TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE -July 5-9

It was a rough ride for the S&P/TSX Venture composite index during the July 5-9 trading week, as the board fell for two days, then gained, lost and gained. By the end of the period, the board was down 15.4 points at 1,369.55. Daily trading volumes remained weak, averaging 81.8 million.

The bearish nature of the unsettled week came through in the bulls-versus-bears contest: only 10 Venture-listed companies reached new 52-week share price highs, while 227 juniors fell to new lows.

After years of struggle, Tagish Lake Gold has found a suitor interested in the bankrupt company and its creditor-protected debt load. New Pacific Metals offered 6¢ or 0.0822 a share for each Tagish share, or a combination of 50% cash and 50% shares, and offered to buy Tagish’s roughly $7.4 million debt load. Tagish has yet to respond to the offer, though its shares climbed 2.5¢ to reach 6.5¢ apiece.

Evolving Gold found its way into the top trader list, moving 6 million shares to climb 8¢ to 84¢ apiece. The junior announced a $15.6-million private placement with Goldcorp, which bought 19 million shares at 82¢ apiece to hold 15% of the junior. The placement did not include warrants. Evolving is focused on two gold projects: Rattlesnake Hills in Wyoming and Carlin-Humboldt in Nevada.

Mala Noche Resources’ quest to buy the San Dimas gold-silver mine from Goldcorp continued over the week with a revised offer and the settlement of a legal threat. The offer has increased by US$10 million to US$510 million but now includes less cash — US$216 million — and more shares (US$184 million worth), as well as a US$60-million convertible note and a US$50-million five-year note. Mala settled a threat from Alamos Gold relating to property ownership for $1 million in cash and $12 million in shares.

Atac Resources gained on news of a new silver-lead-zinc-indium discovery at its Rau gold project in the Yukon, which is already home to a promising gold zone 15 km to the southeast. The new zone is a gossan being deposited as precipitate from acidic spring waters and the best of seven surface samples returned 2,100 grams silver per tonne, 55.33% lead, 0.74% zinc and 62 grams indium per tonne. Atac’s share price rose 27¢ to $1.98.

Also in the Yukon, Kaminak Gold drilled four step-out holes on the newly-discovered Latte zone and hit 2.35 grams gold over 51 metres and 1.27 grams gold over 78 metres, among other results. Kaminak added 26¢ to its share price over the week to close at $1.62.

And many juniors saw their share prices jump around with no news. American Consolidated Minerals, for example, moved an unusually high 9.4 million shares over the week to gain 2¢, reaching 29¢, but issued a statement clarifying that no special issues are pending. Similarly, Rare Element Resources climbed from $2.05 to $2.68 without releasing any news.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Spider Res	SPQ	69498	0.19	0.19	0.19	0.00
KWG Res	KWG	24496	0.12	0.09	0.12	-0.01
TagishLkGold	TLG	13258	0.08	0.05	0.06	+0.02
Gold Bulln Dev	GBB	12157	0.56	0.44	0.50	-0.06
Golden Hope	GNH	9654	0.71	0.54	0.56	-0.09
Am Cons Minls	AJC	9427	0.29	0.20	0.26	+ 0.02
Avanti Mng	AVT	8022	0.13	0.09	0.11	-0.01
UC Res	UC	6375	0.12	0.09	0.11	+ 0.03
Evolving Gold	EVG	6009	0.89	0.69	0.84	+ 0.08
Mala Noche Res	MLA	5312	0.39	0.23	0.25	-0.14

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
AndeanGold	AAU	49	0.16	0.15	0.15	+ 650.0
Tres-Or Res	TRS	592	0.10	0.07	0.10	+ 66.6
Gitennes Expl	GIT	224	0.08	0.05	0.08	+ 60.0
Donner Metals	DON	3874	0.30	0.17	0.28	+ 55.5
Tagish Lk Gold	TLG	13258	0.08	0.05	0.06	+ 50.0
Bold Vent	BOL	187	0.19	0.11	0.19	+ 46.1
Foran Mng	FOM	132	0.57	0.36	0.57	+ 46.1
Los Andes Copp	LA	35	0.13	0.09	0.13	+ 44.4
Kermode Res	KLM	652	0.13	0.08	0.13	+ 44.4
AMI Res	AMU	32	0.10	0.09	0.10	+ 42.8
Tanqueray Res	TQY	129	0.01	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Starfire Mnrls	SFR	61	0.02	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Upper Can Gold	UCC	112	0.22	0.16	0.16	-42.8
Goldbank Mng	GLB	22	0.17	0.12	0.12	-42.8
EurOmax Res	EOX	456	0.17	0.11	0.11	-38.8
First Pursuit	FPV	66	0.14	0.08	0.13	-38.1
Cascade Res	CC	1654	0.07	0.05	0.05	-37.5
Mala Noche Res	MLA	5312	0.39	0.23	0.25	-35.9
Argus Metals	AML	285	0.11	0.08	0.08	-33.3
Manson Creek	MCK	26	0.07	0.06	0.06	-33.3

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
RareElemntRs	RES	272517	2.68	+ 0.56
Quest Rare Mnl	QRM	320219	2.10	+ 0.33
Atac Res	ATC	1535993	1.98	+ 0.27
Kaminak Gold	KAM	2104669	1.62	+ 0.20
East Asia Mnls	EAS	997773	5.95	+ 0.20
Foran Mng	FOM	131800	0.57	+ 0.18
Apoquindo Mnls	AQM	597527	0.81	+ 0.18
Mayen Mnls	MYM	24000	0.71	+ 0.16
Colstar Vent	CTR	149398	0.78	+ 0.13
AndeanGold	AAU	49200	0.15	+ 0.13
Tsodilo Res	TSD	185093	1.23	-0.59
Rainy River Rs	RR	827279	6.08	-0.32
Maudore Minls	MAO	69263	3.37	-0.32
Sunward Res	SWD	720800	0.78	-0.31
Clifton Star	CFO	622499	3.60	-0.25
San Gold Res	SGR	3254855	4.11	-0.19
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	333360	3.99	-0.19
Bralorne Gold	BPM	98650	1.00	-0.19
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	71475	7.60	-0.15
Mala Noche Res	MLA	5312252	0.25	-0.14