TSX Venture falls, June 10-14: Alexandria, Bonterra, Great Bear, Eagle Graphite

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 1.46% to 587.84 during the trading week.

An unsolicited takeover offer for Alexandria Minerals from Agnico Eagle Mines sent the junior’s shares up 66.7% to 5¢. Agnico Eagle is offering to buy all of Alexandria’s issued and outstanding common shares at 5¢ per share, payable in cash or shares in Agnico Eagle. Alexandria announced on June 13 that Agnico’s offer was superior to one in May from Chantrell Ventures. Chantrell has 10 days to make a superior bid. Alexandria’s large Cadillac Break property in Val-d’Or hosts near-surface gold resources.

Drill results from three of its gold deposits in Quebec’s Abitibi greenstone belt drove Bonterra Resources’ shares up 26¢ to $2.10 per share. At the Gladiator deposit, drill hole 19-40 intersected 101.1 grams gold per tonne over 4 metres in the Barbeau zone — 50 metres down-plunge of mineralization — and drill hole 19-37 cut 8.1 grams gold over 2 metres in the North Zone, 50 metres down-plunge from mineralization. At the Moroy deposit, drill hole 19-155 returned 12.8 grams gold over 6 metres, and drill hole 19-158 cut 12.2 grams gold over 5 metres, extending the mineralization 150 metres down-plunge, while drill hole 19-227 intersected 3.6 grams over 2 metres. At the Barry deposit, hole 19-209 intersected 8.7 grams gold over 2 metres in zone H1 — 75 metres deeper than known mineralization. Hole 19-211 extended the H1 zone 250 metres at depth, with an intercept of 6.3 grams gold over 2 metres. Hole 19-206 also extended mineralization 200 metres at depth, with 5.9 grams gold over 2 metres. Bonterra has five drill rigs working on three projects. The company released a resource estimate on the Gladiator, Barry and Moroy deposits last May, outlining 302,005 measured tonnes grading 5.66 grams gold for 55,000 contained oz. gold, and 3.16 million indicated tonnes grading 6.33 grams gold for 643,000 contained oz. gold. Inferred resources add 6.20 million tonnes grading 7.04 grams gold for 1.41 million contained oz. gold.

Great Bear Resources dropped 30¢ to $3.88 per share. The company announced a bought-deal private placement of 1.5 million common flow-through shares at $5.45 per share. The $8.2 million in proceeds will help Great Bear explore its properties in Ontario. It has mobilized a third drill rig to its wholly owned Dixie project in the province’s Red Lake district as part of its 60,000-metre drill program. The third drill will target the  Bear-Rimini zone.

Eagle Graphite’s shares jumped 66.7% to 5¢. B.C.’s Advanced Research and Commercialization program for clean energy vehicles awarded the company a $290,000 grant, in support of a two-year program to develop and commercialize silicon-modified battery anodes made with graphite from Eagle’s Black Crystal granite quarry and plant in Passmore, British Columbia.