Venture rises but juniors still struggle over July 12-16

Vancouver – The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index remained on positive ground four out of five days over the July 12-16 trading period to end the week up 9.94 points at 1379.49. Daily trading volumes were slightly up as well, averaging 85.4 million.

But the bears still way outpaced the bulls in the second trading week of July: only 13 Venture-listed companies reached new 52-week high share price highs while 209 fell to new lows.

Terrane Metals was the far-and-away leader on the volume board after news broke that molybdenum miner Thompson Creek Metals is set to buy the junior in a cash and stock deal worth $650 million, to get its hands on the construction-ready Mount Milligan copper-gold project near Prince George. Goldcorp holds 58% of Terrane and voiced its approval for the deal, which still needs a go-ahead from Terrane shareholders. In addition, Thompson Creek lined up a gold stream deal with Royal Gold for 25% of the future production from Mount Milligan. Terrane moved 74 million shares on the news to gain 32¢, reaching $1.35.

Another junior having a good week was Canaco Resources, which gained 63¢ or 68% to end the week at $1.56, a new all-time high. The company is exploring its Handeni project in the United Republic of Tanzania and recent drilling returned one whopper intercept: 37 metres grading 12.45 grams gold per tonne. The high-grade hit came from the northernmost section drilled at the project to date. Other parts of the zone produced lower-grade intercepts such as 30 metres of 1.64 grams gold.

Riding the Tanzanian wave was Sidon Resources, which during the week received approval from the Venture Exchange for its deal to acquire 80% of the Morogoro East gold project in that country. The approval alone was enough to lift Sidon’s share price from 6¢ to 10¢ on 9 million trades.

News of a new drill program at its flagship Roughrider uranium deposit in Saskatchewan coupled with increased rumblings of a long-awaited recovery in the uranium market lifted Hathor Resources’ share price 18¢ over the week to close at $1.61. The spring drill program at Roughrider returned such intercepts at 7.5 metres of 43.6% U₃O₈ and 26.5 metres of 3.55% U₃O₈, with many hits bridging gaps between zones or proving mineralization in deposit areas previously considered barren.

Taking advantage of a share price strengthened by good gold hits at its Coffee project in the Yukon, Kaminak Gold announced a $10-million bought-deal financing. A few days later the company increased the overallotment allowance, which if fully exercised will now raise the gross proceeds to $14.5 million.

And something of the opposite transpired over at San Gold, which saw its share price fall 23¢ to $3.88 after announcing a $130-million bought-deal financing and then, two days later, reducing the raise to $80 million. The financing share price remained unchanged at $4 per share, as did the syndicate of underwriters. San Gold will use the new funds to further explore and develop its Rice Lake gold mine in Manitoba.