Venture sees straight gains in April 4-8 period

Vancouver – Five straight days of gains had the S&P TSX Venture Exchange climbing 90.39 points in the April 4 to 8 period to close at 2,388.79 points. Activity was up from recent weeks at an average of 169 million shares traded daily, while the equilibrium between the bears and bulls was broken as 89 Venture-listed companies hit new 52-week highs and 57 hit 52-week lows.

Richfield Ventures was the big news-maker of the week as it climbed $2.09 to $10.02 after New Gold made an all-share bid to buy it for $550 million. While Richfield’s share price climbed significantly, it still came short of the offer value of $10.38 per Richfield share. New Gold is looking to acquire the early-stage Blackwater gold project in British Columbia where a recent resource estimate established 1.8 million indicated oz. gold and 2.3 million inferred oz. gold.    

Roxgold was the break-out star of the week, climbing 54¢ or 174% to end at 85¢ on 14 million shares traded, despite its shares being halted for three days. Trading was activated on the Friday after the company announced spectacular drill results from its Yaramoko gold project in Burkina Faso. Results included hole RC055 that hit 20 metres grading 28.61 grams gold per tonne from 6 metres, then at 38 metres the same hole hit 11 metres averaging 4.88 grams gold, while hole RC036 cut 10 metres grading 14.91 metres from 76 metres depth. Roxgold is earning a 60% interest in the project from Riverstone Resources, which climbed 30¢ to $1.02 in the period.

Not far behind in percentage gains, White Tiger Mining was up 49¢ or 153% to end at 81¢ after releasing preliminary drill results from its Marshall Lake copper-gold-silver project in Ontario. Assay results for hole RMZ11-21 were not available yet, but the company reports that the hole hit two significant zones including a 101-metre section of chalcopyrite stringer from 3 metres depth, followed by a second zone of 57 metres. The new hole was drilled 300 metres southeast of discovery drill hole GAZN08-06.

Amazon Mining was one of the big value gainers of the period, climbed $1.30 to end at $9.75. The company announced that the Minas Gerais state government in Brazil has signed a memorandum of understanding to provide financial support for Amazon’s Cerrado Verde potash project. Details such as the scale of possible assistance were not included, but the state has committed to provide support during implementation and operation of the project, especially with financing and streamlining permits and licences.

Bravo Gold regained some lost ground, more than doubling its share price with an 8.5¢ climb to 16¢ on 29.2 million shares traded. The company hit a 52-week high of 37¢ in April 2010 but has since been on a downward trajectory.  In the period Bravo released an updated resource for one of the deposits at its Homestake Ridge project in northwest B.C. that more than doubled the contained gold. Overall, the project now hosts 191,000 indicated oz. gold and 1.35 million indicated oz. silver, plus 530,000 inferred oz. gold and 13.5 million inferred oz. silver.