Focusing on companies with plenty of cash, top management, and proven assets, those that made the grade have paid off handsomely. The chart shows the performance of a basket of such companies as recommended in the December issue of the International Speculator, compared to the TSX (a proxy for mining companies), the TSX Venture (a proxy for junior mining companies), and gold.
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Source: Precious Metal Bargain Hunting

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange fell 1.88%, while the TSX Gold Index gave back 0.8% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 0.58% with the declining issuers once again outpacing the advancers, this time by a 644 to 430 margin on big volume of nearly 262 million shares traded.

Kadywood Capital increased its C$200 million financing to C$260 million. The private placement will fund the purchase of 50% of the contained gold, platinum and palladium metal in ore mined and shipped from multiple FNX Mining operations in Ontario. Kadywood intends to change its name to Gold Wheaton. Kadywood ended the day down C$0.09 at C$1.10, while FNX added C$0.43 to close at C$25.70.

Largo Resources continued to benefit from its exploration exposure to vanadium as well as news that it has launched a scoping study over the Northern Dancer tungsten-molybdenum project in the Yukon. Largo can earn a 70% stake by issuing 4 million shares and spending C$5 million on exploration. Largo can then purchase the remaining interest from Strategic Metals for C$5 million in cash or stock at Strategic’s election. Largo ended the day up C$0.19 at C$1.40, while Strategic gained C$0.01 at C$0.52.

Pediment Exploration got a modest boost after reporting a 13.7 metre drill intercept running 16.3 grams gold per tonne at its Los Planes deposit in Mexico. Pediment closed out the day at C$1.54, up C$0.03.

Inflationary pressure continues to be a concern to the equity markets with rising interest rates typically bad for stocks. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Friday, June 20th, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange fell 0.13%, while the TSX Gold Index was essentially flat and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 0.39% as the declining issuers inched past the advancers by a 517 to 496 margin on huge volume of 314 million shares traded.

Shares in Potash North Resource showed new signs of ending their upward trajectory despite announcing a C$25 million financing priced at C$2.50 per unit. The company gained another C$0.28 to close at C$4.06.

Not to be outdone, Raytec Metals added another C$0.40 to Tuesday’s C$0.62 rally to close at C$1.82. The company tabled an indicated resource of 148.02 million metric tonnes grading 23.44 per cent K2O and an additional inferred resource of 229.16 million metric tonnes grading 20.40 per cent K2O on its KP441 potash disposition application located in south-central Saskatchewan.

Shares of Western Potash added C$0.21 to close at C$1.77. The company recently signed a drill contract for its exploration program on the Russell-Miniota exploration permits in Manitoba. These permits comprise 555 square kilometers and lie some 13 kilometres from Saskatchewan Potash’s Rocanville potash mine.

It was a good day for Sprott Resources after the company got some media attention in one of Canada’s newspapers. Sprott added C$0.32 to close at C$4.35.

Canadian Zinc sparked some interest after the company reported that applications have been submitted to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for permits for the proposed operations and production at the Prairie Creek Mine in the Northwest Territories. Canadian Zinc closed up C$0.13 at C$0.63.

Potash remained the flavour of the day for investors, while other resource stocks tended to struggle to stay in the black. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Thursday, June 12th, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained a modest 0.01%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.9% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.32% but the declining issuers beat out the advancers by a 537 to 492 margin on good volume of nearly 240 million shares traded.

VMS Venture cut another hot hole at the Reed Lake discovery zone in Manitoba. The latest hole cut 3.54% copper and 0.26% zinc over 81.07 metres, including 18.99 metres running 5.64% and 0.13% zinc. VMS ended the day up C$0.17 at C$0.72.

Speaking of hot holes, Hathor Exploration tagged a radioactive one on its 90% owned Midwest NorthEast uranium property in Saskatchewan. The latest drill results included 15 metres running an impressive 10.02% U308 in one hole and 10.06% U308 over 9 metres in another. Nice. Hathor ended the day up C$0.27 at C$3.05, while 10% carried interest holder Terra Ventures closed flat at C$0.75.

The latest drill results from the Represa zone of the Camino Rojo project in Mexico’s Zacatecas state helped shares of Canplats Resources. The owner of the highly touted find gained C$0.07 to close at C$3.95.

Shares of Niblack Mining were halted from trading at C$0.30 as the company is looking to merge with cash-rich Committee Bay Resources. The deal would see each Niblack share exchanged for one Committee Bay share. Of interest to Committee Bay is Niblack’s wholly owned VMS project in southeast Alaska. For its part Committee Bay was halted from trading at C$0.28.

The Canadian markets look to be a wee bit overextended these days with even stellar results bringing out the sellers looking to lighten their load. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Friday, May 23rd, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange tacked on another 1.05%, while the TSX Gold Index gained 2.9% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 1.37% with the advancing issuers beating the decliners by a 584 to 434 margin on volume of over 223 million shares traded.

Shares of Crystallex International continued to slide after comments made by the Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources of Venezuela that call for a ban on open pit mining in Venezuela. Crystallex maintains that the Minister’s comments “are in conflict with the Las Cristinas environmental impact study approval, construction compliance guarantee bond request and environmental tax request issued by the same ministry.” Welcome to Venezuela. Crystallex ended the day flat at C$0.84.

Sprott Inc’s second day of trading proved to be similar to the first as shares in the well-known resource investment firm fell C$0.14 to close at C$9.70. The company, whose mutual funds and hedge funds made C$42.3 million last year, completed its $200 million initial public offering at C$10 each.

Shares of Southern Hemisphere Mining got a modest boost after reporting a 78 metre drill intercept running 0.96% copper and 0.4 grams silver per tonne at its El Arrayan project in Chile. Southern ended the day up C$0.035 at C$0.25.

Beleaguered Southwestern Resources has inked a deal to sell its troubled Boka gold project in China to Hong Kong East China Non-Ferrous International Mineral Development Co. for $9.4 million and a 2.7% net smelter return on production is excess of 6.5 tonnes. Southwestern ended the day down C$0.02 at C$0.53.

Rumours are circulating that Hathor Exploration is about to table some good news for shareholders. No word on what that news is. The company recently discovered the Roughrider zone on its 90% owned Midwest NorthEast uranium property in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. Hathor ended the day up C$0.16 at C$2.76.

Given the strong run up in Canadian equities, the Monday holiday in Canada may well give investors pause and a correction may be in the offing. We will see what Tuesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Saturday, May 17th, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange tacked on 1.38%, while the TSX Gold Index gained 3.6% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.33% with the advancing issuers inching past the decliners by a 499 to 487 margin on volume of 195 million shares traded.

Sprott Inc.’s first day of trading proved to be a negative one as shares in the well-known resource investment firm fell C$0.16 to close at C$9.84. The company, whose mutual funds and hedge funds made C$42.3 million last year, completed its $200 million initial public offering at C$10 each.

Shares of Brazauro got a boost after the company announced a 125 metre drill intercept running 2.31 grams gold per tonne form its Tocantinzinho project in Brazil. Brazauro ended the day up C$0.12 at C$0.69.

Meanwhile shares of Cue Resources sold off as investors digest the new resource estimate for a portion of the San Antonio uranium deposit in southeast Paraguay. The indicated resources tally 7.8 million tonnes grading 0.03% eU3O8, while the inferred resources come in at 2.5 million tonnes grading 0.4%. Cue ended the day down C$0.10 at C$0.50.

Tenajon Resources added C$0.03 to close at C$0.47 after reporting that its Ajax deposit in British Columbia hosts an inferred resource of 483.1 million tonnes grading 0.061% molybdenum and an indicated resource of 69.0 million tonnes grading 0.065% molybdenum.

It was yet another strong day for Canada’s big board stocks with even the gold guys taking part in the action. That said, the junior bourse continues to struggle to keep pace. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Friday, May 16th, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange surged 1%, while the TSX Gold Index was the laggard dropping 0.8% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, rallied 0.47% but the declining issuers outpaced the advancers by a 521 to 474 margin with good volume of over 220 million shares traded.

BHP Billiton Diamonds has agreed to take out Anglo Potash for a cool C$8.15 per share in cash. That pegs the value at C$284 million. Anglo ended the day up C$1.99 at C$8.06.

Sticking to the takeover theme, Khan Resources has made a share swap bid for beaten down Western Prospector Group. The deal calls for each Western Prospector share exchanged for 0.685 of a Khan share. The move would consolidate the Saddle Hills uranium deposit in Mongolia. Khan ended the day flat at C$0.95, while Western Prospector ended the session up C$0.13 at C$0.63.

In a sign that the coal market remains red hot, shares on North American Gem added C$0.095 to C$0.25 after announcing that it has submitted coal permit applications for an additional 96,478 acres in the area of Goldsource Mine’s find in Saskatchewan.

Great Panther Resources saw a 55% increase in mineral sales revenue to $6.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2008. Production in the quarter tallied 431,639 silver equivalent ounces from 318,443 ounces recorded in the same period a year earlier. Great Panther ended the day down a penny at C$1.22.

Investors were not impressed after IMA Exploration announced a deal to earn a 70% stake in Western Copper’s Hushamu property on Vancouver Island. IMA ended the day down C$0.07 at C$0.395.

The Canadian markets moved higher but on a more select group of equities than one would like to see before announcing the start of a renewed bull market for commodities. We will see what Tuesday trading has in store.

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained 1.52%, while the TSX Gold Index rallied 1.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session up 1.28% with advancing issuers actually beating out the declining issues by a 557 to 460 margin with slowing volume of almost 200 million shares traded.

Shares in VMS Ventures got a modest boost after the junior announced that drilling has resumed on its Reed Lake copper-zinc discovery zone in Manitoba. VMS ended the day up C$0.075 at C$0.53.

Finally some profit taking ensued on Goldsource Mines’ red hot coal play. Shares in the junior have exploded following news that two holes testing for kimberlites cut coal instead in east-central Saskatchewan. Having run up from C$0.19 two weeks ago, shares in Goldsource ended the day down C$0.47 at C$4.20.

Swift Resources and Saturn Minerals also gave back some of Thursday’s gains following news it made applications for coal permits in the area. Swift ended the day down C$0.41 at C$0.64, while Saturn lost C$0.145 to C$0.34.

As usual for this time of year, the news flow has stalled to a trickle. That said, the news coming out does tend to be market moving. We will see what Monday trading has in store.

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gained 0.92%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.7% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session up 0.36% with declining issues continuing to surpass the advancers this time by a 546 to 440 margin with slowing volume of almost 191 million shares traded.

Centerra Gold earned $19.3 million or $0.09 per share in the first quarter of 2008, up from the $5.9 million or $0.03 per share posted in the same period of 2007. Not good enough on a down day for gold as Centerra ended the session down C$0.16 at C$8.48.

Shares of Goldsource Mines are not letting up as buyers continue to gobble it up on speculation the junior has made a coal discovery in Saskatchewan. The company recently completed six drill holes of a permitted 22-hole program on its mineral claim blocks in central and eastern Saskatchewan. No kimberlites were encountered and the only results of interest were coal intercepts in two of the holes. The coal is described as black and moderately hard and therefore judged by visual characteristics to be either sub-bituminous or bituminous in rank rather than lignite. Results are pending but in the meantime Goldsource added C$1.37 to close at C$4.67.

Riding the area play, Swift Resources made applications for coal permits in east-central Saskatchewan, in the area of Goldsource’s recently-announced coal discovery. This news sent its shares up C$0.745 to C$1.05.

Not to be left out, Saturn Minerals also made applications for coal permits in the same area and saw its shares climb C$0.21 to close at C$0.485 on a mind boggling 26 million shares traded.

Midway Gold added C$0.10 to close at C$2.34 after announcing a 12.2 metre intercept running 4.6 grams gold per tonne at its Thunder Mountain project in Nevada.

Canada’s junior bourse is once again treading water around the 2,400-point level, which has been bottom support since early in 2006. We will see what Friday trading has in store.