For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange surged 1.99%, while the TSX Gold Index gained 2.7% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.53% with the advancing issuers beating the advancers by a 549 to 518 margin on good volume of nearly 225 million shares traded.

Fronteer Development Group says its 100%-owned Northumberland gold project in Nevada holds a measured and indicated resource of 2.44 million ounces, plus an inferred resource comprising 0.82 million ounces. This marks a 28% jump over the previous estimate. Fronteer ended the day up C$0.52 at C$5.29.

Shares in Potash North Resource continued to soar following news that the Saskatchewan Mines Branch has issued a potash permit covering 91,000 acres. The company added C$0.53 to Wednesdays’ C$1.34 surge to close at C$2.07.

Northern Freegold Resources tacked on C$0.025 to close at C$0.50 after reporting a 168.3 foot intercept running 0.94 grams gold and 56.1 grams silver per tonne at the Burro Creek property in northwestern Arizona.

No news was good news for VMS Ventures as shares in the junior added C$0.12 to close at C$0.87. Perhaps more drill results are pending from its Reed Lake discovery zone in Manitoba.

A stock to watch is X-Terra Resources. Shares in the company recently surged on news that the application permits for over 120,000 hectares of share permits in Quebec would be processed shortly. X-Terra was halted from trading pending news at C$2.21, up C$0.13 prior to the halt.

A bit of a relief rally helped lift the spirit of beaten down resource investors. Will it continue? We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Friday, June 06, 2008

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

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added 0.98%, while the TSX Gold Index rallied 0.4% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session up 0.22% with declining issuers still out paced the advancing issues this time by a 529 to 472 margin with slowing volume of 168 million shares traded.

The world’s largest gold miner, Barrick Gold earned $514 million, or $0.59 a share in the quarter of 2008 a 29% jump over last year’s quarter. The previously well known gold hedger received a price of $925 an ounce of gold in the quarter. Sales in the quarter rang in at $1.96 billion as the company produced 1.7 million ounces of gold at total cash costs of $393 an ounce. All was not rosy however, as this figure is down from the 2 million ounces produced in the same period of 2007 when cash costs came in at $309 an ounce. Barrick ended the day down C$0.01 at C$39.40.

Meanwhile AngloGold Ashanti fared much better after reporting earnings of $105 million for the first quarter of 2008 and production of 1.2 million ounces of gold. Total cash costs for the South African company came in at $430 per ounce and importantly, Anglo finally announced that its La Colosa project in Colombia holds an inferred resource of 12.9 million ounces of gold within 468.8 million tonnes grading 0.86 gram gold per tonne. Anglo ended the session up $3.50 in New York at C$38.31.

Shares in VMS Ventures rallied on news that the junior cut 1.09% copper over 102.5 metres at its Reed Project Discovery Zone in Manitoba. VMS ended the day up C$0.09 at C$0.60.

It was a good day for Sprott Resource as the company inked a deal with Altius to explore for potash in the St. George’s basin in southwestern Newfoundland. Under the deal, Sprott can earn a 60% stake by spending C$2.5 million over 4 years. Sprott ended the session up C$0.52 at C$3.75.

Profit taking was the story of the day for Goldsource Mines. After running up from C$0.30 to nearly C$5 per share on speculation of a major coal find in Saskatchewan, Goldsource ended the day down C$0.26 at C$4.29.

All lights were green for the Canadian markets as investors start to become believers that commodity prices won’t be falling off a cliff anytime soon. We will see what Wednesday 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 fell 1.38%, while the TSX Gold Index plunged 3.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, ended the session down 1.59% with declining issues once again swamping the advancers this time by an embarrassing 659 to 367 margin on rising volume of nearly 191 million shares traded.

Lundin Mining got hit by the spiraling capital cost bug as construction estimates of its 24.75% held Tenke copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ballooned to$1.9 million from the earlier projection of $1 billion. So far, $475 million has been spent with 57.75% owner Freeport McMorRan funding 70% of the development cost, and must also cover Lundin’s share of some overruns. Phoenix-based Freeport posted a first quarter profit of $1.12 billion, or $2.64 per share, compared to a profit of $476 million, or $2.02, a year earlier. Lundin ended the day down C$0.27 at C$7.50, while Freeport closed at $116.02 for a $2.63 loss in New York trading.

Hathor Exploration tabled the preliminary results from the last eight holes drilled on its 90% owned Midwest NorthEast project in the eastern Athabasca basin of Saskatchewan. The preliminary scintillometer results for four of the holes look encouraging but size may be an issue as Hathor ended the day down C$0.36 at C$2.40.

In a case of no one seemed to care, VMS Ventures tabled a 35.8 metre drill intercept running 2.69% copper and 0.65% zinc at its Reed project discovery zone in Manitoba. Investors are still waiting for the big grades that the junior got in the discovery hole because VMS ended the day down C$0.02 at C$0.55.

The shorts and the longs continue to do battle over the potential success or failure of Timminco. The silica producer shipped 100 tonnes of solar-grade silicon to customers during the latest three-month period at average selling prices in excess of $60 per kilogram. The shorts say the company has nothing, while the longs continue to tout its breakthrough technology. In less than 18 months shares in the company have gone from around C$0.30 to a high of C$28.50, so much is at stake in this battle. Timminco ended the day up C$3.37 at C$21.60.

A breather in the price of gold, silver and oil resulted in a rather dismal day across the resource-rich Canadian markets. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.