Canada’s main stock index inched up after the first trading week since U.S. president Donald J. Trump took office. The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 0.2% to close at 15,575.81. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index rose 0.9% to 71.03, while the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index tumbled 1.1% to 209.22. The spot gold price fell 1.5% to US$1,191.30 per ounce.
Uranium producer Paladin Energy shares rose 39% on no corporate news. On Jan. 27, the company acknowledged the increase in its share price and higher-than-average share trading volume. However, Paladin stated there is no pending news and that it is not aware of any “company-specific” activities that could have led to the increase. But it noted that the uranium spot price improved, with brokers quoting the price at US$24 per lb., up 39% from its recent low in December.
Meanwhile, Paladin is pursing a proposed balance sheet restructuring, which could lower the company’s debt obligation and extend the remaining debt’s maturity. Paladin finished at 13¢ per share, as 17.8 million shares changed hands.
Encouraging drill results pushed Balmoral Resources shares up 22%. On Jan. 23, the company published results from seven 2016 holes testing the Bug South gold deposit on the Martiniere property in Quebec. Results continue to return wide intercepts of high-grade gold and show continuity between sections.
Highlights from these holes include 42 metres grading 3.24 grams gold per tonne, including 11.6 metres of 6.30 grams gold from the Upper Bug zone. Another hole from the Hanging Wall zone hit 10.1 metres of 7.34 grams gold, including a 5.3-metre interval of 13.54 grams gold.
Balmoral also cut a new zone of zinc-lead-silver-gold mineralization at a shallow depth. The 5.4-metre interval returned an average grade of 2.8% zinc, 2.7% lead, 99.11 grams silver and 0.19 gram gold. The intercepts are not true widths.
More results from the 2016 year-end program are pending. Balmoral is working on the winter road into the Martiniere camp, and is restarting drilling on the property. Balmoral shares ended at 90¢.
Iron ore spot prices rose 2.9% to US$82.40 per tonne. Higher iron ore prices, among other things, helped lift the shares of iron ore developers.
New Millennium Iron rose 37% to 34¢ per share. The company has a minority interest in Tata Steel Minerals Canada, which owns a direct-shipping ore project in the Schefferville region of Canada’s Labrador Trough. New Millennium has not released any news in 2017.
Alderon Iron Ore, the owner of the feasibility-stage Kami iron ore project in the Labrador Trough, jumped 36% to 72¢ per share. On Jan. 24, Alderon announced that Tayfun Eldem — the company’s president and CEO until August 2015 — returned to the board. Alderon is rescoping at Kami, with results anticipated in the first quarter.
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