Venture finds more gains in July 11-15 period

Vancouver – The S&P Venture Exchange Index climbed again in the July 11 -15 period, up 22.57 points to cross the 2,000-point threshold for the first time in over a month and end at 2,007.38 points. Volume averaged out to 91.7 million shares traded daily.

The clear stand-out of the period was Prophecy Platinum, which topped all three indicators after releasing a resource estimate on its Wellgreen polymetallic project in the Yukon. The company was the most active with 11.8 million shares traded, gained the most by climbing $1.61, and had the highest percentage gain with a 264% increase to end at $2.22. The resource on the east zone established 14.3 million indicated tonnes grading 0.99 gram platinum per tonne, 0.74 gram palladium per tonne, and 0.52 gram gold per tonne, plus 0.69% nickel, 0.62% copper and 0.05% cobalt. Combining the east and west zones, the inferred resource is 289 million tonnes grading 1.18 grams platinum, palladium and gold combined, 0.38% nickel, 0.35% copper and 0.03% cobalt.

Prophecy Coal also saw a big jump in activity and share price as a roughly 45% share owner of Prophecy Platinum. The coal division spun out its Canadian nickel assets earlier this year as part of a tie-up with Pacific Coast Nickel, with Prophecy Platinum the result. Prophecy Coal was up 16¢ to 72¢ on 9.3 million shares traded. The company has been working for months to arrange an off-take agreement for its Mongolian coal project, but has been delayed as it also works to secure rail and port allocation at Russia’s eastern ports.

Trelawney Mining and Exploration gained 83¢ to end at $5.70 after making an all-share bid for Augen Gold, which controls 237 sq. km of mining claims next to Trelawney’s Côté Lake deposit. The two sides had previous been public about trying to make a deal work, but nothing had come of it until now. Trelawney is offering 0.066 of a share for each Augen share, valuing the smaller company at $55 million and giving its shareholders a potential 40% premium. A group of institutional shareholders representing 42% of Augen’s shares have signed lock-up agreements supporting the deal. Augen’s share price gained 11¢ in the period to end at 38¢.

In Yukon news, Strategic Metals climbed 64¢ to $4.24 after releasing an update on its Midas Touch and Silver Range projects. The company reported that all holes drilled so far in its 11-hole program at its Crag property had intersected orpiment-realgar, which often occurs in gold mines on the Carlin trend and are key indicators on Atac Resources’ Osiris project 40 km east. Strategic Metals is also looking for Carlin-type deposits at its Rod target where it is drilling about 3,000 metres over 10 to 15 holes, and the company has already drilled 4,600 metres at its Silver Range project in south-central Yukon, which it is working to spin-out into a separate company.

Copper Fox Metals dropped 54¢ to close at $1.59 on 10.4 million shares after releasing an updated resource for its Schaft Creek deposit in northwest British Columbia. The resource established just over a billion measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.27% copper, 0.017% molybdenum, 0.18 gram gold for 6.1 billion lbs copper, 383 million lbs. molybdenum and 5.8 million oz. gold. The inferred resource was 284 million tonnes grading 0.24% copper, 0.011% molybdenum and 0.39 gram gold, all with a 0.2% copper equivalent cut-off.