June Winners Column: It’s solid gold, baby

Here’s our Top 50 small caps for June, but first — a quick recap of 2020, so far.

There were a healthy mix of companies in our January Top 50. #1 was Singapore-based ‘bottom of the sock drawer’ minnow Netccentric (ASX:NCL) with a 300 per cent gain.

In February, coronavirus-led uncertainty was mounting. This led to numerous potential coronavirus fighters — including any company that mentioned ‘hand sanitiser’– featuring heavily in the top 50. #1 mover was gold explorer De Grey (ASX:DEG) with a 285 per cent gain.

Then came the share market bloodbath in March — a month dominated by COVID-19 bandwagoners, online education and food delivery stocks, and a couple of big nickel discoveries. Our #1 mover was now-suspended COVID-19 test kit spruiker TBG Diagnostics (ASX:TDL) which gained +862 per cent for the month.

April was a month of tentative recovery. The S&P/ASX Emerging Companies Index was up 23.5 per cent, recapturing a big chunk of March’s losses. Gold came to the fore and most of those COVID-19 bandwagoners fell away, but the biggest mover was unremarkable oil and gas company Jupiter Energy (ASX:JPR) with a decidedly remarkable 3650 per cent gain.

By May, gold was number #1 with investors. But money also found its way into early stage uranium explorers like GTI Resources (ASX:GTR) and TNT Mines (ASX:TIN) which were up 231 per cent and 259 per cent, respectively, over the month.

In June economies floundered, markets surged, and gold was king. A massive 51 per cent of the companies on our winners list were gold-focused:

… which could be the norm for the foreseeable future, as gold prices punch though $US1,800/oz on their merry way to $US2,000oz.

In June, 33 small cap companies posted gains of 100 per cent or more, down from 58 last month. Still, there was plenty of good stories for investors to sink their teeth into.

HERE’S THE TOP 50 SMALL CAPS FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE >>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	NAME	TOTAL MONTHLY RETURN %	MARKET CAP
ESK	ETHERSTACK	1150	198.61M
NME	NEX METALS EXPLORATION	525	24.09M
MCT	METALICITY	362	51.68M
IMC	IMMURON	225	46.35M
RXL	ROX RESOURCES	223	167.08M
AUT	AUTECO MINERALS	220	213.72M
DW8	DIGITAL WINE VENTURES	208	25.20M
MGV	MUSGRAVE MINERALS	200	216.11M
TAR	TARUGA MINERALS	200	15.23M
AUC	AUSGOLD	200	46.46M
BPH	BPH ENERGY	187	8.58M
ICU	ISENTRIC	186	4.07M
GSM	GOLDEN STATE MINING	178	26.63M
SUH	SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE MINING	173	3.26M
KAI	KAIROS MINERALS	171	58.59M
CAD	CAENEUS MINERALS	167	13.99M
GTE	GREAT WESTERN EXPLORATION	165	10.12M
ELT	ELEMENTOS	150	12.74M
SLX	SILEX SYSTEMS	142	133.89M
AL8	ALDERAN RESOURCES	142	37.62M
AUR	AURIS MINERALS	140	19.62M
SPT	SPLITIT PAYMENTS	138	415.78M
RGL	RIVERSGOLD	136	24.40M
SUP	SUPERIOR LAKE RESOURCES	125	16.44M
SVD	SCANDIVANADIUM	125	11.75M
XTD	XTD	124	7.73M
FFR	FIREFLY RESOURCES	122	6.40M
RAC	RACE ONCOLOGY	119	81.52M
NVX	NOVONIX	112	302.94M
SCN	SCORPION MINERALS	105	9.20M
VPR	VOLT POWER GROUP	100	18.34M
MNW	MINT PAYMENTS	100	14.57M
MLS	METALS AUSTRALIA	100	6.41M
AR9	ARCHTIS	98	18.55M
AYR	ALLOY RESOURCES	92	8.38M
WWI	WEST WITS MINING	91	21.49M
KP2	KORE POTASH	91	18.04M
CAE	CANNINDAH RESOURCES	87	2.90M
HWK	HAWKSTONE MINING	86	13.83M
TYM	TYMLEZ GROUP	85	16.83M
IP1	INTEGRATED PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES	85	6.25M
AYS	AMAYSIM AUSTRALIA	84	174.12M
HRN	HORIZON GOLD LIMITED	84	35.20M
DTM	DART MINING	83	7.06M
TLM	TALISMAN MINING	83	30.79M
ARV	ARTEMIS RESOURCES	81	59.96M
LSR	LODESTAR MINERALS	80	7.68M
MRQ	MRG METALS	80	11.11M
DLC	DELECTA	80	6.26M
REE	RAREX	77	32.63M

Gold explorers dominated the Top 50. Again. Get used to it.

Leading the pack were joint venture partners Nex Metals Exploration (ASX:NME) +525 per cent, and Metalicity (ASX:MCT) +362 per cent.

The buzz around the historic, high-grade Kookynie gold project in WA lit a fire under their respective share prices in June.

There’s some work to be done before we find out if this is another Penny West or Bellevue type rediscovery – but early results indicate that project manager Metalicity is on the right track.

Rox Resources (ASX:RXL) also gained 223 per cent on an incredible, 25m-long intersection grading 34.79 grams per tonne (g/t) gold at the Grace prospect, part of the Younami project in WA.

Rox’s subsequent 223 per cent monthly gain saw the share price hit a seven-year high.

Youanmi project partner Venus Metals (ASX:VMC) (30 per cent ownership) also gained, up 66 per cent for the month.

Market darling Auteco Minerals (ASX:AUT) has been flying since buying a historic Canadian gold project called Pickle Crow in February this year.

In June, Auteco – spearheaded by the same team that made Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) such a success — defined a maiden 830,000oz at 11.6g/t gold resource.

The former vanadium-titanium explorer is now up 1500 per cent so far in 2020.

And then there’s Musgrave Minerals (ASX:MGV), which uncovered very high, thick and shallow gold at the new ‘Starlight’ discovery, part of its flagship 613,000oz Cue gold project in WA’s Murchison district.

Intercepts like 12m at 112.9g/t gold 36m from surface (including 6m at 143g/t) sent the stock up +200 per cent in June to all-time highs.