For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added 1.58%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 4.2% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, rallied 0.56% with the declining issuers edging out the advancers by a 511 to 408 margin on volume of 143 million shares traded.

Cash rich SNS Silver and cash-poor Andover Ventures (AOX) have inked a deal to merge. Under the proposal, SNS shareholders will get half an Andover share for each SNS share held. SNS has also provided Andover with a C$2 million bridge loan. SNS closed flat at C$0.16, while Andover dropped C$0.03 to close at C$0.34.

ATW Venture (ATVWF) cut 13.37 grams gold per tonne over 15.6 metres at its Burnakura gold mine in Western Australia. The result was good enough for a C$0.06 gain as shares in the junior closed at C$0.44.

Sherwood Copper (SWK), which added C$0.70 to close at C$4.30, hit 9.6 metres grading 2.58% copper at the high-grade Minto copper-gold mine in the Yukon.

Not to be outdone, Osisko Mining (OSK) tabled a 258 metre intercept running 2.13 grams gold per tonne at the South Barnat target some 1.2 km from its Canadian Malartic project in Quebec. Osisko ended the session up C$0.41 at C$2.95

Shares of Cameco (CCJ) continued to slide closing down C$0.63 at C$23.44. The company reported that production at its Key Lake mine in Saskatchewan will come in lower than expected. Earlier the company reported a green light to restart operations at its Port Hope uranium hexafluoride conversion plant that was shut down in July 2007 for contaminated soil. On the downside, its supplier of hydrofluoric acid has terminated its contract leaving the company without the key ingredient needed to produce uranium hexafluoride.

Liquidity or the lack there of remains a major stalling point for the more speculative issues. Cash rich companies can sit back and wait things out but the cash poor explorers will be fighting for survival by looking to do deals. Meanwhile, the prospects moving the debts off the books of the financials by throwing all the bad ones into a U.S. government vehicle may have the markets jumping for joy but one has to wonder as to the scale and practicality. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Friday September 19, 2008