TSX climbs as Greece gets handle on debt woes

Word that Greece could finally be approaching an end to its debt catastrophe helped lift global markets for the Jan. 16-20 period and the TSX Composite Index was no exception as it gained 165 points to finish at 12,397.10 points.

Word came on Jan. 20 that Greece was on the verge of sealing a deal with its creditors that would eliminate 70% of its debts and go a long way towards helping to ease the debt crisis in Europe.

Gold continued on its strong run as it was up US$30 to US$1,664 per oz. Despite that strength, however, gold miners failed to rally and the Global Gold Index was down 15 points to 365.57.

It was different story for diversified miners who moved in step with the base metals that they mine. The Capped Metals & Mining Index was up roughly 50 points to 1,233.75 points as the prices for copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, zinc and lead were all higher.

Kinross Gold took a tumble as its shares fell 20% to $10.36 after saying it will have to take a write down on its Tasiast mine in Mauritania. Kinross acquired the asset when it bought Redback Mining in 2010 for $8 billion. The asset was listed on its books at a value of $7.1 billion, with $4.6 billion of that being goodwill – the amount it paid above the asset determinable value in the acquisition.

A construction permit for its Azulcocha zinc mine in Peru helped make Vena Resources the biggest gainer by percentage points as its share price surged 70% to finish the period at 34¢. Vena, and its partner at the project Trafigura, will start a plant tune-up in February from a stockpile of 25,000 tonnes. From there the companies plan to up plant throughput to 500 tonnes per day. After that, permits permitting, they will push to get
plant capacity up to 2,000 tonnes per day by the end of the year.

Strong intercepts at its Altan Nar project in Mongolia had Erdene Resource Development shares higher for the period as they were up 47% to 50¢. The company announced a highlight intercept of 29 metres grading 4.3 grams gold and 24.1 grams silver and reported that 10 of its 11 new drill holes hit gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper mineralization.

The drill was also kind to Cluff Gold at its Yaoure Project in Côte d’Ivoire. The London-based miner sent the drill bit down into a sulphide zone and pulled out highlight intercepts of 28.35 metres grading 3.24 grams gold and 31.60 metres grading 1.97 grams gold. The results had the company bullish on its prospects for increasing the resources for the project later this year and its share price climbed 45% to $1.60.

And word that Energizer Resources had made a large scale graphite discovery at its Green Giant project in Madagascar helped bolster the company’s share price by 35% to 23¢. The company is calling the area a potential graphite camp and said it hosts the most desirable form of graphite — large flake graphite. It reported a highlight assay of 61.4 metres grading 7.46% carbon.