Trading Summary (April 15, 2004)

Toronto’s mining stocks pulled out of their recent slide on Thursday, with the golds ending 1.76 points higher at 211.59, and the diversified miners rising 2.62 points to 213.92. Gains in the energy sector also helped the S&P-TSX Composite Index recover from earlier losses to finish just 2.95 points lower at 8,637.17.

Shares in recent proposed newlyweds Wheaton River Minerals and Iamgold continued lower; Wheaton dropped another nickel to $3.76, while Iamgold fell 2 to $7.41. On Wednesday, the pair said that their respective financial advisors have confirmed that the share exchange ratio for the proposed merger is fair to each company’s shareholders. Many market watchers believe Iamgold paid too high a price for Wheaton. Wheaton was the nation’s busiest miner with nearly 10.7 million shares traded; just more than 6.4 million Iamgold shares changed hands.

Cambior was a distant third on a volume basis with just shy of 3.9 million shares making their way 3 higher to $3.68. The company recently officially inaugurated its Rosebel gold mine in Suriname. The mine began producing in February, and has since processed a company-record 610,000 tonnes of ore.

Guinor Gold advanced another 35, or 28%, to a new 52-week high of $1.60. On Tuesday, Guinor said that it has acquired 93.7% of the issued shares in Norwegian-based miner Kenor. By taking more than 40% of the shares Guinor is obliged to make an offer for the remaining shares.

Canada’s major gold producers put in mixed results: Barrick Gold rose 30 to make $29.15, Place Dome grabbed 27 to make $21.97, and Kinross Gold finished unchanged at $9.08.

Zinc miner Breakwater Resources was the most active base metal miner, but ended unchanged at 51 on a handful fewer than 2 million shares. Ivanhoe Mines jumped more than 10% to $8.35 on more than a million shares.

In diamond news, Twin Mining jumped 3, or 9%, to 36.5 after the company said that a subsidiary of Rio Tinto has agreed to take up to a 75% stake in the Jackson Inlet diamond project on Baffin Island’s Brodeur Peninsula.