Lithium

1. Arena Minerals

Year-to-date gain: 1,433.33 percent; current share price: C$0.46

Arena Minerals (TSXV:AN) has two key lithium assets in Argentina: a 65 percent interest in the Sal de la Puna project, which covers about 11,000 hectares in the Pastos Grandes basin, and the Antofalla lithium brine project, which falls across 6,000 hectares in the Salar de Antofalla. Aside from those lithium properties, the company has developed a lithium brine processing technology, and has copper-focused assets located in Chile.

2. Argentina Lithium & Energy

Year-to-date gain: 462.5 percent; current share price: C$0.45

Argentina Lithium & Energy (TSXV:LIT) intends to serve rising demand from the battery sector by acquiring and advancing high-quality lithium projects in Argentina toward production. Its assets include the Incahuasi lithium project, which spans more than 25,000 hectares in the Incahuasi salar, and the Antofalla project, which covers about 9,000 hectares of mining claims in the Salar de Antofalla, plus an additional 5,380.5 hectares under option.

Argentina Lithium's Antofalla project is a separate asset from Arena's Antofalla project.

3. Frontier Lithium

Year-to-date gain: 445.21 percent; current share price: C$1.99

Emerging lithium mineral and chemicals company Frontier Lithium (TSXV:FL) is aiming to support North America's electric vehicle and battery supply chains by becoming a manufacturer of battery-quality lithium hydroxide. Its main asset is the Ontario-based PAK lithium project, which is located in the province's Electric Avenue.

Cobalt

1. Fortune Minerals

Current share price: C$0.14; year-to-date gain: 80 percent

Fortune Minerals (TSX:FT) is developing its NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project, located in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The plan is for bulk concentrate from NICO to be shipped to a planned metals processing plant in Southern Canada. According to the company, it is positioned to become a Canadian producer of battery-grade cobalt chemicals with gold and bismuth co-products. Aside from NICO, Fortune holds the Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit and other exploration projects in the Northwest Territories. It also has the right to repurchase the Arctos anthracite coal deposits in Northwest BC.

2. Jervois Global

Current price: C$0.52; year-to-date gain: 35.06 percent

Jervois Global (TSXV:JRV) describes itself as a vertically integrated cobalt company, although it also has exposure to nickel and copper through its development and refinery asset portfolio.

The company, which is listed in Australia as well as Canada, has a set of geographically diverse assets: the construction-stage Idaho Cobalt Operations in Idaho, US; the development-stage Nico Young deposit in Australia; and the largest nickel-cobalt refinery in Latin America, the São Miguel Paulista refinery in São Paulo, Brazil.

3. Battery Mineral Resources

Current price: C$0.44; year-to-date gain: 33.33 percent

Battery Mineral Resources (TSXV:BMR) has an extensive portfolio of assets located in Canada, the US, Chile and South Korea. The company describes itself as an emerging producer of battery minerals, and has projects with exposure to metals including cobalt, lithium, graphite, silver and copper.

Looking specifically at the company's cobalt properties, Battery Mineral controls a land package in the Ontario Cobalt Belt that covers 1,100 square kilometers and hosts multiple high-grade targets. It bills itself as the largest claim holder across all minerals in the belt, which is a richly endowed mining region.

In Idaho, the company owns 434 unpatented mining mineral claims across three 100 percent owned properties containing 14 significant cobalt prospects and covering an area of 38 square kilometers.

Graphite

1. South Star Battery Metals

Year-to-date growth: 510 percent; current share price: C$0.31

South Star Battery Metals (TSXV:STS) is focused on acquiring and developing battery metals projects in the Americas with near-term production potential. The company's main asset is its Brazil-based Santa Cruz graphite project, where large-scale pilot plant testing has been successfully completed. South Star is aiming to reach Phase 1 production at the property in the fourth quarter of 2022, pending financing.

2. Gratomic

Year-to-date growth: 323.53 percent; current share price: C$1.44

Exploration and mining company Gratomic (TSXV:GRAT) has two graphite projects: its flagship Aukam property is located in Namibia, and its Buckingham project is in Quebec, Canada.

Gratomic has two offtake deals for Aukam, which covers a historical vein graphite mine, and the company is solidifying plans to micronize and spheronize graphite from the asset. It plans to start fulfilling its two contracts in 2022, which is also when it expects to achieve full operational capabilities at Aukam.

3. Graphite One

Year-to-date growth: 314.29 percent; current share price: C$2.03

Graphite One (TSXV:GPH) is focused on becoming a US producer of high-grade coated spherical graphite primarily for the lithium-ion EV battery market. The company plans to develop its Graphite Creek deposit, located in Alaska, into a vertically integrated operation, and is aiming to begin a prefeasbility study for the property in Q1 2022.

Nickel

1. Noront Resources

Current share price: C$0.73; year-to-date gain: 294.5 percent

Noront Resources (TSXV:NOT) has built a diverse project portfolio in a resource-rich region of Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands known as the Ring of Fire. The company is developing its high-grade Eagle's Nest nickel-copper-platinum-palladium deposit. Its asset base also includes the Blackbird, Black Thor and Big Daddy chromite deposits.

2. North American Nickel

Current share price: C$0.51; year-to-date gain: 229.03 percent

North American Nickel (TSX:NAN) is an exploration company with 100 percent owned properties in Greenland and Canada. In 2019, the company became a founding shareholder in Premium Nickel Resources, a private Canadian company geared at providing direct exposure to nickel-copper-cobalt opportunities in Southern Africa.

The Maniitsoq property in Greenland is a camp-scale, permitted exploration project that is 3,048 square kilometers in size and covers numerous high-grade nickel-copper and cobalt sulfide occurrences associated with norite and other mafic-ultramafic intrusions of the Greenland Norite Belt. The Post Creek/Halcyon property in Sudbury, Ontario, is strategically located just 2 kilometers away from the past-producing Podolsky copper-nickel-precious metals sulfide deposit belonging to KGHM (WSE:KGH).

3. Canada Nickel Company

Current share price: C$3.76; year-to-date gain: 93.81 percent

Canada Nickel Company (TSXV:CNC) is advancing its Crawford nickel-cobalt sulfide discovery, which has large-scale potential and is situated in the Timmins mining camp adjacent to major infrastructure. Canada Nickel has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero Nickel, NetZero Cobalt and NetZero Iron, and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt and iron products.