TSX Venture rises, Nov. 13-17

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index gained 2.87 points to a 799.35-point close, as spot gold prices gained US$17.35 to US$1,292.42 per oz., and Comex copper prices edged up US1¢ to US$3.09 per pound.

Shares of Pacton Gold gained 28¢, or 350%, to 36¢ upon appointment of Alec Pismiris as the company’s new interim CEO, replacing Dominic Verdejo, who will take on the role of chairman. Pismiris previously held senior management positions for numerous ASX-listed companies, and specializes in acquiring and financing assets. Before the appointment, Pacton’s last press release was on June 21, when it tallied assay results from the first two drill holes at its Tully West gold project, 33 km northeast of Timmins, Ontario. The holes returned best intercepts of 0.8 metre of 6.75 grams gold per tonne, and 2.5 metres of 5.6 grams gold. Pacton’s other assets, Birch and Uchi, are next to First Mining Finance’s Springpole gold deposit in northwestern Ontario, and were acquired in March.

QMC Quantum Minerals gained 32¢ to 75¢ per share after announcing a $1.6-million private placement to advance its Cat Lake lithium project in southeast Manitoba. QMC would issue 2.5 million units at 65¢ per unit, with each unit comprising a share and half a warrant, with a full warrant exercisable into a share at 80¢ within 18 months. On Nov. 1, QMC updated the market on its exploration at Cat Lake, including overburden removal to expose an open-ended, 400-metre strike length of the prospective, lithium-bearing Irgon pegmatite dike. QMC collected four channel samples from the dike this year, with assay results pending. The Irgon dike has a historical resource of 1.1 million tonnes of 1.51% lithium oxide over a 365-metre strike length to 213 metres deep.

Tasca Resources saw 18 million shares traded, with shares rising 9¢ to 34¢ apiece. On Nov. 6, the junior explorer acquired the 37.1 sq. km Nadina property next to New Nadina Exploration’s Silver Queen polymetallic property, 40 km south of Houston in northcentral British Columbia. On Nov. 17, Tasca optioned the 620 sq. km Poplar property, contiguous to its newly acquired claim blocks, and along strike west of New Nadina’s Silver Queen. Historical drilling at Poplar outlined a historic resource of 131 million indicated tonnes of 0.31% copper, 0.009% molybdenum, 0.09 gram gold and 2.39 grams silver per tonne, and 132 million inferred tonnes of 0.27% copper, 0.005% molybdenum, 0.007 gram gold and 3.75 grams silver. Tasca is acquiring the property from a private vendor for 2.2 million Tasca shares, $4.7 million in staged cash payments and $2 million in exploration expenses over 48 months. TNM