Toronto Stock Exchange June 12-18

The TSX Composite Index climbed back above the 14,000-point mark over the June 12-18 trading period, rising 343.6 points to 14,176.42.

Not surprisingly, the commodities were seen as the key drivers to the index’s gains as crude oil, gold and copper prices all rose.

While the yellow metal’s gains were modest for the period — climbing US$5.70 to US$656.00 per oz. — it was enough to inch the Global Gold Index up 6.95 points to 278.35. Gold miners Agnico-Eagle Mines and Kinross Gold led the pack, with Agnico gaining $1.75 to close at $39.47, while Kinross gained 43 to $14.11 on heavy trading of roughly 23 million shares.

The Capped Metals and Mining Index also trekked upwards, moving up 34.3 points to 859.2 as copper, aluminum, tin, lead and zinc all made gains. The price of nickel fell to US$19.00 per lb. for the period.

Areva’s US$2.5-billion offer for emerging uranium producer UraMin, made the South African-based company the period’s most popular, with a trading volume of 42.5 million shares. The news pushed the company’s share price past the offer price of $8.28 per share to a high of $8.93, indicating investors anticipate a higher bid. Areva is looking to lock up UraMin’s uranium production, slated to reach 18 million lbs. of U3O8 annually by 2012.

Its largest zinc intercept to date sent Aquila Resources shares up nearly 30% to $1.68. The company reported drill results from its Back Forty project in Menominee Cty., Mich. One interval was more than 87 metres grading 9.8% zinc and 2.32 grams gold per tonne, including 36 metres of 17.5% zinc.

Bad news from Armenia sent Sterlite Gold’s shares down nearly 38% to 15. An ongoing investigation of its mining operations in the country — which has frozen its bank accounts and stopped production since January — has resulted in the Armenian state tax authority issuing fines and penalties amounting to roughly US$11.5 million. That’s on top of the US$46.5 million in penalties and fines issued by the Armenian Ministry of Finance a month earlier.

News that U.S. Gold chairman and chief executive Robert McEwen is taking an 8.2% stake in Freegold Ventures sent the junior’s shares up roughly 26% to $1.58. The company announced that McEwen is buying 4.5 million units in the company’s $6.2-million private placement. Freegold says it will use the money to develop its Almaden deposit in Idaho and its Golden Summit project in Alaska.

By doubling its previous tonnage estimate, QGX got a 21% boost on the market to $3.41.

The company released a revised resource estimate for its Baruun Naran coal deposit in the Gobi region of southern Mongolia, where measured and indicated resources were increased to 252.9 million tonnes of both coking and thermal coal, up significantly from the 107.5 million tonnes estimated one year ago.

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Coalcorp wt	CCJ_T	391	1.60	0.20	1.60	+	644.1
Coalcorp Mng	CCJ	13895	4.75	0.62	4.68	+	598.5
Aquila Res	AQA	1086	1.74	1.18	1.68	+	29.2
Freegold Vent	ITF	1571	1.62	1.18	1.58	+	26.4
Forsys Metals	FSY	2229	7.88	6.04	7.72	+	22.3
CGA Mining	CGA	23	0.55	0.50	0.55	+	22.2
Thundermin Res	THR	7034	0.22	0.135	0.165	+	22.2
QGX	QGX	1127	3.68	2.69	3.41	+	21.7
Atlanta Gold	ATG	244	1.15	0.84	1.06	+	20.4
Golden Peaks	GL	460	2.89	2.30	2.70	+	17.9
Sterlite Gold	SGD	33	0.24	0.15	0.15	–	37.5
South Am Gld&C	SAG	8238	0.055	0.04	0.04	–	27.2
Intl Nickel Vn	INV	908	1.65	1.45	1.45	–	12.1
Queenston Mng	QMI	182	2.40	2.12	2.14	–	10.8
Zaruma Res	ZMR	1536	0.14	0.12	0.125	–	10.7
Contl Precious	CZQ	2401	2.88	2.46	2.58	–	10.4
Southwstrn Res	SWG	1006	6.98	6.31	6.38	–	10.1
Jaguar Nickel	JNI	2642	0.205	0.115	0.185	–	9.7
HMZ Metals	HMZ	2277	0.05	0.045	0.05	–	9.0
Opawica Expl	OPW	4754	0.125	0.105	0.105	–	8.7

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Potash Cp Sask	POT	4360213	84.98	+	7.19
Inmet Mining	IMN	1155588	85.48	+	4.98
Major Drilling	MDI	1713569	42.27	+	4.27
Coalcorp Mng	CCJ	13895119	4.68	+	4.01
Teck Comin A	TCKA	11690	52.67	+	3.22
Teck Comin B	TCKB	14910560	49.79	+	3.18
Cameco Corp	CCO	7629308	58.13	+	3.03
Alcan	AL	9357583	89.50	+	2.10
Fording C C T	FDG_U	4221694	32.80	+	2.03
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	4790908	39.47	+	1.75
Southwstrn Res	SWG	1005863	6.38	–	0.72
Skye Res	SKR	1445488	17.55	–	0.60
Aber Diamond	ABZ	845817	42.88	–	0.59
Laramide Res	LAM	1914316	9.57	–	0.50
Scandinav Mnl	SGL	496860	8.50	–	0.50
First Uranium	FIU	1541581	11.78	–	0.49
Greystar Res	GSL	400729	7.20	–	0.47
Mega Uranium	MGA	4001126	5.75	–	0.46
Vista Gold	VGZ	90332	4.90	–	0.45
Contl Precious	CZQ	2401331	2.58	–	0.30

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
UraMin	UMN	42472	8.93	7.57	8.63	+	0.88
LionOre Mng In	LIM	38585	27.31	27.10	27.21	+	0.04
Breakwater Res	BWR	31223	2.85	2.47	2.85	+	0.31
Eastern Platin	ELR	26875	2.50	2.30	2.46	+	0.13
Equinox Minls	EQN	23908	3.68	3.11	3.55	+	0.29
Kinross Gold	K	23167	14.26	13.33	14.11	+	0.43
Paladin Res	PDN	20877	7.90	7.29	7.62	–	0.25
First Nickel	FNI	19932	1.39	1.17	1.35	+	0.04
Uranium One	SXR	18771	15.30	14.35	14.96	+	0.25
Crystallex Int	KRY	18547	5.01	3.88	4.77	+	0.50