TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE JULY 19-23

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index managed four days of straight gains following an early week dip to close up 15.49 points at 1,394.98. Daily trading volumes increased for another week, averaging 95.3 million.

Despite the overall gain, the market is still decidedly bearish: 18 juniors hit new highs while 230 fell to new lows.

North Country Gold’s share price shot up 11.5¢ or 45.1% to close at 37¢, following some impressive initial drill results from its Three Bluffs gold project in Nunavut. The company went public in April and has since been busy drilling on its 2,256-sq.-km land package, 300 km northeast of Baker Lake. The best drill result to date from Three Bluffs is 42.1 metres grading 5.88 grams gold per tonne from 7 metres depth.

Rare earth element-based companies Rare Element Resources and Quest Rare Minerals both saw the biggest share price gains a week after China announced measures to restrict the supply of rare earth elements. On no news released by the companies, Rare Element Resources shares climbed 66¢ or 27.4% to $3.07 and Quest Rare Minerals shares rose 57¢ or 27.4% to $2.69.

Antares Minerals saw strong gains following the release of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Haquira copper-molybdenum-gold project in southern Peru. The PEA outlined a mine with a net present value of US$1.07 billion, producing 4.25 million lbs. copper, 5 million lbs. moly and 27,000 oz. gold a year for 20 years. The 130,000-tonnes-per-day operation has an after-tax internal rate of return of 16.4% using a long-term copper price of US$2.25 per lb. and a discount rate of 8%. Shares were up 30¢ to $2.59.

Creso Exploration continued to see significant stock activity and price swings as the company released preliminary results from its Minto gold project in Ontario. It shares gained 9¢ or 20.4% to close at 58¢, on 9.1 million trades. The company, which changed its name from Willowstar Capital in June, has extended two holes on its property. The extension of hole 2, which earlier hit 65.7 metres of 18.2 grams gold and 79.6 metres of 4.61 grams gold, hit a further 7.6 metres grading 5.82 grams gold at 423 metres depth; the extension of hole 1 still awaits assaying.

The first three reported holes in a 10,000-metre drill program helped propel Premium Exploration’s shares up 12.5¢ or 38.5% to 45¢. The company is working through a drill program on its Friday-Petsite gold project in central Idaho, with the latest results extending the strike length by 200 metres in the Lower Block. Drill results included 203 metres grading 0.98 gram gold from surface, 275 metres carrying 1.84 grams gold from 14.6 metres and 157.9 metres of 2.23 grams gold from 221 metres depth.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Terrane Metals	TRX	63420	1.38	1.33	1.38	+ 0.03
Sidon Intl Res	SD	20321	0.16	0.09	0.12	+ 0.02
KWG Res	KWG	16262	0.13	0.10	0.13	+ 0.01
Cons Spire Vnt	CZS	15269	0.05	0.02	0.05	+ 0.01
AdmiralBayRs	ADB	14783	0.03	0.01	0.02	+0.01
Canaco Res	CAN	11105	1.74	1.48	1.66	+ 0.10
ChrisJamesGl	CJG	9123	0.09	0.05	0.08	+0.01
Creso Expl	CXT	9066	0.62	0.44	0.58	+ 0.08
Canadn Arrow	CRO	8031	0.04	0.03	0.04	0.00
Ashburton Vent	ABR	6499	0.09	0.07	0.09	+ 0.01

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Admiral Bay Rs	ADB	14783	0.03	0.01	0.02	+ 100.0
Bison Gold Res	BGE	1635	0.17	0.10	0.14	+ 75.0
Metropolitn Mg	MNZ	274	0.15	0.13	0.15	+ 66.6
Avanti Mng	AVT	5817	0.16	0.09	0.16	+ 60.0
Mainstream Mnl	MJO	206	0.08	0.06	0.08	+ 60.0
Gold Summit	GSM	123	0.11	0.09	0.11	+ 57.1
Tournigan Engy	TVC	1468	0.19	0.10	0.17	+ 54.5
Taku Gold	TAK	1542	0.33	0.20	0.32	+ 52.3
Eureka Res	EUK	22	0.09	0.09	0.09	+ 50.0
Augen Capital	AUG	179	0.06	0.04	0.06	+ 50.0
Mazorro Res	MZO	420	0.10	0.08	0.08	-46.6
Star Uranium	SUV	22	0.04	0.03	0.03	-40.0
Silver Spruce	SSE	1811	0.05	0.04	0.04	-33.3
Savant Expl	SVT	259	0.09	0.06	0.06	-33.3
Mesa Uran	MSA	51	0.28	0.18	0.23	-32.3
Intl Northair	INM	345	0.08	0.06	0.07	-30.0
Tumi Res	TM	31	0.13	0.10	0.10	-28.5
Killdeer Mnls	KMI	107	0.14	0.10	0.10	-28.5
Knick Expl	KNX	15	0.22	0.20	0.22	-26.6
Galantas Gold	GAL	1343	0.04	0.03	0.03	-25.0

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
RareElemntRs	RES	701099	3.07	+ 0.66
Quest Rare Mnl	QRM	739271	2.69	+ 0.57
Clifton Star	CFO	783514	4.11	+ 0.46
Antares Minls	ANM	502878	2.59	+ 0.30
Hana Mng	HMG	341174	1.56	+ 0.23
Maudore Minls	MAO	49608	3.54	+ 0.19
Fission Energy	FIS	550968	0.63	+ 0.16
Mayen Mnls	MYM	58900	0.84	+ 0.13
Premium Expl	PEM	5928541	0.45	+ 0.13
Andean Am Mng	AAG	2875884	0.69	+ 0.13
Centurion Mnls	CTN	304082	1.48	-0.21
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	860360	3.60	-0.20
Eurasian Minls	EMX	128164	1.70	-0.17
Orko Silver	OK	443565	1.33	-0.15
St Elias Mns	SLI	467954	1.32	-0.15
Grayd Res	GYD	115450	0.79	-0.13
Avino Silver	ASM	59000	0.71	-0.11
Mesa Uran	MSA	50908	0.23	-0.11
SpanishMtnGd	SPA	2043735	0.38	-0.10
Foundation Res	FDN	242260	0.32	-0.09