5 Top Weekly TSXV Stocks: Atlantic Gold Rises on Commercial Production

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) was down 0.01 percent as of 11:08 a.m. PST on Friday (March 9), sitting at 829.39 points.

The Canadian dollar strengthened on Friday after Canada gained exemption from proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the US and on the country’s latest employment numbers.

Statistics Canada’s latest labor force survey revealed that the country added 15,400 jobs in February to recover from losses in January. However, full-time positions shrank and wage growth slowed, prompting analysts to say that the Bank of Canada will be in no rush to raise interest rates anytime soon.

Canada’s unemployment rate fell from 5.9 percent in January to 5.8 percent, which matches its lowest level since the agency began measuring it in 1976.

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

• Meridian Mining (TSXV:MNO)
• DLV Resources (TSXV:DLV.H)
• Inter-Rock Minerals (TSXV:IRO)
• Red Eagle Exploration (TSXV:XR)
• Atlantic Gold (TSXV:AGB.WT)

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

1. Meridian Mining

In January, Meridian Mining announced 2017 production and sales results for its manganese project in Northwestern Brazil. The company also noted that 2018 presales had increased.

“With growing demand from both domestic and international customers, and an increase in pre-sales for 2018, the company’s focus is to ramp up output from the Jaburi plant while improving the capacity of the Rio Madeira plant to meet our expanded sales commitments for 2018,” said Anthony Julien, president and CEO of Meridian.

There was no recent news that would explain Meridian’s share price increase last week, but the firm rose 79.49 percent to close at $0.25.

2. DLV Resources

DLV Resources owns a property in the Skeena Mining Division of Northwest BC.

The company closed a non-brokered private placement on February 26, raising total gross proceeds of $3,200,000. The firm noted that Bedrock Capital acquired 6,150,000 units of the company through the private placement, gaining a stake of 8.31 percent.

DLV said it plans to use the net proceeds raised through the financing for general working capital purposes. The company’s share price rose 46.15 percent to close at $0.48 last week.

3. Inter-Rock Minerals

On March 8, Inter-Rock Minerals confirmed that its management was unaware of any material change in its operations that would account for the recent increase in market activity. 

The firm owns three businesses engaged in the production and marketing of dolomite to the animal feed, glass and roofing industries in the US. Its share price rose 45.95 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.51.

4. Red Eagle Exploration

Red Eagle Exploration and Red Eagle Mining (TSX:R) announced that they entered into a definitive amalgamation agreement on March 2.

The combination of the companies “will create a strong exploration, development and operating company with four 100 percent owned high grade gold and silver projects in Colombia.”

The new company will continue to operate the Santa Rosa gold project and develop XR’s Vetas gold, California gold and Santa Ana silver properties. Red Eagle Exploration saw its share price rise 41.18 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.13.

5. Atlantic Gold

On March 5, Atlantic Gold announced that commercial production had begun at its Moose River gold mine in Nova Scotia. The effective date of commercial production was March 1, the company added.

The firm noted that winter storms caused power outages for three days in January, resulting in five days of production losses; it is making adjustments to its crushing circuit.

Atlantic Gold is maintaining its full-year guidance stated on January 19, but expects Q1 2018 production to be at or below the annualized production rate since commercial production started in March. The company’s share price gained 38.89 percent over the week to close at $1.25.

Data for 5 Top 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 $50 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the mining and precious metals sectors are considered.

Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time news updates!

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