The S&P/TSX Venture Composite showed signs of life during trading, as it jumped 1.4%, or 9.28 points, en route to a 668.31-point close. Investors searched for bargains amidst a freefall in energy and oil stocks, while U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said interest rate hikes would be delayed through at least the first quarter of 2015. The Canadian dollar lost US2.7¢ before closing at US86.2¢.
Gold futures retreated after a two-week rally, with February contracts for bullion losing 2.2%, or US$26.60, en route to a US$1,196 per oz. close. February contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose US27¢ before finishing at US$57.13 per barrel. March contracts for copper dropped 1.4%, or US4¢, en route to a US$2.89 per lb. close.
Explorer Timberline Resources gained 27¢ during the week before closing at 84¢ per share. On Dec. 17 exploration drilling resumed at the company’s Eureka gold property on the south end of Nevada’s Battle Mountain–Eureka trend. Timberline is drilling 3,700 metres of reverse-circulation targeting high-grade mineralization at Lookout Mountain that is associated with the past-producing Windfall structural trend.
On Dec. 19 Timberline appointed Kiran Patankar as its president and CEO. Patankar has a geological and engineering background, and spent the previous six years in the investment banking sector with Mackie Research and Macquarie Capital Markets.
Red Pine Exploration led the value-traded category after releasing assay results from a surface-sampling program at its Wawa gold project in Wawa, Ont. The company saw 7.2 million shares change hands, as it gained 1¢ en route to a 3¢-per-share close.
Red Pine reported it had “revisited some of the known high-grade quartz veins on the property” to confirm historic grades for gold showings and prospects related to quartz veins and gold-bearing shear zones.
Geochemical analyses confirmed targets and returned gold assay grades of up to 31.9 grams gold per tonne in individual grab samples of quartz veins and gold-bearing shear zones. Sampling also showed potential to intersect high-grade quartz veins and shear zones that extend beyond the Surluga gold deposit, which hosts an inferred resource of 1.1 million oz. gold at an average 1.49 grams gold.
Kennady Diamonds dropped 75¢ to $5 per share. The company’s final Kelvin delineation hole 14-33b intersected kimberlite over 194 metres, and returned only narrow kimberlite intersects showing that the pipe trended either northwest or northeast, and that the company had drilled over the top of the kimberlite. Hole 14-65 cut kimberlite 390 vertical metres below surface, but drilling stopped due to difficult ground conditions.
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