Venture ends almost even in June 27-30 period

Vancouver – A shortened June 27 to 30 trading period had the S&P TSX Venture Exchange Index swinging down almost 40 points in the first half before rebounding almost as much in the latter half and ending almost even, down just over a point at 1,904.18. Volume was in line with recent weeks, averaging 96 million shares traded daily.

There were no breakaway value gainers in the period, with Macarthur Minerals’ 25¢ rise to $2.65 topping the list. The company released an updated inferred resource for its Snark direct shipping iron ore target in Western Australia that added 36% to the resource, which now stands at 9.7 million tonnes grading 55% iron. The total inferred resource at Macarthur’s Lake Giles project is now 20.6 million tonnes grading 55.2% iron. Macarthur used 153 new drill holes in the resource, adding to the 67 used in the older resource, while a further 152 holes drilled this year were not yet incorporated.

Newstrike Capital was not far off Macarthur with a 22¢ gain to end at $2.38 after releasing more drill results from its Ana Paula project in Mexico’s Guerrero gold belt. Results included vertical hole 11-48 that hit 116 metres grading 4.71 grams gold per tonne and 35.5 metres averaging 2.10 grams gold, with mineralization from top to bottom; hole 11-51 that returned 190.2 metres carrying 3.52 grams gold; and hole 11-49 that cut 22.5 metres grading 1.03 grams gold.

Advanced Explorations was high in the percentage-gain ranks, climbing 15¢ or 38% to 55¢ on four days of gains. The company stated it was ahead of schedule with a drill program on its Tuktu iron project in Nunavut and that it will not need a planned second program to complete a resource estimate. The current program included drill fences at 400-metre intervals to test the 2.6-km strike of Tuktu 1, while the company also recently completed a ground magnetometer survey over the target area. The Tuktu project is 60 km from the company’s Roche Bay project, on which it will soon start feasibility-stage drilling.

One of the most traded stocks, Bayfield Ventures shot up from 59¢ to a short high of $1.02 before ending at 76¢ with 11.2 million shares traded after releasing more drill results from its Burns block property in Ontario. The company touted stand-out hole 11-71 that returned 79.5 metres grading 8.66 grams gold, but after market close on Friday the company restated its results after a review by the B.C. Securities Commission. The restatement, covering several rounds of results, was related to reporting ‘potentially confusing’ large intervals by diluting high-grade intercepts over longer intercepts of lower-grades. Hole 11-71 was re-reported as 25.5 metres grading 26.7 grams gold and 170.69 grams silver.

Silver Quest, climbing 12¢ to $1.16, was next after Bayfield in activity with 6.7 million shares traded. The company announced a $12 million private placement, with roughly 4.4 million flow-through shares to be sold at $1.15 each, 5 million brokered units at $1 each and a $2-million non-brokered private placement. Silver Quest also announced drill results from its 25%-owned Davidson gold project in B.C., including 4 metres grading 165.38 grams gold in hole 156.