This week, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released key inflation data, including its consumer and producer price index data on Wednesday (March 12) and Thursday (March 13). The reports show all items inflation was up 2.8 percent year-over-year in February, while core inflation — all items minus food and energy — was up 3.1 percent over that period. Both rose by 0.2 percent compared to January.
The numbers show that inflation has largely become stuck and is still far from the 2 percent target rate set by the US Federal Reserve. The data provides further insight into the health of the overall economy ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week. The consensus among analysts is the Fed will choose to maintain its benchmark rate at 4.25 to 5 percent.
Trade tensions between the US and Canada also continued to rise during the week as the US escalated its trade threats against its key trading partners in North America and Europe.
On Tuesday (March 11), temperatures came close to boiling over as Ontario Premier Doug Ford applied a 25 percent surcharge to electricity exports destined for the US and US President Donald Trump threatened to raise incoming 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50 percent on Canada in response.
However, Ford agreed to suspend the surcharges after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick invited Ford and federal officials to a face-to-face meeting in Washington, DC, on Thursday to discuss the trade situation.
According to Ford, the Thursday meeting was productive and has helped lower some of the tension between Canada and the United States. The two groups are scheduled to meet again next week. Both sides hope that the temperature will be dialed back and trade can begin to normalize between the long-time trade allies.
On Wednesday, US President Trump maintained his decision to apply a blanket 25 percent tariff on all incoming steel and aluminum imports, but did not raise Canada’s to 50 percent. The move will still broadly affect the Canadian industrial sector, which remains the largest exporter of steel and aluminum products to the United States.
Canada responded to the move with tariffs on US$20 billion worth of goods, while the European Union hit back with tariffs on US$28 billion worth of goods.
On Thursday, the president also issued a fresh round of tariff threats aimed at Europe, including a 200 percent tax on alcohol. Trump’s comments came after the EU applied a 50 percent charge on incoming alcohol from the US.
In addition to tariff news, the Trump administration announced plans to roll back 31 environmental policies on Wednesday. The changes by the Environmental Protection Agency include broad loosening or elimination of pollution-related regulations, such as emissions rules for power plants and automobiles that require them to use cleaner forms of energy, and regulations on soot, mercury and coal ash pollution.
The agency is also considering striking down key findings about climate pollution, effectively ending the EPA’s ability to manage climate change.
Markets and commodities react
In Canada, markets were mixed but more positive than those in the US. The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) gained 1.56 percent during the week to close at 621.08 on Friday (March 14), the S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) lost 0.16 percent to 24,556.38 and the CSE Composite Index (CSE:CSECOMP) dropped 1.55 percent to 123.76.
US equity markets were broadly down again this week. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:INX) lost 1.16 percent to close the week at 5,638.93 and the Nasdaq 100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) fell 0.59 percent to 19,715.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) fell the most, slipping another 2.4 percent to 41,488.18.
Gold broke the US$3,000 mark for the first time in early morning trading Friday, briefly going to US$3,004 before pulling back. Silver also moved above the US$34 mark early Friday for the first time since October 2024. Overall, the gold price gained 2.48 percent over the week to US$2,983.09 per ounce at 4:00 p.m. EST Friday. The silver price rose even more, adding 3.52 percent during the period to US$33.66.
In base metals, the copper price was up 3.61 percent on the week, closing out Friday at US$4.88 per pound on the COMEX. Meanwhile, the S&P GSCI (INDEXSP:SPGSCI) was flat, gaining just 0.06 percent to close at 551.68.
Top Canadian mining stocks this week
So how did mining stocks perform against this backdrop?
We break down this week’s five best-performing Canadian mining stocks below.
Data for this article was retrieved at 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies trading on the TSX, TSXV and CSE with market capitalizations greater than C$10 million are included. Companies within the non-energy minerals and energy minerals sectors were considered.
1. Noble Mineral Exploration (TSXV:NOB)
Weekly gain: 114.29 percent
Market cap: C$16.61 million
Share price: C$0.075
Noble Mineral Exploration is an exploration and development company that uses a project generator model to build a portfolio of base and precious metals projects, royalties and partnerships.
Noble owns a 20 percent stake in the Mann nickel-cobalt project in Ontario, Canada, a joint venture with Canada Nickel (TSXV:CNC,OTCQX:CNIKF). The property is located near Timmins and hosts four primary targets: Mann North, West, Central and South. In addition to nickel and cobalt, the site also hosts some platinum, chromium and iron mineralization.
On February 24, the company announced that it had finalized an agreement with Canada Nickel to spin off the Mann project into a new subsidiary under Canada Nickel named East Timmins Nickel, which also holds Canada Nickel’s projects in the region. The subsidiary will be a 20/80 joint venture between Noble and Canada Nickel. Noble said that consolidating the properties into a separate company would maximize its value without significant dilution to Noble
Under the deal, Noble also transferred its interest in its Project 81 properties in Northern Ontario to Canada Nickel, retaining a royalty.
Most recently, Noble and Canada Nickel reported successful exploration results from the Mann property on Thursday, including the highest grades yet from the Mann West target. A highlighted assay from the deposit returned 0.27 percent nickel over 452 meters, which included intersections with 0.4 percent over 18 meters and 0.63 percent over 4.5 meters.
Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby said the targets at Mann “each have a footprint larger than the company’s flagship Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project, underscoring the large-scale potential of the Timmins Nickel District.”
2. Homeland Nickel (TSXV:SHL)
Weekly gain: 100 percent
Market cap: C$11.15 million
Share price: C$0.05
Homeland Nickel is an exploration company working to advance projects in the US and Canada.
The company owns four nickel projects in Oregon: Cleopatra, Red Flat, Eight Dollar Mountain and Shamrock. The projects are in the early exploration stage, with the company being guided by historic work at each property.
Homeland is also working on the Spruce Ridge project in Newfoundland and Labrador, a 30/70 joint venture with Benton Resources (TSXV:BEX,OTC Pink:BNTRF), which earned its stake in the property through an earn-in agreement with Homeland in July 2024.
While the company did not release any news, its shares gained this week following Noble Mineral Exploration and Canada Nickel’s announcement on Thursday of positive assay results from their joint venture Mann nickel project in Ontario. Homeland owns 2.95 million shares in Canada Nickel and 9.96 million shares of Noble.
3. Brunswick Exploration (TSXV:BRW)
Weekly gain: 74.07 percent
Market cap: C$49.07 million
Share price: C$0.235
Brunswick Exploration is a lithium-focused grassroots exploration company working to advance its assets in Canada and Greenland.
The company owns the Mirage lithium project in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Québec, Canada, as well as several exploration licenses in Greenland, with hundreds of staked and untested targets across the island.
The company announced on Thursday that it has identified new high-potential lithium targets and applied for a mineral license to cover them. Named Hinksland, the license covers a five-block claim located near the country’s northeast coast. The company has mapped 50 interpreted outcrops at Hinksland, nine of which are between 500 and 10,000 feet of strike.
Brunswick said it intends to visit the region in 2025. In the release, the company also said it expects first results from its ongoing drill program at Mirage will be released in the next few weeks.
4. Bayhorse Silver (TSXV:BHS)
Weekly gain: 50 percent
Market cap: C$18.4 million
Share price: C$0.06
Bayhorse Silver is a silver-focused company currently working to bring the Bayhorse silver, copper and antimony mine in Oregon, US, back online.
The mine was originally in operation until late 1984 and closed when the price of silver dropped to under US$6 per ounce. Historic sampling during the 1980s identified grades of 2,146 grams per metric ton (g/t) silver, and a bulk sampling program conducted by Bayhorse in 2014 found bonanza grades of 150,370 g/t silver.
The company has continued to explore the property and, in October 2018, produced a maiden resource estimate that showed the property hosts inferred resources of 6.33 million ounces of silver from 292,300 US tons of ore with an average grade of 21.65 ounces per US ton.
The most recent update came on March 4, when Bayhorse announced it had received assay results from the first 115 meters of the silicified breccia zone encountered in a drill hole used to test an anomaly at the mine. The company said that the 115 meter intersection showed continuous copper up to 125 parts per million (ppm), zinc up to 695 ppm and intermittent gold up to 0.023 ppm.
The company also shared preliminary IP survey results from the project.
Bayhorse CEO Graeme O’Neill commented that he was encouraged by the results and they may indicate the presence of massive sulfides and copper porphyry. The company said it is waiting on results from a further 112 meters of samples from the brecciation zone.
5. Pacific Booker Minerals (TSXV:BKM)
Weekly gain: 43.86 percent
Market cap: C$12.11 million
Share price: C$0.82
Pacific Booker Minerals is an exploration and development company focused on its Morrison property, located in Central British Columbia, Canada. The site is in the advanced stages of development and hosts copper, gold and molybdenum mineralization. The company has been working on development plans since 2004, and completed a feasibility study in 2009. However, work hasn’t been able to proceed as it needs approval from the nearby Lake Babine Nation.
In May 2024, Pacific Booker announced it would be seeking legal recourse after communications between itself and Lake Babine Nation broke down. The company indicated it had received a memorandum of understanding from Lake Babine Nation in 2012, but legal counsel for the nation has refuted that the understanding was in existence and an environmental assessment certificate for Morrison was refused in 2012.
Shares of Pacific Booker saw gains this week, but the company has not released further news.
FAQs for Canadian mining 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, and 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 June 2024, there were 1,630 companies listed on the TSXV, 925 of which were mining companies. Comparatively, the TSX was home to 1,806 companies, with 188 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.
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.