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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

New York spot gold drifted lower Friday, dropping $21.10 to end the week at $4,002.50. The TSX Venture Exchange rose 4.56 points to end the day at 957.88, while the TSX gold index lost 7.66 points to 690.17. Most gold and silver miners listed in Canada stayed close to home today, but there were exceptions. B2Gold Corp. (BTO) slid 68 cents to $6.14 on 33.67 million shares without underlying news. Capstone Copper Corp. (CS), which revealed its third quarter results this afternoon, added 69 cents to $12.52 on 16.36 million shares.

With investors in mining stocks lagging bullion's recent ballistic trajectory, the pace of mergers and acquisitions gained speed. Today, Alejandro Bailleres and Octavio Alvidrez's Fresnillo PLC said it is acquiring David Palmer's Probe Gold Inc. (PRB) in a friendly merger. Fresnillo is offering $3.65 in cash for a Probe share, a premium of nearly 40 per cent at Thursday's close and 26 per cent when averaged over the past month. (Probe traded as high as $3.17 two weeks ago -- we did warn you that investors are having a hard time keeping up.) The market caught up a bunch today, as Probe added $1.03 to end the day at $3.66 on 20.17 million shares.

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