Vancouver Stock Exchange Windarra slips on production news

One of the most active issues on the Vancouver Stock Exchange this week was Windarra Minerals. Some 718,900 shares changed hands as the issue slipped a penny to close at $1 even, once again proving the old stock market adage: “Buy on mystery, sell on history.”

Windarra has traded as high as $1.20 in 1988, but as soon as joint venture partner Muscocho Explorations announced a production decision on the Magnacon gold property near Wawa, Ont., the price went down. Windarra has a 25% interest in the property.

There is some question whether Windarra will be able to pay its share of the $29 million needed to put the property into production, but Muscocho itself has been quietly increasing its equity position in Windarra.

Goldbelt Mines was up 15 cents on 383,800 shares. A significant gold- silver discovery near the Cannon mine at Wenatchee, Wash., by Asamera Minerals may have been the reason for the active trading.

Goldbelt, a company which shares offices and management with Granges Exploration, has a 15% interest in a property south of the Cannon mine and a 49% interest in a property northwest of the Cannon mine. Asamera and Breakwater Resources are joint venture partners on both properties.

Goldbelt also has a substantial equity holding in Breakwater which is a 49% joint venture partner with Asamera in the Cannon mine.

Delaware Resources was off 32 cents to close at $9.12 on 187,400 shares. Word is that the Snip gold deposit in northwestern British Columbia, where Delaware can earn a 100% interest, is much larger than the previously inferred 1.2 million tons grading 0.75 oz gold per ton. Joint venture partner and operator Cominco Ltd. (not Cominco Resources which holds most of Cominco’s gold assets) can then back in for a 60% interest.

Unconfirmed rumors are that Conwest Exploration is doing a lot of the Delaware buying.

Consolidated Callinan Flin Flon Mines took a jump, picking up 12 cents to close at 47 cents for a 33% gain on the week. Trading was relatively light, however, as this almost forgotten issue came back into the news. Its copper-zinc property near Flin Flon, Man., is going to be put into production by a joint venture of Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting and Manitoba Minerals, a Crown corporation. Callinan retains a net profits royalty and will also get 25 cents for every ton hoisted from the property.