It was back in the black for the Canadian Markets during Wednesday trading as investors once again gobbled up select issues.

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange tacked on 0.07%, while the TSX Gold Index was the lone loser by dropping 1.7% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.46% with the declining issuers once again out battling the advancers this time by a 548 to 501 margin on good volume of 253 million shares traded.

First Quantum Minerals saw first quarter profits rise 54%, thanks to higher sales and higher copper prices. The miner earned $182 million or $2.68 a share in the first three months of the year compared to $78.3 million or $1.16 a share in the same period a year earlier. Copper production tallied 75,616 tonnes in the period, up from 46,403 tonnes and realized copper prices came in at $3.51 a pound, up from $2.59 a pound in the first quarter of 2007. Unlike the gold guys, cash costs per pound dropped from $1.06 to $0.99. But the results were not good enough as shares in First Quantum ended the day down C$4.35 at C$87 even.

Moving in the other financial direction was merchant bank Pinetree Capital. The investor of junior exploration stocks continues to bleed red with the first three months of 2008 resulting in a loss of $56.4 million, or C$0.50 per share from a gain of $47.2 million or C$0.55 per share in the same period of 2007. Pinetree ended the day down C$0.36 at C$2.93.

Shares of Antares Minerals got a boost following news that the near-surface leachable portion of the Haquira deposit would produce annual revenues of $220 million and an average annual after tax profit of $46 million. Using a base-case copper price of $2.00 per pound a 50,000 tonnes per day operation would yield an after-tax internal rate of return of 25.9%. The after-tax net present value tallies $224.4 million, using an 8% discount rate and the initial capital costs hit $301 million. Antares ended the day up C$0.55 at C$3.95.

Goldsource Mines Saskatchewan coal find is not dying out as witnessed by the trading action of North American Gem. The junior inked a deal to acquire more ground west of Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan and ended the day up C$0.055 at C$0.27.

For those of you with a forward looking bent, Golden Chalice Resources detected numerous large conductive bodies at a depth of 300 metres below the Discovery zone on its Langmuir nickel property in Ontario. Golden Chalice ended the day up C$0.14 at C$1.32.

Canada’s big board continues to trade at or near all time highs, while the junior bourse is once again starting to gain some traction. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Thursday, May 15th, 2008