Who made the gains? Here are the top 50 small cap miners and explorers for March

After a really strong start to the year, March was a mixed bag for commodities.

Copper prices hit two month highs, but gold and nickel lost some shine and uranium prices dropped to year lows (but don’t worry just yet, the overall trend is still upwards).

And despite the tsunami of electric vehicle/ battery-related news, battery metals had a disappointing month — vanadium is down, cobalt is still in the dumps, while lithium and graphite look pretty flat… for now anyway.

Our top 50 mining stocks for March are, once again, dominated by gold. In fact, stocks in our top 50 with a gold focus jumped another 6 per cent on last month.

Check this out:

In other words, quality gold and copper plays are the place to be right now.

TOP 50 HIGHLIGHTS

Small gold explorer Spectrum (ASX:SPX) acquired the historic Penny West gold mine in December last year.

Up to that point Spectrum had been spinning its wheels in a sort of exploration purgatory.

Spectrum had a diminutive $5.3 million market cap when it kicked off the maiden drill program at Penny West on February 20.

It immediately hit high grades about 150m north of the historic high-grade Penny West open pit, which had been mined in 1991/1992 for 85,000 ounces.

These results included 4m at 105.2 g/t gold from 151m, including 1m at 292.8 g/t gold from 153m. That’s bonanza grade (which is a made up term meaning ‘super high grade’, just fyi)

By the end of March, Spectrum’s market cap was $26.3 million.

An explorer to keep your eye on.

The Spectrum share price over the past 6 months.

It was a nice little recovery month for Australian heavy rare earths producer Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU).

The share price surged 107 per cent after Northern Minerals unveiled a maiden resource for the (appropriately-named) Dazzler deposit, which boasted grades three times higher than the Browns Range project average.

And Westfarmers’ failed $1.5 billion takeover play for global rare earths heavyweight Lynas (ASX:LYC) didn’t hurt.

That news sent a bunch of junior rare earths players, including Northern Minerals, on a bit of a late-month run.

The Northern Minerals share price over the past 6 months.

Before it jumped 100 per cent for March, gold and copper explorer Ausmex Group (ASX:AMG) was well and truly flying under the radar.

Ausmex has a solid plan; start by mining its extensive, shallow high-grade gold and copper deposits by the end of the year using spare third-party processing in Cloncurry, Queensland.

This early cashflow will help fund its main game – discovering gigantic iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits.

The kicker here is that mining giant Newcrest is right next door, currently drilling a massive IOCG target, Ausmex MD Matt Morgan told Stockhead in early March.

“I saw all the action. They drilled 8 holes, over 850m deep each from April to August and they have not released an assay,” he says.

“Newcrest drilled 850m diamond core holes. They cost a fortune.

“They had whole camps there. It was 24-hour drilling. If there was four dud drill holes I don’t think they would’ve kept going to eight.”

The Ausmex share price over the past 6 months.

Here are the top 50 mining small caps for the month of March:

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Ticker	Name	One Month Price Change %	One Year Price Change %	Share Price [01/03]	Market Cap [Million $AU]
SPX	SPECTRUM METALS	525.00	72.41	0.027	$26,279,546.00
VRM	VERDANT MINERALS	114.29	3.45	0.030	$33,112,844.00
NTU	NORTHERN MINERALS	107.50	0.00	0.083	$127,809,240.00
BMT	BERKUT MINERALS	101.30	-6.06	0.155	$8,419,083.00
GBG	GINDALBIE METALS	100.00	30.00	0.026	$38,990,564.00
AMG	AUSMEX MINING GROUP	100.00	133.33	0.140	$57,737,736.00
NCR	NUCOAL RESOURCES	100.00	33.33	0.026	$21,521,148.00
SRK	STRIKE RESOURCES	97.62	38.33	0.079	$12,062,744.00
CMC	CHINA MAGNESIUM CORP	95.00	95.00	0.039	$18,035,104.00
TIE	TIETTO MINERALS	80.95	2.70	0.180	$43,555,780.00
AWV	ANOVA METALS	77.78	-70.91	0.016	$10,226,116.00
PKO	PEAKO	66.67	25.00	0.025	$1,800,517.00
RES	RESOURCE GENERATION	57.89	55.84	0.110	$69,765,640.00
AGD	AUSTRAL GOLD	57.14	4.76	0.110	$58,759,032.00
HOR	HORSESHOE METALS	55.56	-30.00	0.013	$2,725,130.75
EMU	EMU NL	54.55	-23.60	0.070	$8,925,322.00
N27	NORTHERN COBALT	50.00	-81.82	0.063	$3,228,804.25
VAR	VARISCAN MINES	50.00	-70.54	0.002	$1,906,610.38
SHK	STONE RESOURCES AUSTRALIA	50.00	-25.00	0.003	$2,434,938.50
POD	PODIUM MINERALS	48.21	-17.00	0.083	$7,940,192.50
RND	RAND MINING	47.20	47.06	2.495	$150,070,448.00
EUR	EUROPEAN LITHIUM	46.07	-42.22	0.130	$72,632,896.00
AHQ	ALLEGIANCE COAL	45.24	12.96	0.061	$31,181,092.00
BBX	BBX MINERALS	43.75	31.43	0.300	$92,983,752.00
PEN	PENINSULA ENERGY	43.18	34.04	0.305	$77,164,664.00
KZR	KALAMAZOO RESOURCES	42.86	51.16	0.130	$11,633,515.00
KCN	KINGSGATE CONSOLIDATED	40.62	-31.82	0.228	$50,900,836.00
STM	SUNSTONE METALS	40.62	28.57	0.045	$54,669,456.00
WKT	WALKABOUT RESOURCES	36.36	68.54	0.150	$45,637,464.00
AUQ	ALARA RESOURCES	36.36	20.00	0.030	$18,870,528.00
TSL	TITANIUM SANDS	35.71	-9.52	0.019	$12,071,007.00
KOR	KORAB RESOURCES	34.48	-15.22	0.035	$12,045,383.00
MEI	METEORIC RESOURCES	33.33	-65.71	0.011	$7,997,469.00
LNY	LANEWAY RESOURCES	33.33	166.67	0.008	$29,440,528.00
DHR	DARK HORSE RESOURCES	33.33	-77.78	0.005	$7,904,346.50
AKM	ASPIRE MINING	31.58	257.14	0.026	$83,163,528.00
HAS	HASTINGS TECHNOLOGY METALS	31.03	-38.71	0.190	$147,834,384.00
CHZ	CHESSER RESOURCES	30.00	-5.45	0.052	$11,669,069.00
RMI	RESOURCE MINING	28.57	-40.00	0.009	$2,666,406.00
TLG	TALGA RESOURCES	26.53	-25.30	0.652	$135,356,192.00
DRM	DORAY MINERALS	25.29	87.93	0.535	$244,940,288.00
CYL	CATALYST METALS	25.13	90.24	2.340	$184,608,320.00
LI3	LITHIUM CONSOLIDATED	25.00	-25.00	0.075	$6,811,659.00
ARX	ARC EXPLORATION	25.00	-34.43	0.200	$5,050,146.50
E2M	E2 METALS	25.00	110.53	0.190	$15,141,588.00
AOP	APOLLO CONSOLIDATED	25.00	0.00	0.265	$47,869,136.00
EFE	EASTERN IRON	25.00	-54.55	0.005	$2,059,501.88
AUL	AUSTAR GOLD	25.00	-37.50	0.004	$16,951,552.00
KGM	KALNORTH GOLD MINES	25.00	-28.57	0.005	$4,471,200.50
MHC	MANHATTAN CORP	25.00	-80.77	0.005	$3,706,393.50