For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange rallied 1.15%, while the TSX Gold Index added 0.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 0.08% with the declining issuers inching past the advancers by a 533 to 497 margin on volume of 182 million shares traded.

It was a good session for shareholders of VMS Ventures. The company recently announced another hot drill hole at its Reed Lake base metal project in Manitoba and adopted a shareholder rights plan. VMS ended the day up C$0.12 at C$0.85.

B2Gold tabled some nice numbers from its Quebradona joint venture property in Colombia. Highlights included hole 2, which returned 52.7 metres grading 1.36 grams gold per tonne, 2.1 grams silver and 0.144% copper. By funding the 5,000-metre drill program, B2Gold will earn a 51% stake in the property from AngloGold Ashanti. B2Gold closed unchanged at C$1.40.

High Desert Gold, which is trading at a value of around half its cash in the bank, fought off the sellers by announcing a normal course issuer bid paving the way for the company to buy back up to 10% of its public float or about 3.4 million shares. High Desert ended the day up C$0.035 at C$0.185, which is still well off its C$0.30 cash value.

As we wind down the month of May, knowledge once again looks key to making money on the Canadian markets as only select issues are moving higher. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Thursday, May 29th, 2008