Year-to-date gain: 166.95 percent; market capitalization: C$67.83 million; current share price: C$3.15

Western Alaska Minerals is a Alaska-based company focused on its Illinois Creek silver-gold-copper district. Illinois Creek encompasses five targets, including the Waterpump Creek silver-zinc-lead target and the Illinois Creek gold-silver deposit. Waterpump Creek is the company's key deposit, and it has focused on expanding it with a 10,000 meter drill program in 2022.

Western Alaska’s share price shot up in mid-July following the announcement that its drilling had “intersected 101.7 and 47 meters of massive sulfide and banded dolomite sphalerite mineralization.” The observations at this point were visual and had yet to be analyzed, with the company cautioning that the “significance of the observations reported here will not be known until assays are received and reviewed.” Still, the company’s share price moved from C$1.80 the day before to C$4.25 a few days afterwards.

The company’s share price continued to climb, reaching a year-to-date high of C$5.60 on August 11 in the midst of a private placement upsizing from C$8.2 million to C$12 million. Its most recent exploration results came on September 22, when it shared the assays from its earlier drill holes, highlighting 159 grams per metric ton (g/t) silver over 102.7 meters, including 335 g/t over 18.5 meters. Although the company’s share price has cooled from its considerable highs, it is still up significantly from its 2022 opening price of C$1.18.

Year-to-date gain: 91.3 percent; market capitalization: C$16.45 million; current share price: C$0.22

Taranis Resources is focused on two well-known precious metals jurisdictions: BC, Canada, and Nevada, US. Its primary property is the Thor silver-gold-base metals project located in Southeast BC; Thor is composed of five historically producing small mines. Taranis is also a founding member of the LID Syndicate, which is a group of junior explorers working together with the goal of discovering significant deposits in Nevada using different tactics than a regular junior exploration team.

Back in June, Taranis’ share price increased significantly as the company announced and completed a C$325,000 private placement that month. The company shared more information on the private placement in August alongside an update on the commencement of drilling at Thor. The new drilling and surface exploration program is focused on three major conductivity trends that were identified by a magnetotelluric survey. The company’s share price hit a year-to-date high of C$0.24 later that month.

Taranis’ most recent news came on August 31, when it announced a five year exploration plan for Thor. According to a press release, “The exploration program includes exploration targets peripheral to the main Thor deposit; namely the Elephant, Thunder Zone, Megagossan, Western Deeps and Broadview South Targets.”

Year-to-date gain: 50.85 percent; market capitalization: C$143.13 million; current share price: C$0.44

Santacruz Silver Mining is a South American silver miner with producing assets in Bolivia and Mexico, as well as an exploration project in Bolivia. The company's Bolivar and Porco operations are part of a joint venture agreement with the Bolivian government, which owns 55 percent compared to Santacruz's 45 percent.

On March 21, the company acquired producing assets in Bolivia from Glencore (LSE:GLEN,OTC Pink:GLCNF). “This is a significant acquisition for Santacruz that creates a leading mid-tier silver producer in the Americas," CEO Carlos Silva said.

Santacruz’s share price gained through March and April to a year-to-date high of C$0.56 on April 20, but fell off in May alongside the dipping silver price. On June 10, Santacruz announced that a “valued employee lost his life in a fatal accident at the Reserva mine in Bolivia.” An investigation is being conducted into the accident to determine how to improve safety at the site. Following the accident, the company’s share price fell, bottoming out in mid-July.

Since then, the company has shared its Q2 production results, news that drove its share price back up. The company saw silver production of 1,410,485 ounces, an increase of 200 percent over Q1. The company attributed this to its new Bolivian assets. Its Q3 production was even higher, with 1,924,973 ounces of silver production.

Year-to-date gain: 38.24 percent; market capitalization: C$38.44 million; current share price: C$0.235

Outcrop Silver & Gold is an exploration company with a portfolio of five projects in Colombia. Its flagship asset is its Santa Ana silver project, which is the country’s highest-grade silver property. The company is performing ongoing drilling at the asset, and has been uncovering increasingly high-grade drill results, including 7,609 silver equivalent g/t over 1.85 meters in June.

Outcrop’s share price jumped on January 18 alongside the silver price, five days after the company announced the appointment of Paul Taggar as its new CFO and provided a letter to shareholders reflecting on its growth in 2021. It kept moving up from there to hit an early year-to-date high of C$0.36 back on March 1, but has spent most of Q2 and Q3 significantly below that.

On August 23, exploration of undrilled targets at Santa Ana returned high-grade results, including 9,738 g/t from a dump sample at the Los Mangos target; other targets also showed high-grade silver and gold results.

Outcrop ended the year's third quarter with a C$3.4 million private placement, and its share price has been elevated since then. Most recently, the company announced the appointment of Sunil Sharma as its new CFO.

Year-to-date gain: 8.97 percent; market capitalization: C$198.09 million; current share price: C$0.425

AbraSilver Resources is an exploration company with projects in Argentina and Chile that focus on silver, gold and copper. Its wholly owned Diablillos silver-gold project in Argentina is its number one focus, and it is working to advance the project. The company also has an option to acquire a 100 percent interest in the La Coipita copper-gold project in Argentina. In Chile, it has the wholly owned Arcas copper project and 9,300 hectares of nearby concessions.

AbraSilver’s share price movement this year has been driven by positive exploration results out of Diablillos. It hit a year-to-date high of C$0.51 on April 15 after drilling at the project uncovered what was then the “thickest high-grade intercept ever recorded on the Diablillos project,” according to President and CEO John Miniotis. One intercept included 1,029 g/t silver equivalent over 13 meters.

The company has since gone on to hit even higher-grade intercepts, with a new all-time high being set in late September as part of Phase III drilling at Diablillos. This drill hole contained 646 g/t silver equivalent over 127 meters, including 2,001 g/t silver equivalent over 13 meters. This news shot AbraSilver's share price up again, reaching a Q4 high of C$0.46 in the days following its release.