5 Top Weekly TSXV Stocks: Iconic Minerals Up on Lithium Exploration

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) closed Friday (January 12) at 878.2 points. 
The Canadian dollar remained relatively flat against the greenback on Friday on the back of falling oil prices and ahead of a Bank of Canada interest rate decision.
Oil prices receded from a three-year high of more than $70 a barrel on Thursday (Janaruy 11), with US crude down 0.4 percent, at $63.56 a barrel.
Last week, the Canadian dollar reached a three-month high after stronger-than-expected jobs data raised expectations that the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates on January 17. It has since fallen on the news that the US could announce plans to exit the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Against that backdrop, a number of TSXV-listed mining stocks experienced significant share price gains last week. The five top gainers are as follows:

• Peat Resources (TSXV:PET)
• Iconic Minerals (TSXV:ICM)
• Canada Rare Earth (TSXV:LL)
• Hunt Mining (TSXV:HMX)
• Glen Eagle Resources (TSXV:GER)

Read on for a brief overview of those companies and what moved their share prices last week.

1. Peat Resources

Peat Resources is focused on producing peat fuel from its properties in Ontario and Newfoundland, but is expanding into other commodities markets.
In late December, the firm signed a binding letter of intent to acquire Belair African Metals, a private firm located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Belair African Metals is focused on mining conflict-free tin, tantalum and tungsten, with plans to expand into copper and cobalt mining.
Peat Resources is looking to raise funds to move forward, and announced a non-brokered private placement last Friday. It also offered a brokered private placement in December, which closed last week, along with a non-brokered private placement announced last Tuesday (January 9). 
The company’s share price rose 169.23 percent to close at $0.16 last week.

2. Iconic Minerals

Iconic Minerals announced the start of a 2018 exploration program at its Bonnie Claire lithium project in Nevada last Tuesday. The firm said the primary goals of the program “are to produce an NI43-101 compliant initial resource report on the lithium-rich sediments of the basin and provide additional bulk samples for further tests.”
The company, which also has several gold projects in Nevada, saw its share price rise 69.7 percent to close at $0.28 last week.

3. Canada Rare Earth

Canada Rare Earth is currently involved with projects in North America, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia and Southeast Asia. The company is developing a vertically and horizontally integrated business within the global rare earths industry. 
Its most recent news came in December, when it assembled a team to conduct analysis and testing to optimize the processing of material from a joint venture rare earths property in South America. The firm’s share price rose 66.67 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.09.

4. Hunt Mining

Hunt Mining announced its eighth and ninth shipments of silver and gold from its Martha project in Argentina this past Tuesday. The combined total ounces of silver were 79,099 troy ounces and the combined total ounces for gold were 87.8 troy ounces.
The company also said that it is evaluating the metallurgy of the gold and silver veins on its La Josefina property for optimum flotation processing, and is investing substantially in the modification of the Martha mill to best accommodate this new metallurgy.
Production at Martha is being undertaken without established mineral resources or reserves, and Hunt has acknowledged the economic risks and increased uncertainty of continuing with production activities. The company’s share price rose 62.3 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.50.

5. Glen Eagle Resources

Last Tuesday, Glen Eagle Resources released a letter to shareholders in which CEO Jean Labrecque highlighted recent achievements, including the firm’s new ball mill becoming operational.
“We believe that Cobra Oro has secured enough mineral with various providers to feed its ball mill throughout the year and possibly for many more to come. Although the data remains non compliant with NI 43-101 reporting, the Company feels strongly about the outlook with its providers,” said Labrecque.
Cobra Oro is a wholly owned Honduran subsidiary of Glen Eagle. The company’s share price gained 24.24 percent over course of the week to close at $0.21.
Data for 5 Top Weekly TSXV 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 $10 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the mining and precious metals sectors are considered.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Shaw, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.