Gold prices in 2024 have gained close to 30 percent since the beginning of the year, making it one of the best-performing assets for investors.
Several factors contributed to gold’s momentum, including increased central bank gold purchases, interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve in September and November and geopolitical tensions that sent investors to the safety of the precious metal.
What does this mean for junior gold companies? Although there has been some lag in translating higher prices into share price gains, several companies have seen outsized increases in 2024. The five companies below are the best performers so far this year
Data for this article was retrieved on November 26, 2024, using TradingView’s stock screener, and only companies with market capitalizations greater than C$10 million are included.
1. Adyton Resources (TSXV:ADY)
Year-to-date gain: 1,600 percent
Market cap: C$40.29 million
Share price: C$0.17
Adyton Resources is working to advance the Feni Island and Fergusson Island gold projects in Papua New Guinea.
The Feni Island site has seen historic exploration, with 212 holes drilled over 18,813 meters. While limited work has been conducted by Adyton, a 2021 resource estimate shows an inferred resource of 1.46 million ounces of gold. The company has been working to expand its gold resource and explore for copper at greater depths than previous exploration.
Shares of Adyton saw a sizable 1,450 percent gain in the first four months of the year. The company’s largest single-day jump of 244 percent came after the late April news that it had closed a C$1.5 million financing and restarted exploration at Feni Island. The company said the initial focus would be to reprocess and reinterpret historical data with modern geophysical algorithms in order to provide optimized locations for detailed follow-up programs.
While Feni Island has been its primary focus, Adyton has also been working to raise capital for its Fergusson Island project.
The project consists of two advanced exploration licenses for the Wapolu and Gameta targets, which host a combined indicated resource of 173,000 ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 540,000 ounces of gold.
The latest news from Feni Island came in a pair of news releases at the end of October. First, on October 24, the company reported that it had completed the Wardens hearings for Fergusson and Feni Island. The hearings are a required process for renewing exploration licenses and allow local landowners and stakeholders to provide input into the projects’ development.
This was followed on October 31 by news that Adyton had mobilized a drone team to Feni Island to commence magnetic imagery and topographic surveys of the site. The company said high-resolution data will assist in identifying magnetic anomalies and structures.
Adyton’s share price reached a year-to-date high of C$0.205 on November 10.
2. Black Mammoth Metals (TSXV:BMM)
Year-to-date gain: 970.59 percent
Market cap: C$31.24 million
Share price: C$0.91
Black Mammoth Metals is a gold explorer working to advance its US properties in Nevada, Idaho and California.
Its Happy Cat gold property is located in the Ravenswood Mining District in Ladner County, Nevada. The site covers about 1,213 hectares and hosts an approximately 4 square kilometer area where the company has identified a potential alteration zone.
The company also owns the Blanco Creek gold property in the Elk Creek Mining District in Central Idaho. The site hosts three historic mines along 3,550 meters of strike length. Additionally, in January, Black Mammoth acquired the America Mine property as part of its acquisition of IDA Mining. The site hosts a historic open-pit heap-leach gold and silver mine and is located in San Bernardino, California.
In 2024, Black Mammoth has expanded its property holdings in Nevada significantly. On March 28, the company announced that its subsidiary, Antelope Creek, had entered into an option agreement with Gold Royalty (NYSE:GROY) subsidiary Nevada Select Royalty, which will option the Quito gold property in Nevada to Antelope Creek in exchange for payments totaling US$900,000 over four years.
On September 10, Black Mammoth said Antelope Creek had signed a letter of intent with an arm’s length vendor to acquire the Raven property in Nevada, extending the company’s land holdings in the Ravenswood Mining District to 2,650 hectares.
Additionally, Black Mammoth signed an agreement to acquire the vendor’s Callaghan property, and signed an option agreement with Nevada Select to earn a 100 percent interest in the neighboring Charlie property, which will bring Black Mammoth’s position at Callaghan to 1,604 hectares. Black Mammoth announced the completion of the deals on September 24.
Shares of Black Mammoth reached a year-to-date high of C$1.25 on June 12.
3. Montage Gold (TSXV:MAU)
Year-to-date gain: 206.26 percent
Market cap: C$793.5 million
Share price: C$2.24
Montage Gold is a development and exploration company working to advance the Koné gold project in Cote d’Ivoire towards construction.
The project consists of six exploration permits and two applications over 2,259 square kilometers. In July, Montage was awarded mining permits covering 357 square kilometers, including the Koné and Gbongogo deposits.
On January 16, 2024, Montage published an updated feasibility study outlining the project’s development potential. The report demonstrated total probable reserves of 4.01 million ounces of gold. Based on a gold spot price of US$2,050 per ounce, the study’s financials outlined an after-tax NPV of US$1.46 billion, an internal rate of return of 39 percent and a payback period of 2.6 years.
Since then, Montage has been working on financing the project and has raised nearly C$1 billion through debt issuance, private placements and strategic partnerships.
The most recent came on October 23, when the company announced it had secured US$825 million in combined financing from partners Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX:WPM,NYSE:WPM) and Zijin Mining (OTC Pink:ZIJMF,SHA:601899). The company said the proceeds will be used for mining development at Koné.
Montage’s share price has steadily risen throughout 2024 and reached a year-to-date high of C$2.57 on October 30.
4. GoldQuest Mining (TSXV:GQC)
Year-to-date gain: 205.26 percent
Market cap: C$75.24 million
Share price: C$0.29
GoldQuest is a mineral exploration and development company focused on its assets in the San Juan province of the Dominican Republic.
Its flagship asset is its Romero gold-copper project, which includes the Romero North and South deposits in the central portion of GoldQuest’s larger Tireo project. Mineral reserve estimates from its 2016 pre-feasibility study indicate mine reserves of 840,000 ounces of gold, 980,000 ounces of silver and 62,000 metric tons of copper. The company has been working towards gaining an exploitation license for the project since March 2022.
Shares in GoldQuest have tracked the price of gold since the start of 2024 but had a significant boost following a pair of news releases in November.
First, on November 12, the company announced the Dominican Republic had made changes to its environmental regulations, which should allow GoldQuest to engage directly with the Ministry of Environment and advance the feasibility study and environmental and social impact assessments for Romero.
Then, on November 21, GoldQuest announced it had completed a C$8.7 million non-brokered private placement, which it intends to use to advance exploration and permitting at Romero.
Shares in GoldQuest reached a year-to-date high of C$0.29 on November 25.
5. Falco Resources (TSXV:FPC)
Year-to-date gain: 204.17 percent
Market cap: C$100.85 million
Share price: C$0.365
Falco Resources is an exploration and development company operating within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Québec, Canada. Its flagship asset is the Horne 5 polymetallic gold project, which consists of 67,000 hectares of land in the Noranda mining camp, and includes 13 historic gold and base metals mining sites, including the Horne mine.
A 2021 feasibility study estimates that the project’s measured and indicated resources stand at 4.89 million ounces of gold, 48.63 million ounces of silver, 176,982 metric tons of copper and 839,937 metric tons of zinc.
Shares of Falco saw gains early in the year following a news release on January 24, when the company announced it had executed an operating license and indemnity agreement with Glencore (LSE:GLEN,OTC Pink:GLCNF). Under the terms of the deal, Falco will gain access to a portion of land that it will use to advance Horne 5.
The deal will also establish a technical committee to ensure that operations at Horne 5 do not interfere with Glencore’s Horne smelter. Additionally, Glencore will gain the right to require remediation, suspension or risk mitigation in order to protect its Horne smelter. Glencore will also have the right to a seat on Falco’s board of directors.
On March 27, Falco confirmed the admissibility of an environmental impact assessment from the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks. It said it would be able to move forward with a public hearing process for the asset.
Falco reported the completion of the public hearing process on October 4. In the announcement, the company said that more than 90 briefs were filed with the Commission of Inquiry and noted that the proceedings were respectful and constructive. Falco said the next steps will be to review and address concerns raised in the hearings, adding that it will meet with the advisory committee to identify possible solutions and make improvements to the project. The final report is due to be sent to the ministry by December 26, with publication set for mid-January 2025.
On October 28, Falco reported that it was continuing to file documentation ahead of the December 26 deadline. Additionally, it said it was working on updating a 2021 feasibility study to account for higher prices in the gold and copper prices.
Shares in Falco reached a year-to-date high of C$0.46 on May 13.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.