With gold outperforming the TSX and EV sales expected to soar over the long term, mining stocks have delivered some of the market’s best year-over-year (YoY) returns.
While the TSX has gained approximately 6 per cent YoY and just over 20 per cent in the past five years, gold has added a tidy 9.73 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, stoking investors’ appetite for miners with evidence of generational resources and the means to reach production.
In terms of EVs, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that EV sales surpassed 10 million in 2022, representing 14 per cent of new vehicles sold, which is up from 9 per cent in 2021 and under 5 per cent in 2020.
The agency forecasts 2023 sales of 14 million, up 35 per cent YoY, accounting for up to 18 per cent of total vehicle sales. By the end of this decade, the IEA sees EVs holding a 35 per cent share of global vehicle sales.
This trend is accretive news for lithium miners, whose metal of choice is the chief component in EV batteries and a main driver of the shift away from fossil fuels. While lithium is down by 35 per cent YoY because of widespread hawkish monetary policy and its souring of investor sentiment, the metal has gained more than 100 per cent since 2017, demonstrating market awareness of climate change’s undeniable reality.
It is no surprise, then, that the best mining stock returns YoY belong exclusively to companies focused on gold and lithium. Let’s learn a little bit more about them.
5. American Eagle Gold (TSXV:AE) – 628.57% return
American Eagle Gold explores for gold and copper deposits in North America. Its primary focus is on its flagship NAK copper-gold property in British Columbia’s Babine Copper-Gold Porphyry district.
NAK’s known copper-gold porphyry mineralization is open at depth and defined by a prospective geophysical signature similar to Newcrest’s Red Chris Mine and Newmont’s Tatogga Project in northwest B.C.
Shares reached their current support level upon the November 2022 announcement of NAK’s maiden drill hole results, which returned 851.28 metres of 0.33 per cent copper equivalent (CuEq), including 126 m of 1.02 per cent CuEq from surface. All five holes drilled at NAK to that date had intersected broad intervals of porphyry-style mineralization from surface to end-of-hole.
The company recommenced drilling last month fully funded by a strategic investment from Teck Resources (TSX:TECK).
Continue your due diligence process by reading American Eagle Gold’s investor presentation for July 2023.
4. Q2 Metals (TSXV:QTWO) – 672.73% return
Q2 Metals is a mineral exploration company advancing its flagship 8,668-ha Mia Lithium Property in James Bay, Quebec. The property is host to the Mia Li-1 and Mia Li-2 lithium occurrences.
Q2 also owns the Stellar Lithium Property with 77 claims over 3,972 ha approximately 6 km north of the Mia Property.
Its other exploration properties include the highly prospective Big Hill and Titan Gold projects covering 110 square kilometres in the Talgai Goldfields of the Warwick-Texas District, which is host to 54 high-grade historical gold mines.
Q2’s YoY gains were catalyzed by 18 outcrop grab samples from the Mia Li-1 occurrence in 2021 and 2022 averaging 2.65 per cent Li2O.
Shares have been supported by ongoing exploration work, with 28 pegmatite samples from June 2023 yielding as high as 2.73 per cent Li2O and 167.3 ppm Ta2O5.
See Q2 Metals’ investor presentation for June 2023 to learn more.
3. Surge Battery Metals (TSXV:NILI) – 900% return
Second runner-up in our best mining stock returns YoY is Surge Battery Metals, a mineral exploration company searching for nickel-iron alloy in B.C. and lithium in Nevada to supply the EV market.
Its flagship Nevada North Lithium Project boasts more than 100 soil samples carrying greater than 1,000 ppm lithium.
Nevada North’s main soil lithium anomaly extends 2,300 m north-south by 500 m wide, with three other significant soil anomalies identified through the property. Scout drilling has confirmed lithium at depth with four zones averaging 3,943 ppm Li over 120 m.
Surge’s initial YoY rise came in December 2022 after announcing impressive results from Nevada North with intercepts surpassing 4,000 ppm Li. Company shares enjoyed additional support thanks to successful metallurgical test work results and news of a strategic investment from major player American Lithium (TSXV:LI).
Continue your research process by reading Surge’s latest investor presentation.
2. Ophir Gold (TSXV:OPHR) – 920% return
In second place for best mining stock returns YoY, we have Ophir Gold, a diversified lithium and precious metals exploration company developing its Radis Lithium Property in James Bay, Quebec, and its Breccia Gold Property in Lemhi County, Idaho. The company holds options to acquire both properties over a three-year period.
Ophir experienced an initial jump in December 2022 upon securing the Radis option, which grants it access to one known lithium pegmatite and high prospectivity for more substantiated by Q2 Metals’ Mia Property residing only 10 km to the west-southwest.
The stock rose even higher in May 2023 after the release of Radis’ favorable NI 43-101 technical report, a working summary of which can be gleaned from the company’s deck on the property. Ophir recently confirmed multiple spodumene-bearing pegmatite outcrops at Radis sampling up to 2.33 per cent Li2O.
Breccia, for its part, features high-grade gold and silver intercepts grading as high as 13.02 g/t Au and 6,940 g/t Ag.
Visit Ophir Gold’s official website for further insights.
1. Solis Minerals (TSXV:SLMN) – 1,314% return
Taking the top spot for best mining stock returns over the past year is Solis Minerals, a Latin American battery mineral exploration company focused on enticing projects in Brazil and Peru.
Solis owns a 100 per cent interest in the 24,800-ha Borborema Lithium Project in northeast Brazil, as well as an option to acquire 100 per cent of the Jaguar Lithium Project in Bahia state, Brazil.
The company also holds a 100 per cent interest in 32,000 ha of licenses and applications on highly prospective iron oxide, copper/gold and porphyry copper projects in southwestern Peru within the coastal copper belt, which provides nearly half of Peru’s copper production.
Solis shares have been on a dreamlike run from C$0.11 to just under C$1 in little more than a month. The spike began in May 2023 once the company officially optioned Jaguar, which features a pegmatite body with more than 1 km of strike, widths over 50 m, coarse visible spodumene, and oxidized pegmatite up to 4.95 per cent Li2O from rock chip samples.
The company is currently drilling on Jaguar to test the pegmatite’s depth and strike extent. It is fully funded for the program, as well as drilling on Borborema, thanks to an over C$7.3 million private placement.
Consult Solis Minerals’ investor presentation for March 2023 to learn more about the company’s efforts to supply EV demand through its strategically located projects.
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