by Stockwatch Business Reporter
New York spot gold fell slightly, closing down $1.40 to $1,616.90 Tuesday, as the U.S. dollar rose against the euro. Investors await the results of a European Central Bank meeting Wednesday and a Ben Bernanke speech Thursday. China finally had some positive economic news; services activity in May rose to a 19-month high. Here in Canada, the TSX Venture Exchange climbed seven points to 1,285 and the TSX Gold Index added two points to 333.
Canadian gold mining stocks had an up day. Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI) added 25 cents to $16.71 on 5.77 million shares, Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (ANV) added 63 cents to $30.15 on 258,000 shares and Kinross Gold Corp. (K) gained 12 cents to $9.03 on 3.67 million shares.
West African gold miner Semafo Inc. (SMF) also rose, six cents to $6.08 on 1.25 million shares. President Benoit La Salle spent the past two weeks spreading the good word about his good company, and helping the stock recover from last month's dip under $4. The good president, who often mentions the year he spent on a humanitarian mission in Burkina Faso before starting Semafo, is especially proud of the company's do-goodery in Burkina Faso and Niger. There, it spends 2 per cent of its net income plus about $300,000 a quarter for food, medicine, schooling and its sesame and paprika farms. Semafo's good deeds in Guinea are comparably less, angering locals so much last fall that they stormed the Kineiro gold mine and took over production for six months. The company resumed mining at Kineiro in April. It accounts for 10 per cent of total gold production, about 5,000 ounces a quarter.