Toronto Stock Exchange – Aug. 11-17

After a solid run since March, the correction that most pundits said was due may finally have come. While the S&P/TSX composite index was rebounding at presstime, a large sell-off on Aug. 17 ensured that the index was down overall for the Aug. 11-17 reporting period to 10,531.59 points from 10,793.67.

The sell-off coincided with a view that the economic recovery will be slower than hoped for, and that set the stage for a deflationary mood in the market.

As can be expected, concerns over deflation were bad for gold and the yellow metal dropped roughly US$13 per oz. during the reporting period, finishing near US$930 per oz. The Global Gold index fell in line with the price of the metal, down roughly two points to 299.41.

The news for base metals wasn’t much better. With fear that demand out of China and India may not be strong enough to keep prices aloft, copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, lead and zinc prices all fell and the Capped Metals and Mining index dropped too, losing roughly 10 points to 777.20.

Lydian International managed to find some upside, however, with a 63% gain on the market to 67¢ thanks to the drill. The company announced results from its Amulsar project in Armenia, highlighted by 32 metres grading 6.5 grams gold per tonne. Amulsar was discovered by Lydian only three years ago and has an inferred resource of 1 million oz. gold.

Mercator Minerals was up 14¢ to $2.42 on a trading volume of roughly 36 million shares — making it the most actively traded for the period. All that activity was based on Mercator’s second-quarter results, and its assertion that it is a growth company in the copper mining space.

The company managed to trim its losses to 4¢ per share from 9¢ per share for the same period last year as it increased its revenues from cathode copper, copper concentrate, molybdenum and silver. Revenues were up to $21.25 million from $11.22 million in last year’s second quarter.

Lower gold production in the second quarter hurt Crew Gold, with the company’s shares falling 25% to 56¢. The company announced that it produced roughly 61,000 oz. of gold in the quarter compared with almost 70,000 oz. in the same period last year. Crew has operations in Canada, Guinea, and the Philippines.

A strike at Platmin’s Pilanesberg platinum mine in South Africa led the company to fire about 500 employees and halt production. The company says the strike was illegal and that the workers refused to return to work despite a regulatory labour relations process that deemed they must. Platmin shares were off 18% to $1.08 for the period.

TSX most active issues
	VOLUME	WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Mercator Mnls ML	36185	2.82	2.07	2.42	+ 0.14
Teck B TCKB	32435	29.90	26.68	27.92	+ 0.03
WesternCCoalWTN	32216	3.60	2.77	2.89	-0.47
Lundin Mng LUN	31341	4.05	3.66	3.68	-0.33
Equinox Minls EQN	25864	2.90	2.58	2.62	-0.09
Eastern Platin ELR	24351	0.58	0.51	0.51	-0.08
Yamana Gold YRI	22363	10.06	9.35	9.45	-0.30
GrandeCacheCGCE	21918	4.18	3.41	3.57	-0.15
Osisko Mng OSK	19900	7.70	6.99	7.00	-0.04
Anvil Mining AVM	17992	2.96	2.48	2.50	-0.27

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Avnel Gold	AVK	77	0.27	0.18	0.27	+ 80.0
Arehada Mining	AHD	368	0.11	0.08	0.10	+ 66.6
Lydian Intl	LYD	3232	0.88	0.40	0.67	+ 63.4
Crescent Gold	CRA	646	0.15	0.11	0.12	+ 50.0
Coalcorp Mng	CCJ	4820	0.57	0.28	0.42	+ 50.0
Moydow Mns Int	MOY	36	0.14	0.12	0.14	+ 40.0
Foraco Intl	FAR	87	1.75	1.31	1.63	+ 33.6
Zincore Mtls	ZNC	836	0.13	0.10	0.12	+ 33.3
Colombia Goldf	GOL	2022	0.29	0.20	0.25	+ 31.5
Virgin Metals	VGM	1673	0.10	0.06	0.09	+ 28.5
Powertech Uran	PWE	499	0.47	0.35	0.35	-28.5
Crew Gold	CRU	225	0.77	0.51	0.56	-25.3
Phoenix Coal	PHC	7710	0.39	0.25	0.26	-21.2
Athabasca Pota	API	1312	6.93	5.41	5.49	-20.5
Timminco	TIM	3508	1.37	1.10	1.14	-18.5
Platmin	PPN	112	1.31	1.05	1.08	-17.5
Canarc Res	CCM	89	0.12	0.10	0.10	-16.6
Nuinsco Res	NWI	848	0.05	0.05	0.05	-16.6
Gitennes Expl	GIT	87	0.08	0.05	0.05	-16.6
Cline Mng	CMK	1024	0.56	0.46	0.46	-16.3

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	4174376	9.50	+ 1.00
IShCOMEXGTr	IGT	13393	101.57	+ 0.56
Cameco Corp	CCO	5727200	30.69	+ 0.49
Kirkland Lk Gd	KGI	656068	8.67	+ 0.45
Queenston Mng	QMI	403859	5.50	+ 0.43
Foraco Intl	FAR	87050	1.63	+ 0.41
Horizns G Bear	HGD	5360849	7.18	+ 0.38
FNX Mining	FNX	6361575	9.44	+ 0.38
Intl Royalty	IRC	476662	3.95	+ 0.35
Central Gold-T	GTU_U	14383	40.54	+ 0.34
Potash Cp Sask	POT	4123758	100.71	-4.26
Inmet Mining	IMN	1722832	45.75	-3.89
First Quantum	FM	3493574	65.47	-3.26
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	2244425	58.61	-3.10
Agrium	AGU	3591135	50.70	-2.72
Royal Gold	RGL	14916	43.11	-2.13
Coeur d Alene	CDM	146832	15.17	-1.59
Goldcorp	G	8096141	37.70	-1.57
Newmont Mng	NMC	29514	42.86	-1.56
Pan Am Silver	PAA	1146986	20.28	-1.50