Toronto Stock Exchange March 7-13

After a slow start, The Toronto Stock Exchange steadily recovered to end the March 7-13 report period 23.34 points higher at 11,906.65. It did so as gold tumbled US$21.75 to US$543.50 by the afternoon fix in London on March 13. The rest of the shinnies and base metals, save for copper, were all lower. Not surprisingly, the gold index dropped 7.13 points to 268.34, while the diversified miners surrendered 13.89 points to 425.39.

Mid-tier producer Bema Gold continued to outpace most of the competition, falling 36 to $4.70 on the backs of 30.3 million shares. Analysts at UBS Securities recently upped their target price for Bema to $6.75 from $6.00. Bema is hopeful that Barrick Gold will opt to develop the Cerro Casale copper-gold project in Chile following the integration of recently acquired Placer Dome. Many market watchers pick Bema as one of the next to go in the current industry consolidation. Barrick fell 76 to $30.50.

LionOre Mining International dropped 74, or 13%, to $5.01 in busier-than-normal traffic. A whopping US$183.7-million writedown of its gold assets and non-strategic nickel exploration properties pushed the company into the red to the tune of US$128.6 million during the fourth quarter. LionOre plans to focus solely on the commercialization of its proprietary Activox technology and related projects.

In contrast, First Quantum Minerals saw its earnings soar to a record US$152.8 million thanks to strong copper prices and increased production. The company has extended its all-share takeover bid for Adastra Minerals until March 20, and declared a dividend of 26.5 per share payable on May 10 to shareholders of record on April 19. The issue ended $1.05 lighter at $37.00. Adastra shareholders have okayed a shareholders’ rights plan aimed at stymieing First Quantum’s bid. Adasatra shed a penny to close at $2.39.

A smaller loss helped Major Drilling advance $2.67, or 12%, to $24.75. The company narrowed its third-quarter loss to $700,000 from a year-earlier loss of $1.2 million. Revenue jumped 24% to $65.9 million on increased drilling demand.

China-focused junior HMZ Metals was also busy, with around 6.3 million of its common shares advancing 14.2% to 20. The company’s warrants jumped 33% to 4 in much thinner trade. HMZ chief financial officer and treasurer Rene Galipeau resigned late last month. The company holds interests in a copper smelter, a zinc-tin-lead-antimony mine, and a custom concentrator — all in China.

Twin Mining suffered a late fall to finish four pennies or 21% cheaper at 15. Jipangu recently balked at a second helping of Twin’s shares. Late last year, the Japanese gold investor had inked a non-binding letter of intent to buy another 63.9 million Twin units for $8.8 million, thereby boosting its stake in Twin to about 40.8% from 19.8%.

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
HMZ Metals wt	HMZ.WT	480	0.055	0.03	0.04	+33.3
Zaruma Res	ZMR	137	0.12	0.11	0.12	+20.0
Kimber Res	KBR	711	3.52	2.75	3.41	+17.9
YGC Res	YGC	880	0.99	0.81	0.99	+16.4
Ur-Energy	URE	2618	1.50	1.09	1.33	+15.6
HMZ Metals	HMZ	6296	0.24	0.165	0.20	+14.2
Major Drilling	MDI	943	24.99	21.65	24.75	+12.0
General Mnrls	GNM	53	1.80	1.55	1.79	+11.8
Blue Pearl wt	BLE.WT	275	2.43	2.02	2.30	+11.6
Blue Pearl Mng	BLE	3734	3.19	2.65	2.99	+10.3
Peru Copper wt	PCR.WT	245	1.20	0.76	0.79	-42.7
SouthernEra wt	SDM.WT	22	0.05	0.045	0.05	-28.5
Agnico-Eag wt*	AEM.WT.U	22	9.61	7.80	8.13	-22.5
Twin Mining	TWG	1735	0.19	0.14	0.15	-21.0
Cancor Mines	KCR	30	0.22	0.20	0.20	-20.0
Ontex Res	ONT	42	0.20	0.18	0.185	-19.5
Northgate M wt	NGX.WT	134	0.38	0.30	0.31	-18.4
First Nickel	FNI	1546	1.25	1.06	1.06	-17.1
Minco Silver	MSV	422	4.50	3.50	3.65	-15.9
African Copper	ACU	45	1.72	1.35	1.52	-15.5

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Major Drilling	MDI	943378	24.75	+2.67
Dundee Prec Mt	DPM	214154	11.20	+1.00
Greystar Res	GSL	347988	9.10	+0.55
Kimber Res	KBR	711001	3.41	+0.52
Northern Peru	NOC	710598	3.29	+0.29
Blue Pearl Mng	BLE	3733734	2.99	+0.28
North Atlc Res	NAC	422044	3.78	+0.28
Vista Gold	VGZ	39095	5.81	+0.26
Blue Pearl wt	BLE.WT	275360	2.30	+0.24
Falconbridge	FAL.LV	12395302	38.13	+0.24
Potash Cp Sask	POT	1288802	100.42	-6.25
Teck Comin B	TEK.SVB	5290665	69.70	-3.61
Inco wt	N.WT	122204	23.50	-2.87
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	5417373	28.05	-2.85
Inco Ltd	N	9186766	53.54	-2.64
Agnico-Eag wt*	AEM.WT.U	21814	8.13	-2.36
Inmet Mining	IMN	1477957	29.39	-1.96
Meridian Gold	MNG	2532530	28.32	-1.77
Cameco Corp	CCO	8131409	41.35	-1.66
Newmont Mng	NMC	562766	56.36	-1.63

TSX most active issues

38.20

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Bema Gold	BGO	30431	5.12	4.59	4.70	-0.36
LionOre Mng	LIM	23367	5.35	4.62	5.01	-0.74
EuroZinc Mng	EZM	16275	1.72	1.55	1.69	-0.03
Goldcorp	G	13836	32.25	28.79	31.45	-0.55
Barrick Gold	ABX	13550	31.44	29.25	30.50	-0.76
Opawica Expl	OPW	12970	0.20	0.165	0.175	+0.01
Breakwater Res	BWR	12396	1.06	0.97	0.99	-0.07
Falconbridge	FAL.LV	12395	36.26	38.13	+0.24
Kinross Gold	K	11359	11.06	10.21	10.73	+0.02
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	10897	9.25	8.60	8.60	-0.59