5 Top Weekly TSX Stocks: First Quantum Up on Cobre Panama Expansion

The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) inched up last week, increasing 2.79 percent to close the five-day period at 15,452.64 points.

The index edged higher in early trade on Friday (February 16) despite declines among resource stocks and gold producers.

On Friday, the gold price eased as the US dollar rebounded, but was still on track for a weekly gain. Base metals were up for the week, with LME copper on track for its biggest weekly gain in over a year. Meanwhile, oil prices rose to reach a one-week high.

Against that backdrop, a number of TSX-listed stocks in the mining sector saw share price increases. The five biggest gainers are as follows:

• Lead FX (TSX:LFX)
• Nautilus Minerals (TSX:NUS)
• First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM)
• Dalradian Resources (TSX:DNA)
• Excelsior Mining (TSX:MIN)

Here’s a look at those companies and the factors that moved their share prices last week.

1. LeadFX

LeadFX is focused on the development of lead–silver projects in Australia and North America. The company’s flagship asset is the Paroo Station lead asset, located 30 kilometers west of the town of Wiluna in Western Australia. The company also owns an 83.5-percent interest in the Burin mines and surrounding land claims in the Tintic mining district located 60 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Last Monday (February 12), the company announced the closure of the seven-day public comment period on the level of assessment for Paroo Station. Over course of the week, shares of LeadFX gained 22.22 percent to reach $1.65.

2. Nautilus Minerals

Nautilus Minerals bills itself as the first company to commercially explore the seafloor for massive sulfide systems, a potential source of high-grade copper, gold, zinc and silver. Nautilus is developing a production system to commercially extract these systems using existing technologies adapted from the offshore oil and gas industry, and from the dredging and mining industries.

On Monday, the company completed submerged trials for its seafloor production tools in Papua New Guinea. Over the five-day period, Nautilus saw a share price spike of 19.44 percent to close at $0.21.

3. First Quantum Minerals

First Quantum Minerals is a metals and mining company that produces mainly copper, gold, nickel and zinc. The company’s assets are located in Zambia, Spain, Mauritania, Australia, Finland, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Peru.

At the beginning of last week, the company announced plans to expand copper capacity at its Cobre Panama project by 15 percent by 2020. Over the five-day period, First Quantum saw a share price spike of 17.7 percent to close at $20.81.

4. Dalradian Resources

Dalradian Resources is a gold exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its high-grade Curraghinalt gold project located in Northern Ireland. The company did not release any news last week, but its share price jumped 16.13 to reach $1.08.

5. Excelsior Mining

Last but not least is Excelsior Mining, whose share price rose 14.16 percent to end at $1.29 last week. Excelsior is developing the Gunnison copper project, a low cost in-situ recovery asset located within the copper porphyry belt of Arizona. The project is scheduled for commercial production in 2018.

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Data for 5 Top TSX Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday at 10:30 a.m. PST using The Globe and Mail’s market data filter. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the mining and precious metals sectors are considered.

Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.