Junior exchange takes breather

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange tacked on a few points during the report period ended Jan. 27. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index closed at 1799.72, up 4.46 points, or 0.25%.

EuroZinc Mining closed the week up 7, to 44, with 5.5 million shares traded. The company recently arranged a $30-million special-warrant financing with a syndicate of underwriters. The proceeds will be placed in escrow pending the announcement of a definitive agreement for the purchase of Neves Corvo in the event EuroZinc is announced as the winner of the sale process.

Spider Resources closed at 16, up 2, with 5 million shares traded. The junior holds a stake in the McFauld’s Lake base metal property in the James Bay Lowlands of northeastern Ontario, as does Diagem International Resource. Diagem closed the week at 34, up a nickel, with 809,000 shares changing hands.

International Wayside Gold Mines remained steady at 31 on a volume of 4.4 million shares. The company is mining 10,000 tonnes of development ore for bulk-sample testing at its Bonanza Ledge prospect, near Wells, B.C. So far, 1,100 tonnes of ore have been brought to the surface. Underground drilling will attempt to define the target.

Argent Resources lost 1 and closed at 18 as 4.3 million shares crossed the floor. The company has mobilized a drill to the Timmins Offsets gold property and expects to kick off drilling in early February. The 4,500-metre program will test a re-interpretation of mineralization previously encountered. In 1997, Black Pearl, produced visible gold in 41 of 61 drill holes, and included such intercepts as 319.2 grams per tonne over 5.18 metres, 53.7 grams per tonne over 3.5 metres, 18.6 grams per tonne over 13.4 metres, 5.7 grams per tonne over 12.6 metres, and 10.6 grams per tonne over eight metres.

Eurasia Gold closed up a penny to 12, with 3.5 million shares traded. Thistle Mining’s subsidiary, Compagnie Internationale de Developpement Minir, holds a total of 68 million common shares, or 57.7%, of Eurasia. The company says it acquired the shares for investment purposes.

ECU Silver Mining closed the day at 30, up 2, with 3.1 million shares traded. The company has entered into a private-placement financing worth $999,000. ECU issued 4.9 million units priced at 20 apiece. Each unit consists of one share and one share purchase warrant. A warrant entitles the holder to buy one share at 26 for two years. A portion of the money will be used to finance exploration drilling at the Santa Juana mine.

Canadian Royalties closed at $2.15, down 5, on a volume of 2.8 million shares. The company recently tabled assays from its Raglan South trend project, 15 km south of Falconbridge’s Raglan mine. At the Expo Northeast zone, hole EX-62 cut 108.2 metres averaging 0.87% nickel and 0.69% copper, plus 0.26 gram platinum and 1.4 gram palladium per tonne, including a 18.75-metre section of 2.12% nickel, 1.37% copper, 0.08% cobalt, 0.42 gram platinum and 2.99 grams palladium.

Sur American closed at $1.59, up 4, with 2.4 million shares traded. The company has started exploring its T’Boli gold-silver project in the Philippines. Previous exploration, in 1996-1997, consisted of 7,000 metres of core drilling, which outlined a 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 400,000 oz. gold and 1.6 million oz. silver.