TSXV edges higher during May 29-June 2 trading week

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose by 4.99 points or 0.83% over the May 29-June 2 trading session, ending at 609.08.

This week, the TSXV’s top value gainer was Electra Battery Materials, which added 33¢ to close Friday at $1.70 apiece. The company’s stock is recovering following its early May announcement of a cost overrun at the cobalt sulphate refinery it is building in Ontario. The company will require additional capital of up to US$80 million to complete the construction and final commissioning of the plant. A recent re-baseline engineering report has determined that the total capital costs are now estimated at US$110 to $121 million, of which approximately US$48.6 million has been spent as of Apr. 30, 2023. The increase in capital costs has been driven by changes in scope, including increasing production capacity from 5,000 to 6,500 tonnes yearly of cobalt contained in sulphate, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary price pressures over the past 18 months. The timeline for completing the refinery project will be contingent on securing the needed capital.

Another top value gainer this past week was New Found Gold, which added 32¢ to close at $5.94 on Friday. Shares in the company rose more than 5% on May 31 on high-grade drill results that extended the strike length of the Iceberg zone at its Queensway project in central Newfoundland. Diamond drill hole NFGC-23-1217 cut 5.25 metres, grading 19.6 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 206.2 metres; hole NFGC-23-1222 returned 6.6 metres grading 12.36 grams per tonne from 98.6 metres depth; and NFGC-23-1285 cut 4.45 metres at 21.7 grams gold from 78 metres downhole. The results extend the strike length of Iceberg to 550 metres and within the corridor of the 1.8-km strike of the Keats Baseline fault zone. The Queensway project is located near others that are part of a Newfoundland exploration surge, such as Labrador Gold, Exploits Discovery and Marathon Gold.

GoviEx Uranium was the most active TSXV issue during the trading week, with 6.2 million shares changing hands. The stock closed 4¢ higher on Friday at 16¢ apiece. The Africa-focused explorer is, among other companies in the uranium space, benefitting from rising spot prices of the energy metal, which had climbed by 14.4% since Dec. 31, 2022, when they were $50.53 per lb. By Apr. 30, the price was at $52.93; at press time, they sat at $54.55 per lb. GoviEx’s flagship project is Madaouela, located in the Timer Sol basin of central Niger, where several companies are exploring for uranium. Madaouela hosts 100 million measured and indicated lb. of U308 and 20 million inferred lb. The Vancouver-based company also has the Muntanga and Falea uranium projects in Zambia and Mali.