The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) recorded a slight loss during the first trading week of the new year, dropping 1.56 points to close at 551.34 on Friday (January 5).
Statistics Canada released its December jobs report this past week. It indicates that employment was unchanged from the previous month, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 5.8 percent.
South of the border, the US Federal Reserve shared the minutes from its December meeting, at which the Federal Open Market Committee agreed to hold the benchmark interest rate at 5.25 to 5.5 percent. The minutes show that officials believe rates are likely at their peak, although they did not discuss when they may go down.
Markets were mixed this past week, with gold and silver prices reacting negatively to the Fed minutes, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI), S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:IXIC) fell as they reacted to a stronger-than-expected American jobs report for December. The report reveals that the labor market added 216,000 jobs, which was 56,000 more than economists expected.
Against that backdrop, which TSXV-listed mining stocks rose the most? Read on to learn about the top gainers.
1. Goldbank Mining (TSXV:GLB)
Weekly gain: 76.67 percent; market cap: C$36.38 million; current share price: C$0.265
Goldbank Mining is a gold exploration company focused on its Klondike Leota gold project in the Eastern Klondike Goldfields near Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon. The site hosts 1,049 active quartz hard-rock claims. Leota has a long history of exploration, with the first claim on the site being staked at Last Chance Creek in 1903.
Goldbank saw its shares gain ground after it announced this past Tuesday (January 2) that Jerry Lozynsky and Frank Garofalo have been appointed to the company’s board of directors.
2. Visionary Metals (TSXV:VIZ)
Weekly gain: 42.86 percent; market cap: C$15 million; current share price: C$0.10
Visionary Metals is an exploration company focused on its King Solomon nickel project in Wyoming, US. The asset consists of 10.25 square kilometers of mining claims spread over 80 square kilometers in Fremont County.
The site hosts a 1,500 meter by 600 meter anomaly, with highlighted drill results of up to 0.42 percent nickel and 0.02 percent cobalt over 17 meters at shallow depths.
Shares of Visionary saw gains last week, but the company hasn’t released news since December 15, when it announced the results from its annual general meeting.
3. PetroFrontier (TSXV:PFC)
Weekly gain: 41.67 percent; market cap: C$19.86 million; current share price: C$0.085
PetroFrontier is a junior energy company working on the development of assets in Cold Lake and Wabasca, Alberta. The company’s projects are focused on the recovery of heavy oil using conventional vertical and horizontal wells, along with the production of sand with oil using cold heavy oil production with sand.
Shares of PetroFrontier saw significant gains this past week, but it did not release any news.
4. SouthGobi Resources (TSXV:SGQ)
Weekly gain: 41.03 percent; market cap: C$162.42 million; current share price: C$0.55
SouthGobi Resources is a coal-mining company with assets in Southern Mongolia near the border with China. Its flagship operation is the Ovoot Tolgoi mine, which consists of the Sunrise and Sunset pits, and has been producing since 2008. SouthGobi holds permits to mine until 2037.
The company also owns two additional properties in the region. The Soumber deposit is 20 kilometers east of the Ovoot Tolgoi mine, meaning that any potential mining of Soumber could share Ovoot Tolgoi’s infrastructure. Its third property is the Zag Suuj deposit, located 150 kilometers east of Ovoot Tolgoi and 80 kilometers from the Mongolia-China border.
The company climbed significantly this past week, but did not release news.
5. Razor Energy (TSXV:RZE)
Weekly gain: 40.43 percent; market cap: C$16.41 million; current share price: C$0.33
Razor Energy is an oil and natural gas company with assets in Central and Southern Alberta, Canada. Its Swan Hills/Kaybob region operations northwest of Edmonton consist of a 101,414 hectare land package, while its Southern Alberta region operations southwest of Calgary consist of a 31,646 hectare package producing medium-gravity oil.
In its Q3 results, released on November 23, Razor indicates that during the first three quarters of the year it produced 2,271 barrels per day of light oil, 5.51 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 560 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) of natural gas liquids.
In a release this past Wednesday (January 3), Razor advised it was eliminating 1,110 boe/d of combined light oil and natural gas liquids production from its Swan Hills operation after the operator of the Judy Creek gas plant refused to process Razor’s deliveries due to a financial dispute that started on December 24. The company also said it was uncertain when or if the dispute could be resolved in the near term.
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 September 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 this 5 Top Weekly TSXV Performers article was retrieved at 1:00 p.m. PST on January 5, 2023, 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.
Article by Dean Belder; FAQs by Lauren Kelly.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Securities Disclosure: I, Lauren Kelly, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
