November was a weaker month for commodity prices across the board.

Nickel’s boisterous late-year run is well and truly over – for now, anyway – as prices continued to slide from $US16,745/t ($24,501/t) to end the month at $US13,805/t.

 >>Scroll to the end for November’s Top 50 small caps

Copper managed to consolidate October’s slight gains to finish at around $US5,850/t. Pundits call it ‘Dr Copper’ because the red metal’s performance is a gauge for the health of the global economy. Economy bad = copper bad.

Gold, on the other hand, thrives on global economic Armageddon — which is why we can overlay gold and copper prices and get 12-month charts that look like this:

November saw gold soften about 3.7 per cent to end the month at $US1,454/oz. Still, the precious metal is up 17 per cent over the past 12 months; a fantastic return.

After a solid little uptick last month, both zinc and lead were on the receiving end of a November smackdown.

Iron ore went on a rollercoaster, first nosediving then slowly trudging back to where it started on the back of stronger than expected steel demand.

The beleaguered battery metals suite took another hit, with cobalt, lithium and graphite prices falling solidly through November.

And it shows. Lithium doesn’t even get a look-in to our Top 50 which is dominated — once again — by gold, copper, and nickel:

 

TOP STOCKS: NOVEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

Metalstech (ASX:MTC) +231%

Market Cap: $6.2m

MetalsTech recorded the biggest one-day gain for an ASX stock in 2019 after announcing that it had signed an option agreement to acquire a 1.1-million-ounce gold project in Slovakia.

The former battery metals microcap has about a month to complete due diligence on the Sturec project, which historically produced +1.5moz of gold and 6.7moz of silver.

And by ‘historically’ we mean 8th century onwards.

It’s a stunning piece of ground:

Pic: Arc Minerals

“If we complete on the option we will immediately get to work on a series of high impact and low cost technical exercises to bring the project from JORC (2004) to JORC (2012) standard, design a resource upgrade exploration plan, as well as deliver an optimisation study for the pre-feasibility study,” chairman Russell Moran says.

JORC refers to the mining industry’s official code for reporting exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves.

“We are also in discussions with potential non-equity focused strategic investors interested in accelerating development of the Sturec project, should we complete on the option,” he says.

 

Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC) +160%

Market Cap: $102m

This was the entirety of Bougainville’s latest quarterly report:

 

Pretty sad stuff. But in late November Bougainville received a speeding ticket from the ASX after the stock rocketed from 13c to 49c per share in five days.

The company says the gamechanging referendum currently being held in Bougainville “may have attributed to increased confidence in the region”.

READ: Will Bougainville’s resources remain a curse, or become a cure?

 

Celamin (ASX:CNL) +115%

Market Cap: $21m

We profiled battered explorer Celamin (ASX:CNL) as a stock due for re-rate in early February.

At that time, it had a market cap of $4.7m.

That’s because Celamin had been in dispute with its partner in Tunisia for several years over a tidy looking phosphate project.

The company has now got the upper hand legally – this dodgy partner will now be forced to pay ~$US4.4m or hand over 100 per cent of the project. Sometimes the good guys get a win.

 

Egan Street Resources (ASX:EGA) +51%

Market Cap: $66.3m

In July, the $970m Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) lobbed an attractive takeover bid at high-grade success story Egan Street.

Egan Street is focused on developing its Rothsay project — a high-grade, underground development just 85km south-east of Silver Lake’s Deflector mine and processing hub in WA.

This deal valued Egan Street at 40c per share, giving it a $52.2m market cap.The Egan Street board unanimously recommended the offer.

In October, Egan Street received a competing takeover proposal from privately owned Adaman Resources. But Silver Lake — which had final dibs —just increased its final offer to 50c per share (or $68.3m market cap). Bonus.

 

Here’s the top 50 mining small caps for the month of November >>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop

CODE NAME % RETURN PRICE 01 NOV PRICE 30 NOV MARKET CAP
MTC METALSTECH 231 0.016 0.053 6.20M
AYM AUSTRALIA UNITED MINING 200 0.001 0.003 5.53M
BOC BOUGAINVILLE COPPER 160 0.098 0.255 102.27M
CNL CELAMIN 115 0.065 0.140 20.91M
GAL GALILEO MINING 86 0.105 0.195 23.47M
LIN LINDIAN RESOURCES 86 0.014 0.026 13.14M
MRQ MRG METALS 83 0.006 0.011 9.82M
MTH MITHRIL RESOURCES 67 0.006 0.010 4.90M
MRD MOUNT RIDLEY MINES 67 0.002 0.002 6.71M
EGA EGAN STREET RESOURCES 51 0.315 0.475 66.33M
MZZ MATADOR MINING 50 0.170 0.255 25.22M
CNJ CONICO 44 0.009 0.013 5.00M
ARL ARDEA RESOURCES 38 0.520 0.720 84.46M
A4N ALPHA HPA 38 0.145 0.200 126.42M
RHI RED HILL IRON 38 0.158 0.217 11.92M
KNL KIBARAN RESOURCES 36 0.070 0.095 29.18M
ORM ORION METALS 36 0.014 0.019 9.31M
HAW HAWTHORN RESOURCES 34 0.056 0.075 24.50M
DDD 3D RESOURCES 33 0.002 0.002 2.31M
AUL AUSTAR GOLD 33 0.003 0.004 13.56M
MAG MAGMATIC RESOURCES 29 0.140 0.180 27.57M
CMD CASSIUS MINING 29 0.007 0.009 2.59M
SRK STRIKE RESOURCES 28 0.039 0.050 8.36M
BAR BARRA RESOURCES 25 0.020 0.025 14.91M
MGT MAGNETITE MINES 25 0.004 0.005 4.31M
DAU DAMPIER GOLD 25 0.016 0.020 3.81M
BMG BMG RESOURCES 25 0.004 0.005 2.93M
TRL TANGA RESOURCES 25 0.002 0.002 4.67M
AOA AUSMON RESOURCES 25 0.002 0.002 1.58M
GBZ GBM RESOURCES 25 0.040 0.050 5.91M
HMX HAMMER METALS 24 0.021 0.026 11.41M
CR1 CONSTELLATION RESOURCES 24 0.210 0.260 9.10M
CKA COKAL 23 0.039 0.048 44.08M
SUH SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE MINING 23 0.022 0.027 2.49M
MRR MINREX RESOURCES 22 0.009 0.011 1.05M
NTU NORTHERN MINERALS 22 0.050 0.061 155.88M
NCR NUCOAL RESOURCES 21 0.014 0.017 13.07M
ADT ADRIATIC METALS 21 1.085 1.315 233.57M
NUS NUSANTARA RESOURCES 20 0.295 0.355 59.86M
MMI METRO MINING 20 0.125 0.150 207.73M
GMC GULF MANGANESE 20 0.005 0.006 31.11M
LML LINCOLN MINERALS 20 0.005 0.006 3.45M
RDS REDSTONE RESOURCES 20 0.010 0.012 5.69M
PEC PERPETUAL RESOURCES 20 0.030 0.036 11.45M
RWD REWARD MINERALS 20 0.100 0.120 19.51M
CYL CATALYST METALS 20 2.540 3.040 250.47M
BRL BATHURST RESOURCES 20 0.092 0.110 187.77M
EM2 EAGLE MOUNTAIN MINING 19 0.160 0.190 19.74M
TSL TITANIUM SANDS 19 0.016 0.019 12.07M
DAF DISCOVERY AFRICA 19 0.016 0.019 3.46M
Wordpress Table Plugin

Featured Companies

You might be interested in