STOCK MARKETS — Dia Met, Commonwealth gain on diamond

Both the Vancouver Stock Exchange resource and composite indices managed to reverse a general market downtrend during the week ended

Sept. 8.

The resource index gained almost 12 points to close at 562.62, while the composite index staged a more modest gain of 5.88 points to finish at 579.67. With the slide in the U.S. dollar against the Deutsche mark abated at least for the time being, gold remained little changed at the US$342-per-oz. level. Diamonds continue to provide much of the market action.

Dia Met Minerals traded as high as $18.87 on rumors that a new kimberlite pipe being drilled at the Point Lake property in the Northwest Territories is several times larger than the original discovery pipe. Dia Met finished at $18.25 for a gain of $1.75 on the week.

Trading action in Commonwealth Gold heated up with more than 3.7 million shares trading hands, pushing the issue up 10 cents to 59 cents. Apart from Monopros and Dia Met, the junior may be the first to drill an exploration target in the Lac de Gras area of the Northwest Territories — at its 25% joint venture with Kennecott, Aber and SouthernEra.

The failure of a proposed merger of Canarc Resource, Suntac Minerals and Rembrandt Gold Mines put a damper on the issues. Canarc finished down 19 cents at $1.26 while Suntac lost 7 cents to close at the 33 cents level. Rembrandt, listed on the Alberta Stock Exchange, remained unchanged at 35 cents. The Supreme Court of British Columbia refused recently to approve a merger of the three companies after a large shareholder of Rembrandt petitioned to block the plan.

Canarc can earn a 60% interest in the Polaris-Taku property from Rembrandt by completing a positive feasibility study by Aug. 1, 1993. Canarc owns about 51% of Suntac’s outstanding common shares and about 28% of Rembrandt. Kookaburra Gold did well, reaching a high of $1.18 on more than one million shares before closing up 17 cents at $1. The company recently signed a letter of intent with AG Armeno Mines and Minerals to acquire up to a 65% interest in two porphyry copper projects in Ecuador. One project is estimated to have preliminary reserves of about 105 million tons grading 0.45% copper. Pacific Sentinel Gold and Big Creek Resources gained ground after announcing a definitive agreement had been executed to amalgamate on a 1-for-1 basis. Big Creek holds an option to purchase a large porphyry copper-gold project in the Yukon from Casino Silver Mines.

Pacific Sentinel gained 15 cents to finish at the $2.80 level, while Big Creek added 16 cents to close at $2.70. Casino Silver closed up 11 cents at 85 cents.

San Andreas Resources released additional high-grade drilling results from its Prairie Creek Mine property in the Northwest Territories, including a 73-ft. intersection grading 6.68% lead, 12.7% zinc and 1.6% oz. silver per ton. The news failed to impress the market, however, with the issue posting a 10 cents loss to $3.15.

San Andreas stated that it plans to continue drilling well into the fall-winter season and is reviewing the possibility of adding a second rig to the drilling program.

Columbia Gold Mines wrapped up drilling at its Spectrum gold property in northwestern British Columbia for the season. The issue closed down 9 cents at 16 cents.

The company completed six exploratory holes on the property, with the first intersecting 8.5-ft. grading 1 oz. gold per ton. Two additional holes in the area encountered the mineralized horizon but failed to return economic gold values on the downdip extension of the 500 Color zone where a previous hole intersected 0.96 oz. gold over 19 ft.

On the ASE, Flag Resources, which closed at 60 cents, has offered for sale 200,000 shares of associated company Golden Briar Mines (Briar trades on the Montreal Exchange) at 7 cents per share. Flag will use the proceeds for exploration of its Wanapitei anomaly property in the Sudbury, Ont., area.