The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index moved up 4.95%, or 29.90 points, to a 633.84-point close, boosted by gains in commodity prices.
Spot gold edged up US$6.70, or 0.5%, to a US$1,233.99 per oz. gold close, whereas three-month London Metal Exchange copper contracts rose US$151 per tonne, or 3.3%, to US$4,786 per tonne.
Lithium X Energy led the value-added category, gaining $1.01 to a $2.53-per-share close. The company has permits for four exploration drill holes at its Clayton Valley North project in Nevada, and plans to execute the program before June.
The company also closed private placements in March for a combined $16.2-million value, and has announced trading on the OTCQB venture market in the U.S.
The surge in lithium exploration also spurred B.C.-based junior explorer Spearmint Resources to evaluate its recently acquired Whabouchi Lakes property in Quebec. The company saw 22 million shares change hands before closing up 1¢ to a 4¢ close.
Spearmint director James Nelson said in a press release that the district has gained “significant market attention,” owing to the success of Nemaska Lithium’s updated feasibility study on its Whabouchi property in Quebec.
The study sees a $1.2-billion, after-tax net present value at an 8% discount rate and a 30.3% after-tax internal rate of return, up 100% and 44%, compared to a study completed in 2014.
Junior explorer Great Thunder Gold topped the biggest percentage change column, gaining 8¢, or 650%, to 11¢ per share on signing a letter of intent to acquire a 2.3 sq. km lithium property next to Nemaska Lithium’s Whabouchi project in Quebec.
The company said it is contemplating the project’s first phase of exploration, combining geophysics and soil sampling.
Uranium explorer NexGen Energy was a front runner in the value-added category, gaining 58¢ to a $2.63-per-share close on news of a discovery at its growing Arrow deposit in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin. Drilling intercepted 8.4 metres of off-scale uranium mineralization within the A1 shear, marking it as the strongest and widest uranium intercept at the project to date.
The basement-hosted deposit hosts 201.9 million lb. (uranium oxide) U3O8 within 3.5 million inferred tonnes at 2.6% U3O8, including a high-grade domain of 120.5 million lb. U3O8 within 0.4 million tonnes at 13.3% U3O8, and remains open in all directions.
The company is transitioning from a 30,000-metre drill program to its first-half program comprising 7,500 metres of drilling.
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