TSX Venture holds steady, Feb. 24-28

After ascending for almost three weeks, the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index treaded water over the trading period, ending the week up 3.71 points at 1,025.37. Trading activity remained strong, with an average of 77.9 million shares trading hands daily.

The last week of February was a sideways session for most metals as well. Gold was range bound, with small daily gains and losses keeping it near US$1,330 per oz. The spot price for copper fell a few cents to end at US$3.22 per lb., while zinc gained a few cents to close at US$0.95 per lb.

For the second week running Reservoir Minerals led the value-add rankings, gaining 49¢ to reach $7.39. The company released no news, but management is working to fill a non-brokered, $23-million private placement while brokers sell through a $10-million bought deal. Reservoir will use the funds to explore its early stage properties in Turkey while its joint-venture partner Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold advances Reservoir’s flagship Timok project in Serbia.  

Nevada Sunrise Gold earned the top spot for percent gained when its share price doubled after golden drill results from Kinsley Mountain, a joint venture with Pilot Gold. The partners are drilling the new Western Flank zone, and the first results from 2014 include 6.85 grams gold per tonne over 41.7 metres. Worth 20¢ at the beginning of the week, shares finished the week at 47.5¢.

Fission Uranium was the most active stock, with 22.2 million shares traded for a 13¢ gain to $1.41. Fission released no news, but its drill program at the Patterson Lake South project recently produced a 38.5% uranium oxide intercept over 10.5 metres. 

Investors bought and sold a lot of shares in NexGen Energy, which is at work in the southwestern Athabasca basin. The first drill hole into NexGen’s Rook I project returned two intercepts producing off-scale scintillometer readings, and NexGen now has two rigs probing the area. After doubling the previous week, NexGen ended the last week of February down 2¢ at 49¢.

Columbus Gold shares rose 4.5¢ to 50¢ after drills at the company’s Paul Isnard project in French Guiana returned intercepts that included 6.06 grams gold over 6 metres and 2.27 grams gold over 17.7 metres. Russian major Nordgold is earning a 50.01% stake in Paul Isnard by spending $30 million on the project over three years. 

Ecuador Gold & Copper found some share-price support after announcing results from hole 44, which tested the depth potential at the Santa Barbara South zone at Ecuador’s Condor project. The hole returned 678 metres of 0.67 gram gold and 0.12% copper, starting at 206 metres downhole and ending in mineralization.