TSX Venture Exchange, March 4-8

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index closed out another week with relatively little movement, falling just 0.2%, or 2.24 points, before settling at 1,117.85. Despite strong job reports from Canada and the U.S., the Venture is grappling with volatile commodity prices and a weaker Canadian dollar.

On the jobs front Statistics Canada revealed the economy generated 50,700 jobs last month, with most gains being full-time jobs in the private sector. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor reported 236,000 new jobs in February, which dropped the U.S. unemployment rate to 7.7%.

Commodities continue to be a mixed bag, with May contracts for copper dropping around 1¢ during the week to close at US$3.51 per lb., while spot gold prices gained US$2.40 per oz. to close the week at US$1,579.20. April contracts for crude oil jumped 1.4%, or US$1.28 per barrel, en route to a US$91.86 weekly close.

Mirasol Resources dropped 24¢ before closing the week at $1.80 per share after releasing drill results from its wholly owned Claudia gold-silver project in Santa Cruz, Argentina. The company completed a 25-hole, 2,600-metre re­connaissance drill campaign at its Rio Seco prospect, with nine holes returning anomalous gold and silver assays. Most of the results centred around the structural intersection of the Loma Alta trend and Rio Seco Main veins, which sit on a covered resistive geophysical anomaly called the Oculto zone. Highlights from Mirasol’s Rio Seco drill results include: 2.14 metres grading 3.06 grams gold per tonne and 72.91 grams silver per tonne from 19 metres downhole in hole CRS-DH-001; 5.5 metres of 1.01 grams gold and 37.87 grams silver from 51 metres in hole CRS-DH-006; and 15 metres averaging 0.29 gram gold and 50.87 grams silver from 87 metres in CRS-DH-019.

Northern Graphite jumped 17¢ before closing at $1.17 following drill results from a 61-hole, 3,400-metre infill program at its Bissett Creek graphite project, 100 km east of North Bay, Ont. The company is working to move an inferred resource into the indicated category while testing for higher-grade zones outside its current model. Northern Graphite’s results include 58 metres of 2.75% graphitic carbon from 45 metres depth in MFT-12-005, 47 metres averaging 2.29% carbon from 42 metres in hole MFT-002 and 26 metres grading 2.97% carbon from 21 metres in BC-12-213. The company intends to complete an updated resource estimate based on its results by the end of March, followed by a modified mine plan and feasibility study that Northern Graphite hopes will carry increased grades and a longer mine life.

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