While conglomerate gold, lithium and cobalt have produced heady share-price surges Down Under - raising questions about bull runs versus bubbles among small-caps - the world's biggest mining equity market has seen more pronounced gains at the top, among the likes of Garibaldi Resources (CN: GGI), up 3,730% in the year to November 21, New Nadina Explorations (CN: NNA), up 3,420%, and Rio2 (CN: RIO), up 2,280%, and a longer tail of companies that have seen gains of 100% or more over that 12 months to November 21.
About 160 TSX mining equities saw gains of 95% or more during the period.
Eighty-four of the top 100 TSX mining-equity risers in that 12-month window raised C$666 million of equity funds, mostly for exploration, signalling a broad shift in the market's appetite for early-stage exploration exposure, though a number of companies are more advanced in developing precious metals (mainly gold), energy minerals (mainly lithium), zinc, copper and nickel projects.
Others have operating cash flow, and some received new funding injections from offtake and streaming deals, and/or the exercise of previously issued warrants and options.
See the full top-100 risers list here: (MiningJournalAmericasTSXtop100).
The energy or battery minerals space was dominated by Cobalt 27's (CN: KBLT) June C$200 million IPO. About C$260 million, or 39%, of funds raised by the top 100 risers was for battery metals exposure.
Nickel chimed in with a further 1.3% of funds raised among the top 100.
Similarly, Bluestone Resources (CN: BSR), Novo Resources (CN: NVO), Integra Resources (CN: ITR) and Northern Empire Resources (CN: NM) accounted for a big chunk of the C$220 million raised in the precious metals space in the year to November 21.
Gold and copper-gold companies took six of the top 10 spots in the list of the top 100 TSX mining-equity risers in the period, based on analysis of Bloomberg data.
Gold/silver (45 of top 100), lithium/energy minerals (20), copper (12), zinc (6) and nickel (4), made up 87 of the top 100 risers.
Canada is the dominant exploration/development investment jurisdiction (based on the flagship projects of companies in the list), with 56% of the projects on top-100 riser lists.
The USA was second at 13-out-of-100. North American jurisdictions (including Mexico) host 74 of the top-100's main projects.
There is no place like home for North American mining investors.
Coming up on www.mining-journal.com/americas, we examine the ‘Vancouver vibe' in the lead-up to the start of the North American mining investment event season, in Vancouver in January.
Most of the companies on our top-100 risers list call Vancouver home.
We dig deep into the credentials of the standout companies and their projects for a series of upcoming reports on the outlook for 2018: Where is the smart money going, and why; and which equities can build on recent gains to lead the pack in the New Year?
Also coming up, and exclusive to www.mining-journal.com/americas, we look at the leading funding brokers, banks and backers of the junior mining sector in North America, over the past 12 months.
And the standout funds, too.
Who has the best track record? And what are their views on commodities, top-shelf districts, companies, management teams and projects, and the pitfalls and opportunities in the resources investment landscape in 2018?
