TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE OCTOBER 18-22

A dipping gold price helped lead to a mixed week for the S&P-TSX Venture composite index, but three days of gains outpaced two days of losses to have the board end up 55.71 points at 1,878.23.

Volume was especially high, averaging just under 180 million trades daily. The strong activity resulted in both more highs and more lows than the week before, with 114 Venture-listed companies hitting new 52-week highs while 76 reached new lows.

Rare earth elements (REE) continue to be one of the hottest games in town with REEfocused companies leading the volume and value gain charts.

Great Western Minerals saw the most activity with 29.5 million shares traded. The company, with REE projects in Canada, the United States and South Africa, closed a $35-million financing. In the offering, the company issued 106 million units at 33¢ each, bringing its total shares issued to around 350 million with a further 100 million warrants and options outstanding. The company started and ended the week at 42¢ but hit a 52-week high of 47.5¢ in between.

Pele Mountain Resources climbed 14¢ or 82% to 31¢ on 12.8 million shares traded. The company named Anthony Mariano, with a 50-year career specializing in REEs, to its advisory board. Pele is developing its Eco Ridge uranium-REE project near Elliot Lake, Ont.

Matamec Explorations jumped 15¢ to end at 40¢ on 8.3 million trades as the company announced improved rare earth leaching recoveries. Samples from the company’s Zeus project in Quebec showed leach recoveries of 89.2% for whole rock martial, while the heavy rare earth yield was 85.6%.

Rare Element Resources was up $2.70 or 35% to end at $10.35. The company hit a 52-week high of $13.88 before settling down somewhat, while it was trading at under $2 in July. The company is developing its Bear Lodge REE-gold project in Wyoming at a time when the U.S. government is looking to secure domestic REE supplies.

Antares Minerals, the other big gainer, rose to $2.37 or 53% to $6.86 after a friendly takeover bid by TSX-listed First Quantum Minerals. The copper miner bid $6.35 per share worth $460 million to secure Antares’ Haquira copper project in Peru. Haquira is a major undeveloped deposit with 3.7 million measured and indicated tonnes of contained copper equivalent and a further 2.4 million inferred tonnes of copper equivalent.

Finlay Minerals, meanwhile, saw a remarkable 227% gain, jumping 34¢ to 49¢ on 950,000 shares traded. The company released no news in the week, but on Oct. 25, Finlay stated that it had “discovered porphyry intrusive related copper-molybdenum and volcanic hosted copper mineralization” as part of a 2,000-metre drill program on its wholly-owned Silver Hope project in British Columbia. The company expects assay results from the drilling shortly.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Great Western	GWG	29477	0.47	0.35	0.42	+ 0.05
Ucore Uranium	UCU	20023	0.65	0.47	0.47	-0.10
Majestic Gold	MJS	19430	0.22	0.17	0.20	+ 0.04
Red Pine Expl	RPX	12880	0.17	0.12	0.14	+ 0.01
Pele Mtn Res	GEM	12817	0.35	0.17	0.31	+ 0.14
Avanti Mng	AVT	12234	0.28	0.19	0.27	+ 0.09
Antares Minls	ANM	11316	6.93	6.11	6.86	+ 2.37
Creston Moly	CMS	10781	0.37	0.22	0.35	+ 0.12
US Silver	USA	10414	0.52	0.41	0.46	-0.06
Medallion Res	MDL	10129	0.81	0.53	0.70	+ 0.12

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Finlay Minrls	FYL	948	0.50	0.16	0.49	+ 226.6
Starfire Mnrls	SFR	1777	0.04	0.01	0.03	+ 200.0
Global Minls	CTG	1192	0.34	0.16	0.34	+ 112.5
Freeport Res	FRI	137	0.16	0.08	0.14	+ 100.0
White Bear Res	WBR	114	0.30	0.16	0.25	+ 92.3
Armadillo Res	ARO	644	0.43	0.21	0.38	+ 90.0
Pele Mtn Res	GEM	12817	0.35	0.17	0.31	+ 82.3
Canadn Int Mnl	CIN	9936	0.25	0.14	0.25	+ 78.5
Rockhaven Res	RK	1539	0.85	0.50	0.81	+ 62.0
Matamec Expl	MAT	8275	0.42	0.23	0.40	+ 60.0
Tiex	TIX	33	0.10	0.06	0.06	-33.3
Eureka Res	EUK	13	0.11	0.10	0.10	-33.3
Ansell Capital	ACP	1974	0.59	0.37	0.40	-32.2
Metropolitn Mg	MNZ	25	0.11	0.11	0.11	-31.2
New Island Res	NIS	209	0.10	0.08	0.09	-30.7
Whitemud Res	WMK	61	0.24	0.22	0.23	-30.3
Mengold Res	MNI	63	0.18	0.17	0.17	-29.1
Grande Portage	GPG	1209	0.23	0.14	0.16	-27.2
Sedex Mng	SDN	386	0.14	0.01	0.11	-26.6
Meritus Mnls	MER	2596	0.50	0.32	0.35	-25.5

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
RareElemntRs	RES	5367576	10.35	+ 2.70
Antares Minls	ANM	11315921	6.86	+ 2.37
Anfield Nickel	ANF	218670	4.68	+ 0.68
Pac Booker Min	BKM	61635	8.88	+ 0.66
Atac Res	ATC	2441649	7.88	+ 0.59
Amazon Mng	AMZ	1407426	3.91	+ 0.52
Hudson Res	HUD	5790605	1.42	+ 0.47
Hathor Expl	HAT	7761795	2.29	+ 0.39
Quest Rare Mnl	QRM	6596281	5.03	+ 0.34
Finlay Minrls	FYL	948350	0.49	+ 0.34
Energold Drill	EGD	455406	3.30	-0.39
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	20517	9.42	-0.38
Hana Mng	HMG	2018062	2.95	-0.35
Titanium Corp	TIC	420620	2.20	-0.30
Kaminak Gold	KAM	2531964	3.12	-0.28
Typhoon Expl	TYP	780123	1.01	-0.24
Anooraq Res	ARQ	461588	1.22	-0.22
Mirasol Res	MRZ	232236	2.75	-0.20
Ansell Capital	ACP	1973600	0.40	-0.19
Canaco Res	CAN	5557329	2.97	-0.17