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Resource Stock Roundup Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Doug Casey — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:16:22 +0000

Profit taking was the name of the game during Tuesday trading on the Canadian markets as investors position themselves ahead of the third quarter earnings season. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gave back 4.44%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 9% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 1.58%, with the declining issuers out pacing the advancers by a 471 to 351 margin on volume of 142 million shares traded.

Over in New York, shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold got slammed after the company announced that third quarter profit fell to $523 million or $1.31 per share from $775 million or $1.87 per share in the year ago period. Lower copper prices resulted in a 9% drop in revenue to $4.62 billion. Freeport ended the day down $3.98 at $32.74.

Once again the low price of nickel prompted a mine shut down. This time FNX Mining (FNX) suspended commercial production at its Levack nickel contact deposits in Sudbury. FNX ended the day down C$0.94 at C$5.86.

Shares of VMS Ventures lost C$0.05 to close at C$0.28 after the junior tabled 14.47 metres grading 3.27% copper at its Reed Lake discovery zone in Manitoba.

On the merger front, Nemi Northern Energy & Mining (NNE.A) and Aviva inked a deal that would see Aviva shareholders get 0.59 of a Nemi share. The move would create an international coal and energy firm. Nemi ended the session up C$0.02 at C$0.265.

The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a less than expected 0.25% and went on to cite that the United States is already in recession with a global recession nipping on its heals. The move failed to rally the beaten down Canadian dollar with investors taking the cue from commodity prices and not interest rate policy. We will see what Wednesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Resource Stock Roundup Friday, October 17, 2008

Doug Casey — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:16:07 +0000

The hemorrhaging continued during Thursday trading on the Canadian Markets as falling commodity prices had investors running for the exits yet again. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 0.58%, while the TSX Gold Index plunged 9.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell 5.39% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 668 to 247 margin on volume of 153 million shares traded.

Junior explorers that have liquidity faced the brunt of the selloff with Full Metal Minerals dropping C$0.075 to close at C$0.315, Hathor Exploration (HAT) lost C$0.23 to close at C$1.50 and VMS Ventures (VMS) dropped C$0.01 to close at C$0.28. Full Metals is in the midst of the bulk sample at its Lucky Shot project in Alaska, Hathor has a nice looking uranium discovery at its MidWest NorthEast project in Saskatchewan and VMS has a high-grade base metal discovery on its Reed lake project in Manitoba.

The big board gold miners took it on the chin with Barrick Gold (ABX) falling C$4 to close at C$29.20, Goldcorp dropped C$3.41 to close at C$24.37, Kinross Gold ended the day down C$2.37 at C$12.90, Agnico Eagle (AEM) plunged C$5.28 to close at C$41.92 and Yamana Gold (YRI) gave back C$0.48 to close at 5.64.

The junior board looks set to test the 2002 lows of 890 and a break below this one would mark uncharted waters for the Venture Exchange. The historic low goes back to the VSE Index days in 1998 and 1999 when the bourse treaded water in the 400 point range. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Friday, October 17, 2008

Resource Stock Roundup Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Doug Casey — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:21:13 +0000

There was more blood in the streets for the Canadian markets during Tuesday trading as the price of oil continued to slide. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange fell 0.22%, while the TSX Gold Index was the lone winner by gaining 3.9% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, plunged another 4.94% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 705 to 240 margin on volume of 169 million shares traded.

Fording Canadian Coal Trust (FDG) continued to slide on worries that the credit crunch will put a crimp in Teck Cominco’s takeover offer set to close in October. Fording ended the day down C$0.67 at C$81.16, while Teck closed at C$35.38, down C$1.26.

Speaking of takeover flops, Midway Gold’s (MDW) proposed merger with Golden Predator Mines has been shelved. No reason was given. Midway ended the session down C$0.18 at C$0.82, while Golden Predator lost C$0.15 at C$0.80.

Happy Creek Minerals (HPY) managed to lose C$0.01 to close at C$0.28 despite reporting a 135 metre drill intercept running 0.43% copper at its Rateria property in British Columbia.

Inca Pacific Resources (IPR) fell C$0.10 to close at C$0.55 with more then 3 million shares traded. The company is moving forward with its Magistral copper molybdenum project in Peru.

Meanwhile, shares in Dynamite Resources saw action on no news. The company has been drilling the Mike Lake copper-gold project in the Yukon with two rigs all summer and recently added a third but has yet to release results. Dynamite ended the day down C$0.02 at C$0.0115.

VMS Ventures (VMS) managed to tack on C$0.055 to close at C$0.42 after tabling a 53.19 metre drill intercept running 3.08% copper at its Reed Lake Discovery zone in Manitoba.

Liquidation is the name of the game with even cash rich companies getting the punt from investors’ portfolios. We will see what Wednesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Resource Stock Roundup Friday, September 5th, 2008

Doug Casey — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:01:46 +0000

It was more of the same during Thursday trading on the Canadian markets as investors continued to unwind their resource trade positions and the subsequent panic selling drove the junior board to fresh three year lows.

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 2.46%, while the TSX Gold Index lost another 2.8% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell 2.42% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 621 to 251 margin on volume of 120 million shares traded.

VMS Ventures continued to make the grade at its Reed Lake Discovery zone in Manitoba with the latest results including 97.21 metres grading 2.08% copper. Not good enough in a bad market as VMS ended the day down C$0.015 at C$0.485.

B2Gold (BTO) reported the discovery of a new gold find at the Trinidad zone on the Gramalote property in Colombia. Drill results included 109.4 metres grading 1.13 grams gold per tonne and 101.85 metres running 1.24 grams gold per tonne. B2Gold, which holds a 51% stake in the project, closed at C$0.60, unchanged on the day.

Moving to Argentina, Exeter Resource (XRC) hit more bonanza grades at its Escondida vein system at its Cerro Moro project. Highlights include 302.4 grams gold and 6,623 grams silver over 5.55 metres. Exeter ended the day down C$0.02 at C$2.70.

The wicked selling of resource stocks is showing no signs of abating any time soon with the 1800 point mark now looming. With all the pessimism it may be prudent to remember that it is always darkest before the dawn. We will see what Friday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup Friday, September 5th, 2008

Resource Stock Roundup: Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Doug Casey — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:19:31 +0000

The reversal of fortunes continued as the junior board issues outperformed the big bourse during Thursday trading on the Canadian Markets.

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

Resource Stock Roundup: Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Doug Casey — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:30:38 +0000

The Canadian Markets gave back much of Tuesday’s record breaking gains on the big board but investors continued to gobble up the more speculative stocks on the junior bourse during Wednesday trading.

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange dropped 1.71%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.8% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.40% but the declining issuers beat out the advancers by a 581 to 507 margin on huge volume of nearly 280 million shares traded.

A big winner on the session was Vast Exploration. The junior along with its consortium partner Niko Resources entered into a production sharing contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq for the exploration, development and production of petroleum resources in the 846-square-kilometre Qara Dagh block in Kurdistan. Vast ended the day up C$0.31 at C$0.64.

Serengeti Resources got a modest boost after reporting a new copper-molybdenum zone southeast of the central copper-gold zone on its Kwanika copper-gold project in British Columbia. The western edge of the central zone returned 0.72% copper and 0.81 gram gold per tonne over 75 metres. Serengeti ended the day up C$0.04 at C$0.96.

Sticking to British Columbia, Skygold Ventures and partner Wildrose Resources tagged 47.5 metres running 2.04 grams gold per tonne some 275 metres west of the resource area on their Spanish Mountain project. Skygold ended the day up C$0.11 at C$0.73, while Wildrose added C$0.02 at C$0.51.

VMS Venture was halted from trading at C$0.55, up C$0.03 after 408,000 shares traded. Drill results pending for the Reed Lake base metal project in Saskatchewan is my bet. We will see.

Pediment Exploration lost C$0.03 to close at C$1.76 after reporting a 54.9 metre drill intercept running 1.6 grams gold per tonne at its San Antonio project in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

A very volatile first couple of trading days for the holiday shortened trading week on the Canadian markets. Clearly, the market at record highs has investors a little bit leery of putting new money to work. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Thursday, May 22nd, 2008