Vancouver Stock Exchange Tundra holds steady on big volume

It was a rough week on markets around the world and Vancouver, although heavily weighted with junior resource stocks, was not spared. The market index closed at 1,158 points, down 313 points or 21% over the past week. Like stock exchanges in New York, Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver closed early three days this week in order to ensure an “orderly marketplace.”

Tundra Gold was the most active issue this week and it got off relatively unscathed. Tundra was down just 4 cents to close at $1.85 after trading 2,761,700 shares. Still, that’s little cause for celebration. The stock has been as high as $7.75 during the past year and a recent unit offering, with each $5.50 unit comprising one share and one-half warrant, was just completed.

On the Lamaque project, a joint venture with Teck Corp. at Val d’Or, Que., underground drifting on the 3,200-ft level has established two zones, one of which assayed 0.22 oz over 7.1 ft. The Teck-Tundra relationship isn’t one of the happiest we’ve ever seen, but Teck, as operator, has a good track record of getting the necessary work done.

Teeshin Resources’ authority to replace the operator at the Dome Mountain gold project near Smithers, B.C., was vindicated by an independent arbitrator recently. Mineable reserves at the property are less than 300,000 tons but grades are a healthy 0.44 oz gold per ton. Total Erickson Resources is now the operator and has an option to earn a 50% interest. A feasibility study is due before the end of the year and a 350-tons-per-day operation seems likely.

Teeshin was up 3 cents during the week to $1.08 on 176,000 shares.

Magna Ventures was down 19 cents to 75 cents on 368,300 shares despite news that it has hit some pretty high grade gold values on the Doc property near Stewart, B.C. The vein, intersected underground, is reported to be 10-12 ft wide with individual chip samples assaying as high as 4.2 oz gold per ton. Four continuous samples across the vein averaged 0.65 oz over 10.1 ft. Magna is earning a 50% interest in the property from Silver Princess Resources.

Hycroft Resources was down $1.38 to $7.12 on 198,100 shares this week. Hycroft, which is 51% owned by Granges Exploration, could be starting production soon on the Crofoot heap leach gold property in Nevada which is adjacent to Hycroft’s already producing Lewis mine.

Sumac Ventures was up a nickel this week to close at 40 cents on 79,700 shares. It has produced the first precipitate from its heap leach operation at the Old Union mine near Grand Forks, B.C. The precipitate returned about 5,000 oz of combined gold-silver product estimated to be at a silver-to-gold ratio of about 30:1.

Coldspring Resources, which has started gold mining operations at its Costa Rica operation, was up 3 cents to close at 43 cents on 89,900 shares.