Toronto Stock Exchange September 5-11

The clobbering of the precious metals sector was the big story of the Sept. 5-11 report period, and it was carried out against a backdrop of falling oil prices and a stronger U.S. dollar.

The retreat in spot prices was across the board and deep: as of early Sept. 12, gold had plummeted US$33.75, or 5.4%, to US$596 per oz.; silver had sunk 13.8% to US$11.34 per oz.; platinum had fallen 4.3% to US$1,261 per oz.; and palladium had pulled back 7.6% to US$346.50 per oz.

This had the expected result on the gold stocks, with the TSX Capped Gold Index sinking 30.71 points, or 9.6% over the report period to 288.93. That helped pull the TSX Composite Index down 4% over the session to 11,656.57.

There was much bloodletting amongst the golds: Barrick Gold fell $3.75 to $33.15; Goldcorp dropped $2.58 to $27.68; Kinross Gold sank $1.81 to $13.98; Yamana Gold was off 69 to $10.87; Glamis Gold declined $4.75 to $45.75; Meridian Gold tumbled $3.65 to $29.25; and Agnico-Eagle Mines retreated $5.44 to $37.22.

The silver plays fared no better, with Pan American Silver dropping $2.68 to $22.75, Silver Wheaton sinking $1.28 to $11.13 and Coeur d’Alene Mines coming down 76 to $5.38.

For a change, two zinc producers were among the most-active mining stocks: Breakwater Resources, off 8 to $1.22; and EuroZinc Mining, off 36 to $2.76. Breakwater has zinc mines in Canada, Honduras and Chile, and produces byproduct copper, lead and gold concentrates. It scored a second-quarter profit of $30 million on $101 million in revenue, and recently sold its Caribou and Restigouche zinc mines in New Brunswick to Venture-listed Blue Note Metals. EuroZinc has been riding high since the announcement of a proposed merger with Lundin Mining that would put under one umbrella four profitable mines in Portugal, Sweden and Ireland, plus a fifth, Aljustrel, which is due to start up late next year.

The top percentage gainer was Blue Pearl Mining and its warrants: the stock shot up 44% to $5.65 while the warrants jumped 56% to $4.93. The company is proposing a US$575-million takeover of privately held molybdenum producer Thompson Creek Metals. The latter owns several key assets: the Thompson Creek open-pit moly mine and 25,000-tonne-per-day capacity concentrator near Challis, Idaho; a metallurgical refinery in Pennsylvania; and a 75% interest in the Endako mine near Fraser Lake, B.C., where Blue Pearl plans to haul ore from its proposed Davidson moly mine for processing.

Nickel junior Skye Resources took the honours as greatest value gainer, rising $2.55 to $16.55. Skye expects to complete a feasibility study for a 50-million-lb.-per-year ferronickel mine and smelter at its Fenix project in Guatemala within weeks, and expects to make a production decision in the fourth quarter.

Despite gold’s downturn, two base metal miners led the percentage losers list: Teck Cominco fell 5.9% to $72.62, while First Quantum Minerals slumped 5.6% to $57.50. Teck has been on the downswing since its hostile offer for Inco expired on Aug. 16, and First Quantum has been sideswiped by news that government-owned Gcamines, its erstwhile partner at the Kipushi zinc project in the Demoratic Republic of the Congo, is seeking bids from new partners to develop Kipushi. First Quantum is contesting Gecamines’ move.

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Blue Pearl wt	BLE.WT	1639	6.30	3.95	4.93	+ 55.5
Blue Pearl Mng	BLE	14798	6.97	4.80	5.65	+44.1
Mercator Mnls	ML	1534	2.70	2.10	2.60	+26.8
Skye Res	SKR	3661	16.99	13.85	16.55	+18.2
Opawica Expl	OPW	3308	0.13	0.105	0.12	+14.2
Mundoro Mng	MUN	459	2.40	1.80	2.10	+14.1
Sulliden Expl	SUE	550	1.05	0.87	0.99	+11.2
Teal Expl & Mg	TL	241	5.30	4.60	5.00	+11.1
Eastern Pla wt	ELR.WT	61	0.88	0.70	0.88	+10.0
Baffinland Irn	BIM	165	2.35	2.04	2.35	+9.8
Northgate M wt	NGX.WT	929	1.43	0.84	0.89	-30.4
Northgate wtA	NGX.WT.A	204	1.46	0.83	0.93	-27.9
Ontex Res	ONT	53	0.20	0.17	0.17	-26.0
Ascendant C wt	ACX.WT	12	0.20	0.15	0.15	-25.0
Tanz Roy Exp	TNX	833	8.05	6.03	6.12	-21.1
Wolfden Res	WLF	2380	2.01	1.40	1.50	-21.0
Franc-Or Res	FOR	160	0.235	0.20	0.20	-20.0
Golden Str wtA	GSC.WT.A	136	0.59	0.44	0.44	-20.0
Vista Gold	VGZ	105	14.95	11.00	11.41	-19.0
Bema Gold wt	BGO.WT	211	4.61	3.55	3.61	-18.8

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Skye Res	SKR	3660913	16.55	+2.55
Blue Pearl wt	BLE.WT	1639268	4.93	+1.76
Blue Pearl Mng	BLE	14797886	5.65	+1.73
Potash Cp Sask	POT	1203381	108.85	+1.13
Mercator Mnls	ML	1534449	2.60	+0.55
Denison Mn wt	DEN.WT	22550	6.30	+0.55
Teal Expl & Mg	TL	240702	5.00	+0.50
Denison Mines	DEN	1208256	15.50	+0.38
Aquiline Res	AQI	907664	5.00	+0.33
Mundoro Mng	MUN	458650	2.10	+0.26
Teck Comin A	TCK.A	12256	72.62	-5.88
First Quantum	FM	1349253	57.50	-5.55
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	7921331	37.32	-5.44
Newmont Mng	NMC	591988	51.11	-5.305
Teck Comin B	TCK.B	8177254	69.53	-4.96
Glamis Gold	GLG	17567257	45.75	-4.75
Silver Std Res	SSO	657245	24.51	-4.06
Agnico-Eag wt*	AEM.WT.U	44770	17.34	-3.96
Barrick Gold	ABX	12595851	33.15	-3.75
Alcan	AL	9372458	46.60	-3.75

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Breakwater Res	BWR	41458	1.39	1.19	1.22	-0.08
Goldcorp	G	37983	31.89	27.55	27.68	-2.58
EuroZinc Mng	EZM	31562	3.38	2.72	2.76	-0.36
Kinross Gold	K	29082	17.00	13.97	13.98	-1.81
Bema Gold	BGO	26790	6.32	5.25	5.27	-0.85
Equinox Minls	EQN	18649	1.80	1.55	1.61	-0.15
Inco Ltd	N	18328	85.95	85.37	85.59	-0.27
Glamis Gold	GLG	17567	53.05	45.75	45.75	-4.75
Yamana Gold	YRI	17221	12.29	10.77	10.87	-0.69
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	17195	7.71	6.90	7.10	+0.12