Who made the gains? Here are January’s top 50 small cap miners and explorers

It’s been a much calmer (borderline optimistic) start to  the new year for small caps, following the frenzied, ghastly run that capped off 2018.

The market has rebounded, and money is slowly starting to trickle back into the junior end of the market.

The ASX Small Ords – which is the benchmark for Australian small cap companies — is in recovery mode, currently at its highest point since November last year.

Alex Molyneux is managing director at advanced explorer Galena Mining, which enjoyed huge share price gains in January.

Mr Molyneux sees more interest ‘creeping’ into the junior market — but it’s still far from well-supported.

“I definitely see companies still trading well below the value of their positive recent achievements in many instances, and in that regard, there is still heaps of opportunity in the junior space for 2019,” he told Stockhead.

Over the past 12 months only 122 small cap resources stocks have come out ahead — over 507 are in negative territory.

But for January it looks more balanced, with 269 stocks gaining ground.

There are a number of stocks that have made some huge gains over the past month. Here’s a few of the highlights.

Scroll to the end for our Top 50 resources performers for January>>>

Aspiring uranium producer Berkeley Energia (ASX:BKY) is riding the speculation roller coaster, up 172 per cent to about 49c for the month.

There are rumours that Berkeley is about to snag a crucial endorsement from Spain’s nuclear watchdog for its Salmanca uranium project.

That unverified titbit detonated a rocket under Berkeley’s share price, which was up more than 61 per cent to 40c on January 11.

But it’s swings and roundabouts; the explorer’s share price plummeted 30 per cent in October last year after another unnamed source told Spanish media that the government was going to deny permits for Salamanca.

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The aforementioned Galena Mining (ASX:G1A) leapt out the gate on January 31 after locking in a company-making $90 million deal that sent the stock up 40 per cent to a record high of 35c per share.

The explorer casually announced (an hour after the market closed the night before) it had secured a $90 million investment from Toho Zinc, a $47 billion Japanese lead and zinc smelting company.

With this funding in place, Galena has the cash it needs to start construction on its big Abra lead mine this year.

Battery metals are still on the nose with investors, but there’s a number of graphite, vanadium, cobalt and lithium hopefuls head and shoulders above the pack.

Advanced graphite explorer Black Rock Mining (ASX:BKT) is a clear leader, up over 105 per cent for the month.

Nipping at its heels are vanadium players Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) and Tando Resources (ASX:TNO), graphite/ battery hopeful Magnis Energy Technologies (ASX:MNS), and advanced cobalt explorer Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ), amongst others.

But gold plays are the clear standout.

The price on a rare tear, and it is taking a bunch of juniors along for the ride; 17 of our top 50, in fact.

The best gold performers include Sunstone Metals (ASX:STM), Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW) and Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU), up  64 per cent, 61 per cent and 60 per cent respectively for the month.

“With Aussie dollar gold above $1800, a lot of Aussie gold miners are going to be making very, very good money,” precious metals analyst Jordan Eliseo told Stockhead.

“I think that over the last year it’s probably been the mid-tiers and larger producers that have performed best share price-wise, but I think as this gold bull market gets more entrenched, you’re going to see capital move down to the juniors and even to some of the explorers.”

Heres the top 50  mining small caps for the month of January>>>

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