Top 5 Canadian Lithium Stocks (Updated December 2022)

Year-to-date gain: 655.93 percent; market cap: C$140.39 million; current share price: C$2.23

Tearlach Resources has spent the year building up a portfolio of lithium projects in Ontario’s Thunder Bay area.

After trading relatively flatly through the end of August, the company saw huge gains in the last four months of the year. The firm released a corporate update on September 19 that discusses the NI 43-101 technical report for its Savant project, as well as its option agreement to acquire 100 percent of the Ferland project. Later that month, Tearlach signed option agreements to acquire 100 percent of both the Wesley and the Harth lithium projects.

Tearlach’s share price really began to climb after the October 4 appointments of Paul Chow and John Bean to the company’s board of directors; both have experience in a range of industries. On October 27, the company shared it was commencing a C$5 million private placement, which later closed in mid-November at C$7.59 million. After starting the month at C$0.58, Tearlach ended at C$1.48.

December also brought significant news for the lithium company. On December 5, Tearlach announced further acquisitions, this time the option to acquire a 100 percent interest in Pakwan and Margot Lake in the Electric Avenue region.

“Adding to an already exciting portfolio, the Pakwan and the Margot are located in the most prolific lithium mining trends in the Americas,” CEO Ray Strafehl commented in a release. “The Projects are in a region with multiple discoveries, favourable geology, proven metallurgy, and most importantly, on-trend and next to one of the highest-grade lithium projects in the Americas.”

Tearlach’s most recent news came on December 8 with the appointment of Morgan Legstrom as CEO and director of the company. Its share price hit a year-to-date high of C$2.25 on December 15.

Year-to-date gain: 228.46 percent; market cap: C$4.24 billion; current share price: C$42.70

In Minas Gerais, Brazil, Sigma Lithium has its Grota do Cirilo hard-rock lithium project, where it is currently constructing Phase 1 operations with expected commissioning by the end of the 2022 year. Sigma anticipates Phase 1 production of 270,000 metric tons (MT) annually and Phase 2 production of 531,000 MT. In addition to that, the company is building a greentech dense media separation production plant, which it says will make its operations vertically integrated.

On May 26, Sigma filed a consolidated technical report that looks at two initial production phases for Grota do Cirilo. The integrated operation would source feedstock spodumene ore from the company's Phase 1 and Phase 2 lithium deposits to produce battery-grade, high-purity lithium concentrate. This expansion scenario "will potentially position (Sigma) as the world’s fourth largest lithium producer." In mid-August, Sigma shared an update on its “transformative” Q2, mentioning the previously announced news that it had increased the resource at Grota do Cirilo by 50 percent; a Phase 3 technical report has now been filed. Its share price continued to grow throughout the year, reaching a year-to-date high of US$37.46 on October 27 after starting the year at US$10.57.

Midway through November, Sigma released a Q3 update, providing further information on its many construction activities and the commencement of spodumene ore mining that month. Most recently, December 8 saw the announcement of expansion and financing milestones — according to Sigma, it has received positive economic results from a study focused on the potential to boost output at Grota do Cirilo from 270,000 MT in 2023 to 768,000 MT in the operation's second year.

Year-to-date gain: 171.43 percent; market capitalization: C$17.62 million; current share price: C$0.19

Nevada Sunrise Metals, which underwent a name change from Nevada Sunrise Gold in September, wholly owns two lithium projects, the Gemini and Jackson Wash assets, which are located in the Lida Valley basin in Nevada. According to Nevada Sunrise, the Lida Valley basin shares similar geography to the nearby Clayton Valley basin, where Albemarle’s (NYSE:ALB) Silver Peak lithium mine is located. In addition to its lithium properties, the company owns 100 percent of the Coronado VMS project, 20 percent of the Kinsley Mountain gold project and 15 percent of both the Treasure Box copper project and the Lovelock Mine cobalt project.

In Q1, Nevada Sunrise Metals saw little movement, even as it commenced exploration at Gemini. It wasn’t until the company shared its first drill results on April 18 that its share price broke above C$0.10, jumping from C$0.08 to C$0.14 overnight. Further exploration results at the project, including 1,101 parts per million lithium over 730 feet, continued to drive its share price higher.

After rising through May and early June, the company’s share price hit an H1 high of C$0.36 on June 10 off the back of June 6 exploration results showing 327.7 milligrams of lithium per liter of water over 220 feet, as well as private placement news. In late July, Nevada Sunrise received an exploration permit for Gemini that increased the number of boreholes at the project to 12, six of which were planned for a Phase 2 drilling program at the project. The company’s share price spiked significantly, from C$0.22 on August 23 to C$0.38 on August 30, a new year-to-date high for the company, although it did not release news during that time period.

Phase 2 drilling commenced in mid-October and has two objectives: to test lithium-bearing brine and sediments at greater depths compared to previous exploration, and to test the width of a previously identified lithium-bearing zone. In November, Nevada Sunrise brought on Willem Duyvesteyn as a metallurgical consultant. Most recently, on December 6, the company received preliminary geochemical analyses for one of the boreholes at Gemini; results show that it has intersected lithium-bearing sediment.

Year-to-date gain: 158.82 percent; market cap: C$64.23 million; current share price: C$0.44

Brunswick Exploration is a Quebec-based explorer focused on lithium pegmatite projects. It has a large portfolio of exploration projects in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario. The company's sizeable portfolio has largely been built in 2022, as Brunswick has spent much of the year identifying and acquiring properties and land packages.

In June, Brunswick announced it was starting a grassroots lithium exploration program in Eastern Canada. The program was to be spread out over the company's many projects, to which prospecting teams were sent to perform ground prospecting for “spodumene-bearing pegmatites, stream geochemistry and trenching of select targets.”

CEO Killian Charles stated in a press release, “This is the largest grassroots portfolio in our peer group and this initial program will rapidly sort through dozens of identified pegmatites to prepare for trenching and/or diamond drilling programs later this year.”

In October, Brunswick added the Hearst project to its portfolio. Hearst is the company's sole Ontario property, and is a combination of Brunswick's own prospecting and the optioning of an adjacent spodumene-bearing pegmatite. In the months since then, the company has acquired option agreements for four Quebec-based projects: 85 percent of potential lithium at the Mythril and Elrond projects, 90 percent of the Anatacau property and 90 percent of the PLEX project.

Most recently, Brunswick commenced a C$4 million private placement, stating that the proceeds will be used for its exploration program in 2023. The company’s share price hit a year-to-date high of C$0.47 on November 24, and matched that on December 2.

Year-to-date gain: 141.04 percent; market cap: C$604.47 million; current share price: C$6.46

Patriot Battery Metals is an exploration and development company that is working on advancing its Corvette lithium property, which comprises over 200 square kilometers in Quebec’s James Bay region. The company, which was known as Giga Metals until last year, began trading on the TSXV in July 2022 after relisting from the CSE.

While Patriot had upward momentum soon after relisting, it increased after the August 23 news that Ken Brinsden, Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS,OTC Pink:PILBF) former managing director and CEO, was being brought on as non-executive chairman and director at Patriot. However, after a Q3 peak at the end of August on strong drill intercepts, the company began a gradual downward trend. On September 8, Patriot entered into an option agreement to acquire a 100 percent interest in the Pontois West lithium property in James Bay. The property is along the CV lithium trend from its Corvette property and only 10 kilometers away.

On November 2, Patriot shared a corporate update, which includes news on its exploration programs. After completing its current drill program at Corvette in late October, Patriot said it would commence its next one in January 2023. Although the company didn’t release any news in mid-November, its share price began climbing on November 18, starting at C$5.14 the day before and culminating in a year-to-date high of C$9.84 on December 7, the day after the company successfully listed on the ASX.

December also brought the latest drill results from Corvette, with highlights including 38 meters at 2.17 percent Li2O. On December 19, Patriot announced that dense media separation and magnetic separation performed on 145 kilograms of drill core from Corvette produced 20 kilograms of 5.8 percent lithium spodumene at a recovery of 79 percent, which the company deems “highly successful.”