TSX Venture Exchange Dec. 4-10

With bullion straddling the US$800-per-oz. level over the Dec. 4-10 trading session, the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index eked out a modest gain of 33.87 points to close at 2,751.27. Daily trading volumes averaged 88.6 million shares for the week.

A powerful bearish trend again dominated the junior mining market over the period with a paltry nine companies managing new annual share price highs while 213 slumped to 52-week lows.

Gravity West Mining grabbed top trading honours for the week with almost 39 million shares changing hands — posting a 3 gain to close at 20 per share. Assays are pending from the company’s Voltaire Lake project in northwester Ontario’s Sibley basin region, where recent drilling cut massive sulphides.

News that Yukon Zinc has withdrawn plans to raise $130 million due to weak market conditions further depressed its shares. The stock shed two pennies to close the session at 11.5 on 22.9 million shares traded. Subsequently, an $8-million financing was arranged to maintain development and engineering activities at the company’s Wolverine zinc-silver project in the Yukon.

Shares of penny trader Simberi Mining climbed 2 on the week to close at 8 on trading volume of 12.5 million shares. The company is planning a drill program at its Lambina project in South Australia and is working at settling title issues at its Kakanda copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Shares of Sanatana Diamonds soared more than 620%, up $1.93 to $2.24 apiece, on trading volume of over 11 million shares after a sample from its Dharma kimberlite in the Northwest Territories confirmed it is diamond-bearing.

Another penny junior, Patrician Diamonds, saw its share price almost double to 12.5 per share — up 5.5 — on 10.4 million shares traded. Planned drilling on its Sahtu project in the Northwest Territories has been delayed until spring.

Peak Gold posted a 7 gain to close the week at 55 per share on 10.3 million shares of volume. It has closed a $110-million financing and also recently boosted the resource tally at its Amapari gold mine in Brazil.

After drilling on its Red Willow project in the Athabasca basin turned up significant uranium intercepts, Purepoint Uranium added 7 to its stock price to close the week at 44 on nearly 10 million shares traded.

Tournigan Gold rallied 30% on the trading session — closing up 31 at $1.35 per share after delivering a resource boost at its Curraghinalt gold project in Northern Ireland. It also updated the resource at its Kuriskova uranium project in Slovakia.

Snowfield Development posted a 75% gain for the week, closing up 15 to 35 per share, on news it delivered the first 100 tonnes of a 500-tonne kimberlite mini-bulk sample to De Beers’ facility in Saskatchewan for testing. The kimberlite is from the company’s Ticho project, located just southeast of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Sanatana Diam	STA	11375	2.65	0.30	2.24	+	622.5
Patrician Diam	PXC	10453	0.165	0.08	0.125	+	78.5
Snowfield Res	SNO	3223	0.39	0.185	0.35	+	75.0
Cariboo Rose	CRB	793	0.38	0.22	0.36	+	71.4
Dianor Res	DOR	1986	0.54	0.285	0.495	+	59.6
Lithic Res	LTH	259	0.63	0.385	0.63	+	57.5
Clifton Star	CFO	34	2.00	1.40	2.00	+	51.5
Carlin Gold	CGD	200	0.12	0.085	0.12	+	50.0
Maxy Gold	MXD	238	0.61	0.42	0.61	+	41.8
Metco Res	MKO	2292	0.07	0.045	0.07	+	40.0
Golconda Res	GA	216	0.17	0.115	0.14	–	34.8
Great Sthn Ent	GSR	124	0.045	0.04	0.04	–	33.3
Big Bar Res	BBK	296	0.38	0.24	0.24	–	31.4
Wellstar Enrgy	WST	24	0.10	0.07	0.07	–	30.0
Noble Metal Gr	NMG	107	0.24	0.17	0.17	–	29.1
Nikos Expl	NIK	327	0.14	0.10	0.10	–	28.5
Buchans River	BUV	196	0.42	0.36	0.36	–	28.0
Global Uran	GU	323	0.21	0.14	0.17	–	27.6
Western Prospc	WNP	2081	1.28	1.05	1.07	–	27.7
Gold World Res	GDW	500	0.085	0.055	0.055	–	26.6

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Seabridge Gold	SEA	77684	29.50	+	3.15
Sanatana Diam	STA	11374622	2.24	+	1.93
Azimut Expl	AZM	256315	4.36	+	0.74
Pan Oce Exp	POE	1468306	10.65	+	0.73
Kodiak Expl	KXL	6419800	4.61	+	0.69
Clifton Star	CFO	33559	2.00	+	0.68
Exeter Res	XRC	137192	5.06	+	0.59
Anooraq Res	ARQ	356917	4.33	+	0.58
Antares Minls	ANM	264441	4.05	+	0.50
Palmarejo S&G	PJO	2004527	11.80	+	0.50
Xemplar Energy	XE	1689822	6.69	–	0.56
Belvedere Res	BEL	60000	1.47	–	0.47
Tirex Res	TXX	1729804	2.89	–	0.43
Western Prospc	WNP	2081195	1.07	–	0.41
Fortress Minls	FST	389700	1.31	–	0.38
Triex Minerals	TXM	148112	2.75	–	0.35
Pediment Expl	PEZ	941420	2.71	–	0.33
Rainy River Rs	RR	237425	3.97	–	0.28
AuEx Vent	XAU	297880	2.15	–	0.26
Blackstone Res	BLV	1185000	0.71	–	0.17

TSX-V most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Gravity West	GRW	38918	0.22	0.165	0.20	+	0.03
Yukon Zinc	YZC	22925	0.15	0.115	0.115	–	0.02
Simberi Gold	SAU	12524	0.10	0.055	0.08	+	0.02
Sanatana Diam	STA	11375	2.65	0.30	2.24	+< /td>	1.93
Patrician Diam	PXC	10453	0.165	0.08	0.125	+	0.055
Peak Gold	PIK	10320	0.55	0.475	0.55	+	0.07
Purepoint U	PTU	9948	0.62	0.40	0.44	+	0.07
Gold Hawk Res	CGK	9125	0.55	0.38	0.55	+	0.145
Tournigan Gold	TVC	8402	1.35	0.96	1.35	+	0.31
Sage Gold	SGX	8324	0.54	0.455	0.52	+	0.02