Gold edged up slightly, off a 15-week low, helping the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index close up 42.38 points over the period May 24-30, finishing at 1,645.91. Average daily share volume for the junior board was just 29.7 million over the week.
Only 18 companies managed to rise to new 52-week highs compared to 147 Venture-Exchange-listed explorers falling to new annual lows.
Top trader on the week was St. Elias Mines with over 4.7 million shares changing hands; it posted a gain of 26.5, a soaring 183%, to close at 41. The company recently completed its first drill hole on the Jales-Gralheira gold project in the Tras-O-Montes region of northern Portugal, intersecting three sub-parallel vein structures at extrapolated depths and locations. The concession encompasses the past producing Jales gold mine (which operated for a number of years until 1992 and produced about 830,000 oz. of gold at a head grade of 12.9 grams gold per tonne) and the adjacent Gralheira deposit. St. Elias is earning up to a 75% interest in the Portuguese project from Kernow Resources and Developments.
Prospective miner North American Tungsten grabbed second place amongst volume leaders with trading of almost 3.3 million shares, closing 34 higher at $1.42 per share. The issue has continued to rally after closing financings for over $10 million and emerging from creditor protection. The company holds the past producing Cantung mine in the Yukon, which it plans to reactivate, and the Mactung deposit in the Northwest Territories. Tungsten prices have continued to rise to the recent US$17.50 per pound level as demand remains strong.
Entre Gold was the third most active trader, with a volume of 1.7 million shares, but shed 7 on the week to close at $1.46. Recent drilling by joint-venture partner Ivanhoe Mines on the Copper Flats portion of Entre’s Shivee Tolgoi property extended the high-grade Hugo North copper-gold zone northwards in a 450-metre step-out hole. Ivanhoe, which can earn an 80% interest, has six deep-drill rigs active on Entre’s ground testing the northerly extent of its large copper-gold deposit.
Randsburg International Gold grabbed a 56% gain over the period to close the week out at $1.50 per share, up 54 on volume of 173,000 shares. The company discovered a diamond bearing eclogite on its Victory Strike project in Goias State, Brazil. Auger sampling of the eclogitic material extracted a 192-kg sample that yielded three gem-quality macrodiamonds totalling three carats in weight.
Shares of Argentine silver-hunter IMA Exploration grabbed 62 to close at $3.38 apiece on volume of almost 100,000 on the week. The company continues to drill and expand silver mineralization on its Navidad project in northern Patagonia.
Aspiring Chinese silver developer Silvercorp Metals (previously SKN Resources) saw its shares gain 37 to close at $2.00 on volume of 314,000 over the session. The company’s flagship Ying silver project, in Henan province, is undergoing an underground development program and recently had a revised resource calculation. The study estimated a measured and indicated resource of 420,000 tonnes averaging 1,393 grams silver per tonne, 32.8% lead and 10% zinc, and an additional inferred resource of 495,000 tonnes of 1,539 grams silver, 35% lead and 9.6% zinc.
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