TSX Venture Exchange December 21-29

In wrapping up a banner year for commodity prices, the junior mining-dominated TSX Venture Composite Index closed 2006 on a rally, surging 140.8 points, or almost 5%, to 2,987.08 over the holiday shortened Dec. 21-29 trading session. Average daily trading volumes quieted slightly over the period at 67.5 million shares.

Bulls trampled bears at the year’s close with 80 junior board explorers reaching new 52-week highs versus just 23 that slipped to yearly lows over the abbreviated trading session.

Noront Resources grabbed top-trader honours with almost 25.4 million shares changing hands, but shed 11 to close at 63. Following a previous high-grade 4.8-metre intercept of 1,792.9 grams gold from the company’s Windfall project in Quebec, additional drill results returned lower grades, including 5.1 grams gold over 10 metres. Noront also recently closed a $15-million brokered financing.

Santoy Resources continued its meteoric rise, gaining 41% to close up 29 at 99 per share on trading volume of 12 million shares. The uranium-focused junior recently delivered U3O8 assays from its Fish Hawk Lake project in Labrador’s Central Mineral Belt and closed a $1.1-million financing.

Another uranium-focused junior, Gravity West Mining, saw trading volume of 10.7 million shares and gained three pennies to close at 12 per share. The company is exploring its Voltaire project in the Sibley basin of northern Ontario.

Consolidated Gold Win Ventures notched up a half-penny to close at 18 per share on trading volume of over 10.1 million shares. Selected drill core assays from its South Dolly Varden gold-copper project, in Elko Cty., Nev., returned up to 2 metres of 5.2% copper. The stock recently saw a market boost following the release of visual core descriptions.

With 9.3 million shares of trading volume, Yukon Zinc gained 3 to close the week at 30. A robust zinc price has stimulated renewed interest in the company’s Wolverine project in the Yukon.

Shares of Independent Nickel closed up 85% on the session, gaining 29 to 63 apiece on volume of 7.5 million. The company recently closed a $2.8-million flow-through financing for its Lynn Lake nickel project in northern Manitoba.

Uranium producer UrAsia Energy continued to new highs, gaining 37 to close at $5.37 per share on volume of 7.4 million. It recently announced earnings of US$25.9 million in its latest quarter. The company operates the Akdala uranium mine and holds the South Inkai deposit and 30% of the Kharassan project, all in Kazakhstan.

Following drill results of 12.4 metres of 2.1% U3O8 from its Matoush project in Quebec’s Otish Mountain region, Strateco Resources slipped 14% to close the session down 41 at $2.55 per share on volume of almost 7 million shares. With some final results pending from its 2006 drill program, the company has tabled a $12-million budget for 2007.

Shares of Ultra Uranium doubled over the trading session to close at $1.56 apiece on volume of almost 2.9 million. It received a draft qualifying report for its past-producing Kalnica-Selec uranium project in the Czech Republic.

TSX-V most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Noront Res	NOT	25374	1.00	0.62	0.63	-0.11
Santoy Res	SAN	12048	1.03	0.70	0.99	+0.29
Gravity West	GRW	10716	0.13	0.08	0.12	+0.03
Cons Gold Win	CGW	10152	0.205	0.16	0.18	+0.005
Sea Green Cap	SGS	9590	0.12	0.07	0.11	+0.04
Yukon Zinc	YZC	9348	0.30	0.26	0.30	+0.03
Independent Ni	INI	7515	0.76	0.40	0.63	+0.29
UrAsia Energy	UUU	7424	5.56	4.73	5.37	+0.37
Canadn Imp Vnt	CQV	7293	0.135	0.105	0.115	+0.01
Strateco Res	RSC	6952	3.12	2.54	2.55	-0.41

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Centurion Mnls	CTN	173	1.10	0.45	0.90	+200.0
Jantar Res	JR	303	0.87	0.22	0.25	+127.2
Luxor Ind	LRL	65	0.145	0.07	0.145	+123.0
Ultra Uranium	ULU	2866	1.68	0.75	1.56	+100.0
Independent Ni	INI	7515	0.76	0.40	0.63	+85.2
New Nadina	NNA	455	0.34	0.15	0.26	+73.3
Sanu Res	SNU	448	1.07	0.64	1.05	+72.1
J.A.G. Mines	JML	174	0.17	0.10	0.17	+70.0
SYMC Res	SY	72	0.185	0.12	0.185	+68.1
Intl Kirkland	IKI	1516	0.12	0.07	0.115	+64.2
New Shoshoni V	NSV	499	0.27	0.205	0.21	-25.0
Southampton Vn	SV	64	0.50	0.38	0.38	-24.0
Darnley Bay	DBL	105	0.15	0.115	0.115	-23.3
Ripple Lk Diam	RLD	45	0.12	0.105	0.11	-21.4
Piper Capital	PCL	204	0.335	0.24	0.27	-20.5
Madison Energy	MDC	37	0.345	0.29	0.29	-19.4
Prospctr C Res	PRR	130	0.18	0.13	0.145	-19.4
Fancamp Expl	FNC	109	0.26	0.18	0.19	-17.3
Radar Acquistn	RAC	155	0.36	0.24	0.30	-16.6
Senator Minls	SNR	115	0.18	0.145	0.15	-16.6

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Osisko Explora	OSK	1730984	11.07	+2.07
Contl Precious	CZQ	1347476	2.91	+0.91
Western Prospc	WNP	726000	5.45	+0.85
Seabridge Gold	SEA	109263	16.55	+0.84
Ultra Uranium	ULU	2866120	1.56	+0.78
Mawson Res	MAW	3418597	2.37	+0.77
Inspiration Mg	ISM	1456252	2.17	+0.75
U3O8 Corp	UWE	2117425	3.65	+0.65
Liberty Mines	LBE	1249779	2.79	+0.64
Centurion Mnls	CTN	173100	0.90	+0.60
Aurelian Res	ARU	552261	31.00	-0.87
Nautilus Minls	NUS	563248	5.20	-0.70
Strateco Res	RSC	6952445	2.55	-0.41
Crosshair E&Mg	CXX	2140692	3.32	-0.36
Pearl Ex & Pr	PXX	1213346	5.08	-0.28
Aquila Res< /td>	AQA	860302	2.37	-0.24
Titan Uran wtA	TUE.WT.A	40300	1.21	-0.23
Keegan Res	KGN	81838	3.00	-0.22
Win Eldrich Mn	WEX	56675	1.67	-0.21
Arizona Star	AZS	265280	13.80	-0.20