Year-to-date gain: 14.29 percent; market capitalization: C$10.92 million; current share price: C$0.08

Fuse Cobalt is a cobalt-focused exploration company operating out of Cobalt, Ontario. It has two projects: the Teledyne cobalt project, which is comprised of 13 claims over 607 hectares, and the Glencore-Bucke project with two claims covering 16.28 hectares. The company hopes to supply the domestic battery supply chain, which is largely based out of Ontario.

In 2022, Fuse Cobalt added many new members to its board of directors and advisory board: Greg Reimer, Frank Basa, Matthew Halliday, James Hellwarth and Gerhard Kiessling. The company was busy in the summer months, with the majority of those appointments coming in July and August. On August 11, Fuse signed a memorandum of understanding with Electra Battery Metals (TSX:ELBM,NASDAQ:ELBM) to supply the latter company’s nearby cobalt sulfate refinery with cobalt from Fuse’s two projects.

“Having a domestic source of cobalt raw material produced ethically and with low-carbon emissions will help us to better address the demand for onshore EV battery materials,” Electra CEO Trent Mell said in the press release. “We look forward to working with Fuse Cobalt as they advance development of their projects and begin production.”

Later that month, Fuse began a “state of the art” Alpha IP geophysical survey before starting a diamond drilling program, both at Glencore-Bucke. The company’s share price rose over the week and a half following that news, reaching a year-to-date high of C$0.11 on September 2. The survey concluded on September 7, and the company has stated that preliminary results are promising.

Year-to-date gain: 4.76 percent; market capitalization: C$16.96 million; current share price: C$0.22

Exploration company DLP Resources is focused on base metals and cobalt projects in Southeast BC. It has two wholly owned cobalt projects, the Hungry Creek copper-cobalt-silver project and the Redburn Creek copper-cobalt project.

DLP Resources started the year by appointing a new CEO, the company’s president Ian Gendall. Gendall retained the president position, and the previous CEO, Jim Stypula, became executive chairman. Much of the company’s 2022 exploration has been focused on its non-cobalt projects. However, on July 28, DLP Resources announced the commencement of drilling at Hungry Creek, with 1,800 meters over six holes planned. As part of an exploration update in mid-September, DLP Resources shared that the drilling has been completed and the company is now awaiting results.

Year-to-date gain: 4.08 percent; market capitalization: C$95 million; current share price: C$1.02

Unlike the other companies on this list, Nickel 28 Capital is a streaming and royalty company focused on battery metals, primarily nickel and cobalt. The company has an 8.56 percent joint venture interest in the Ramu nickel-cobalt operation in Papua New Guinea, as well as royalty agreements for 13 nickel and cobalt projects.

Most of Nickel 28’s news this year has been annual and quarterly results. On February 1, it shared full-year and Q4 2021 operating results for Ramu, including annual output of 2,953 MT of contained cobalt and sales of 3,035 MT. Although Nickel 28 didn’t release more news until May 9, its share price trended upwards earlier this year, with a spike in early March and steady growth in April. It hit its year-to-date high of C$1.73 on April 20, but fell off in early May.

On June 1, Nickel 28 released its results for the 2021 financial year, including the repayment of US$38 million in debt. Its Q2 results came in August, with total H1 production of 1,525 MT of contained cobalt at Ramu and sales of 932 MT.

Significant news for Nickel 28 came in mid-August, when the company announced that Giga Metals (TSXV:GIGA,OTCQX:HNCKF) had secured a joint venture agreement with Mitsubishi (TSE:8058) to develop Giga Metals' Turnagain nickel-cobalt project; Nickel 28 has a 2 percent net smelter agreement for the asset.