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Paladin and Western Copper and Gold were followed by Wildcat Silver, Fission Uranium and Nautilus Minerals. Here’s a look at what moved their share prices last week.
Last week was an abbreviated one for the Toronto Stock Exchange, as trading ended on December 24 due to the holidays. Nevertheless, some companies moved significantly in the short period of time the market was open.
Leading the way was Paladin Energy (TSX:PDN), which was followed closely by Western Copper and Gold (TSX:WRN). Wildcat Silver (TSX:WS), Fission Uranium (TSX:FCU) and Nautilus Minerals (TSX:NUS) brought up the rear.
Paladin Energy
Paladin Energy, a uranium production company, led the pack last week, gaining 14.81 percent to trade at $0.31.
On December 19, the company announced that HOPU Clean Energy (Singapore) now has 14.99-percent voting power in the company. However, the more likely cause of its rise in the market is the renewed optimism of uranium market participants.
Western Copper and Gold
Western Copper and Gold, whose focus is on bringing its Yukon-based Casino copper–gold project to production in 2017, came second in the list of top gainers for the week. It had no news to report, but nonetheless rose 14.29 percent to trade at $0.64 as the market closed.
Click here to watch Paul West-Sells, CEO of Western Copper, give an overview of the company’s 2014 highlights in a video.
Wildcat Silver
Explorer and developer Wildcat Silver gained 11.84 percent to trade at $0.43 last week. The company, which holds 80 percent of the Hermosa silver–manganese project in Arizona, has had no news to report since August.
Fission Uranium
Fission Uranium, an exploration and development company working on the Patterson Lake South property in Canada, had plenty to report last week. In a blog post on the company’s website, CEO Dev Randhawa said that as of December 23, the uranium spot price was sitting at $36.25 per pound, up around 30 percent from its low mark. He also noted that industry insiders feel Japan will accelerate its nuclear restart program soon, which would be a positive development for the uranium industry.
As for Patterson Lake South, the company announced on December 1 that final exploration drilling at the project found strong mineralization in all 18 drill holes. Last week, the company gained 10.71 percent to trade at $0.93.
Nautilus Minerals
Nautilus Minerals is working to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulfide deposits, and has the first mining lease for these projects in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea. Its stock rose 10.53 percent to trade at $0.42 last week.
The company’s most recent news release came on December 11, when it announced that $113 million had been released to it from escrow, and that a joint venture between Nautilus and the nominee of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea had officially been formed. Now the company will work to build seafloor production equipment to make seafloor mining a reality.
Data for TSX Top 5 articles is retrieved each Friday and reported on Monday. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million prior to the week’s gains are included.
