Venture unsettled over July 5-9

Vancouver – The first week of July provided a rough ride for the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index, as the board fell for two days, then gained, lost, and gained. By the end of the July 5-9 week the board was down 15.4 points at 1369.55. Daily trading volumes remained weak, averaging 81.8 million, as investors played in the sun instead of trading stocks.

The bearish nature of the unsettled week came through in the bulls-versus-bears contest: only ten Venture-listed companies reached new 52-week share price highs over the week while 227 juniors fell to new lows.

After years of struggle, Tagish Lake Gold has found a suitor interested in the bankrupt company and its creditor-protected debt load. New Pacific Metals offered 6¢ or 0.0822 shares for each Tagish share, or a combination of 50% cash and 50% shares, and offered to purchase for cash Tagish’s approximately $7.4 million debt load. Tagish has not yet responded to the offer, though its share price has, adding 2.5¢ to reach 6.5¢.

Evolving Gold found its way into the top trader list, moving 6 million shares to climb 8¢ to 84¢. The junior announced a $15.6-million private placement with Goldcorp, which bought 19 million shares at 82¢ a piece to hold 15% of the junior. The placement did not include warrants. Evolving is focused on two gold projects: Rattlesnake Hills in Wyoming and Carlin-Humboldt in Nevada.

Mala Noche Resources’ quest to buy the San Dimas mine from Goldcorp continued over the week with a revised purchase offer, a $300-million offering, and the settlement of a legal threat. The purchase price has increased by US$10 million to US$510 million but now includes less cash – US$216 million – and more shares – $184 million worth, as well as a US$60-million convertible note and a $50-million five-year note. Mala settled a threat from Alamos Gold relating to property ownership for $1 million in cash and $12 million in shares.

Atac Resources gained on news of a new silver-lead-zinc-indium discovery at its Rau project in the Yukon, which is already home to a promising gold zone 15 km to the southeast. The new zone is a gossan being deposited as precipitate from acidic spring waters and the best of seven surface samples returned 2,100 grams silver per tonne, 55.33% lead, 0.74% zinc, and 62 grams indium per tonne. Atac’s share price rose 27¢ to $1.98.

Also in the Yukon, Kaminak Gold drilled four step-out holes on the newly-discovered Latte zone and hit 2.35 grams gold over 51 metres and 1.27 grams gold over 78 metres, among other results. Kaminak added 26¢ to its share price over the week to close at $1.62.

And many juniors saw their share prices jump around for no obvious reason. American Consolidated Minerals, for example, moved an unusually high 9.4 million shares over the week to gain 2¢, reaching 29¢, but issued a statement clarifying that no special issues are pending. Similarly, Rare Element Resources climbed from $2.05 to $2.68 without releasing any news.