Plunging gold prices knock down the TSX, Sept.19-23

It was a horrendous trading week for the Canadian markets as prices for gold and silver crashed.  

The TSX Composite Index dived 800.84 points to 11,462.87, as the spot price for gold plunged US$155.30 per oz. to US$1,657.20, while silver slid US$9.73 to US$30.93 an oz. The Global Gold Index tracked the movement of the yellow metal and dropped 33.21 points to 395.69.

Gold miners were some of the most actively traded stocks during the Sept. 19-23 week. But all that trading didn’t help their share prices as Barrick Gold dropped $4.79 to $47.73 apiece; Yamana Gold slid $1.63 to $14.15; and Kinross Gold lost $1.26 to $15.67, all on no news.  

Newmont Mining managed to buck the trend and was the week’s third largest value gainer. The company’s shares moved up 55¢ to close at $64.75 as it revised its gold-price linked dividend policy. Under the new policy, the miner’s annual dividend could reach US$4.70 per share if the company’s average realized gold price is US$2,500 per oz. It also increased its quarterly dividend rates, providing an extra 7.5¢ per share when its average realized gold price for the quarter is more than US$1,700 per oz. and another 2.5¢ per share (total of 10¢ per share) when the average realized gold price for the quarter exceeds US$2,000 per oz.

Lower prices for zinc, nickel, copper, aluminum, lead, and cobalt helped the Capped Metals & Mining Index lose 259.5 points to settle at 871.33.

Amid all the tumbling, Velocity Minerals emerged as the week’s biggest percentage gainer. The company moved 18.7% to close at 19¢ apiece on no news. However, on Sept. 14 it released further results from an ongoing geochemical soil survey on the northern 100 claims it holds in the Orogrande mining district in Idaho. To date 482 of the 1,000 soil samples collected have been analyzed. Velocity says the survey indicates two separate anomalous gold trends, which are near the Friday and Monday faults that Premium Exploration has been targeting.

Serabi Mining‘s shares moved up 15.3% to 30¢ also no news. The most recent news the Brazilian-focused gold explorer released was on Sept. 12. In that press release it said a recently completed geophysical survey shows the strike length of the Piaui gold discovery could now extend more than 1.4 km. Initially, Piaui was estimated to have a strike length of 300 metres.

Strong drill results helped Eco Oro Minerals, formerly known as Greystar Resources, move up 15.3% to $1.95 apiece on 714,328 shares traded. On Sept. 20, the company reported 18 new holes it completed at its Mongora target, which sits 3 km south of its Angostura gold deposit in northeastern Colombia. Highlights include: 16.15 grams gold and 75.5 grams silver per tonne over 2 metres; 15.31 grams gold and 6.51 grams silver over 4.7 metres; and 8.55 grams gold and 9.32 grams silver over 8.9 metres.