Vancouver – In a clear end to the summer doldrums the S&P TSX Venture Composite Index gained ground every day over the Aug 30 – Sept 3 week, adding 77.11 points to reach 1,565.96. Daily trading volumes also improved significantly, averaging 121.8 million.
The board’s ascent did not manage to give the bulls an edge over the bears. Over the week 73 Venture-listed companies reached new 52-week share price highs while 152 juniors fell to new lows.
The story of the week was undoubtedly Atac Resources, which shot up $3.57 or 147% to reach $6. Atac has spent much of its season drilling the known Tiger zone at its large Rau property in the Yukon, for which it will calculate a gold oxide resource before the end of the year, but recent excitement stems from the new Osiris discovery. Osiris is 100 km east of Tiger and the first hole into the new area cut 65.2 metres grading 4.65 grams gold per tonne, including 31 metres of 9.26 grams gold.
The area play that is the entire Yukon territory also lifted several other northern explorers. Kaminak Gold, busy exploring its Coffee project, gained 51¢ to reach $3.45 without releasing any news. Radius Gold, which just started drilling its Sixty Mile project in the Yukon, added 11¢ to its share price to end the week at 70¢. And Taku Gold continued its ascent, gaining another 7.5¢ to hit 48.5¢, even though it only holds early stage prospects.
Interest is growing in a pair of project in northwest Ontario’s Richardson township. Rainy River Resources gained $1.14 to reach a new high of $7.54 on news of an extremely high-grade hit at its namesake project: hole 532, an infill hole on the western side of the ODM zone, returned 407.9 grams gold over 4.5 metres from 415 metres depth. And Bayfield Ventures‘ Burns Block project, which is directly adjacent to Rainy River’s ground, produced a 3-metre intercept carrying 31.7 grams gold earlier in the month. Over the week investors pushed Bayfield up 24¢ to 79¢.
A few hundred kilometres to the east, near Rouyn-Noranda Quebec, Gold Bullion Development is having success at its Granada Gold project. During the week Gold Bullion simply announced the completion of an earn-in on two mining leases that form part of the project; nevertheless the company saw its share price climb 12¢ to 67¢ on 8.5 million shares traded. A drill working to define the eastern extension to the LONG Bars zone has reportedly returned large alteration and intrusive zones.
And Chesapeake Gold outperformed the average for the week, gaining $1.35 to reach $8.35 without releasing any news. The company’s flagship asset is the Metates gold-silver project in Durango state, Mexico, home to 17.2 million oz. gold and 467 million oz. silver in measured and indicated resources. A preliminary economic assessment found a US$3.2-billion investment could fund development of a large, open pit operation with a mine life of at least 27 years.
Be the first to comment on "Junior successes lift Venture"