Trading Summary (August 22, 2001)

Trading patterns today on North American markets were a mirror image of yesterday’s trading, with a broad market rally led industrials and conglomerates.

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index rose 0.88% to 7538.60 points, with the industrial-products sector.

Yesterday’s safe haven, the Gold & Precious Metals subindex, was one of the few decliners, falling 0.91% to 4887.51 points. Barrick Gold fell slightly to $25.70, Placer Dome dropped 37 cents to $17.05 and Franco-Nevada Mining declined modestly to $20.30.

Among the juniors, Geomaque Exploration was severely whacked after releasing its lacklustre second-quarter results yesterday. Shares dropped 10.5 cents to 12.5 cents.

The Metals & Minerals subindex recovered from yesterday’s decline and added 1.24% to 4105.69, led by a 2% rise in index heavyweight Alcan. Teck-Cominco, the day’s most heavily traded mining issue on the TSE, added 38 cents to hit $12.87.

Canada’s junior exchange opened higher but sellers quickly jumped in to push the market lower by the close. The Canadian Venture Exchange lost 16.73 points, or 0.5%, to finish the day at 3,063.97. The Mining Index bucked the trend, climbing 58.74 points, or 0.8%, to close at 7,453.05.

Cash-strapped Conquistador Mines topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers, ending the day flat at 2 on just over 1 million shares. The company has traded near a 52-week low since announcing that it has been unable to attain funding for its Colombian operations. A liquidator has been appointed to attend to the dissolution of Corona Goldfields S.A. The company does not expect to receive any proceeds from the liquidation.

A renegotiated agreement over the Salamandra gold property in Mexico helped shares in National Gold inch up 1 to 15 on a volume of 858,000. The deal was originally inked in December, but the junior has had trouble coming up with the payments for the $10.5-million purchase. The new contract has the first payment due by the end of 2004 and is tied to the price of gold.

Despite boosting the inferred resource of its Ferguson Lake property in Nunavut to 51.7 million tonnes grading 0.92% copper, 0.58% nickel and 1.44 grams combined platinum-palladium-gold (using a 1% nickel-copper cutoff) shares in Starfield Resources ended the day flat at 50 on moderate volume.

Donner Mineral lost 2 to end the day at 13 on 530,000 shares. The junior holds a stake in the South Voisey Bay project, which is located 90 km south of Inco’s multi-billion-dollar Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Labrador.

Quaterra Resources tacked on 1 to close at 18 on 138,000 shares. The company is gearing up to drill-test the Union Bay platinum project in Alaska.

Shares in Radius Exploration touched a low not seen since the company started drilling the Tambor gold property in Guatemala, losing 5 to 82 on a volume of 37,000. Six of the first seven holes drilled into the Lupita target returned widespread intervals of 0.7-2 grams gold per tonne.