5 Top Weekly TSXV Stocks: Keith Barron's Aurania Resources Spikes

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) closed last Friday (January 5) at 895.71 points, up a total of 15.33 points.
The Canadian dollarreached a three-month high against the greenback that day after stronger-than-expected domestic jobs data increased expectations for a Bank of Canada rate hike.
It was up 0.9 percent, to 80.78 US cents, on Friday morning. The odds of an interest rate increase rose to over 60 percent from 35 percent before the data was released. The number of US hikes next year is uncertain. 
According to Statistics Canada, the country added 79,000 jobs in December, lowering the unemployment rate by two-tenths of a percentage, to 5.7 percent. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected a more modest gain of 2,000 jobs for the month.  

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

• Canadian Imperial Venture (TSXV:CQV.H)
• Aurania Resources (TSXV:ARU)
• Ashburton Ventures (TSXV:ABR)
• Cornerstone Capital Resources (TSXV:CGP)
• Minsud Resources (TSXV:MSR)

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

1. Canadian Imperial Venture

Last Wednesday (January 3), oil– and gas-focused Canadian Imperial Venture said it intends to raise up to $1,045,000 via a non-brokered private placement of 11,000,000 units of the company priced at $0.095 per unit. Two days later, the firm said it was “unaware of any logical reason why the trading volume and price of its common shares has increased so dramatically.” 
Canadian Imperial added that it is currently listed on the NEX branch of the TSX Venture Exchange, and “will be looking for business opportunities so as to graduate to Tier 2 on the TSXV; however no agreements in principle, understandings or even detailed negotiations are in place or taking place, and there is no assurance the Company will be successful in locating any new business opportunity.”
The company’s share price rose 444 percent to close at $0.68 last week.

2. Aurania Resources

Aurania Resources’ share price jumped 98.41 percent to close at $4.47 last week. Last Thursday (January 4), the company said it was unaware of any material change in its operations that would account for increased market activity. The next day, it put out another release saying that “an independent third-party article about Aurania was published by E. B. Tucker at The Casey Report just prior to the increase in share price.” It is possible that the article caused the increase in trading.
The Keith Barron-led exploration company‘s flagship asset is the Lost Cities – Cutucu project, located in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of Southeastern Ecuador.

3. Ashburton Ventures

Ashburton Ventures announced the appointment of Stephen Harpur, CPA, CGA, to its board of directors last Tuesday (January 2). Harpur will also be appointed president and COO to assist in guiding the company as it prepares to advance its Z-1 zeolite project in BC. The company is studying the benefits of growing cannabis in zeolite-enriched soils.
The firm announced a private placement several days later, and noted the next day that it was fully subscribed. Ashburton plans to use the funds to advance Z-1 and for general corporate purposes. Its share price rose 93.75 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.15.

4. Cornerstone Capital Resources

Cornerstone Capital Resources announced the results of a maiden resource estimate for the Alpala deposit last week; it is part of the Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador.
The Cascabel concession is held by Exploraciones Novomining. Cornerstone Capital has a 15-percent stake in Exploraciones Novomining, while partner SolGold (TSX:SOLG,LSE:SOLG) has an 85-percent interest. SolGold also has a 5.8-percent interest in Cornerstone Capital Resources. Cornerstone Capital’s share price rose 66.67 percent over the course of last week to close at $0.10.

5. Minsud Resources

Last Tuesday, Minsud Resources re-released drill results from its Chita Valley project in Argentina due to issues with formatting when it was originally released in late December.
The program included eight new holes, while seven existing holes were deepened. Highlights include 86 meters (approximately 70 meters true thickness) averaging 0.65 percent copper, 6.2 g/t silver, 0.009 percent molybdenum and 0.07 g/t gold from hole PSU17-67. Minsud’s share price gained 57.14 percent last week to end at $0.11.
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.
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.