Year-to-date gain: 145.76 percent; market cap: C$51.38 million; current share price: C$2.90

Western Alaska Minerals is an 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 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, Western Alaska's share price moved from C$1.80 the day before to C$4.25 a few days afterward.

The firm'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. On September 22, Western Alaska 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. Its most recent news came on October 31, when it announced that results from recent drilling had intersected two “thick multistage massive sulfide horizons,” one of which had a highlight grade of 883 g/t silver over 1.1 meters within an intercept of 284 g/t silver over 11.5 meters.

Although the company’s share price has cooled from its highs, it is still up significantly from its 2022 opening price of C$1.18.

Year-to-date gain: 97.06 percent; market cap: C$57.65 million; current share price: C$0.335

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 hit an early year-to-date high of C$0.36 back on March 1, but 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 began Q4 with the appointment of Sunil Sharma as its new CFO. The company’s share price has been climbing throughout the fourth quarter. During the period, the company announced “excellent” metallurgical results from Santa Ana, with recoveries of 94 percent silver and 96 percent gold. It also released two batches of exploration results, with the first on October 27 and the second on November 22. According to Outcrop, 15 of the 25 drill holes completed thus far have returned high-grade assays, and two are still pending. The company’s share price matched its previous high twice in late November, but has yet to surpass it.

Year-to-date gain: 55.93 percent; market cap: C$165.28 million; current share price: C$0.46

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. Santacruz attributed this to its new Bolivian assets. Its third quarter production was even higher, with 1,924,973 ounces of silver output.

Year-to-date gain: 46.43 percent; market cap: C$25.25 million; current share price: C$0.205

CMC Metals describes itself as a “growth stage mineral exploration company” that is developing precious and base metals properties through the feasibility stage. Its projects are all in Canada, more specifically in Yukon, BC and Newfoundland. In terms of silver, its projects are Silver Hart and Blue Heaven in Yukon and Rancheria South in BC.

While CMC performed relatively flat through the beginning of March, its share price saw a strong performance after that and hit a year-to-date high of C$0.24 on April 18, falling off slightly in May. During Q2, the company added both a new director and a new chief geologist to its ranks. Alongside the latter announcement, CMC commenced operations at its Newfoundland properties.

On May 11, the company identified six “significant” targets at the Silverknife property. CMC shared on June 13 that its Rodney Pond asset in Newfoundland is now deemed a property of merit after exploration identified a “large area of exploration interest.”

CMC has released news for many of its projects in H2 as it explores its various properties. In terms of its silver operations, a gravity survey brought back positive results at the Silverknife project back in August. At the company’s Silver Hart project, drilling intersected carbonate replacement-style mineralization that same month.

In other recent news, on November 3 the company announced further exploration efforts for its Bridal Veil polymetallic project in Newfoundland, which began a price rally that led CMC's share price to match its previous high of C$0.24 on November 11. It also began field work for its recently optioned Terra Nova polymetallic project and added a geology expert to its advisory board.

Year-to-date gain: 10.94 percent; market cap: C$168.35 million; current share price: C$0.71

Dolly Varden Silver is fully focused on its Kitsault Valley project, a combination of the Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge projects, in BC’s Golden Triangle. The project hosts two past-producing mines, the Dolly Varden mine and the Torbrit mine. The company has been drilling and exploring multiple trends at the project in 2022.

After announcing a C$10 million private placement in March, the company’s share price hit a year-to-date high of C$0.88. The placement went on to total C$13 million and included investments from Eric Sprott and Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL). According to the company, the money was to be used for “further exploration, mineral resource expansion and drilling in Kitsault Valley.”

Dolly Varden has made good on that promise, mobilizing three drill rigs to its project in May and adding a fourth in September. The majority of its news in the second half of the year has been exploration results, including highlights of 4,326 g/t silver over 1.6 meters in September and, most recently, 2,337 g/t silver and 75.13 g/t gold over 1.77 meters on November 29. The company’s share price has climbed in Q4, nearing its previous high at C$0.84 as of December 1.