TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE -Aug. 30-Sept. 3

In a clear end to the summer doldrums the S&P TSX Venture composite index gained ground every day over the Aug. 30-Sept. 3 trading period, adding 77.11 points to reach 1,565.96. Daily trading volumes also improved significantly, averaging 121.8 million.

The board’s ascent did not manage to give the bulls an edge over the bears. Over the week, 73 Venture-listed companies reached new 52-week share price highs while 152 juniors fell to new lows.

The story of the week was undoubtedly Atac Resources, which shot up $3.57 or 147% to reach $6 apiece. Atac has spent much of its season drilling the known Tiger zone at its large Rau gold property in the Yukon, for which it will calculate a gold oxide resource before the end of the year, but recent excitement stems from the new Osiris discovery. Osiris is 100 km east of Tiger and the first hole into the new area cut 65.2 metres grading 4.65 grams gold per tonne, including 31 metres of 9.26 grams gold.

The area play that is in the Yukon also lifted several other northern explorers. Kaminak Gold, exploring its Coffee gold project, gained 51¢ to reach $3.45 without releasing any news. Radius Gold, which just started drilling its Sixty Mile project in the Yukon, added 11¢ to its share price to end at 70¢. Taku Gold continued to rise another 7.5¢ to hit 48.5¢, despite only holding early-stage prospects.

Interest is growing in a pair of projects in northwest Ontario’s Richardson Township. Rainy River Resources gained $1.14 to reach a new high of $7.54 on news of an extremely high-grade hit at its namesake project: hole 532, an infill hole on the western side of the ODM zone, returned 407.9 grams gold over 4.5 metres from 415 metres depth. Bayfield Ventures’ Burns Block project, which is adjacent to Rainy River’s ground, produced a 3-metre intercept carrying 31.7 grams gold earlier in the month. Over the week Bayfield’s shares gained 24¢ to 79¢ apiece.

A few hundred kilometres east, near Rouyn-Noranda, Que., Gold Bullion Development is having success at its Granada gold project. It simply announced the completion of an earn-in on two mining leases that form part of the project; yet the company saw its share price climb 12¢ to 67¢ on 8.5 million shares traded. A drill working to define the eastern extension to the Long Bars zone has reportedly returned large alteration and intrusive zones.

And Chesapeake Gold outperformed the average for the week, gaining $1.35 to reach $8.35 without releasing any news. The company’s flagship asset is the Metates gold-silver project in Mexico’s Durango state, which boasts 17.2 million oz. gold and 467 million oz. silver in the measured and indicated categories. A preliminary economic assessment found a US$3.2-billion investment could fund development of a large, open-pit operation with a mine life of at least 27 years.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
NorthernSupR	SUP	17984	0.41	0.25	0.40	+0.11
Atac Res	ATC	13831	6.00	2.43	6.00	+ 3.57
Arctic Star Di	ADD	12174	0.05	0.04	0.05	+ 0.01
Allana Res	AAA	11922	0.47	0.38	0.44	+ 0.05
Bayfield Vent	BYV	10314	0.83	0.53	0.79	+ 0.24
Encore Ren Res	EZ	10202	0.10	0.06	0.09	-0.03
TagishLkGold	TLG	10131	0.13	0.09	0.12	+0.02
Strategic Metl	SMD	8838	1.43	0.76	1.42	+ 0.63
Gold Bulln Dev	GBB	8461	0.70	0.52	0.67	+ 0.12
Klondike Silv	KS	8442	0.05	0.03	0.04	0.00

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Atac Res	ATC	13831	6.00	2.43	6.00	+ 146.9
Rockhaven Res	RK	2753	0.75	0.26	0.62	+ 121.4
Ansell Capital	ACP	724	0.25	0.11	0.23	+ 109.0
Expedition Mng	EXU	3870	0.17	0.08	0.16	+ 100.0
Inter-Rock Mnl	IRO	50	0.06	0.06	0.06	+ 100.0
Strategic Metl	SMD	8838	1.43	0.76	1.42	+ 79.7
Currie Rose Rs	CUI	5214	0.12	0.08	0.12	+ 71.4
Canterra Mnls	CTM	1375	0.22	0.15	0.21	+ 61.5
Savant Expl	SVT	2086	0.17	0.11	0.17	+ 54.5
Arcus Dev Grp	ADG	3952	0.44	0.25	0.40	+ 53.8
Pinestar Gold	PNS	256	0.06	0.05	0.05	-44.4
Micrex Devel	MIX	126	0.12	0.06	0.06	-40.0
Verbina Res	VUR	600	0.17	0.11	0.12	-33.3
Bonanza Res	BRS	34	0.25	0.19	0.19	-32.1
Emgold Mng	EMR	25	0.22	0.19	0.19	-29.6
Chilean Gold	CHN	14	0.35	0.28	0.30	-28.5
Orsa Vent	ORN	98	0.11	0.11	0.11	-26.6
Celeste Copper	C	77	0.04	0.03	0.03	-25.0
ICS Copper Sys	ICX	213	0.10	0.06	0.06	-25.0
Encore Ren Res	EZ	10202	0.10	0.06	0.09	-25.0

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Atac Res	ATC	13831086	6.00	+ 3.57
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	87169	8.35	+ 1.35
RareElemntRs	RES	1907843	5.25	+ 1.22
Rainy River Rs	RR	5220099	7.54	+ 1.14
Canaco Res	CAN	5590833	2.89	+ 0.70
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	1299370	5.69	+ 0.69
Strategic Metl	SMD	8838066	1.42	+ 0.63
Quest Rare Mnl	QRM	1184488	3.95	+ 0.63
Kaminak Gold	KAM	3693254	3.45	+ 0.51
Mirasol Res	MRZ	570570	2.65	+ 0.42
East Asia Mnls	EAS	892452	5.47	-0.73
Clifton Star	CFO	833060	3.95	-0.23
Macarthur Mnl	MMS	52900	1.51	-0.16
Medoro Res	MRS	3545088	1.71	-0.15
Chilean Gold	CHN	14200	0.30	-0.12
Rocky Mtn Res	RKY	25000	0.70	-0.10
Bonanza Res	BRS	33917	0.19	-0.09
Aldridge Minls	AGM	21400	0.90	-0.09
Probe Mines	PRB	914971	0.61	-0.08
Emgold Mng	EMR	25005	0.19	-0.08