The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) was on the decline last week, finishing at 606.99.
In the resource sector, the gold price took a hit as investors grew more confident in the US Federal Reserve’s ability to engineer a soft landing, with the latest consumer price index data showing an increase of 3.2 percent year-on-year.
Against that backdrop, a variety of TSXV-listed resource stocks made moves over the last five days. Read on to find out which companies rose the most during the period and what was affecting their share prices.
1. Decade Resources (TSXV:DEC)
Weekly gain: 168.75 percent; market cap: C$14.53 million; current share price: C$0.215
Decade Resources holds a portfolio of properties in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle at various stages of exploration. Over the last month, its focus has been on its Treasure Mountain-Nobody Knows-Terrace Gold project, which is made up of three contiguous properties totaling 48 claims in the Copper River valley.
After mobilizing drills to its recently discovered Nobody Knows No 2 zone on August 3, last Tuesday (August 8), Decade Resources shared photos of its first three diamond drill cores, which it said “show similarities to many of the world’s major sediment-hosted copper systems with the association of silver with copper.” In particular, one core contained 30 meters of visual sulfides, including bornite and chalcopyrite, as well as native copper.
After Decade’s share price opened last week at C$0.08, the news sent Decade’s share price skywards to a peak of C$0.25 last Thursday (August 10).
2. Aston Bay Holdings (TSXV:BAY)
Weekly gain: 95.83 percent; market cap: C$41.94 million; current share price: C$0.235
Aston Bay Holdings is a copper and gold company that owns a portfolio of projects in North America, including the Buckingham gold project in Virginia, US, and the Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada. Storm is currently under option to American West Metals (ASX:AW1,OTCQB:AWMLF), which can earn up to an 80 percent interest in the property and is actively exploring it this year.
Aston was the top gainer for the previous week following its August 2 news of a major discovery at Storm — drilling at a blind gravity target intercepted significant copper sulfide mineralization. Its share price jumped from C$0.04 to C$0.12 by that week’s close.
Last Wednesday, the announcement of further discoveries at Storm in an area that has now been dubbed the Thunder zone brought the company’s share price to even greater heights. One diamond drill hole intersected both 76 meters of near-surface “visual heavily mineralized breccia to massive copper sulfide” and 2 meters of “visual breccia and dense vein style copper sulfide” between 273 to 275 meters.
Aston’s share price peaked at a weekly high of C$0.305 the next day.
3. Forum Energy Metals (TSXV:FMC)
Weekly gain: 41.67 percent; market cap: C$16.35 million; current share price: C$0.085
Forum Energy Metals is a uranium and energy metals exploration company aiming to supply the green economy with metals like uranium, nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum and palladium from the projects in its portfolio. Its primary focus is uranium exploration, and many of its uranium properties are located in Canada, in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin and Nunavut’s Thelon Basin.
In early August, Forum commenced ground electromagnetic and magnetic surveys at its Still nickel project. Although the company didn’t release news last week, the price of uranium has continued to climb for the fourth consecutive week. Forum’s share price peaked at C$0.09 during trading last Friday (August 11).
4. Comet Lithium (TSXV:CLIC)
Weekly gain: 38.3 percent; market cap: C$11.24 million; current share price: C$0.65
Comet Lithium’s flagship project is its wholly owned Liberty lithium project in the Eeyou-Istchee Baie James Bay region of Quebec, Canada. The project is contiguous with the Adina lithium project owned by Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1,OTCQB:WRSLF), which hosts nearly 2 kilometers of spodumene-bearing pegmatite. The company was previously named X-Terra Resources, but changed its name and ticker symbol in June.
Last Tuesday, Comet began exploration at Liberty, with the first steps being “prospecting and sampling of frost heave rocks, glacial boulders and rock surfaces to see if there is an extension of the Adina Li pegmatite trend.” The company will also be performing a LIDAR survey at the project. Its share price climbed to a peak of C$0.75 early last Thursday.
5. Prospera Energy (TSXV:PEI)
Weekly gain: 36.84 percent; market cap: C$45.75 million; current share price: C$0.13
Prospera Energy is a low-cost oil producer in Canada focused on optimizing hydrocarbon recovery and producing in an environmentally friendly way, with the goal of “eliminating all emissions, minimizing environmental disturbances, and conducting environmentally safe operations.” The company’s main properties are in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
In September 2022, Prospera and Aduro Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aduro Clean Technologies (CSE:ACT,OTCQB:ACTHF), entered into a letter of intent for “developing, building, and supplying a pre-commercial pilot plant to convert low API bitumen to higher value products.”
Last Tuesday, Prospero shared an update on the collaboration: the two companies are now beginning Phase 1, testing Aduro’s hydrochemolytic bitumen upgrading technology on barrels of low API crude oil from Prospero’s heavy oil reserves. Phase 1 is expected to be completed in December of this year.
FAQs for TSXV stocks
What is the difference between the TSX and TSXV?
The TSX, or Toronto Stock Exchange, is used by senior companies with larger market caps, while the TSXV, or TSX Venture Exchange, is used by smaller-cap companies. Companies listed on the TSXV can graduate to the senior exchange.
How many companies are listed on the TSXV?
As of April 2023, there were 1,713 companies listed on the TSXV, 953 of which were mining companies. Comparatively, the TSX was home to 1,789 companies, with 190 of those being mining companies.
Together the TSX and TSXV host around 40 percent of the world’s public mining companies.
How much does it cost to list on the TSXV?
There are a variety of different fees that companies must pay to list on the TSXV, and according to the exchange, they can vary based on the transaction’s nature and complexity. The listing fee alone will most likely cost between C$10,000 to C$70,000. Accounting and auditing fees could rack up between C$25,000 and C$100,000, while legal fees are expected to be over C$75,000 and an underwriters’ commission may hit up to 12 percent.
The exchange lists a handful of other fees and expenses companies can expect, including but not limited to security commission and transfer agency fees, investor relations costs and director and officer liability insurance.
These are all just for the initial listing, of course. There are ongoing expenses once companies are trading, such as sustaining fees and additional listing fees, plus the costs associated with filing regular reports.
How do you trade on the TSXV?
Investors can trade on the TSXV the way they would trade stocks on any exchange. This means they can use a stock broker or an individual investment account to buy and sell shares of TSXV-listed companies during the exchange’s trading hours.
Data for 5 Top Weekly TSXV Performers articles is retrieved each Friday after market close 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 are considered.
Securities Disclosure: I, Lauren Kelly, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.