Toronto Stock Exchange – JULY 28 -31

Despite marginal gains for the holiday-shortened July 28-31 reporting period, the TSX composite index was playing catch up on Aug. 4, after the S&P 500 broke through the 1,000-point mark for the first time in nine months.

The U. S. rally came on the back of positive economic indicators such as increased consumer spending, while the TSX also benefited from continuing strong prices in the materials sector.

Along with the price of oil rising above US$70 a barrel, and gold moving toward US$970 per oz., the base metals continued to surge with copper, aluminum, nickel, tin, lead and zinc prices all higher.

The strength in the gold price, however, hadn’t yet worked its way through to the Global Gold index at presstime, as it was down roughly 1 point to 307.88. The diversified miners did see the benefits of higher base metal prices as the Capped Metals and Mining index grew by roughly 20 points to 776.65.

First Quantum Minerals and Teck were among the beneficiaries of renewed investor faith in the base metal sector. Teck’s class B shares continued their unabated run and finished the period $2.07 higher at $28.35, while First Quantum gained $3.59 to finish at $71.75 as investors grow more comfortable with the company’s copper-rich assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Higher gold prices couldn’t save Richmont Mines though. The Montreal-based gold miner posted a net loss of $1.4 million for the second quarter compared with net earnings of $40,000 for the same period last year — despite realizing a better average gold price in the more recent quarter. The company said the move into the loss column came with lower gold sales due to lower production and higher operating costs. Richmont’s shares were off 15% during the reporting period, finishing at $3.28.

On the positive side of things, Nevada Copper was up 22% to $1.27 as the market continues to absorb word of its resource increase released on July 15. The company’s shares have steadily climbed since it announced a 42% increase in measured and indicated copper resources and a 55% increase in its measured and indicated gold resource at its Pumpkin Hollow property in Nevada. The project now holds a total of 5.6 billion lbs. of copper in resources and 983,000 oz. of gold.

Moving into production brought Mirabela Nickel accolades from the market. The Australian-based nickel miner was up 18% to $2.66 for the period as it took its Santa Rita open-pit nickel sulphide mine in Brazil into production. The mine will start with a production capacity of 4.6 million tonnes per year, but Mirabela plans to expand capacity to 6.4 million tonnes per year by the second quarter of 2010. The project has a mine life of 19 years.

TSX most active issues
	VOLUME	WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
WesternCCoal WTN	33764	2.94	2.72	2.77	-0.09
Teck B TCKB	30397	28.45	25.07	28.35	+ 2.07
GrandeCacheCGCE	30189	3.02	2.73	2.86	-0.10
Eastern Platin ELR	30072	0.60	0.51	0.60	+ 0.07
Equinox Minls EQN	29188	2.81	2.47	2.73	-0.08
Yamana Gold YRI	19316	10.28	9.45	10.27	+ 0.29
Mercator Mnls ML	16172	1.92	1.65	1.87	-0.04
Barrick Gold ABX	14733	37.91	35.50	37.62	-0.18
Uranium One UUU	13779	3.05	2.84	2.88	-0.21
Lundin Mng LUN	12764	3.40	3.02	3.32	+ 0.11

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
First Metals	FMA	942	0.03	0.02	0.03	+ 50.0
WestTimminsM	WTM	7425	2.49	1.76	2.34	+ 27.8
Nevada Copper	NCU	949	1.35	0.90	1.27	+ 22.1
Armistice Res	AZ	127	0.18	0.12	0.17	+ 21.4
Ursa Major Min	UMJ	592	0.12	0.09	0.12	+ 20.0
PolyMet Mng	POM	304	1.79	1.47	1.77	+ 18.7
Mirabela Nickl	MNB	11206	2.72	2.24	2.66	+ 18.2
North Am Pall	PDL	667	3.42	2.60	3.39	+ 17.7
Duluth Metals	DM	370	0.63	0.49	0.60	+ 17.6
Virginia Mines	VGQ	60	4.33	3.56	4.33	+ 17.0
North Atlc Res	NAC	4359	0.08	0.03	0.05	-44.4
BRC DiamondCr	BCD	341	0.08	0.04	0.05	-28.5
Hard Creek Ni	HNC	298	0.22	0.16	0.16	-27.2
San Anton Res	SNN	109	0.22	0.20	0.20	-25.9
Oromin Expl	OLE	1204	1.10	0.70	0.90	-25.0
Aeroquest Intl	AQL	518	0.48	0.34	0.38	-19.1
Etruscan Res	EET	5729	0.28	0.21	0.23	-17.8
Virgin Metals	VGM	129	0.06	0.05	0.05	-16.6
Richmont Mines	RIC	140	3.86	3.13	3.28	-14.8
Zazu Metals	ZAZ	229	0.28	0.25	0.25	-13.7

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TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
First Quantum	FM	2724198	71.75	+ 3.59
Major Drilling	MDI	325187	24.81	+ 2.13
Teck B	TCKB	30397203	28.35	+ 2.07
Teck A	TCKA	12516	29.50	+ 2.00
Agrium	AGU	3342371	49.51	+ 1.71
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	63.19	+ 1.60
Labdr I-Ore Ro	LIF_U	252263	38.00	+ 0.93
Athabasca Pota	API	2994733	6.84	+ 0.69
Virginia Mines	VGQ	59609	4.33	+ 0.63
Eldorado Gold	ELD	11534110	10.83	+ 0.60
Potash Cp Sask	POT	3755357	100.36	-2.59
Pan Am Silver	PAA	646234	21.06	-0.94
Silver Std Res	SSO	450025	21.28	-0.85
IShCOMEXGTr	IGT	17097	100.71	-0.80
Royal Gold	RGL	11909	44.32	-0.78
Kinross Gold	K	11099076	21.25	-0.65
Goldcorp	G	8404089	40.93	-0.64
Richmont Mines	RIC	140345	3.28	-0.57
IAMGold Corp	IMG	4947086	11.42	-0.50
Inmet Mining	IMN	1327134	45.16	-0.46