TSXV registers a gain during Mar. 20-24 trading week

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index increased 6.8 points or 1.1% over the Mar. 20-24 trading session, ending at 611.88.

The week’s top value gainer was Houston, Texas-based Itafos, which closed 50¢ per share higher on Friday at $2.15. The gain comes on the heels of a white-knuckle ride for shareholders over the past 12 months that saw Itafos share prices trading between $3.94-$1.39 apiece. Shares are up 50% since the start of the year. Although it doubled its 2022 net income to US$114.7 million, the company announced on Mar. 13 it was considering strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value. The company is backed by private capital fund Castlelake LP and has moved to strengthen its business over the past year. Measures have included work to extend the life of the Conda phosphate mine in Idaho, extending the maturity and reducing the cost of the company’s debt, improving its capital structure through deleveraging and strengthening the company’s management and board.

The week’s top trading issue was Vertical Exploration which saw 6.8 million shares change hands, closing 2¢ per share higher on Friday at 10¢. The company is prospecting on the Ménard–Péribonka (Ménard) wollastonite property in Quebec. Wollastonite is an industrial mineral comprised of calcium, silicon and oxygen. The 20-sq.-km Ménard project is just north of Lac Saint-Jean in Saguenay. The company’s 2022 first-phase exploration program confirmed historical prospecting results and identified new wollastonite sites. It also established a wollastonite mega zone comprising 18 mineralized zones, of which 14 zones are in the northern block of the property. The company plans a follow-up program to better define the extent and thickness of the wollastonite zones.

The top value loser this week was Los Andes Copper, which closed 6% or 70¢ per share lower Friday at $11.30 amid a generally tepid market. Most recently, the company elected to settle interest payments totalling $140,721 on its US$14-million convertible debenture with Queen’s Road Capital by issuing 11,984 common shares at $11.76. The move follows the company’s Feb. 23 release of a prefeasibility study for its 100%-owned Vizcachitas project in Chile. The study highlighted a US$2.8-billion post-tax net present value using an 8% discount rate and an internal rate of return of 24% for pre-production capital outlay of US$2.4 billion. The economics are calculated using metals prices of US$3.68 per lb. for copper, US$12.9 per lb. for molybdenum and US$21.79 per oz. for silver. Located within the Andes Mountains in the province of San Felipe, about 150 km northeast of Santiago, the Vizcachitas project represents a world-class porphyry copper deposit and one of the largest of its kind not controlled by the majors in the Americas.