Venture slips downwards in Nov. 14-18 period

Vancouver – The S&P TSX Venture Composite Index was down again in the November 14-18 period, slipping 33.64 points to end at 1,607.67 after three days of losses outweighed two days of gains. Average daily trading volume was up somewhat compared with the week before at 91.5 million, though it fluctuated widely, from 63.6 million shares on the 14th to 161.6 million shares on the 17th.

The major bump in activity on the 17th was caused largely by major trading in Iberian Minerals. The company saw a total of 65.5 million shares move after Trafigura Beheer announced plans to buy full control of the company. Trafigura, already Iberian’s largest shareholder with about 48% of the 452.5 million shares out, has offered to acquire the rest for $1.10 each, a 39% premium to the stock price the day before the bid. Iberian’s stock price climbed 28¢ in the period to $1.12 with the board and other significant shareholders representing 17% of Iberian shares endorsing the deal, though some analysts questioned the fair value of the offer.

Lumina Copper, which has been steadily climbing from $5.50 in early October, surged to a brief high of $12 after announcing an interim resource update on its flagship Taca Taca project. In the period the company’s stock jumped from $9.90 to the $12 high before ending at $10.66, up 76¢ to still take the biggest value gainer title. Overall, the Taca Taca project is now estimated to contain 516 million indicated tonnes grading 0.58% copper, 0.12 gram gold per tonne and 0.018% molybdenum, plus 880 million inferred tonnes grading 0.43% copper, 0.08 gram gold and 0.015% molybdenum. The project previously had no indicated resources and 841 million inferred tonnes, while in the new estimate Lumina also outlined an initial oxide-specific resource.

The continued bidding war for Hathor Exploration and its Athabasca basin asset has caused increased attention to other advanced projects in the region. Fission Energy, with its 402.6-sq.-km Waterbury uranium project sitting on the western border of Hathor’s Roughrider project, climbed 16¢ in the period to end at 98¢. The company has climbed from the 50¢ it was trading at in August just before Cameco first bid for Hathor. Capitalizing on the attention, Fission launched a $10 million financing at 85¢ in late October, which closed in the period. The company hit a brief trading high of $1.03 in the period with 9.7 million shares traded, but is still a ways from its 52-week high of $1.50 reached before the Fukushima disaster in March.

Scantly-traded Nevgold Resource saw a one-day 6.5¢ boost to 19.5¢ on almost 80,000 shares after Silver Predator announced plans to take over the company. In a letter of intent, Silver Predator has offered 0.5 of a share for each Nevgold share, which would mean Silver Predator issuing about 7 million shares. Silver Predator currently has 30.5 million shares outstanding. Nathan Tewalt, currently CEO of Nevgold, would become CEO of the combined Silver Predator entity. Nevgold has gold, silver and copper prospects in Nevada, Idaho and Manitoba, while Silver Predator has prospects in Nevada and the Yukon. Silver Predator’s share price dropped 2¢ to 40¢ in the period.