TSX rises, Jan. 7-11: Barrick, Xanadu, Golden Queen, Pretium, Nautilus

After a jittery year-end, investors jumped back into stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange during the first full week of trading in 2019, pushing the S&P/TSX Index up 512.4 points — or 3.6% over the trading period — to 14,939.20 on Jan. 11.

The volume leader was Barrick, which dropped $1.03 to $16.52, as it began the year trading as the new merged entity, incorporating Randgold Resources’ gold assets and management team.

Australian junior Xanadu Mines was the greatest percentage gainer, rising 38% to 17¢ on small volume, and falling back to 11¢ at press time. Andrew Stuart-led Xanadu says it controls “one of the most promising porphyry copper-gold projects in Asia, with Kharmagtai” in Mongolia, and has an expanding portfolio of exploration projects in the country, including Red Mountain and Yellow Mountain.

Vancouver-based Golden Queen Mining was the greatest percentage loser, dropping 60% to 5¢. The junior is an emerging gold-silver producer with a 50% interest in an open-pit, heap-leach mining operation on the Soledad Mountain property in southern California. On Jan. 8, the company reported Thomas M. Clay and associated entities had approached it with a non-binding proposal to acquire the company.

Pretium Resources was another gold miner on the downtrend, sinking 20% to $9.31, as it reported fourth-quarter production numbers from its Brucejack high-grade gold mine in B.C., which fell 5% short of guidance. For all of 2018, Pretium produced 376,012 oz. gold, or 97% of guidance of 387,000 oz. gold for the year. The next day, Pretium said it “retained independent legal counsel to initiate an investigation of unusual trading activity in its shares.”

Aspiring undersea miner Nautilus Minerals rose 18% to 7¢, as it reported on Jan. 8 that it and Deep Sea Mining Finance Ltd. extended the maturity date of an existing secured loan facility by 30 days to Feb. 8, 2019. Nautilus is in discussions with an arm’s length party to secure a US$5-million loan, and added that it “must receive the loan, or another source of funding … for the Nautilus group of companies to continue operations.” As of press time on Jan. 15, it had not secured the US$5-million loan, but Deep Sea Mining Finance had come up with a US$500,000 short-term loan.

Gold miner TMAC Resources dropped $1.30, or 19%, to $5.62. On Jan. 15 the gold miner had good news: it had gotten approval of two Type A water licences for the Madrid and Boston projects at its Hope Bay gold mine project in Nunavut.