Venture edges up in Jan. 24-28 period

Vancouver – Like gold and oil, The S&P TSX Venture Exchange swung down then up over the January 24-29 period, with the exchange eking out a slight gain. By the numbers, the Venture dropped a total of 79.43 points over three days while gaining 82.17 points over two to end the period up 2.74 points at 2268.32 points.

Volume was in line with recent weeks, with an average of 181 million shares traded. The bulls were hit hard in the period, with only 88 Venture-listed companies hitting new 52-week highs while the number companies hitting 52-week lows climbed to 30.  

Rare elements-based Great Western Minerals continued to see high volumes, taking the most-traded slot with just under 42 million shares traded. The company announced it has so far acquired 70.2% of Rare Earth Extraction as part of an all-cash offer for any outstanding shares. Rare Earth owns 74% of the Steenkampskraal mine in South Africa. Great Western’s share price was up 14¢ to 89¢.

More long gold hits propelled Richfield Ventures to the highest value-gainer of the Venture, up 70¢ to $4.70. Results from the company’s Blackwater project in British Columbia included hole BW-106 that hit 205 metres grading 2.04 grams gold per tonne, with an 81-metre sub-section grading 4.33 grams gold; hole BW-107 that hit 121 metres grading 0.84 grams gold; and hole BW-109 that intersected 30 metres carrying 3.99 grams gold. Earlier in January the company reported that hole BW-103 cut 222 metres carrying 1.23 grams gold. The gain brought the company back towards its 52-week high of $5.10 in November.

Strong drill results had Allana Potash climbing on heavy volumes. The company’s share price was up 46¢ or 49% to $1.40 on 33.2 million shares traded. Drilling on its Ethiopia-based Dallol project returned 4.1 metres grading 24.6% KCL from 164 metres depth, then 7.5 metres grading 22.08% KCL from 173 metres downhole. The hole was collared in the southwest portion of the property, with the company reporting that the hit suggests the deposit may extend further south.

Yukon-focused Strategic Metals, a spinout of Atac Resources, was up after Wolverine Minerals announced it had acquired a number of claims in the territory from Strategic. Strategic’s share price climbed 53¢ to $3.38 after Wolverine secured 658 claims spanning 13,800 hectares in the Dawson Range project area. Wolverine acquired the property for the cost of staking as part of an option agreement that had the company issue 19.9% of its shares to Strategic along with cash payments, while Strategic keeps a 2% net smelter return royalty on all precious metal production.

Pele Mountain‘s share price plunged 21¢ to 40¢ on 12.8 million shares traded only weeks after shooting up from around 30¢ on the promise of a rare earth oxide resource estimate for its Eco Ridge project. In early January the company issued a press release stating that a rare earth resource was imminent, but only an upgrade in the project’s contained uranium has been released. The update moved a significant portion of the resource into the indicated category, but only added roughly 4 million tonnes to the overall uranium resource. The company states that the rare earth resource will be released when available.