Venture exchange bucks downward trend

Vancouver — Despite the major bourses being spooked by profit warnings, Canada’s junior exchange managed to scrape together a few points to buck the trend over the week ended Sept. 17. The TSX Venture Exchange composite index rose 3.83 points, or 0.38%, to close at 996.21.

GGL Diamond tacked on 4 and finished the week at 24 with 1.5 million shares traded. The company completed drilling three magnetic anomalies on its wholly owned Seahorse property in the Northwest Territories. All holes intersected an “ultramafic rock” that has “characteristics consistent with kimberlite.” The junior has also closed a previously announced $300,000 financing. The 1.5 million common shares issued though a private placement at 20 per share have a hold period until Jan. 17, 2003.

Titanium Corp. closed up 25 to $2.50 on 1.2 million shares. The company recently completed a 13.6-tonne bulk sampling program on its titanium-zircon sand deposit, near Truro, N.S. The bulk sample was collected from surface to a depth of 3 metres on each of the 12 sandbars that make up the deposit. An extensive mineral characterization study is under way.

Frontier Pacific Mining remained flat at 23 with just over 1 million shares traded. The reactivated company is working the San Francisco gold property in Sonora state, Mexico, and is also eyeing some ground in Nevada.

Pan Asia Mining continued to trade near a 52-week low, ending the week at 3 with 1 million shares crossing the floor. The junior has been trying to advance a series of diamond projects in China.

Diagem International lost 2 and closed at 19 on 961,000 shares. Diagem holds a 39.4% interest in KWG Resources. KWG and its joint-venture partner, Spider Resources, recovered 565 diamonds from their 45-sq.-km property near Wawa, Ont. Spider remained flat at 4 with 236,000 shares traded.

Oasis Diamond Exploration, Iciena Ventures and Arctic Star Diamond recently received geochemical and diamond results from 11 rock samples and three drill core samples from their jointly held Enigma diamond project near Wawa, Ont. Geochemical analysis indicates that the rocks are metamorphosed kimberlites. The 11 samples returned a total of 253 diamonds. Oasis traded 930,000 shares but remained flat at 5, while Iciena Ventures tacked on 2 on 125,500 shares. Arctic Star Diamonds lost 2 to close at 23 on 581,000 shares.

Quaterra Resources hit a new 52-week low of 7, down 2 on 927,000 shares. The junior’s joint-venture partner, Eastmain Resources, recently completed five diamond drill holes totalling 968 metres on the Chabbie Lake claim block in northern Ontario. Eastmain lost 4 and closed at 39 on 222,000 shares.

Investors continued to bail out of shares in Platinum Group Metals following news that the company had inked a deal to earn a 55% stake in the Ledig farm in the Western Bushveld of South Africa. The junior lost 17 and finished at 80 on the swapping of 779,000 shares.

Starfield Resources lost 1 and closed at 43 with 702,000 shares traded. The company released assay results for hole 132, which cut three platinum-group-element-bearing massive sulphide lenses on its Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-cobalt project in Nunavut.