TSX Venture Exchange – May 5 -11

For the May 5-11 reporting period, the S&P/TSX Venture composite index more or less subscribed to a maxim held by turtles: Slow and steady wins the race. The Venture board saw four straight days of modest gains and only fell 6.64 points on the final day of the period to close at 1,063.11 points. Behind the plodding gains were strong trading volumes that averaged 111.2 million.

The 52-week lows that have of late vastly outnumbered 52-week highs were also more balanced with 18 new lows and 29 new highs. Combined, the slow march upward, the brisk trading and the easing bottom-scraping, brought the Venture board to its highest level since early October.

Anticipation drove Underworld Resources’ share price up 23¢ to 78¢. Underworld announced it was doubling the scale of its 2009 drill program to 4,000 metres on its White Gold property in the Yukon, 95 km south of Dawson City. It has drilled as much as 51 metres grading 3.1 grams gold per tonne at the Golden Saddle target on the property and it comes as no surprise that, among other areas, drill rigs will be returning to the Golden Saddle.

Though in pre-economic downturn days when West Pender and Bay streets appeared paved in gold and drill campaigns seemed a dime a dozen, these days, news of expanding drill programs — let alone any at all — appears to have far more currency than it used to.

Takeover attention boosted Kinbauri Gold’s share price. It gained 19¢ to close at 66¢ after TSX-listed Orvana Minerals announced a hostile takeover bid of 55¢ a share for the company. Kinbauri’s president and CEO Vern Rampton, along with an independent committee, rejected the offer, preferring a previously announced sale of a 45-50% stake in its Spanish assets to Glen Eagle Resources. It looks like shareholders may get to vote on the takeover by the end of May.

Others receiving healthy share price boosts were Santa Fe Metals and Canadian Shield Resources. Santa Fe closed a $523,500 private placement at 5¢ per share and finished the reporting period at 15¢, up 8¢. Canadian Shield rose 48¢ to close at 88¢ after management acquired substantial stakes in the company.

Among those losing some steam during the five-day trading period was Louvem Mines. It watched its share price decline 26¢ to close at $1.19 on news of its quarterly performance.

Louvem posted net earnings of $336,844 on sales of 3,000 oz. gold from its Beaufor mine near Val-d’Or, Que. The earnings, however, were about a third of what they were in the quarter a year earlier. Cash costs per oz. gold produced were also up substantially to $763 from $528 in last year’s first quarter. Louvem blamed definition drilling, higher than usual mining costs and grades that were 22% lower. Notably, however, it is planning to drill 45,000 metres in 2009.

TSX-V most active issues
	VOLUME	WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Cypress Dev CYP	14413	0.28	0.19	0.21	-0.08
Gold Hawk Res CGK	11350	0.08	0.05	0.06	0.00
Largo Res LGO	11112	0.15	0.08	0.12	+ 0.05
Journey Res JNY	7795	0.08	0.05	0.07	+ 0.01
San Gold Res SGR	7729	2.09	1.99	2.04	+ 0.02
MacDonald Mns BMK	6541	0.12	0.08	0.12	+ 0.03
Diamonds North DDN	6256	0.22	0.14	0.19	+ 0.05
Duran Vent DRV	6144	0.15	0.10	0.10	-0.01
Probe Res PBR	5947	0.14	0.08	0.14	+ 0.06
Sage Gold SGX	5641	0.07	0.05	0.06	0.00

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Rockcliff Res	RCR	105	0.18	0.10	0.15	+1400.0
Quattro Res	QRO	75	0.15	0.13	0.13	+550.0
CZM Capital	CZM	829	0.06	0.02	0.05	+400.0
Corsa Capital	CSO	599	0.65	0.25	0.55	+400.0
MBMI Res	MBR	302	0.09	0.06	0.06	+200.0
Manson Creek	MCK	104	0.06	0.05	0.06	+200.0
Cadan Res	CNF	75	0.10	0.08	0.08	+166.6
Devonshire Res	DSH	55	0.10	0.05	0.10	+150.0
Canadn Shield	EXP	210	0.89	0.28	0.88	+120.0
Santa Fe Metls	SFM	168	0.18	0.07	0.15	+114.2
Mill Bay Vent	MBV	55	0.05	0.03	0.04	-55.5
Pro Minerals	PRM	41	0.05	0.04	0.05	-54.5
Dynasty Gold	DYG	322	0.03	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Diamond Expl	DIX	10	0.08	0.05	0.05	-50.0
Crown Mnls	CWM	158	0.06	0.05	0.05	-50.0
Cadillac Mng	CQX	24	0.01	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Totem Mnls	TTM	26	0.30	0.16	0.16	-48.3
Rio Cristal Zn	RCZ	552	0.06	0.04	0.04	-42.8
Orestone Mng	ORS	55	0.04	0.04	0.04	-42.8
Conway Res	CWY	150	0.06	0.03	0.03	-40.0

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	28850	11.10	+ 0.90
Canadn Shield	EXP	210216	0.88	+ 0.48
Corsa Capital	CSO	599100	0.55	+ 0.44
Rainy River Rs	RR	532457	2.61	+ 0.36
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	697636	1.74	+ 0.33
Underworld Res	UW	524150	0.78	+ 0.23
Tirex Res	TXX	1171609	0.75	+ 0.22
Intl Tower Hil	ITH	2592984	3.60	+ 0.22
Kinbauri Gold	KNB	1092365	0.60	+ 0.19
Cadiscor Res	CAO	2373383	0.83	+ 0.19
Louvem Mines	LOV	31700	1.19	-0.26
New Pac Metals	NUX	27000	0.72	-0.18
Totem Mnls	TTM	26400	0.16	-0.15
Salazar Res	SRL	42749	0.59	-0.13
Titanium Corp	TIC	282863	0.39	-0.11
Noront Res	NOT	2343833	0.78	-0.10
Lions Gate Mtl	LGM	40000	0.85	-0.10
Hathor Expl	HAT	3205841	2.25	-0.10
African Metals	AFR	64000	0.22	-0.10
Goldsource Min	GXS	708160	1.40	-0.10