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5 Top Weekly TSXV Stocks: Spruce Ridge Resources Gains 45 Percent
Feb. 25, 2024 07:40PM PST
Last week's top-gaining mining and energy stocks on the TSXV were Spruce Ridge Resources, Tsodilo Resources, Century Lithium, Gratomic and Emerita Resources.
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The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) dropped 7.03 points last week to close at 549.73.
Statistics Canada released consumer price index figures this past Tuesday (February 20). They indicate that inflation growth slowed in January, seeing a gain of 2.9 percent year-on-year compared to 3.4 percent for December.
This was led by gasoline prices, which fell 4 percent from January 2023. The pace at which retail food prices rose also continued to ease, with a 3.4 percent rise compared to 4 percent in December on an annualized basis.
Analysts reacted positively to the consumer price index data, which came in below the widely expected numbers. However, even with inflation coming closer to the Bank of Canada's target 2 percent rate, analysts and economists believe Canada's central won’t begin to cut interest rates until the US Federal Reserve does so.
The Fed released the minutes from its January meeting this past Wednesday (February 21). In the notes, Fed officials indicate that they want to see more data showing inflation is on a path back to 2 percent, and state that they are committed to pushing quantitative tightening as far as they can without sending the economy into a recession.
In mining news, Newmont (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM) announced this past Thursday (February 22) its plan to divest six mining assets and two projects it has deemed as non-core, including the Éléonore, Musselwhite and Porcupine gold mines and Coffee gold project in Canada, as well as the Cripple Creek and Victor gold mine in Nevada, US.
Against that backdrop, which TSXV-listed mining and energy stocks gained the most this past week?
1. Spruce Ridge Resources (TSXV:SHL)
Weekly gain: 45.45 percent; market cap: C$12.62 million; current share price: C$0.08
Spruce Ridge Resources is an exploration company working on several projects in North America. Its flagship asset is the Great Burnt copper-gold project, which consists of four primary zones: the Great Burnt copper zone, the South Pond A copper-gold zone, the South Pond B gold zone and the End Zone copper zone.
In November, Spruce Ridge entered into a share purchase agreement with RAB Capital Holdings to acquire an 80 percent interest in Homeland Nickel and its portfolio of Oregon-based nickel claims, including the Red Flat and Cleopatra properties. According to the company, these acquisitions will give it access to the US critical minerals market and provide it with resources equivalent to over 1 billion pounds of nickel.
Spruce Ridge’s share price increased significantly last week, but the company has not released news since January 10, when it appointed Errol Farr as corporate secretary.
2. Tsodilo Resources (TSXV:TSD)
Weekly gain: 42.5 percent; market cap: C$13.29 million; current share price: C$0.285
Tsodilo Resources is a diamond and metals exploration company operating in Botswana. Its subsidiary Gcwihaba Resources owns the Xaudum iron project, which has high concentrations of iron, silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide and phosphorus.
Since June 2021, the company and Gcwihaba have been involved in a dispute with Botswana over the renewal of prospecting licenses for Xaudum. Of the five renewals submitted, four were approved, but one was rejected as part of it was in the buffer zone around the Okavango Delta UNESCO World Heritage Property.
Tsodilo and Gcwihaba commenced legal action against Botswana's Ministry of Minerals and Energy in November 2022, arguing that the license has existed since 2008, six years prior to the establishment of the buffer zone, and has since been renewed and regranted without controversy. This past December, the court ruled in the company's favor and ordered the ministry to renew the license in question.
Shares of Tsodilo were up this past week following Monday's news (February 19) that the company has collected the mining license from the Department of Mines following the lapse of the deadline for the ministry to file an appeal. Additionally, Tsodilo said it had withdrawn the contempt motion it filed against the ministry on January 23.
3. Century Lithium (TSXV:LCE)
Weekly gain: 38.5 percent; market cap: C$70.92 million; current share price: C$0.54
Century Lithium is an advanced-stage lithium exploration company focused on the development of its flagship Clayton Valley claystone lithium project located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, US. The company is also developing a direct lithium extraction pilot plant where it is testing material from its project.
Clayton Valley is comprised of a 5,585 acre land package with mineralization occurring throughout the sediments to a depth of 45. A prefeasibility study for the site from 2021 shows indicated mineral reserves of 1.18 million metric tons (MT) of contained lithium at an average grade of 1,129 parts per million.
The company did not release any news in the past week, but shares gained more than 35 percent.
4. Gratomic (TSXV:GRAT)
Weekly gain: 37.04 percent; market cap: C$32.04 million; current share price: C$0.185
Gratomic is a graphite exploration company with assets located in Canada and Namibia. Its primary projects are the Buckingham graphite property located near Buckingham in Québec, Canada. It covers an area of 480 hectares and consists of eight claim blocks.
The company’s Aukam graphite project is located near the port of Luderitz in Southern Namibia, and covers an area of 141,500 hectares. It has been granted four prospecting licenses.
The company did not release news last week.
5. Emerita Resources (TSXV:EMO)
Weekly gain: 25.92 percent; market cap: C$112.71 million; current share price: C$0.495
Emerita Resources is an exploration company focused on the development of base and precious metals assets in the Iberian Pyrite Belt in Spain. Its flagship project is the Iberian West Belt project, located within a region that has hosted past mining activity dating to the Roman era. The project hosts three polymetallic deposits: Infanta, El Cura and Romanera. Resource estimates released in May 2023 show indicated and inferred values of 685,000 MT of zinc, 334,000 MT of lead, 91,000 MT of copper, 44,993 ounces of silver and 763,000 ounces of gold.
The company also owns the Nuevo Tintillo concessions in the Seville province of Spain. They cover an area of 6,875 hectares with an additional 7,625 pending, and host previous artisanal mining dating back to the 1800s.
Emerita's most recent news came at the end of January, when it released drill results from the El Cura deposit.
Data for this 5 Top Weekly TSXV Performers article was retrieved at 1:00 p.m. PST on February 16, 2024, using TradingView's stock screener. Only companies with market capitalizations greater than C$10 million prior to the week's gains are included. Companies within the non-energy minerals and energy minerals were considered.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: Century Lithium is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.
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