Trading Summary (November 01, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange continued to rebound on Thursday gaining 98.9 points or 1.4% to 6,984.6 points. Leading the way was the financial sector with a 2.5% gain to 10,223.16 points. The Metals & Minerals subindex gained 76.24 points to 3,643.51 points, while the Gold & Precious Minerals subindex tacked on 26.83 points to end at 5,063.99 points. By day’s end, only one of the TSE’s fourteen subindices was in the red.

Pure Gold Minerals soaring 7 or 88% to 15 with nearly 4 million shares on the move was the nation’s busiest mining issue. On Thursday, Pure Gold announced that the newly discovered Artemisia kimberlite pipe in Nunavut has returned promising microdiamond counts. Pure Gold’s partner on the project is Ashton Mining of Canada. For its part Ashton gained 41 or 48% to $1.26.

In other diamond news, the Anuri East kimberlite body, some 120 km northwest of the Jericho project in Nunavut, has also returned encouraging microdiamond counts. Kennecott discovered the pipe on Tahera’s Rockinghorse property earlier this year. Tahera’s stock climbed 2 or 15.4% to 15 with more than 1.2 million shares traded.

Placer Dome was the busiest gold miner with more than 1.4 million shares changing hands. The issue fell 5 to $18.35. Barrick Gold rose a quarter to $25; Franco-Nevada Mining tacked on 2 to $22.62; Kinross Gold gained 3 to $1.38.

Novagold returned half of Wednesday’s 8 gain to settle at $1.95. On Wednesday, Novagold posted third-quarter net income of $800,000 (3 per share) on revenue of $2.5 million for the nine months ended August 31, compared with a net loss of $1.3 million (6 per share) on revenue of $2.2 million for the corresponding period of 2000. Wheaton River Minerals saw some renewed action with more than 500,00 shares on the move. The issue was unchanged at 66. Iamgold rose 20 or 5.8% to $3.65.

Teck Cominco was the busiest base metal miner with just less than 1 million shares traded. The diversified miner’s stock gained 30 to $10.60. Other gainers were Inco, up 14 at $21.89; and Sherritt International, which added 10 to hit $4.20. Aur Resources regained the 17 lost on Wednesday to finish at $2.75; and Breakwater Resources, grabbed a penny to hit 17. Aluminum giant Alcan rose $1.20 to $49.90. On Thursday, the Montreal-based firm celebrated 100 years of aluminum production in Canada. Alcan produced 1.1 million tonnes of aluminum (or 46% of the aluminum made in Canada) at seven smelters in 2000.

Canada’s junior exchange failed to follow through on yesterday’s rally. The Canadian Venture Exchange ended the day down 2.69 points, or 0.1% to finish the day at 2,965.84. The Mining Index dropped 78.08 points, or 1% to close at 7,518.86.

Starfield Resources continued to fall prey to selling pressure, dropping 5 to close at 46 on 807,300 shares. The company announced that hole 104, on the West zone of the Ferguson Lake deposit, near Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, cut a new zone of high-grade palladium platinum mineralization. Collared 500 metres east of hole 101, which, as previously reported, cut a 0.35-metre-thick zone, 15 metres above the massive sulphides, yielding 103 grams palladium and 26.7 grams platinum per tonne at a down-hole depth of 962.3 metres, the latest hole cut the massive sulphide horizon returning 1.24% copper, 0.94% nickel, 0.09% cobalt, 2.27 grams palladium an 0.3 gram platinum over 8.8 metres from 843.6 metres down-hole. A little over 1-metre below this intercept, the low sulphide zone was encountered yielding 9.9 grams palladium, 1.44 grams platinum over 0.5 metres.

Investors sold off shares in IMA Exploration following the results from the remaining 18 holes in a 33-hole program over the Rio Tabaconas property in northwestern Peru. Targeting the main Cerro Tablon target, which is defined by rock-chip and soil sampling over an area measuring 600 by 200 metres, the best hole of the program, #29, returned 18 grams gold per tonne over 16.4 metres (estimated true width of 7 metres). Included in this interval was a bonanza grade section running 118 grams gold over 2.2 metres. IMA ended the day off 6 to 41 on 107,500 shares.

A nice percentage gainer, Rhonda ended the day at 40, up 4 on 674,200 shares. Investors appear to be reacting to favourable diamond counts from Toronto-listed Ashton Mining of Canada and Tahera properties in Nunavut. Rhonda holds the nearby Knife diamond property being worked by De Beers. De Beers can earn a 70% interest by expending $10 million on the property and carrying Rhonda to production.

Eurasia Gold added 1 to close at 3 on 524,000 shares. The junior holds the Central Mukur and Myaly gold mining licences in Kazakhstan.