Venture loses ground, March 24-28

The rally that has carried the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index for most of 2014 took a breather in the last week of March. Instead, the index saw double-digit losses in three out of five days to end the week at 989.75, down 45.01 points, and its first sub-1,000 close since regaining quadruple digits in mid-February.

The volume leader for the week was Aldrin Resources, a Vancouver-based uranium junior that just started drilling its Triple M property in Saskatchewan. The 4,000-metre program will test coincident structural, gravity, magnetic and radon anomalies, and is funded by Aldrin’s recent $500,000 financing.

The market is watching Aldrin because Triple M is next to Patterson Lake South (PLS), the high-grade uranium discovery where Fission Uranium seems to hit a best-ever intercept every three weeks. Fission recently pulled the longest intercept with off-scale radioactivity from PLS to date, in a hole that joined the two largest zones at PLS into one mineralization body. Fission shares gained 2¢ over the week to close at $1.63.

Cayden Resources attracted some attention with drill results from the El Barqueno project in Mexico. Cayden began its drill program with the Azteca target. All four holes returned gold, with a best intercept of 20 metres grading 1.7 grams gold per tonne, essentially from surface. Cayden has added a second rig and is testing another target known as “Pena de Oro.” Cayden shares were even at $1.96.

A deal between the Matawa First Nations and the Ontario government on how to share the benefits of developing the Ring of Fire boosted shares of Noront Resources from 38¢ to 51¢. The framework agreement is the first tangible result from negotiations that started in mid-2013, outlining how First Nations and the province could benefit some day from development of the region’s chromite deposits.

Integra Gold released the first results from its ambitious 45,000-metre drill program at the Lamaque gold project in Val-d’Or, Que., including a best result of 23.02 grams gold over 5 metres. Integra is infilling and expanding the high-grade Triangle zone, while also testing other targets. Integra shares fell 2¢ to end the week at 31¢.

Junior exploration companies usually dominate the Venture’s leaderboards, but in recent weeks a new set has attracted considerable volume: medical marijuana companies. At least four marijuana firms with mining connections made it onto the Venture’s daily volume leader lists, including Satori Resources, Victory Ventures, Cavan Ventures and Terra Firma.

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