5 Top TSX Stocks: Americas Silver Gains on San Rafael PFS

The S&P/TSX Composite index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) rose 4.9 percent in March, its largest increase since October 2011. However, it fell last Friday as oil and gold prices dropped on the release of US jobs data — the index closed down 0.4 percent, or 53.92 points, at 13,440.44 points.
The top-gaining stock on the TSX last week was Americas Silver (TSX:USA), and it was followed by Caledonia Mining (TSX:CAL,LSE:CMCL), Arizona Mining (TSX:AZ), Teranga Gold (TSX:TGZ,ASX:TGZ) and Kinross Gold (TSX:K,NYSE:KGC). Here’s a look at what moved their share prices during the period.

Americas Silver

As mentioned, last week’s biggest gainer on the TSX was Americas Silver, whose share price rose 21.62 percent to reach $0.23. The company has two producing mines, plus a third mine in development and an advanced-stage exploration project.
Last week’s rise in share price came after the company put out a press release covering a slew of news. It released its financial and operational results for Q4 2015 and the full 2015 year, and also provided an updated resource and reserve estimate for its San Rafael project. Finally, it put out a prefeasibility study for San Rafael.

Caledonia Mining

Exploration, development and mining company Caledonia Mining is focused mainly on the Zimbabwe-based Blanket gold mine, in which it holds a 49-percent stake. Blanket restarted production in April 2009, and since then an expansion project has been completed at the mine.
The company’s share price rose 18.28 percent last week to hit $1.10, though it released little news of note. CEO Steve Curtis exercised options over 65,000 common shares of Caledonia, while Non-executive Director John Kelly purchased shares of the company on two occasions.

Arizona Mining

Arizona Mining is focused on the exploration and development of its Arizona-based Hermosa project, which contains the Taylor lead–zinc-silver carbonate replacement deposit.
Last week, its share price gained 17.39 percent to reach $0.81, though it didn’t put out any news during the period. The company last released news on March 21, when it entered into a term sheet with Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX:OR) for a 1-percent NSR on any lead/zinc/silver sulfide ores mined at Hermosa. It garnered proceeds of $10 million from the deal. Osisko and certain of its insiders will also subscribe for 9.99 million units priced at $0.56 each.

Teranga Gold

Teranga Gold operates the Sabodala gold mine, which it bills as the only gold mine and mill in Senegal, West Africa. Last week, the company’s share price rose 15.63 percent to hit $0.74, though like Arizona Mining it didn’t release any news during the period. Most recently, on March 23, Teranga filed its NI 43-101 technical report for the updated life-of-mine plan for Sabodala.

Kinross Gold

Finally, senior gold miner Kinross Gold saw its share price rise 12.97 percent last week to hit $4.53. The company has mines and projects in the US, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Mauritania and Russia, and last week announced plans to proceed with Phase I of a two-phase expansion at its Mauritania-based Tasiast mine. The expansion should increase the mine’s output by 87 percent annually.
 
Data for 5 Top TSX Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday after market close using The Globe and Mail’s market data filter. Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $50 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the mining and precious metals sectors are considered.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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