Good exploration results followed rather rapidly by a financing to top up the tills seems to be the story of the day as the Canadian markets head into September, a traditionally strong period for junior exploration companies. The TSX Venture Exchange, home to the most speculative junior exploration companies, rode up along with the strong price of bullion, gaining 1.9 per cent on the week.

Shareholders in Southern Star Resources and Exall Resources had a good week after the joint venture partners reported that drilling on their Gold Eagle Mine property in the Red Lake area of Ontario returned 28.47 grams gold per tonne over 11.7 metres in one hole and 2.57 metres grading 42.37 grams gold per tonne in another. On the back of the results, both companies wasted no time in raising money, each announcing a financing.

Esperanza Silver jumped off the mat after General Minerals sold 3,257,500 shares of the company. Silver Standard Resources, on the other hand, acquired 3,150,000 shares of Esperanza giving the well-known silver company a 19.3% stake in Esperanza. The junior recently reported a new grassroots, high-grade precious metal discovery at its newly acquired San Luis Project in Ancash Department, Peru. Esperanza ended the week up C$0.07 to C$0.45. General Minerals closed up C$0.06 to C$1.54 and Silver Standard added C$0.32 to C$14.13.

Skygold Ventures and Wildrose Resources continue to table promising results from the Spanish Mountain gold project located in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. Hole 251 intersected 53.8 metres grading 1.06 grams gold per tonne and 1.12 grams gold per tonne over 52.47 metres. Hole 252, a 30 metre step-out hole from a 53.3 metre intercept grading 2.03 grams gold per tonne intersected 107 metres of 1.22 grams gold per tonne. Skygold ended the week at C$0.81, down C$0.09, while Wildrose ended the week down C$0.01 to C$0.50.

New market darling Bear Creek Mining closed a C$11.7 million financing comprised of 3.6 million units priced at C$3.25 with Silver Wheaton taking down 540,000 of the units to maintain its 24.8% equity stake in the junior. Investors will be watching Bear Creek’s Corani silver property in Peru where 13 holes have pulled a weighted average of 3.5 oz/tonne silver over 51.9 metres. Bear Creek ended the week at C$3.60, up C$0.11. Silver Wheaton closed at C$4.39, up C$0.20.

Breakwater Resources was an active trader after announcing that it has raised $1.4 million in flow-through funds to advance its Bouchard-Hébert and Langlois mine sites in Quebec. The company is highly leveraged to zinc and has secured a 23,200 ounce gold loan which has been converted to approximately US$10 million to satisfy certain reclamation obligations at the Myra Falls mine in British Columbia. Breakwater ended the week at C$0.385, up C$0.04 on heavy volume.

Uranium explorer JNR Resources gained C$0.14 to close at C$1.29 on no new news. JNR is drilling the Rocky Brook property in Newfoundland, but more interestingly, International Uranium, which just earned a 75% stake in JNR’s Moore Lake property in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin, also had a strong showing by climbing C$0.96 to C$7.96. Perhaps some news is pending…we will see next week.

The rising price of gold helped Canada’s big gold miners this past week as Barrick Gold added $1.43 to close at C$32.46, while Ian Telfer-led Goldcorp closed out the week at C$22.37, up C$0.37. Placer Dome, after recently being sent to the investor dog house following a terrible financial performance in Q2, closed at C$17.98, up C$1.07.

Moving forward it will all be about the costs to rebuild New Orleans and the reverberating effects of higher oil prices, as well as potential political fall out over the rescue delays. This brings to mind inflation and uncertainty, both of which are usually good for gold.

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Interested in gold? Check out this corporate profile on Nevada explorers Keegan Resources.