TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE -March 23-29

After a week of losses, the S&P/ TSX Venture composite index resumed its gradual increase over the March 23-29 week, adding 17.64 points to close at 1572.23. Daily trading volumes were strong, averaging 115 million.

The overall gain lifted 69 Venture-listed companies to new 52-week share price highs, but failed to save 66 juniors from falling to new lows.

The week’s volume leader was North American Gem, which moved 17.5 million shares to close the week up 3¢ at 14¢. The company is nearing full production at its No. 1 coal mine in Whitley County, Ky., which means the operation should produce 8,000 tons of coal per month within a few weeks. North American Gem is also advancing permitting at two nearby deposits and has completed upgrades at its coal prep and rail loading facility.

St. Elias Mines saw its share price more than double to $2.11 from 94¢ on news of a pending geophysical survey at the company’s Tesoro gold project in southwest Peru. The first survey delineated 12 high-priority targets, several of which correlate with known gold mineralization. To date, the company has identified five mineralized zones with more than 50 veins and has carried out development work on three of those veins. The 1,021 tonnes extracted has an average grade of 31.9 grams gold.

Short, high-grade intercepts such as 36.7 grams gold per tonne over 1.5 metres, failed to impress investors in Maudore Minerals, which lost 42¢ to close at $3.53. Maudore is exploring the Comtois project near Val d’Or, Que. The last resource estimate, completed in 2002, defined 808,000 inferred tonnes grading 20.2 grams gold; Maudore plans to update the resource soon.

Rainy River Resources investors were impressed by the company’s gold intercepts from its namesake project in northwest Ontario, lifting its share price 36¢ to $5.36, a new high. Rainy River pulled such intercepts as 26.21 grams gold over 13.5 metres, 8.26 grams gold over 21 metres, and 32.6 grams gold over 1 metre. The company has already drilled 21,000 metres this year and plans to provide a preliminary economic assessment on both open-pit and underground mining options within six months.

Riverstone Resources kicked off a 9,000-metre drill program at its Nami project in Burkina Faso and closed a $9.65-million financing to fund the effort. The news came on the back of sampling results from the week before, which returned an average of 1.3 grams gold from artisanal mining waste piles at Nami. Riverstone gained 9¢ to reach a new high of 99¢ before settling to 95¢ to close the week.

The early exercise of 3.75 million warrants at $2 a piece added $7.5 million to the coffers at Antares Minerals, and news of the warrant funding lifted Antare’s share price by 23¢ to reach $2.43, a new high. The investment came from World Bank’s International Finance Corp.. Antares is exploring the Haquira copper-molybdenum-gold project in southern Peru.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
North Am Gem	NAG	17536	0.15	0.10	0.14	+ 0.03
Eagle Hill Exp	EAG	17320	0.47	0.32	0.34	-0.04
Brett Res	BBR	16878	3.00	2.76	2.99	+ 0.17
Alexandria Mnl	AZX	16182	0.23	0.14	0.19	+ 0.05
RomarcoMnrls	R	13941	2.02	1.89	1.93	-0.07
Tribute Minls	TBM	11572	0.23	0.12	0.21	+ 0.08
StEliasMns	SLI	8910	2.22	0.94	2.11	+1.17
Red Hill Engy	RH	8859	0.86	0.63	0.80	+ 0.18
KWG Res	KWG	8538	0.12	0.10	0.12	+ 0.01
Cons Spire Vnt	CZS	8165	0.06	0.05	0.05	+ 0.01

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
St Elias Mns	SLI	8910	2.22	0.94	2.11	+124.4
Castle Res	CRI	710	0.18	0.08	0.16	+ 77.7
NewShoshoniV	NSV	2965	0.28	0.14	0.28	+ 75.0
Tres-Or Res	TRS	4482	0.16	0.09	0.15	+ 66.6
Mill Bay Vent	MBV	1021	0.09	0.04	0.05	+ 66.6
Tribute Minls	TBM	11572	0.23	0.12	0.21	+ 61.5
Santa Fe Metls	SFM	535	0.21	0.12	0.17	+ 54.5
Atlantic Ind M	ANL	11	0.09	0.09	0.09	+ 50.0
Candorado Oper	CDO	759	0.06	0.05	0.06	+ 50.0
Typhoon Expl	TYP	4217	0.62	0.37	0.55	+ 48.6
Tiger Intl	TGR	20	0.50	0.26	0.26	-35.0
HoneyBadgerE	TUF	49	0.06	0.06	0.06	-33.3
Spruce Ridge R	SHL	11	0.14	0.11	0.11	-31.2
New Global Vnt	NNG	344	0.23	0.18	0.18	-30.7
Diamond Expl	DIX	31	0.08	0.07	0.07	-30.0
Cascade Res	CC	19	0.09	0.07	0.07	-30.0
Searchgold Res	RSG	3370	0.06	0.05	0.05	-28.5
Maxim Res	MXM	2513	0.11	0.07	0.08	-27.2
Wildcat Expl	WEL	1737	0.12	0.07	0.08	-27.2
Sinchao Mtls	SMZ	156	0.26	0.19	0.19	-26.9

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
St Elias Mns	SLI	8910084	2.11	+ 1.17
Rainy River Rs	RR	2664280	5.36	+ 0.36
Macarthur Mnl	MMS	237227	2.10	+ 0.30
East Asia Mnls	EAS	1236347	5.40	+ 0.27
Ascot Res	AOT	1006103	0.77	+ 0.22
Antares Minls	ANM	1638570	2.43	+ 0.20
Prophecy Res	PCY	1970769	1.08	+ 0.20
Rio Alto Mng	RIO	1952822	0.83	+ 0.19
Anfield Nickel	ANF	35250	2.70	+ 0.18
Red Hill Engy	RH	8859343	0.80	+ 0.18
Clifton Star	CFO	1191548	5.74	-1.51
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	105419	8.30	-0.54
Maudore Minls	MAO	199859	3.53	-0.42
Amazon Mng	AMZ	275887	1.94	-0.26
Hana Mng	HMG	2043507	1.52	-0.22
Mansfld Mnrls	MDR	395413	1.39	-0.21
Mirasol Res	MRZ	446200	1.71	-0.18
Pac Booker Min	BKM	29781	7.11	-0.17
Malbex Res	MBG	10200	0.46	-0.15
Evolving Gold	EVG	2525738	0.81	-0.14