TSX Venture Exchange – FEB. 3-9

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index broke 900 points for only the third time since mid-November during the Feb. 3-9 trading period, closing the week up 28.28 points at 901.1. Daily trading volumes were also up slightly, averaging out at 59.3 million.

Four junior mining companies climbed to new 52-week share price highs over the trading week, while 67 fell to new lows. One of the gainers was African Queen, which debuted in October with plans to hunt for gold in Mozambique. The junior recently abandoned its gold efforts to instead concentrate on diamond targets in northwestern Botswana; on news that it started drilling one of those targets, the company’s share price gained a few cents to close at 27¢, a new high.

Romarco Minerals had a busy week: a feasibility study for its Haile gold project in South Carolina gave the project a US$164-million net present value, a 24% internal rate of return, and a capital cost of US$153 million. Two days later, the junior announced plans to drill 85,000 metres at Haile this year. Romarco’s share price gained 4.5¢ over the week to close at 32¢.

Without releasing any news, Clifton Star Resources saw its share price gain 64¢ to end the period at $1.94. Clifton Star is exploring five past-producing mines lined up along the Porcupine-Destor fault in Duparquet Twp., Que., and is certainly hitting some good grades, such as 3.42 grams gold per tonne over 57.8 metres at the old Donchester mine.

On the gaining side, Canplats Resources added 42¢ to close at $2.10 and Rainy River Resources’ share price rose 30¢ to end the week at $2. Lucara Diamond was less fortunate, losing 22¢ to fall to 49¢ without any news from its diamond exploration projects in Lesotho; New Pacific Metals, which is exploring for gold in China, also lost ground, closing down 19¢ at $1.03.

It seems investors were unimpressed with SouthGobi Energy Resources’ initial resource estimate for its Mamahak coal project in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The company has defined 12.2 million measured and indicated tonnes of high-volatile metallurgical coking coal, plus 5.2 million inferred tonnes of the same grade. On the news, South shares slid 48¢ to $7.51.

Investors were pleased with recent results from Rare Element Resources’ drilling efforts at the Bear Lodge property in northeastern Wyoming. The company released assays from four holes; the best intercept was 58.8 metres of 4.12% rare earth oxides (results for the 15 elements in a rare earth elements assay are reported as the combined oxide equivalent grade). The news pushed Rare Element’s share price up 25¢ to 80¢.

And five hits weren’t enough to compensate for 13 misses in Goldsource Mines’ search for coal in Saskatchewan. Following up on its unexpected coal discovery last summer, the junior is in the midst of a 44-hole winter drill program; it seems thick intercepts in five holes was not enough for investors, who pushed Goldsource’s share price down 64¢ to $1.44.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Gold Hawk Res	CGK	7373	0.04	0.03	0.03	0.00
Dynamite Res	DNR	7284	0.15	0.11	0.14	+ 0.02
Canasia Indust	CAJ	6943	0.20	0.14	0.19	+ 0.03
Galway Res	GWY	6719	0.10	0.04	0.09	+ 0.04
Largo Res	LGO	6687	0.13	0.06	0.12	+ 0.05
Orex Expl	OX	6176	0.09	0.06	0.06	-0.01
San Gold Res	SGR	5508	1.74	1.50	1.63	+ 0.11
TagishLkGold	TLG	5380	0.03	0.01	0.03	+ 0.01
Sidon Intl Res	SD	5350	0.05	0.03	0.04	+ 0.01
Westar Res	WER	4789	0.25	0.14	0.22	+ 0.07

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Star Uranium	SUV	312	0.08	0.05	0.05	+400.0
Asian Minl Res	ASN	49	0.10	0.09	0.10	+233.3
Amerix Pr Mtls	APM	74	0.05	0.03	0.03	+200.0
Aura Silver Rs	AUU	84	0.15	0.10	0.11	+175.0
Red Rock Enrgy	RRK	21	0.13	0.08	0.13	+160.0
Wildcat Expl	WEL	460	0.07	0.04	0.05	+150.0
Harte Res	HRT	4374	0.15	0.05	0.12	+140.0
Goldrea Res	GOR	222	0.15	0.05	0.13	+116.6
Mountain-WstR	MWR	16	0.15	0.12	0.15	+114.2
Millrock Res	MRO	188	0.15	0.09	0.12	+100.0
Emgold Mng	EMR	145	0.05	0.02	0.02	-75.0
Northrock Res	NRK	12	0.03	0.01	0.01	-66.6
Lomiko Res	LMR	11	0.04	0.01	0.04	-60.0
Halo Res	HLO	372	0.05	0.03	0.03	-57.1
Quest Uranium	QUC	38	0.07	0.04	0.05	-54.5
Abitibi Mng	ABB	265	0.04	0.01	0.03	-50.0
New World Res	NW	44	0.06	0.04	0.04	-50.0
Glen Hawk Minl	GHM	152	0.01	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Wildcat Silver	WS	77	0.08	0.04	0.04	-50.0
Xtierra	XAG	309	0.15	0.05	0.05	-50.0

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Clifton Star	CFO	134453	1.94	+ 0.64
Ca nplats Res	CPQ	1012149	2.10	+ 0.42
Rainy River Rs	RR	1233753	2.00	+ 0.30
Rare Elemnt Rs	RES	173268	0.80	+ 0.25
Mosquito Cons	MSQ	254610	0.58	+ 0.22
Argentex Mng	ATX	32000	0.45	+ 0.21
East Asia Mnls	EAS	1331456	0.47	+ 0.21
Xemplar Energy	XE	3380002	0.67	+ 0.19
Uruguay Mnl Ex	UME	163300	0.43	+ 0.17
Cadiscor Res	CAO	378130	0.48	+ 0.17
Goldsource Min	GXS	1155442	1.44	-0.64
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	24850	7.51	-0.48
Lucara Diam	LUC	45530	0.49	-0.22
New Pac Metals	NUX	37130	1.03	-0.19
Intl Tower Hil	ITH	541878	2.57	-0.18
Mantra Mng	MAN	25500	0.47	-0.17
Exeter Res	XRC	608735	2.61	-0.17
Whitemud Res	WMK	91918	1.45	-0.15
Western Uran	WUC	798989	0.72	-0.13
Midland Expl	MD	370329	0.56	-0.13