Trading Summary (September 13, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange, North America’s lone senior equity market to trade on Thursday, managed to scrape back 53.5 points to end at 7,102.3 points after plummeting more than 4% before trading was halted following Tuesday morning’s tragic events in the United States. The crisis-sensitive gold and oil sectors were two of three subindices to end in the red. The Oil & Gas subindex fell 336.26 points or 3.7% to 8,844.99, while the Gold & Precious Minerals subindex lost 109.08 or 2.1 % to 5,141.64 points.

Barrick Gold was the country’s most active mining stock with more than 2.5 million shares changing hands. The issue fell 80 to $26.90. Placer Dome shed 20 to $18.40, Franco-Nevada fell 70 to $20.71 and Goldcorp lost 35 to $18.40. On Thursday, Goldcorp upped reserves at its Red Lake mine in northwestern Ontario, following a review of its ore reserve calculation methodology, particularly with respect to grade.

Big percentage losers among the gold miners included: Miramar Mining, off 13 or 11.3% to $1.02, Cambior, down 7 or 9.7% to 65, Hope Bay Gold, down 3 or 10.3% to 26 and Viceroy Resources, which fell 1.5 or 10.7% to 12.5.

The base metals were mostly lower in Europe, but the TSE’s Metals & Minerals subindex managed to tack on 57.13 points or 1.5% to reach 3,791.15 points. Teck Cominco was the busiest base metal miner falling 4 to $11.32 on nearly 1.5 million shares. The company announced late on Wednesday that it intends to accept Sons of Gwalia’s takeover bid for PacMin Mining, which is an 80%-controlled subsidiary of Teck Cominco.

Most of the other put in modest gains. Two highlights were Falconbridge, which rose 74 or 5% to $15.60 and Sherritt International, which gained 40 or 9.6% to $4.55. Also sticking out was zinc miner Breakwater Resources sliding 8 or 14.6% to 47.

Canada’s junior exchange failed to refute the pundits as shares opened sharply lower and showed only modest signs of recovering as the day wore on. The Canadian Venture Exchange plunged 45.27 points, or 1.5%, to finish the day at 2,893.34. The Mining Index dropped 66.63 points, or 0.9%, to close at 7,338.05.

Goldnev Resources added 4 to 8 on almost 4 million shares. The company has no active properties in its portfolio and the market appears to be reacting to the news that Medbroadcast Corp. has been negotiating the sale of 3.55 million shares of Goldnev to a group of individual investors.

Eurasia Mining ended the day flat at 2 with 801,000 shares changing hands. The cash-strapped junior owns the Central Mukur and Myaly heap-leach gold mines in northeast Kazakhstan.

Seabridge Resources ended the day unchanged at 60 on 496,000 shares. The junior has a number of advanced gold projects and is highly leveraged to an increase in the price of gold. Most recently, Seabridge picked up Placer Dome’s Kerr-Sulphside gold project, some 20 km southeast of the Eskay Creek gold-rich massive-sulphide mine in B.C.

A nice percentage gainer, First Labrador Acquisitions tacked on 3 to 10 on 305,000 shares. The junior holds ground in the Fort a la Corne diamond district of Saskatchewan.

Investors continued to sell off shares of Radius Exploration following the release of the latest assay results from the Sastre zone on the Tambor gold property in Guatemala. Stock in the Simon Ridgway-led junior lost 6 to close at 43 on a modest volume of 49,000.