Top Canadian Cobalt Stocks

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.

Work at NICO has been ongoing in 2021, with Fortune starting a drill program at the site in mid-September and wrapping it up midway through December. Results are currently pending.

The company's highest share price of the year came on March 22 at C$0.22.

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.

In mid-2021, Jervois agreed to acquire 100 percent of Freeport Cobalt, a Kokkola, Finland-based cobalt-refining and specialty products business, from Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX); the deal closed in September. Aside from that, the company announced in December that production at the Idaho Cobalt Operations is on track for Q3 2022.

Jervois' share price peaked for the year at C$0.57 on both June 2 and June 11.

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.

Over the course of 2021, Battery Mineral has focused fairly heavily on moving forward at its Minera Altos de Punitaqui copper-gold property in Peru, but it has also completed work at various cobalt projects. Its highest share price for the year was C$0.85 on July 2, not long after it received permission to drill at its Bonanza project in the Idaho Cobalt Belt.