For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange fell 1.62%, while the TSX Gold Index lost on 1.8% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, gave back 0.38% with the decliners beating out the advancers by a 439 to 355 margin on volume of 159 million shares traded.

Indian mining company Lakomasko BV has purchased 9.5 percent of HudBay Minerals, which announced late last week that it is evaluating its strategic options. HudBay ended the day up C$0.77 at C$8.35.

In the midst of a merger, Motapa Diamonds and Lucara Diamond recovered 715.79 carats from a 15,390 dry tonnes sample at the Mothae project in Lesotho. The sample produced 48 stones greater than two carats, 13 stones greater than five carats and one stone greater than 20 carats. Motapa ended the day up C$0.06 at C$0.31, while Lucara closed at C$0.50 for a C$0.02 gain.

Rubicon Minerals (AMEX:RBY) continued to hit the goodies at its F2 zone on the Phoenix gold project in Ontario’s prolific Red Lake mining camp. The latest results included 3.62 ounces of gold per ton over 9.8 feet and 6.96 ounces of gold per ton over 3.3 feet. Rubicon ended the day up C$0.05 at C$1.90.

Not to be outdone, Alamos Gold cut 12.2 metres grading 43.7 grams gold per tonne at its Mulatos gold project in Sonora, Mexico. Alamos ended the day up C$0.03 at C$8.25.

The junior board continues to straddle the crucial 1,000 point mark. Will it hold? We shall see what Tuesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Merger mania is going full tilt with the latest marriage proposal being Victoria Gold’s all-share offer for StrataGold. Victoria is offering up 0.1249 of its shares for each StrataGold share held. The move would give Nevada focused Victoria the Dublin Gulch gold deposit in the Yukon. Victoria ended the day up C$0.01 at C$0.39, while StrataGold added C$0.01 at C$0.05.

Rubicon Minerals (AMEX:RBY) cut 173.7 grams gold per tonne over 2.5 metres at its Phoenix gold project in the Red Lake camp of Ontario. Rubicon ended the day up C$0.20 at C$1.73.

Not to be outdone, Colossus Mineral tagged 406.4 grams gold, 98.4 grams platinum and 115 grams palladium over 7.88 metres at its Serra Pelada project in Brazil. Colossus added C$0.78 to close at C$2.38.

Agrium (NYSE:AGU), North America’s third-largest fertilizer producer by market value, posted a fourth quarter profit of $124 million or $0.79 per share, down from the $172 million or $1.24 per share tabled in the same period a year earlier. However over the year Agrium, which ended the day up C$1.20 at C$47.21, posted record profits.

A stock to watch is Kinbauri Gold. The company’s shares were halted from trading at C$0.47 pending news. Kinbauri holds the advanced El Valle/Carles project in northwestern Spain and has been seeking strategic alternatives to move the project towards production.

Right now it is all about gold and nothing else. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Iamgold (NYSE:IAG) went shopping and picked up Orezone Resources (AMEX:OZN) in an all stock deal valued at C$139 million. Of interest to Iamgold is the advanced Essakane project in West Africa where full production is expected to begin in 2010. Iamgold ended the day down C$0.22 at C$5.88, while Orezone added C$0.345 to close at C$0.52.

Meanwhile, Avion Resources tagged 26.94 grams gold per tonne over 16.9 metres at its Tobakoto property in Mali. Avion ended the day up C$0.02 at C$0.07.

Shares of Rubicon Minerals (AMEX:RBY) added C$0.18 to close at C$1.18 after the company reported that a step out hole yielded 3,151.1 grams gold per tonne over 0.5 metre at its Phoenix property in Ontario.

Victoria Gold cut 16.75 grams gold per tonne over 29.6 metres on the Helen zone of its Cove project in Nevada. Shares in the company were halted from trading pending the news at C$0.20.

The junior market bucked the negative tone by posting a winning session. It looks like some investors finally stepped up to the plate to buy the undervalued exploration companies. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Friday, December 12th, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained 0.71%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.6% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, plunged another 3.17% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 734 to 295 margin on low volume of only 167 million shares traded.

Even potash speculation appears to be losing some steam as evidenced by shares of Nordic Diamonds (NDL), which added only C$0.015 to C$0.095 following news it inked a deal with Grizzly Diamonds (GZD) to acquire ground in southeast Alberta. For its part, Grizzly ended the day down C$0.03 at C$1.07.

Rubicon Minerals (RBY) continues to hit the goods at its Phoenix project in the Red Lake gold district of Ontario. The latest results included 361.7 grams gold per tonne over 1.8 metres. Rubicon ended the session up C$0.17 at C$1.37.

Shares of Hathor Exploration (HAT) were halted from trading pending news at C$2.55, as were shares of Terra Ventures (TAS), last traded at C$0.53. Drilling has resumed on its high grade Rough Rider uranium zone in Saskatchewan where Hathor owns 90% and Terra a carried 10% stake. The news out is that basement-hosted uranium mineralization over 69.2 metres in the first hole of the summer 2008 diamond drill program. Measurement of natural gamma emission radiation in counts per second (cps) indicate nineteen individual zones (ranging from 0.1 to 3.4 metres) of highly radioactive (5,000 cps to greater than 9,999 cps) mineralization were encountered within broader zones of elevated radioactivity (greater than 500 cps), of up to 20.7 metres. Trading is expected to resume at the open of Wednesday trading.

The correction in resource stocks continued as the junior bourse broke down below the crucial 2,400 level. Since early in 2006 this has marked a bottom for the more speculative stocks with the recovery being rather pronounced. We will see what Wednesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Wednesday, July 9th, 2008