Venture slips in March 5-9 period

Vancouver – A Greek debt deal and encouraging U.S. job numbers were not enough to pull the S&P TSX Venture Composite Index out of the red in the March 5-9 period, as general fears of a slowing global economy weighed on the exchange. The Index ended down 29.09 points at 1,649.81 points, with volume dropping in the latter half of the period to come in at an average of 96.3 million shares traded daily.

Chesapeake Gold was the highest value gainer of the period, up $2.09 to $11.64, after the company outlined its exploration work in Mexico. The company has made a grassroots discovery hosting a low-sulphidation epithermal system at its Jacky project, established two zones of mineralization along 6 km at its San Ramon target, and hit similar mineralization to its flagship Metates project at its Nicole target, with all three projects in the Durango-Sinaloa region of the country. The share price climb came despite the company announcing a delay to the pre-feasibility update on its sizable Metates gold to the second quarter.

Majestic Gold has seen a burst of activity since releasing a gold production update on February 24, with the company up 6¢ or 33% to 24¢ over the past two weeks, and volume coming in at 16.5 million for the latest period and 8.1 million for the period before that. The company’s Song Jiagou mine in China produced 8,671 oz. gold in 2011 from 974,000 tonnes at an effective head grade of 0.35 gram gold per tonne. Majestic notes that it is currently mining an area outside the scoping study as current gold prices and mine contracts make what was billed as waste profitable.

Halted since last July, Clifton Star Resources finally started trading again on the last day of the period only to see its share price drop as much as $1.22 before closing down 87¢ at $2.03 on 1.5 million shares traded. The BCSC lifted the company’s cease trade order after it updated the technical report on its Donchester property in Quebec. The update establishes 11 million inferred tonnes grading 3.06 grams gold at Donchester for 1.05 million contained oz. gold., while the Beattie property, on which Osisko Mining decided to end a JV in June 2011, hosts 32 million inferred tonnes grading 1.67 grams gold for 1.7 million oz. gold.

Tasman Metals jumped 45¢ to $2.58 after hosting its annual general meeting on March 7. At the meeting Tasman-founder Mark Saxon was reappointed as president and CEO, as were other members of the board. New to the board was James Hutton, president and CEO of Hutton Capital since 1986 and a specialist in structured financing for resource companies.

Ridgemont Iron Ore jumped 22¢ or 60% to 59¢ on no news, with a total of 132,000 shares traded. The company traded as high as $1.16 a year ago and hit a low of 30¢ in December and had 39 million shares outstanding. The company is currently earning up to a 75% interest in the Redford iron ore property on Vancouver Island from Logan Resources.