5 Best-performing Junior Gold Stocks on the TSXV in 2024

Year-to-date gain: 1,100 percent; market cap: C$23.8 million; share price: C$0.12

Adyton Resources is working to advance the Feni Island and Fergusson Island gold projects in Papua New Guinea.

The Feni Island site has seen historic exploration, with 212 holes drilled over 18,813 meters. While limited work has been conducted by Adyton, a 2021 resource estimate shows an inferred quantity of 1.46 million ounces of gold on site. The company has been working to expand its gold resource and explore for copper at greater depths than previous exploration.

Shares of Adyton saw gains following news in late April that it had closed on C$1.5 million in financing and restarted exploration at Feni Island. The company said the initial focus would be to reprocess and reinterpret historical data with modern geophysical algorithms in order to provide optimized locations for detailed follow-up programs.

Adyton’s share price reached a year-to-date high of C$0.16 on May 5. The most recent update from Feni Island came on June 26, when the company identified new drill targets following analysis of historical airborne magnetic and radiometric data. The company said it was preparing for follow-up field work and to fast track drilling of the targets.

While Feni Island has been its primary focus, Adyton has also been working to raise capital for its Fergusson Island project. On May 13, the company entered into a binding investment and development agreement with East Vision International Holdings. The deal will see East Vision contribute US$8.5 million in funding for project costs, while a further US$1 million will go to Adyton. East Vision will have the option to gain a 50 percent stake in the asset.

The project consists of two advanced exploration licenses for the Wapolu and Gameta targets, which host a combined indicated resource of 173,000 ounces of gold from 4 million metric tons (MT) grading 1.33 grams per MT (g/t), and an additional inferred resource of 540,000 ounces from 16.3 million MT grading 1.02 g/t.

Year-to-date gain: 958.82 percent; market cap: C$25.11 million; share price: C$0.90

Black Mammoth Metals is a gold explorer working to advance its US properties in Nevada, Idaho and California.

Its Happy Cat gold property is located in the Ravenswood Mining District in Ladner County, Nevada. The site covers about 1,213 hectares and hosts an approximately 4 square kilometer area where the company has identified a potential alteration zone. Black Mammoth completed ground gravity and magnetic surveys at the site in 2023.

The company also owns the Blanco Creek gold property in the Elk Creek Mining District in Central Idaho. The site hosts three historic mines along 3,550 meters of strike length.

In January, Black Mammoth acquired the America Mine property as part of its acquisition of IDA Mining. The site hosts a historical open-pit heap-leach gold and silver mine and is located in San Bernardino, California.

On March 28, the company announced that its subsidiary, Antelope Creek, had entered into an option agreement with Gold Royalty (NYSE:GROY) subsidiary Nevada Select Royalty. Nevada Select is optioning the Quito gold property in Nevada to Antelope Creek for payments totaling US$900,000 over four years.

On May 16, Black Mammoth closed a private placement for gross proceeds of C$2.8 million. The company said it would use the funding for purposes including advancing projects throughout its portfolio and eliminating long-term debt.

Shares of Black Mammoth reached a year-to-date high of C$1.25 on June 12.

Year-to-date gain: 175 percent; market cap: C$39.45 million; share price: C$0.055

PPX Mining is a precious metals company that is focused on its Igor project, which contains the operating Callanquitas underground mine, located in the Otuzco province of Northern Peru.

In a prefeasibility study for Igor, which was amended in January 2022, the company indicates that the 1,300 hectare site previously hosted small-scale mining operations and has a 50 MT per day gold-processing plant from the 1980s. PPX is currently working to upscale processing at the site through the construction of a 350 MT per day carbon-in-leach and flotation plant that will be used to process oxide and sulfide ore from Callanquitas.

An updated resource estimate for Callanquitas released by the company this past January shows measured and indicated resources as oxides of 81,090 ounces of gold and 2.92 million ounces of silver. The inferred resource as sulfides stands at 20,760 ounces of gold and 2.07 million ounces of silver.

PPX continued to explore the property through the start of 2024, and has delivered several rounds of assay results. The most recent set of results came on May 13, when the company reported that underground channel sampling had been carried out, resulting in grades of 22.13 g/t gold and 718 g/t silver over 0.7 meters.

On June 13, PPX received its water availability accreditation from the government of Peru. The accreditation, which confirms that there is sufficient water in the area, is a critical step for the permitting of the flotation plant.

In addition to its exploration efforts, PPX has been working to raise capital, securing a US$6 million debt facility on January 2, a US$2.5 million silver royalty with Silver Crown Royalty announced on March 12 and a C$1.35 million private placement closed on April 18. Shares of PPX reached a year-to-date high of C$0.075 on April 22.

Year-to-date gain: 170.59 percent; market cap: C$45.81 million; share price: C$0.23

East Africa Metals is a gold exploration company focused on its Adyabo and Harvest projects in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

Its principal asset is the Adyabo property, in which the company holds a 30 percent net profit interest, with Tibet Huayu Mining (SHA:601020) owning the remaining 70 percent. The 195.2 square kilometer site hosts two mining licenses, Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, located in an area known for high-grade gold and copper mineralization.

East Africa Metals also owns a 70 percent share of the Harvest polymetallic project, which hosts the Terakimti mining license, as well as a 30 percent streaming interest in the Magambazi gold mine in the Tanga region of Tanzania.

Shares of East Africa saw gains following a May 10 announcement that Tibet Huayu would be moving forward with mine development activities for Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, with construction of roadworks to begin that month. Two weeks later, East Africa Metals said it had been granted an extension to the development period for the projects. The company said this would resolve permitting issues that arose due to regional conflicts in 2023. Mato Bula and Da Tambuk were extended by four years, to February 1, 2028, and Terakimti was extended to December 5, 2028.

On June 14, East Africa reported that it had hired Kluane Drilling to commence a drill program to test the Halima Hill prospect at Mato Bula. Shares of East Africa Metals reached a year-to-date high of C$0.27 on June 19.

Since then, the company has continued to make progress at the Adyabo project, announcing the completion of negotiations for a relocation action plan on June 27; the plan assesses a mine’s impact on nearby communities and land, and its completion means mine development activities can begin.

Year-to-date gain: 155.56 percent; market cap: C$62.98 million; share price: C$0.23

TriStar Gold is an exploration and development company focused on its flagship Castelo de Sonhos gold project, which is located near the town of Castelo de Sonhos in Northern Brazil's Pará state.

According to a 2021 prefeasibility study, the project hosts an indicated resource of 1.76 million contained ounces of gold from 53.1 million MT at a grade of 1.03 g/t gold. At the time, the company estimated that Castelo de Sonhos had a mine life of 11 years with an annual production rate of 3.6 million MT of ore, as well as a net present value of US$321 million with an internal rate of return of 28 percent and a payback period of 2.8 years.

Shares of TriStar saw gains following the June 12 announcement that the Pará State Environmental Council had approved the site's preliminary license and environmental impact assessment.

The company’s share price reached a year-to-date high of C$0.23 on June 23.