TSX advances, Sept. 3-6: Nickel Creek Platinum, Stornoway Diamond, Freegold Ventures

The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 0.84% to close the holiday-shortened trading week at 16,519.85. Spot gold finished at US$1506.50 per oz., down US$13.10 per oz., after hitting a mid-week high of US$1546.10. Silver rose to US$19.31 per oz. in the period, but closed the week down 20.5¢ at US$18.15 per ounce. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index fell 7.03% to end at 248.08, while the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index advanced 15.08% to 97.79, and the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index dropped 2.32% to 75.80.

Leading the week in percent gain was Toronto-headquartered junior Nickel Creek Platinum, which saw its shares end up 35.3% at 12¢ apiece. The junior is developing its advanced nickel-copper-PGM-cobalt project in the southwest Yukon, 320 km northwest of Whitehorse. Nickel Creek is conducting geophysics on new targets, environmental baseline studies and community engagement at the project. The company did not release any news in the trading week, but the week earlier it held its annual general meeting, which saw its management-nominated directors elected. On Aug. 29, the company announced it closed the second tranche of a previously announced private placement, wherein it raised $351,000 by issuing 8.57 million shares at 4.1¢ each.

Embattled Quebecois diamond producer Stornoway Diamond took second place in percent gain for the week, rising 33.3%, with just a 0.5¢ price increase to 2¢ per share. The company’s shares were heavily traded, with more than 27 million units changing hands. Stornoway has been struggling to economically operate its Renard diamond mine in north-central Quebec amid depressed rough diamond prices. The company declared a net loss of $346.3 million for the quarter ended June 30. The loss’s large size is mostly owed to a non-cash impairment charge covering a write-down of mine-site property and equipment at Quebec’s first and only diamond mine.

Vancouver-headquartered junior Freegold Ventures shares jumped 18.8% in the period it announced raising $2 million in a non-brokered private placement. Freegold shares ended at 10¢ apiece. Financier Eric Sprott bought more than 31 million units at 6.25¢ each. Each unit includes a share and half-warrant to buy another share for 8.1¢, within 36 months of closing. Sprott now holds 14% of Freegold, which owns a pair of exploration projects in Alaska, including the Shorty Creek copper-gold property, 125 km northwest of the city of Fairbanks. South32 optioned Shorty Creek in March 2019, and can acquire 70% of the project by spending at least US$30 million on exploration. A US$2.3-million, 2,000-metre drilling program is underway, aimed at expanding mineralization at Hill 1835, and testing the Hill 1710 target.