TSX Venture Exchange November 20-26

Despite a week of strengthening bullion prices, investors seemed to want to take home the cash, depressing the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index by 77.83 points over the Nov. 20-26 trading session. Average daily trading volume for the week was 91.6 million shares.

An overwhelming bearish trend dominated weekly trading with only eight junior explorers posting new annual share price highs, while 160 dropped to 52-week lows.

With weakening zinc and lead prices, New Brunswick base metal producer Blue Note Mining saw its shares pull back 4 over the period, closing down at 40.5 on 32.3 million shares traded.

Canadian Shield Resources posted a 3 gain on trading volume of 21.2 million shares, closing the session at 27 per share. Drilling at its La Estrella project, in central Peru, recently returned intercepts of up to 107 metres grading 77.7 grams silver per tonne and 0.4 gram gold.

Shares of MacDonald Mines Exploration continued to retract, down 6 to 70 apiece on trading volume of 20.4 million. In late October, the company closed a $10-million financing for its VMS projects in the McFaulds Lake area of the James Bay lowlands.

Peak Gold saw 15 million shares change hands, slipping a penny to 59 per share. Resources at its Amapari mine, in Brazil, were recently boosted to 14.2 million measured and indicated tonnes at 2.3 grams gold.

Sage Gold gained a nickel to close the session at 47.5 on 14.7 million shares traded. The company closed a $5.5-million financing, earmarked for its projects in the Beardmore- Geraldton greenstone belt region of northern Ontario, earlier this month.

With a final prospectus filed for a $130-million financing, Yukon Zinc shed 2.5 per share to close the week at 13 on 9.3 million shares of volume. The funds will go toward capital costs for construction at the company’s Wolverine mine, in the Yukon.

Noront Resources traded 9.2 million shares over the week, adding 65 to close at $5.05 per share. Drilling continues at its Double Eagle project, in the James Bay lowlands.

Shares of Western Keltic Mines rallied 34%, closing up 10.5 to 41.5 apiece on 8.4 million shares volume, following a friendly takeover bid from Sherwood Copper. Sherwood is offering 0.08 of a share for each Western Keltic share. The motive for the offer is Western Keltic’s Kutcho copper project, in northern B.C.

Canplats Resources posted a 145% gain on the week after drilling on the Represa zone, at its Camino Rojo project in Mexico, returned intercepts of up to 107 metres grading 1.1 grams gold, plus silver, lead and zinc values.

Copper Canyon Resources plummeted 67% on the week, down 73.5 to 36.5 per share. The nosedive came on news that NovaGold Resources and Teck Cominco suspended construction at their Galore Creek copper-gold project, in northwestern B.C., due to estimated capital cost increases. Copper Canyon’s namesake deposit is viewed as a potential satellite operation to the nearby Galore Creek.

TSX-V greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Canplats Res	CPQ	6680	1.43	0.48	1.35	+	145.4
Contintl Nickl	CNI	532	3.79	1.60	2.71	+	123.9
Inter-Rock Mnl	IRO	20	0.11	0.11	0.11	+	57.1
Macarthur Mnl	MMS	81	1.98	1.18	1.65	+	50.0
Tirex Res	TXX	2139	2.85	2.00	2.85	+	47.6
Ivana Vent	ANA	490	0.58	0.40	0.57	+	44.3
Prominex Res	PXR	869	0.195	0.12	0.18	+	38.4
Western Keltic	WKM	8430	0.43	0.285	0.415	+	33.8
Meritus Mnls	MER	21	0.36	0.28	0.28	+	33.3
Great Sthn Ent	GSR	191	0.06	0.04	0.06	+	33.3
Copper Canyon	CPY	2497	1.26	0.325	0.365	–	66.8
Wind River Res	WRR	218	0.07	0.035	0.035	–	61.1
Rome Res	RMR	31	0.99	0.405	0.405	–	49.3
CMQ Res	CMQ	4357	0.085	0.035	0.04	–	42.8
Romios Gold Rs	RG	2769	0.64	0.28	0.40	–	37.5
African Metals	AFR	112	0.31	0.23	0.24	–	33.3
Strait Gold	SRD	612	0.21	0.13	0.14	–	33.3
Celtic Mnrls	CME	1651	1.18	0.75	0.77	–	33.0
Goldsource Min	GXS	60	0.205	0.145	0.145	–	32.5
Beta Minerals	BMI	46	0.11	0.075	0.075	–	31.8

TSX-V greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Contintl Nickl	CNI	531971	2.71	+	1.50
Palmarejo S&G	PJO	750896	11.15	+	1.05
Tirex Res	TXX	2139190	2.85	+	0.92
Canplats Res	CPQ	6680431	1.35	+	0.80
Noront Res	NOT	9161869	5.05	+	0.65
Macarthur Mnl	MMS	81200	1.65	+	0.55
Xemplar Energy	XE	2635685	6.00	+	0.43
Quaterra Res	QTA	429087	3.35	+	0.31
Contintl Mnls	KMK	1385357	1.79	+	0.31
Rare Elemnt Rs	RES	230866	1.25	+	0.24
Seabridge Gold	SEA	130577	26.80	–	1.67
Copper Canyon	CPY	2496627	0.365	–	0.735
Pac Booker Min	BKM	10475	11.05	–	0.45
Aldridge Minls	AGM	35662	2.35	–	0.45
Northland Res	NAU	94713	2.85	–	0.40
Azimut Expl	AZM	127460	4.00	–	0.40
Rome Res	RMR	31100	0.405	–	0.395
Celtic Mnrls	CME	1651000	0.77	–	0.38
Duran Vent	DRV	273572	1.56	–	0.36
Clifton Star	CFO	34845	1.96	–	0.34

TSX-V most active issues

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		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Blue Note Mng	BN	32350	0.46	0.38	0.405	–	0.04
Canadn Shield	CSP	21200	0.40	0.175	0.27	+	0.03
MacDonald Mns	BMK	20416	0.79	0.61	0.70	–	0.06
Peak Gold	PIK	15013	0.63	0.57	0.59	–	0.01
Sage Gold	SGX	14707	0.55	0.39	0.475	+	0.05
Spider Res	SPQ	11648	0.125	0.095	0.115		0.00
Yukon Zinc	YZC	9287	0.165	0.13	0.13	–	0.025
Noront Res	NOT	9162	5.36	3.92	5.05	+	0.65
Western Keltic	WKM	8430	0.43	0.285	0.415	+	0.105
VMS Vent	VMS	8408	1.10	0.85	0.87	–	0.19