Wild ride for Thistle Mining

The report period Dec. 15-21 saw the price of gold rise US$3.85 to close at US$440.95 per oz. in the afternoon of the 21st in London. The gold index rose 2.09 points, or 0.9%, to close at 211.20. The diversified metals and mining index was up 10.78 points, or 4.2%, at 264.21 points. The S&P TSX composite index rose 151 points to end the week at 9,237.48 points.

Thistle Mining topped the most-traded list but suffered a late-period hemorrhage; on Dec. 21 alone, more than 43 million shares traded; the stock fell 1.5, or 50%, to close at 1.5. The company plans to cancel its existing shares under a restructuring plan. In the end, Bermuda-based private investment company Meridian Capital will end up with 70% of the company’s new issue.

Reno-based Glamis Gold has crashed the recently announced nuptials of Goldcorp and Wheaton River Minerals with a hostile, all-share bid for the former. Glamis is offering 0.89 of one of its shares for each Goldcorp share; the bid is contingent on Goldcorp’s dropping its friendly, all-share buy-out of Wheaton. Goldcorp says it will review and evaluate any takeover proposal sent to its shareholders. Goldcorp is up $1.69 at $18.71, whereas Wheaton River has dropped 14 to end at $3.93. Glamis fell $1.45 to close at $21.85.

Bema Gold unveiled its own plan to take out Vancouver-listed Arizona Star Resources by offering 1.85 of its own shares for each Arizona Star share. Bema’s bid, which is worth up to $283 million, will not be subject to a minimum tender condition. Bema finished 4 lower at $3.74.

Queenstake Resources advanced 10%, or 4.5, to close at 48. The company has encountered some wide intersections of high-grade gold on the Starvation Canyon project, 20 km southwest of its Jerritt Canyon mill in Nevada.

A 10-year sales deal between Elk Valley Coal, Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC) and Posco boosted shares in Teck Cominco and units of Fording Canadian Coal Trust. The Asian steelmakers have agreed to buy 4.8 million tonnes of metallurgical coal from the Elkview mine in southeastern British Columbia in 2005, increasing to 6.25 million tonnes annually from 2007 onwards. NSC and Posco will also each acquire a 2.5% stake in the mine for US$25 million apiece. Fording owns 60% of Elkview; Teck holds the remainder. Fording’s units ended $4.50 higher at $74.92; Teck Cominco Class B shares climbed about $2 to close at $36.85.

Sticking with coal, Grande Cache Coal recently inked a deal to sell more than two-thirds of its 2005 hard coking production to Posco and a group of Japanese steel industry customers for US$125 per tonne. The company’s shares continued their hot-streak, adding another $2.10, or 15%, to settle at $16.20.

Fortune Minerals rose 85, or 19%, to end at $5.18. Among other properties, Fortune owns the Mount Klappan anthracite coal deposits in British Columbia.

Semafo shot up 25% to $1.25 and Etruscan Resources grabbed 2 to make $1.85, after the pair reported that their Samira Hill mine in Niger had poured 9,236 oz. gold and 362 oz. silver in the second month of commissioning. The mine has churned out more than 18,000 oz. gold and 630 oz. silver since commissioning began, on Sept. 25. So far, processing has consumed less cyanide, lime, and peroxide than expected.