Special Report
Top 5 Small Cap Mining Stocks for 2024
For those investors looking for high-upside potential from small cap stocks, one of the most interesting places to search is the mining sector.
The current investment landscape is one that has seen a spike in demand for battery metals (such as lithium and nickel) that has created a number of outstanding opportunities.
In addition, uncertainty in the banking industry – following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the United States – has given a boost to precious metals such as silver and gold thanks to their role as a traditional store of value and a potential hedge against inflation.
While large cap mining stocks have generated a great deal of attention lately, small cap mining stocks offer investors the potential for rapid growth, albeit with a corresponding increase in potential risk.
But for those investors able to tolerate some risk – or those looking to allocate a small portion of their portfolio to higher risk-reward opportunities – small cap mining stocks offer the potential for substantial gains in this environment.
What follows is a list of 5 of the top mining stocks to consider owning for 2024 and beyond. As always, be sure to do your own due diligence before investing in any stock to make sure it’s right for your financial situation and that it is consistent with your acceptable level of risk.
Top Stock #1: Atlas Lithium Corporation (Nasdaq: ATLX)
The explosion in demand for electric vehicles and the batteries that power them – has triggered a number of outstanding profit opportunities in lithium mining stocks.
Atlas Lithium Corporation (Nasdaq: ATLX) is focused on advancing and developing its 100%-owned hard-rock lithium projects which consist of 64 mineral rights spread over approximately 75,040 acres (304 km2) located primarily in the Lithium Valley area of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. In total, Atlas Lithium has 100% ownership of mineral rights for almost all battery metals including lithium (304 km2), nickel (222 km2), rare earths (122 km2), titanium (89 km2), and graphite (56 km2), in addition to mining concessions for gold, diamonds, and sand.
Early April saw Atlas report its best drill hole to date: 4.4 percent lithium oxide at Minas Gerais’ Anitta pegmatite target within Neves. Anitta was discovered in February and is now the focus of drilling to delineate a resource in and around the target.
Top Stock #2: Torex Gold Resources Inc. (TSX: TXG)
Torex Gold Resources Inc. (TSX: TXG) is an intermediate gold producer based in Canada, engaged in the exploration, development, and operation of its 100% owned Morelos Property, an area of 29,000 hectares in the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt located 180 kilometres southwest of Mexico City.
The Company’s principal asset is the Morelos Complex, which includes the El Limón Guajes (“ELG”) Mine Complex, the Media Luna Project, a processing plant and related infrastructure. Commercial production from the Morelos Complex commenced on April 1, 2016 and an updated Technical Report for the Morelos Complex was released in March 2022.
Torex’s key strategic objectives are to optimize and extend production from the ELG Mine Complex, de-risk and advance Media Luna to commercial production, build on ESG excellence, and to grow through ongoing exploration across the entire Morelos Property.
Top Stock #3: ATEX Resources Inc. (TSXV: ATX)
Recently, the Wall Street Journal wrote that “the next big bull market could be copper…demand, driven by green power, looks to outstrip supply growth.”1 This means that junior copper mining companies could have significant upside potential in the months ahead.
ATEX Resources Inc. (TSXV: ATX) engages in the exploration and evaluation of mineral properties in South America. Its flagship property is the Valeriano copper gold project — located in the Atacama region of Chile — which hosts a copper-gold porphyry deposit, as well as a near-surface oxidized epithermal gold deposit. ATEX is performing further exploration in Chile as well.
ATEX has continued a Phase 3 diamond drilling program at its Valeriano project in 2024, completing the first two holes in January; assays from the first were released in early February.
At the end of March, ATEX released further assays from its drilling. The third hole confirmed a new high-grade porphyry trend that ATEX has named the Western trend, and the company plans to define and extend the Western trend’s mineralization as the next step in its drill program.
1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-next-big-bull-market-could-be-copper-a8390fd8
Top Stock #4: Standard Lithium Ltd. (TSXV: SLI); (NYSE American: SLI)
Standard Lithium Ltd. (TSXV: SLI); (NYSE American: SLI) is a leading near-commercial lithium development company with a portfolio of projects in process. The Company’s flagship projects, the Lanxess Project and the South West Arkansas Project, are located in Southern Arkansas near the Louisiana state line.
The Company is focused on the evaluation and testing of commercial lithium extraction and purification from brine sourced from approximately 180,000 acres of unitized leases across these two projects.
The Company operates a first-of-a-kind industrial-scale Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Demonstration Plant at the Lanxess Project. The scalable, environmentally friendly process eliminates the use of evaporation ponds, reduces processing time from months to hours and greatly increases the effective recovery of lithium.
A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and Front-End Engineering Study (FEED) for Phase 1A of the Lanxess Project commenced in September 2022. A Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) of the South West Arkansas Project commenced in May 2022. The Company is also pursuing the resource development of approximately 45,000 acres of mineral leases located in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California.
Top Stock #5: Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSXV: CNC)
Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSXV: CNC) is advancing the next generation of nickel-sulphide projects to deliver nickel required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless-steel markets.
Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel in low political risk jurisdictions.
Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp.
The company was founded just over three years ago yet in that very short timeframe, it has taken the Crawford project from drillhole to one of the largest nickel-sulfide discoveries ever and the largest since the early 1970s.