TSXV rises during the June 26-30 trading week 

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index gained 19.34 points or 3.2% over the June 26-30 trading session to end at 621.33. 

Sigma Lithium led the week’s value gainers, adding $4.81 to close at $53.28 per share. The company’s stock is riding high, having gained 166% in the past 12 months on positive lithium sentiment for the battery-making ingredient. Most recently, Sigma reported in late May it had received payment on its first shipment under a three-year environmental offtake agreement on what it calls “green tailings” to China’s Yahua International Investment and Development. The company says the high-purity tailings, generated by its Greentech processing plant at its Grota do Cirilo mine in Brazil, have 1.3% lithium oxide content, with zero chemical byproducts, and an ultra-fine consistency g. Sigma began production of spodumene concentrate in April and is ramping up to full capacity in July. The company uses 100% renewable energy, 100% recycled water and at the plant and dry stacks its tailings. 

Staying with the battery metals producers, Power Metals was this week’s top-trading issue, seeing 9.9 million shares change hands to close 10¢ higher at 42¢ per share. The company has also had a strong run in the year, doubling in the past 12 months despite coming off a recent high at 51¢ per share. The company is active at its Case Lake project in northeastern Ontario this summer, having mobilized a team early in June. Activities planned include a high-resolution airborne magnetic survey to locate structural corridors that host lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites.  A detailed remote sensing survey will involve the acquisition of high-resolution aerial imagery, and LiDAR data will be completed by KBM Resources Group later this month and prospecting and geological mapping in June. The company is fully budgeted for a 15,000-meter drill program expected to start late in the summer. 

New Found Gold was the week’s second-best value gainer, adding 37¢ to close at $6.59 per share. The company has been making strides at its flagship Queensway project in Newfoundland, where it outlined an extension of the Iceberg zone with high-grade intercepts late in May. Following further extensions at Iceberg and the Keats West zone, most significantly, New Found announced a new high-grade surface discovery at the new Jackpot zone on June 22. The company reported that hole NFGC-23-1292 cut 95.7 grams gold per tonne over 3.25 metres from 20 metres depth. The discovery sits along the northern segment of the highly prospective Appleton Fault Zone. The company is conducting a follow-up program, with assay results already pending for several intervals.