Venture makes gains in March 21-25 period

Vancouver – The S&P TSX Venture exchange made gains of 70.16 points in the March 21 to 25 period to end at 2,314.03, but is still short of its 2,439.83-point peak before the Japan earthquake severely disrupted markets.

Despite the gains, the winners and losers of the week were fairly even, with 62 Venture-listed companies hitting 52-week trading highs and 56 hitting 52-week lows. Volume was down to a daily average of 142 million shares traded, possibly the result of caution in the marketplace.

With silver prices already sending silver stocks upwards, Wildcat Silver was well placed to release two sets of high-grade intercepts from its Hermosa project in Arizona. Results included 100.3 metres grading 153.4 grams silver per tonne, 13.79% manganese, 4.25% zinc, 3.72% lead and 0.19% copper; 13.7 metres grading 332.9 grams silver, 7.43% manganese, 0.31% zinc, 4.35% lead and 0.14% copper; and 9.1 metres averaging 305.5 grams silver, 20.12% manganese, 1.28% zinc, 2.39% lead and 0.36% copper. The results were enough to propel the company’s share price up 73¢ or 51.4% to end at $2.15 on 12.7 million shares traded.

Mustang Minerals galloped into the spotlight after releasing platinum and palladium results from its Mayville property in southeastern Manitoba. A striking 48.8 million shares were traded as the company rocketed from 12¢ to a peak of 42¢ before ending the period up 18¢ or 150% at 30¢. Drill hole 11-07 hit 9.15 metres grading 9.5 grams of combined platinum and palladium per tonne and 0.27 gram rhodium from 55.5 metres depth, within a wider interval of 41.2 metres carrying 2.9 grams platinum and palladium. Drill hole 11-06 hit a far less impressive but still significant 9.2 metres grading 1.4 grams platinum group metals.

A significant partnership with a private Turkish mineral company had Tirex Resources climbing 41¢ or 52% to $1.20. The deal, which is currently only a memorandum of understanding, has Ekin Maden, the Turkish company, stumping the funds to fast-track development of historic six deposits at Tirex’s Mirdita project in Albania. Tirex will spin out the historic gold-copper-zinc-silver deposits into a new company equally owned by Tirex and Ekin Maden. Tirex controls a 344-sq.-km land package containing 17 historic deposits in the country.

Orbite Exploration is pushing forward with a patented aluminum refining method at its Quebec-based Grande-Vallee aluminum property and now has far more material to test. A technical report has tripled the previous estimate of contained alumina at the Marin sector of the property, now estimated at 400 million to 500 million cubic metres, which the company reports in the equivalent to one billion short tons grading 23.13% Al₂O_3. The alumina at Marin is contained in claystone that the company’s patented method is designed to process. Orbite’s share price climbed 73¢ to end at an all-time high of $3.32 on 15 million shares traded.

Rare Element Resources was the biggest value gainer of the week, up $1.88 in the period to $12.10 thanks to a one-day gain of $2.36 on no clear news. Later in the period the company announced its geological team for the 2011 exploration and development programs at its wholly-owned Bear Lodge rare earth element and Sundance gold projects, on which it expects to spend $15 million.