For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange tacked on 0.41%, while the TSX Gold Index added a modest 0.1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session 0.38% lower with declining issues swamping the advancers by a 548 to 432 margin on good volume of a tad more than 194 million shares traded.

Teck Cominco went out shopping and elected to buy Global Copper. The price tag is C$425 million in cash and stock. Of interest to the major is Global’s Relincho copper-molybdenum deposit in northern Chile. Global shareholders will receive C$3 in cash and 0.2 of a Teck Class B share for each Global share, plus the holders will get one share of a new company called Lumina Copper. If the market price of Teck Class B shares is less than C$45 per share, Teck will pay additional consideration, in cash or Teck Class B shares, such that the consideration payable for each Global share has a value of C$12.

If at closing the market price of Teck Class B shares exceeds $55.00, the number of Teck Class B shares to be issued will be reduced so that the value of the consideration per Global share does not exceed C$14. The new Lumina will hold all assets of Global other than the Relincho project, including Global’s interest in the Taca Taca and San Jorge properties in Argentina, some C$10 million in cash and a 1.5-per-cent net smelter return royalty in respect of the Relincho project, payable commencing in the fifth year after the start of commercial production. Global ended the day up C$2.78 at C$13.91, while Teck dropped C$0.91 at C$45.70.

Asia Thai Mining Co. has offered to by all the shares of Pan African Mining at C$4 each. On completion, the company aims to transfer C$2.5 million in cash and all of the non-Madagascar assets to a new company. Pan African ended the day up C$1.02 at C$3.79.

Skeena Resources tagged some nice holes on its advanced Malpica copper-gold project in Mexico’s Sinaloa state. Highlights included 112 metres running 0.949% copper and 0.427 gram gold per tonne. The project hosts a historic resource of 29 million tonnes grading 0.64% copper. Skeena ended the day up C$0.055 at C$0.30.

Gold Eagle Mines got a boost after reporting a 4.2 metre intercept averaging 29.85 grams gold per tonne at its flagship Gold Eagle property in Red Lake, Ontario. Gold Eagle ended the session up C$0.32 at C$9.13.

A stock to watch is Spur Ventures. Shares in the Chinese phosphate producer were halted pending news at C$0.68. Spur announced a deal with a private Chinese company to complete a C$11.34 million equity private placement and to pursue strategic investments in China and elsewhere in Spur’s fertilizer business. The Chinese entity will acquire 18 million units of Spur at C$0.63 per unit, which will make it Spur’s largest investor.

The more speculative junior issues continue to struggle as investors elect to take money off the table on almost any uptick. We will see what Tuesday trading has in store.

Copper continues to meet serious resistance at $4, as it fell short of that mark again yesterday, primarily on nervousness about the economy.

The unease wasn’t helped any by some disappointing quarterly results. Goldman Sachs analysts noted that first-quarter U.S. earnings reports got off to an “awful” start last week, with GE stunning investors as it posted a decline in profit, and Alcoa reporting that earnings plunged by 54%.

“Poor equity-market performance” is behind copper’s listlessness, wrote Michael Jansen, a London-based analyst at JPMorgan Securities. “Demand continues to remain weak, especially in the U.S.”

With the exception of nickel, the sector was off yesterday, leading Michael Widmer, metals analyst at Lehman Brothers, to say that, “Base metals are pretty weak, though they recovered some since this morning. Macroeconomic data that wasn’t as bad as many had thought may have contributed to that.” Widmer cited data showing industrial output in the eurozone increased more than expected in February.

And Ralph Preston, of Heritage West Financial in San Diego, California, said that, “The recovery from the overnight spike to $3.8155 is very bullish for the metal … As long as the copper stays above $3.85, the bulls are still in control.”

In company news, Teck Cominco made a complex move, reporting that it will pay $425 million to acquire Global Copper, in order to gain control of the Relincho copper/molybdenum mine in northern Chile.

Global’s copper assets in Argentina, however, will be spun out as a new TSX-listed mining play, to be called Lumina Copper, which will also hold a royalty in the Chilean mine. Global Copper has agreed not to solicit rival bids and there’s a $12.5-million break fee due to Teck if a better offer is received.