5 Top TSX Stocks: Silver Miners On The Rise

Northern Dynasty Minerals was the top gaining stock on the TSX last week, followed by Silver Bear Resources, Levon Resources, Luna Gold and Excellon Resources.

The S&P/TSX Composite index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) was up last week, rising 0.66 percent to hit 14,648.77 points.
The exchange was boosted by strong US jobs data on Friday, even though, as the Globe and Mail reported, Canada dropped 31,200 jobs in July.
Despite pressure on metals prices due to the positive jobs data and a strong US dollar, several mining stocks were still on the rise. Silver lead the way, with three of the top five gainers in mining being focused on the white metal.
Companies from the resource sector that were up for the week included:

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX:NDM)
Silver Bear Resources (TSX:SBR)
Levon Resources (TSX:LVN)
Luna Gold (TSX:GQM)
Excellon Resources (TSX:EXN)

Here’s a look at those companies:

Northern Dynasty Minerals

Northern Dynasty made the top five list for the second week in a row, gaining 32.86 percent last week to reach $0.93 per share. The company is focused on developing the Pebble project, a massive copper-gold-molybdenum-silver deposit in Alaska.
Northern Dynasty has been in a dispute with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is attempting to block development of the project. The company last commented on the issue in January of this year, in a release that condemned the EPA Inspector General’s “serious bias” at the agency. EPA chief Gina McCarthy was questioned over missing emails pertaining to this issue this June.

Silver Bear Resources

Silver Bear is focused on advancing its Mangazeisky silver project in Russia. The company completed a feasibility study for the project this summer, which outlined a post-tax NPV at a five percent discount rate of US$70.7 million, a post-tax IRR of 40.2 percent and a payback period of 2.2 years. The mine is already under construction, with construction expected to be complete by the end of 2016.
Silver Bear gained 18.97 percent to close the week at $0.345 per share. There was no new news this week to explain the company’s rise in share price.

Levon Resources

Shares of Levon Resources rose 14.29 percent last week to $0.52 per share. The company holds the advanced exploration stage silver-gold-zinc-lead porphyry Cordero project in Mexico. The Cordero discovery is currently one of the largest silver resources in the world, coming in at 488 million ounces of silver in the indicated category plus 44 million ounces of inferred silver.

Luna Gold

Lunda Gold holds the Aurizona Mine and a number of brownfields and greenfields projects in the area surrounding the project in Northern Brazil. The company is currently aiming to restart production at the mine.
Luna Gold announced a greenfields exploration agreement with Anglogold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) in May and announced results of its annual general meeting on July 29. However, there has been no further news to explain last week’s share price rise. Luna Gold was up 12.24 percent last week to $0.275 per share.

Excellon Resources

Finally, shares of Excellon Resources gained 11.81 percent last week to reach $1.42 per share.
The company’s La Platosa mine in Durango is Mexico’s highest grade silver mine. Excellon reported its second quarter results last week, highlighting a 8 percent increase in silver equivalent production. “Production during the second quarter remained steady and slightly improved from Q1,” stated Brendan Cahill, President and CEO of Excellon, in a statement. “As a result of drier underground conditions, we accessed the second level of the Rodilla Manto where further high grade mineralization was mined.”
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