The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) closed at 15,997.06 last Friday (July 24), down from Monday’s (July 20) open of 16,113.35.
Last week was a big one for gold and silver, with the former passing the US$1,900 per ounce mark and the latter pushing past US$23 per ounce.
Despite those major price increases, precious metals didn’t entirely steal the show on the TSX. A number of last week’s top-gaining mining stocks on the exchange were focused on base metal nickel.
The following five companies saw the biggest share price gains last week:
- Talon Metals (TSX:TLO)
- Platinum Group Metals (TSX:PTM)
- St. Augustine Gold & Copper (TSX:SAU)
- Endeavour Silver (TSX:EDR)
- Sherritt International (TSX:S)
Here’s a look at what may have caused that momentum.
1. Talon Metals
Base metals-focused Talon Metals’ main asset is the Tamarack nickel-copper–cobalt project in Minnesota. The asset is a joint venture with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,LSE:RIO,NYSE:RIO), and Talon has the option to earn up to a 60 percent interest in the property.
Last week, Talon’s share price rose 57.14 percent to finish the period at C$0.22. The company didn’t release any news, but it’s worth taking comments from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk into account — he recently asked for miners to produce more nickel.
“Please mine more nickel,” Musk said during his company’s latest quarterly earnings call. “Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way.” Nickel is used in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles.
2. Platinum Group Metals
Platinum Group Metals’ efforts are centered on its Waterberg asset in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex. It is a palladium-dominant bulk underground platinum-group metals deposit.
The company’s latest news came on July 15, when it released its third quarter results. Despite not sharing any announcements last week, its share price rose 47.4 percent to close at C$2.83.
3. St. Augustine Gold & Copper
St. Augustine Gold & Copper’s main asset is the King-king copper-gold project located in the Philippines. According to the company, it is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the world. However, St. Augustine encountered trouble in 2017, when the government banned the open-pit mining of copper, gold, silver and complex ores in the country.
Updates from St. Augustine has been scarce since then, but last week its share price leaped 33.33 percent to finish the period at C$0.08. Local news outlets are reporting that some mining companies whose operations were suspended or closed could be allowed to resume work in the future.
4. Endeavour Silver
Mid-tier precious metals miner Endeavour Silver has three underground silver-gold mines in Mexico, as well as exploration and development projects in various stages.
The company’s latest announcement came on July 14, when it released an updated prefeasibility study for its Terronera mine; it did not release any news last week, but its share price increased 43.88 percent to close at C$5.64. As mentioned, gold and silver prices enjoyed positive price action last week, perhaps putting wind in the miner’s sails.
5. Sherritt International
Sherritt International bills itself as one of the world’s largest producers of nickel from lateritic sources, and has operations and investments in Canada, Cuba and Madagascar.
Last week, Sherritt’s share price rose 35.48 percent to hit C$0.21. Although the remarks from Tesla CEO Musk could have given the company some of its steam, Sherritt also said that its debtholders have approved a transaction geared at improving the company’s capital structure.
Data for 5 Top Weekly TSX Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday at 10:30 a.m. PST using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies with market capitalizations greater than C$50 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the non-energy minerals and energy minerals are considered.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.