TSX Venture falls nearly 5%, Oct. 26-30

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 34.35 points, or 4.78%, to 683.78 during the Oct. 26-30 trading week. Spot gold finished the trading week at US$1,878.60 per oz., down US$22.70 per oz., or 1.19%.

New Found Gold jumped $1.59 to $4.48 per share. The company reported that drilling around last year’s discovery hole in the Keats zone at its Queensway project in Newfoundland returned long intervals of high-grade gold. The company released results of four holes, drilled as part of a 10-metre step-out pattern around discovery hole 19-01, which hit 19 metres of 92.9 grams gold per tonne starting at 96 metres. Highlights include 8 metres of 24.1 grams gold from 92 metres, which was drilled 10 metres to the north and above last year’s discovery intercept. An additional hole, also drilled 10 metres north of 19-01, hit 19 metres of 31.2 grams gold from 90 metres. Drilling north of, and below the discovery hole, returned 41 metres of 22.3 grams gold starting at 83 metres, and 18 metres of 15.8 grams gold from 102 metres.

Shares of Tarku Resources rose 63.6% to 18¢. The company signed a final agreement to earn up to a 75% interest over three years in 1,250 hectares of claims in Arizona’s Tombstone mining district. Tarku also closed a non-brokered private placement for proceeds of $2.5 million (25 million units were issued at 10¢ per unit). Each unit consisted of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share for 15¢ until October 2022. Mining financier Eric Sprott purchased 10.55 million units of the offering and now owns about 19.9% of the junior’s outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis and 27.1% on a partially diluted basis.

Nouveau Monde Graphite rose 5¢ to 38¢. The company signed an agreement with a leading chemical company that will provide commercial operating space, site services and the supply of raw materials for the junior to establish two pilot plants. The space, within Olin’s facilities in Bécancour, Que., will host two commercial-scale pilot plant purification modules that will help Nouveau Monde develop high-purity graphite products using graphite from its Matawinie project, 150 km north of Montreal. The junior is spending $15 million on the project and expects the plant commissioning to take place in 2021. The company has developed a proprietary thermochemical purification technology that it says is very effective at purifying larger particle sizes and will allow it to produce high-purity, carbon-neutral graphite flakes.