Trading Summary (August 08, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange joined in with the rest of the World’s major exchanges and fell 118.03 points to end at 7,654.2 on Wednesday. Overall, just two of the TSE’s 14 subindexes finished the day in the black. The gold and precious minerals subindex was one of those, gaining 88.39 points to 4,606.64. The base metal issues were less fortunate, falling 111.62 points, or 2.8%, the largest percentage loser among the TSE’s subindexes.

The precious metals were little changed in New York, while most of them were lower on the London Metal Exchange. Exceptions were aluminum, lead and tin, which posted modest gains.

Birim Goldfields was the country’s busiest gold miner with nearly 1.7 million shares on the go — enough to rank among the TSE’s top 10 most active issues. Birim stock rose 2 to 24. Trenching by the company and partners Ashanti Goldfields over a cumulative length of 1,512 metres on the Aboronye gold prospect uncovered mineralized zones along a strike length of 700 metres. The prospect is located in a 40-sq.-km portion of the Dunkwa property in Ghana, which Birim spun off to Ashanti last year.

Barrick Gold saw about 1.1 million shares change hands as the stock rose 66 to $23.40. Other gold miners on the rise were: Placer Dome, up a quarter to $15.75; Franco-Nevada Mining, 33 higher at $20.22; Goldcorp, up 20 to $16; and Meridian Gold, which gained 45 to $13.95.

A nice percentage gainer on the day was Eldorado Gold, which rose 3.5, or 12.7%, to 31. The company announced that a four-hole reverse-circulation drill program has cut up to 8.2% copper over 5 metres at the Sayacik target, some 6 km southwest of the advanced Kisladag gold project in Turkey.

Canada’s base metal miners were in the red nearly across the board. Inco saw the most traffic with about 596,000 shares changing hands. The issue fell 87 to $24.55. Aluminum giant Alcan dropped $1.80 to $53.20, diversified miner Teck’s B shares shed a dime to $11.50, Falconbridge lost 40 to $16.40 and Noranda lost 13 to $15.77. A big percentage loser was Breakwater Resources, which slid 9, or 11.4%, to 70.

Canada’s junior exchange continued to trade in a narrow range on low volume. The Canadian Venture Exchange lost 10.66 points, or 0.3%, to finish the day at 3,087.61. The Mining Index managed to tack on 19.68 points, or 0.3%, to close at 7,485.54.

Poplar Resources topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers, ending the day unchanged at 29 on just over 1.3 million shares. Stock in the junior has climbed steadily to a 52-week high on word that $1-million financing will be used to advance the Bottenbacken palladium-copper project and the Sundsvall diamond property, both of which are in Sweden.

Anzex Resources ended the day flat at 2 on 462,000 shares. Earlier this year, the junior punched four holes into the Woodlaw platinum prospect in Southland, New Zealand. Assay results are still pending.

Leader Mining International tacked on 2 to close at 90 on 90,000 shares. Stock in the junior moved higher following the recent announcement that money is in place to move forward on the Cogburn nickel property in B.C.

Vannessa Ventures dropped 15 to 75 on a weak 12,500 shares. Apparently driving the decline was a Reuters report stating that Venezuela’s Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) has rejected Placer’s sale of its 70% interest in the Las Cristinas gold mine to Vanessa. CVG says Placer did not have its written approval for the sale.

Gulf International Minerals gave back all of yesterday’s gains, losing 9 to 35 on 90,000 shares. The company is attempting to re-commission the Aprelevka gold mine in Tajikistan.