Venture makes gains in Aug. 3-6 week

The S&P/TSX Venture made modest gains on all four days of trading during the first week of August to close up 38.12 points at 1465.48. The daily trading average was itself average at roughly 100 million.

The balance between the bears and bulls on the Venture improved somewhat compared with recent weeks, but was still lopsided with 32 new 52-week highs and 158 new lows.

Edgewater Exploration released a substantial resource increase for the Malpica-Tuy gold project in northern Spain soon after acquiring the project from Lundin Mining. Edgewater was able to use existing drill results not yet included in a resource to more-than-triple the contained gold. Measured and indicated resources now stand at 5.66 million tonnes grading 1.73 grams gold per tonne while inferred resources add 16.5 million tonnes averaging 1.66 grams gold. The company gained 22¢ to hit a high of $1.18.

Avion Gold saw strong trading volumes of 5.8 million shares as it released drill results from its Hounde gold project in Burkina Faso and released gold production numbers for July. The company extended the Vindaloo zone at Hounde with all nine holes intersecting gold mineralization, including hits of 7.5 metres grading 7.96 grams gold and 6.9 metres averaging 9.77 grams gold. Gold production for the last month was 8,770 oz., while the company expects to produce between 75,000 and 85,000 oz. in 2010. Avion’s share price was up 4¢ to close at 48¢.

San Gold Resources had one of the biggest value gains of the week, ending up 36¢ to close at $4.10 on 5.7 million shares traded. The company closed an $84.5 million short form prospectus including $4.5 million from an overallotment option. The funds will be used to further exploration and development on its Rice Lake gold project. The company recently opened the Hinge mine, 1 km east of the Rice Mine, and plans to open the 007 mine using the Hinge mine portal this summer.

Shares of Harvest Gold jumped 4.5¢ or 45% to end at 14.5¢ on drill results from the Rosebud mine property in Pershing County, Nevada. The first results from the company’s first phase drill program included hole 5 that hit 114.3 metres grading 0.49 gram gold and 4.7 grams silver per tonne from 98 metres depth, and hole 3 that cut 35.1 metres grading 0.82 gram gold and 238.1 grams silver per from 316 metres downhole.

The week’s news was mixed for Atac Resources’ Rau gold project but the company hit a 52-week share price high anyway. Early in the week the company released results from the East zone of the Yukon-based project that showed a number of non-mineralized holes. Two days later the company released strong infill results that included 58.9 metres grading 8.7 grams gold and 38.8 metres averaging 17.11 grams gold and its share price rose 25¢ to hit a high of $2.05. The day after the company announced the closing of a private placement and its shares dropped 11¢ to end at $1.94.