TSX Venture Exchange August 28-31

The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index eked out a modest gain of 15.13 points over the holiday-shortened Aug. 28-31 trading session to close at 2,647.81. Average daily trading volumes continued to retract at 70 million shares.

The market continued on a strongly bearish trend, with just three junior exploration companies touching new 52-week highs over the session, while 115 slumped to new annual lows.

Field observations from its Double Eagle project, in Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands, lifted Noront Resources to top trader on the week with volume of 24.2 million shares. The stock posted a 113% gain to close up 45 at 85 per share. The first hole at Double Eagle cut 26 metres of visible copper mineralization (chalcopyrite) within an ultramafic-hosted massive sulphide horizon.

Noront’s results also boosted trading volume in its neighbours Spider Resources and KWG Resources, which have been drilling their joint-venture McFaulds Lake volcanogenic massive sulphide project. The duo posted trading volumes of 12.8 million shares and 6.2 million shares, respectively.

Additional high-grade copper intercepts from definition drilling at First Narrows Resources’ Chester project in New Brunswick pushed the company’s trading volume to over 5.8 million shares over the week, closing down half a penny at 39 per share. The company reported intervals of up to 8.3 metres averaging 5.4% copper.

Celtic Minerals shares notched up 6 over the session to close at $1.03 apiece on trading volume of almost 5 million. The company recently announced a nickel-copper-cobalt-palladium massive sulphide discovery at its Kingurutik project in Labrador.

After strong recent gains, Blue Note Mining saw its shares pull back a couple of pennies over the week, closing at 59 per share on trading volume of 4.8 million shares. In mid-August, the company delivered the first lead concentrate produced from its Caribou lead-zinc mine in New Brunswick to Xstrata’s Belledune smelter.

Western Uranium posted a 58% gain on the week to close up $1.08 at $2.94 per share on trading volume of 3.3 million shares. Cameco closed its investment in the junior by purchasing 5.6 million units at $3.80 apiece to hold 10% of Western Uranium. The deal also gives Cameco rights to acquire a joint-venture interest in the junior’s uranium project portfolio.

Rainy River Resources shares gained 12% on the week, closing up 49 at $4.60 per share on trading volume of more than 1.4 million shares. The company recently closed a $35-million financing earmarked for its Richardson Township and Off Lake properties, located south of Kenora, Ont.

Shares of GoldQuest Mining slipped 34% to close the week down 28 at 55 apiece on trading volume of over 3.8 million. Drilling at the company’s Las Animas project, in the Dominican Republic, recently turned in intercepts of up to 13 metres grading 4.5% copper, 4.4 grams gold per tonne and 558.3 grams silver in massive sulphides.

SNS Silver gave up 29% on the week, closing down 28 at 69 per share on trading volume of more than 628,000 shares. Drilling on its Crescent mine project, in northern Idaho, recently cut a handful of narrow silver intercepts including 1.5 metres of 1,470 grams silver per tonne.

TSX-V most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Noront Res	NOT	24245	0.91	0.55	0.85	+0.45
Spider Res	SPQ	12823	0.06	0.035	0.04	0.00
Peak Gold	PIK	8501	0.51	0.435	0.50	+0.005
KWG Res	KWG	6168	0.065	0.035	0.045	+0.01
First Narrows	UNO	5853	0.50	0.35	0.39	-0.005
Celtic Mnrls	CME	4922	1.17	0.95	1.09	+0.06
Blue Note Mng	BN	4766	0.65	0.55	0.59	-0.02
Intl Wayside G	WGM	4554	0.21	0.16	0.195	+0.01
E-Energy Vent	EEV	4358	0.175	0.15	0.15	-0.05
Yukon Zinc	YZC	4276	0.225	0.21	0.215	-0.005

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Noront Res	NOT	24245	0.91	0.55	0.85	+112.5
Gold Bulln Dev	GBB	26	0.17	0.135	0.16	+68.4
Spruce Ridge R	SHL	20	0.45	0.30	0.45	+60.7
Adroit Res	ADT	46	0.22	0.165	0.20	+60.0
Western Uran	WUC	3301	3.05	1.80	2.94	+58.0
Windarra Minls	WRA	51	0.16	0.15	0.16	+45.4
Zeox	ZOX	683	2.60	1.78	2.56	+42.2
Dejour Enterp	DEJ	391	2.37	1.68	2.32	+39.7
African Metals	AFR	10	0.53	0.40	0.53	+39.4
Golden Dawn Ml	GOM	331	0.36	0.25	0.355	+39.2
Waseco Res	WRI	2266	0.445	0.28	0.285	-38.0
Midland Expl	MD	82	0.60	0.49	0.49	-36.3
GoldQuest Mng	GQC	3886	0.82	0.48	0.55	-33.7
SNS Silver	SNS	628	0.98	0.65	0.69	-28.8
E-Energy Vent	EEV	4358	0.175	0.15	0.15	-25.0
Tanqueray Res	TQY	41	0.09	0.07	0.09	-25.0
New Nadina	NNA	109	0.23	0.17	0.17	-24.4
Lounor Expl	LO	79	0.19	0.155	0.155	-24.3
Northern Hemis	NHD	140	0.20	0.155	0.155	-24.3
Capella Res	CPS	964	0.64	0.48	0.48	-23.8

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Western Uran	WUC	3301225	2.94	+1.08
Seabridge Gold	SEA	76065	24.70	+0.85
Zeox	ZOX	682740	2.56	+0.76
Dejour Enterp	DEJ	391341	2.32	+0.66
Mag Silver	MAG	153340	13.00	+0.65
Rainy River Rs	RR	1452562	4.60	+0.49
Noront Res	NOT	24244676	0.85	+0.45
Pac Booker Min	BKM	17925	11.60	+0.35
Cons Puma Minl	CPW	112700	1.80	+0.30
Osisko Explora	OSK	114919	4.95	+0.26
Azimut Expl	AZM	181875	5.50	-0.50
Northern Dyn M	NDM	464659	10.51	-0.49
JNR Res	JNN	722062	2.33	-0.35
Pearl Ex & Pr	PXX	1673146	3.70	-0.35
Anglo Mnrls	ALM	196700	2.15	-0.30
Mexican Silver	MSM	127960	1.25	-0.30
GoldQuest Mng	GQC	3886493	0.55	-0.28
Midland Expl	MD	81785	0.49	-0.28
SNS Silver	SNS	628333	0.69	-0.28
Tamerlane Vent	TAM	1397333	1.81	-0.26