5 Top Weekly TSXV Stocks: Search Minerals Up on Foxtrot Milestone

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) was up 0.18 percent as of 11:05 a.m. PST on Friday (January 19), sitting at 878.41 points.
US crude prices fell 1.1 percent that day to reach $63.22 per barrel as rebounding US production outweighed declines in crude inventories.
The Canadian dollar traded 0.2 percent lower, at $1.2444 compared to its US counterpart, as lower oil prices offset domestic data showing the largest gain in manufacturing sales in two and a half years.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada raised interest rates mid-week by a quarter of a percent following two rate hikes in July and September of 2017. Rates now stand at 1.25 percent. 

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

• ML Gold (TSXV:MLG)
• Search Minerals (TSXV:SMY)
• Mineworx Technologies (TSXV:MWX)
• FPX Nickel (TSXV:FPX)
• Spearmint Resources (TSXV:SRJ)

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

1. ML Gold

ML Gold is focused on the exploration of its Canadian and American mineral projects, with its current focus being the BC-based Stars copper–gold–silver–molybdenum property. It is located 30 kilometers from New Nadina Exploration’s (TSXV:NNA) Silver Queen project. 
The company’s latest news came on January 11, when it released results from the first hole completed during winter drilling at Stars. The program is expected to consist of five to six holes, and President Adrian Smith said the first hole “has successfully intersected visible copper mineralization from surface to a significant depth and seems to have a spatial association small cross-cutting porphyry dykes.”
ML Gold did not release any news last week, but its share price rose 93.33 percent to close at $0.29.

2. Search Minerals

Last week, Search Minerals received notice from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) that its Foxtrot rare earths project in Labrador will require an environmental assessment. On the back of the news, its share price jumped 60 percent to close at $0.08.
“This notice by the CEAA is a milestone in the development of the Foxtrot Rare Earth Element Project in Southeastern Labrador. We look forward to the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement and working with all our current and future stakeholders in an open and transparent manner. In addition, upon review of the guidelines, Search can initiate the planning to commence the environmental baseline studies which have been identified,” said Greg Andrews, Search’s president and CEO.
The firm also provided an update on a recent drill program at Deep Fox, noting that while it was suspended due to “severe weather conditions,” it will be rescheduled for late spring 2018. 

3. Mineworx Technologies

Mineworx Technologies bills itself as a technology-based solutions provider that recovers precious metals from e-waste, ores, concentrates and tailings using its environmentally friendly proprietary innovations.
Last Thursday (January 18), the company signed a corporate advisory agreement with Murdock Capital Partners. Under the terms of the deal, Murdock will act as a corporate market advisory consultant to Mineworx. Mineworx also announced the appointment of A.J. (Pine) Pienaar as a non-executive member of its board of directors. Its share price rose 46.15 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.37

4. FPX Nickel

FPX Nickel announced assay results from the Van Target at its BC-based Decar nickel project last Monday (January 15). The news sent the company’s share price up 38.89 percent to close at $0.13.
“We are highly encouraged by the new results from the Van Target, which demonstrate a significant increase in the potential of the Decar Nickel District,” said Martin Turenne, FPX Nickel’s president and CEO. “While our current focus remains on the advancement of the Baptiste deposit, the emergence of this very large target at Van highlights the strategic importance of the Company’s district-scale land package at Decar.”

5. Spearmint Resources

Spearmint Resources is assembling a portfolio of low-risk, high-reward exploration-stage properties. Its assets are focused on a variety of commodities, including gold, copper, lithium and vanadium. Last week, the company closed the acquisition of the WHY West magnesium project in BC, along with the BUDDY claims in the province’s Golden Triangle area.
James Nelson, president of Spearmint, commented, “[a]dding these two new projects shows the commitment SRJ management has to growing the company. Both of these areas may constitute a key building block of Spearmint going forward.”
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.
Editorial Disclosure: ML Gold and Spearmint Resources are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.