Venture recovery hits a snag in August 27-31 period

VANCOUVER — The mid-August rebound of the S&P TSX Venture Composite Index came to a halt in the August 27 to 31 period as four days of losses left the index down 11.14 points at 1,240.74. Volume was in line with recent weeks at an average of 71.4 million shares traded daily, though it would have been higher if not for the 57 million shares traded on the Friday of the long weekend.

Reservoir Minerals was halted on August 30 after climbing 27¢ to $2.17 without releasing any news. It wasn’t until after the long weekend that the company announced a monster hit of 160 metres grading 10.16% copper equivalent at its Timok project in Serbia. On the news and the resumed trading the company jumped as much as $1.31 to $3.48 before settling at $3.18. The impressive hit comes not long after Freeport-McMoRan Exploration exercised its option to acquire 55% of the Timok project, while the company can earn 75% by completing a feasibility project. Even before last week’s run-up Reservoir had made strong gains, climbing from 56¢ in mid-July to $1.90 by August 24.

Goldquest Mining had an active week with 39 million shares traded as it announced more results from its new Romero target in the Dominican Republic. The results included 234.8 metres grading 7.88 grams gold per tonne and 1.43% copper, 188.5 metres averaging 3.14 grams gold and 1.07% copper, and 101.9 metres grading 0.73 gram gold and 0.15% copper. With major expectations already built into the stock price the results actually sent the stock price down 15¢ to $1.56, but the company is still largely holding onto its gains since climbing from 4¢ in late May.

Little-traded Pacific Booker Minerals had the highest value gains in the period, climbing 75¢ to $13.75 on 52,000 shares traded. The British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office informed Pacific Booker that it had completed the environmental application review stage of the company’s Morrison copper-gold project, and submitted the referral documents to the Minister of Energy and Mines and the Minister of Environment. The ministers have 45 days to make a decision on the environmental assessment certificate.

Galway Resources climbed 22¢ to end at $1.24 after announcing a credit agreement and new mining concessions. The company plans to borrow up to $10 million to continue drilling at its Colombian project, with the loan carrying a prime plus 0.5% interest rate. Galway now also has new targets to drill after securing nine mining concessions in the municipality of California in Santander, Colombia. To secure the titles Galway has paid US$6.6 million in cash, and $7.8 million in share payments will be made after TSX approval. At the same time the company has dropped the Tronadora concession 2.5 km southwest of its main California concessions.

X-Terra Resources shot up from 18¢ to 40¢ with 153,000 shares traded on no news, clarifying on September 4 that it is not aware of any undisclosed reason the share price was up. The generally thinly-traded company has interest in both gas and mining, with its main mineral property being the 15.3-sq.-km Lindsay rare earth project 70 km northeast of North Bay, Ontario.