shares. The company recently closed a $250,000 financing and has been actively exploring in the Coronation diamond area of Nunavut.

Spider Resources ended the session at 8, up 1 on 790,533 shares. The company’s joint venture partner KWG Resources recently reported the recovery of 8 diamonds measuring greater than 1 mm in one dimension from the Wawa property in northern Ontario.

Pan Asia Mining lost 1 to close at 7 on 792,500 shares. The cash-strapped junior has been attempting to advance the 701 diamond mine in China.

TerraStar Resources lost 1 to close at 35 on 649,200 shares. The company announced plans to change its name to Pine Point Mines and plans on advancing its Pine Point property in the Northwest Territories.

Shares in Starfield Resources got a boost on news that the drill rigs have mobilized to the Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-platinum-palladium property in Nunavut. Stock in the company added 8 to 94 with 147,500 shares changing hands.