Handout photo of Iamgold’s Essakane operations in Burkina Faso.
Inside the Market's roundup of some of the Canadian small caps making news and on the move today. This will be updated through the morning.
Iamgold Corp. shares have fallen amid reports that Burkina Faso's president Blaise Compaore has resigned, following violent protests. The company released a statement on Thursday that its Essakane mine, located 320 kilometres from Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, continues to operate.
"While protesters have disrupted the capital and two other towns, all IAMGOLD employees are safe and accounted for, and our operations continue in Burkina Faso uninterrupted," said the company, in a statement.
Mr. Compaore declared a state of emergency this week after protests that saw demonstrators storm and torch its Parliament buildings.
Semafo, Roxgold Inc. and True Gold Mining Inc. issued similar statements. Shares in those companies were also down significantly Friday. By midday, Iamgold was down 3.6 per cent, Semafo 4.7 per cent, Roxgold 14 per cent and True Gold 16 per cent.
CIBC World Markets analyst Jeff Killeen initiated coverage of True Gold Mining on Thursday - prior to Mr. Compaore's resignation - with a "sector outperformer" rating and a price target of 60 cents (Canadian). True Gold is a fully financed mine developer that has begun construction on the Karma open-pit mine in Burkina.
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Slate Retail REIT has entered into a binding agreement to purchase a 97,013 square foot grocery-anchored shopping centre in Westminster, Colorado, for $12.7-million (U.S). The acquisition is expected to be completed in fourth quarter 2014 and remains subject to customary closing conditions.
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Hyduke Energy Services Inc. said that it has terminated an agreement to sell its shares in its subsidiary, Hyduke Machining Solutions. "Hyduke and the undisclosed buyer were unable to agree upon certain terms of the agreement."
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Nuvista Energy Ltd. said that for 2015, it has hedged 54 per cent of 2015 forecast gas production and 40 per cent of forecast oil and condensate production at floor prices of $3.67/GJ AECO and $97.91/Bbl (Canadian) WTI, respectively.
"We have positioned NuVista to provide strong long-term profitable growth in a low AECO natural gas price environment due to our growing condensate production and the continuous improvement of our capital and operating efficiencies."
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Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. said Whistler Mountain Resort Limited Partnership and Blackcomb Skiing Enterprises Limited Partnership have signed an agreement with their banking syndicate to amend and extend their existing credit facility by one year to November 12, 2019.
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Catalyst Paper Corp. said it had agreed to purchase the Biron paper mill in Wisconsin and the Rumford pulp and paper mill located in Maine for $74-million (U.S.) from NewPage Corp., NewPage Wisconsin System Inc. and Rumford Paper Company .
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In analyst actions today in Canadian small caps:
PI Financial and Cormark Securities both upgraded OceanaGold to "buy" from the equivalent of hold ratings with price target of $3.90 (Canadian) and $4, respectively.
Macquarie downgraded Petromanas Energy to "neutral" from "outperform" with a price target of 40 cents (Canadian).
RBC Dominion Securities downgraded Teranga Gold to "sector perform" from "outperform" with a price target of 70 cents (Canadian).