White metals buoy junior board

Major silver and uranium discoveries coupled with nickel speculation rallied investors, pushing up trading volumes to an average daily tally of 34 million shares for the week July 12-18. Despite the activity, the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index shed 9.94 points to 1717.94 over the session.

Knight Resources topped the field of volume traders for the week, with almost 10.5 million shares changing hands. The issue gained 9.5, or 46%, to 30. Drilling started on the company’s West Raglan project in the northern Quebec nickel camp, fueling speculation. Knight is earning a 49% interest in the 720 sq. km property from Anglo American, the project operator. This season’s exploration program, budgeted at $5 million, will see two drill rigs test newly delineated targets in the Raglan Formation and Povungnituk Group rocks, as well as follow-up, high-grade drill results.

Peruvian precious metals hunter Bear Creek Mining sparkled in second place, trading over 6.8 million shares and gaining a whopping $1.00, or 98%, to close at $2.02 per share. Results from the company’s first four drill holes at its Corani silver-gold project, in southeastern Peru, indicate a significant silver mineralized system. Initial assays show a weighted average of 106 grams silver per tonne from over 400 metres of core, testing the near-surface oxide silver zone. With about one-third of its planned 3,000-metre drill program complete, Bear Creek will test the area north of Trenches 8 and 15 where some of the highest grade values were encountered. A recently acquired second drill rig is scheduled to focus on the southern portion of the project where higher gold values were found.

Amera Resources was third most-active trader on the week and gained 49, up almost 110%, to close at 94. The company is expecting results from its Peru and Nevada projects over the coming weeks.

Athabasca Basin uranium junior CanAlaska Ventures gained 4, or 10%, to close at 39 per share. The company was buoyed by stellar results released from Basin neighbour UEX on its Shea Creek project. CanAlaska recently closed a $1-million flow-through financing.

North American Tungsten traded over 2.5 million shares but shed 12 to close the week at the $1.15-level. With tungsten production from Cantung on track for this Fall, the company recently began drilling its Mactung deposit.

Portuguese tungsten producer Primary Metals was one of the top value gainers for the period, grabbing 53, to close at $1.38 per share on volume of over 330,000 shares. The company is reaping the benefits of high tungsten prices at its underground Panasqueira mine, which is on track for annual production of 120,000 metric tonne units (MTU). Prices for the metal have risen from US$95 per MTU in early-2005 to current levels approaching US$300.

Seabridge Gold continued its gains, up 49, to close at $4.44 on volume of 250,000 for the week. Recent drilling on its N.W.T. Courageous Lake gold project identified an 850-metre southern extension to the FAT deposit.