Top 5 Canadian Mining Stocks This Week: American Lithium Charges Up 78 Percent

Weekly gain: 77.78 percent
Market cap: C$230.61 million
Share price: C$1.28

American Lithium is an exploration and development company working to progress its advanced-stage Falchani project in Southern Peru. An updated resource estimate for the property, released in October 2023, outlines measured and indicated reosurces of 5.53 million metric tons (MT) of lithium carbonate equivalent and an inferred resource of 3.99 million MT.

A preliminary economic assessment for Falchani, released in February, estimates an after-tax net present value of US$5.11 billion and an after-tax internal rate of return of 32 percent with a payback period of three years.

On June 27, the company announced it was working to optimize the flow sheet for the project, and said that due to the low impurity content it would resemble a more conventional mining and processing flow sheet. Additionally, American Lithium said it was intending to commence piloting work during the second half of 2024.

Shares in American Lithium jumped on Thursday when the company released a letter to shareholders with an update on the state of the company and how it was navigating trends within the industry. The letter included steps American Lithium has taken to improve business fundamentals, how the company can benefit from Peru’s nuclear energy strategy and emerging support for premium prices for lithium carbonate.

Weekly gain: 68.18 percent
Market cap: C$18.96 million
Share price: C$0.185

Dore Copper Mining is an exploration and development company with several projects located in the Lac Dore and Joe Mann mining camps in Québec, Canada. The company aims to become a copper producer operating with a hub and spoke model, in which its Copper Rand mill processes ore from several assets.

The company’s land package hosts 13 past-producing mines and multiple key projects, including Corner Bay, Joe Mann and Devlin. The company's resource target areas all lie within a 60 kilometer radius of its Copper Rand mill.

According to the company’s website, mineral resource estimates from four of its projects have demonstrated a combined measured and indicated resource of 198.2 million pounds of contained copper and 66,000 ounces of contained gold from 3.58 million MT of ore at an average grade of 2.51 percent copper and 0.58 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold.

The projects also contain inferred resources of 476.5 million pounds of copper and 248,000 ounces of gold from 7.01 MT at grades of 3.01 percent copper and 1.08 g/t gold.

The most recent news from the company came on September 26 when it announced it had closed a C$4.68 million non-brokered private placement. The company said it would be using the funds for exploration, development, permitting activities and feasibility study work.

Weekly gain: 62 percent
Market cap: C$40.53 million
Share price: C$0.405

Element 29 Resources is an exploration company focused on advancing a portfolio of projects in Peru.

Its primary projects consist of the Elida copper-molybdenum-silver project in West-central Peru and the Flor de Cobre project in the Southern Peruvian copper belt.

The Elida site is composed of 29 concessions covering 19,749 hectares and hosts five distinct exploration targets within a 2.5 by 2.5 kilometer alteration system.

A September 2022 mineral resource estimate showed an inferred resource of 321.7 million MT containing 2.24 billion pounds of copper at a grade of 0.32 percent, 205.7 million pounds of molybdenum at a grade of 0.03 percent and 27 million ounces of silver at 2.61 percent.

The company’s less explored Flor de Cobre project is composed of 11 mining concessions and one mining claim covering 3,135 hectares. The company announced in March that it received environmental permitting for the site and would be partnering with the GlobeTrotters Resource Group, which discovered Elida, on exploration at For de Cobre.

Element 29’s most recent news came on September 24 when it commenced a drill program at Elida with the objective of potentially expanding its inferred mineral resource estimate and increasing grading at the site.

Weekly gain: 50 percent
Market cap: C$19.94 million
Share price: C$0.09

World Copper is an exploration and development company working to advance its Zonia copper project in Central Arizona, US.

The property, acquired following a merger with Cardero Resources in January 2022, has seen extensive exploration dating back 100 years and hosted open-pit mining operations until 1975.

In the company’s corporate update on July 24, World Copper said it had made significant progress toward bankable feasibility and ultimately production, which it expects to begin in three to four years.

World Copper added that it has the potential for pre-production revenue through the utilization of 14 million short tons of previously stockpiled material. Additionally, it highlighted that the site hosted previous mining at the site with a low strip ratio of 1:1.

The most recent update from Zonia came on September 9, when the company produced an updated mineral resource estimate stating a total indicated resource of 686 million pounds of copper from 113.2 million short tons of ore with an average grade of 0.3 percent copper at a cutoff of 0.18 percent, and an additional inferred resource of 300 million pounds of copper from 59.2 million short tons of ore grading 0.25 percent.

Weekly gain: 47.32 percent
Market cap: C$19.94 million
Share price: C$3.30

Standard Lithium is an exploration and development company working to advance its South West Arkansas and Phase 1A projects in Arkansas and its East Texas project in Texas, US.

The projects are all located in the Smackover Formation, which extends from Central Texas into the Florida panhandle. The region hosts brines previously used to recover bromine that also host significant commercial lithium concentrations.

Standard entered into a 55/45 joint venture for South West Arkansas and East Texas with Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) in May to accelerate development of the projects.

A pre-feasibility study for its flagship project released in September 2023 demonstrated a base case after-tax net present value of US$3.09 billion with an internal rate of return of 32.8 percent and a payback period of four years. The study also produced an indicated mineral resource estimate of 269,000 MT of lithium with an inferred resource of 74,000 MT.

The company’s Phase 1A project will consist of a direct lithium extraction facility and lithium carbonate conversion facility designed to extract lithium contained in tail brine from existing bromine operations at LANXESS’ (OTC Pink:LNXSF) plant in Arkansas.

A definitive feasibility study for the Phase 1A project released in September 2023 included an after-tax net present value of US$550 million and an internal rate of return of 24 percent, as well as an annual production of 5,700 MT of battery-quality lithium carbonate.

Standard Lithium has seen gains since September 20 when it announced it had been selected by the US Department of Energy for an award of up to US$225 million to develop the South West Arkansas project. A few days after that, the company also released its results for its fiscal year ended June 30.