TSX hits high as golds ease

Toronto stocks added another 7.59 points over the Nov. 17-23 report period to end at a 4-year high of 8,995.19. The gold index yo-yoed its way 3.68 points lower to 225.5 even as the yellow metal tacked on US$4.70 to finish at US$448.15 per oz. in the afternoon in London on Nov. 23. The diversified miners shed 0.63 of a point to 257.42, with the base metals ending mixed.

Thistle Mining was one of the TSX’s busiest miners, with around 28 million shares falling two pennies to 3. Most of that came at the period’s end, after the company stated that its finance director, John Brown, would immediately leave the company. Standard Bank London and the Standard Bank of South Africa recently sold Thistle’s senior finance documents to Meridian Capital. Thistle says Meridian is planning to recapitalize the company. The sale saw Standard Bank withdraw a notice of default on debt repayment to the miner.

Shares in Apollo Gold rocketed a quarter, or 27%, to $1.18. The latest batch of drill results from the company’s Black Fox gold project, 8 km east of Matheson, Ont., includes 6.3 metres grading 86.3 grams gold. The company is working to define an underground resource, which will be the basis for a feasibility study slated for completion in mid-2005.

Positive drill results also sent shares in Ivanhoe Mines higher to the tune of a nickel to $8.50. Step-out drilling on the Hugo North deposit returned the best-ever copper-gold intersection from the company’s Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia. Hugo North is one of five copper and gold deposits at the project.

Gateway Gold survived a late period slide to finish 35, or 25%, better at $1.75. The Vancouver-based company is busy working in and around old pits in the northern end of the Independence mountain range in Nevada. Late in the period, the company reported a third-quarter loss of $792,194 (or 4 a share), compared with a year-earlier loss of $195,495 (3 a share). The wider loss is attributed to increased exploration and non-cash charges for stock-based compensation.

Another impressive percentage gainer was Twin Mining, which jumped 5.5, or 24%, to 28.5, after tabling a final feasibility study of the Atlanta gold project in Idaho. The project’s base case generates an internal rate of return of 24.6%, with payback coming in 2.6 years.

Timminco put in an 8 gain to make 70. The specialty and light-metals company recently reported a third-quarter loss of $2.3 million (or 6 a share), compared with a year-earlier loss of $1 million (3 a share). Much of the loss is attributed to the weakening greenback.

Hillsborough Resources soared 23, or 36%, to 87. The Vancouver-based coal miner has inked a letter-of-intent to acquire Tennessee-based Cumberland Coal to take the latter’s currently uneconomic Crossville-area coal mine underground. Hillsborough currently operates the Quinsam mine, Canada’s only underground coal mine, on Vancouver Island.

Grande Cache Coal has begun producing from its No. 7 underground mine in west-central Alberta’s Smoky River coal field. So far, some 20,000 tonnes of coal have been mined and stockpiled. The mine is expected to start producing 100,000 tonnes per month early next year. The issue rose 27%, to $11.75.