The S&P/TSX Venture Composite index (INDEXTSI:) gained another 2.51 percent last week to hit 576.35 points. The Venture is now up 9.68 percent year-to-date.

In the mining sector, it was stocks that fared well last week. Northern Graphite (TSXV:) was the top-gaining stock for the week, followed by (TSXV:), Corsa Coal (TSXV:), Orca Gold (TSXV:) and (TSXV:).

Northern Graphite

Northern Graphite was up 88.64 percent last week to end at $0.415. Last Tuesday, the company the completion of a scoping study on its coating process. Coating is part of the process of converting graphite mine concentrate to spherical graphite, and spherical graphite is used in -ion batteries.

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Notably, operating costs for Northern Graphite’s process are estimated to be less than US$0.20 per kilogram. “Our proprietary coating technology performed very well in initial coin cell tests and we have now demonstrated that it is very cost competitive,” said Northern Graphite CEO Gregory Bowes in a statement. “The next stage is extensive life cycle testing in 18650 cells and assuming results continue to be positive, we will do a pilot plant test to optimize and refine operating parameters.”

Focus Graphite

Shares of Focus Graphite rose 62.5 percent last week to finish at $0.195. The company is focused on developing its wholly owned Lac Knife flake graphite deposit in Quebec. At the end of December, Focus  a non-brokered private placement, and in November, the company  no loss in lithium-ion battery capacity in long-term cycling performance testing of surface-coated flake graphite from Lac Knife. There has been no further news from the company that would explain last week’s price rise.

Corsa Coal

Corsa Coal is one of the leading suppliers of metallurgical coal in the US, with operations in the Northern and Central Appalachian regions of the country. Last week, Corsa’s share price gained 50 percent to reach $0.06.

The company released its Q3 2015 financial results on November 11 of last year, noting that it had achieved a positive adjusted EBITDA despite a very challenging coal pricing environment. However, there has been no further news that would explain last week’s share price rise.

Orca Gold

Sudan-focused Orca Gold gained 43.59 percent last week to close at $0.28. On February 1, the company announced the start of a preliminary economic assessment on its 70-percent-owned Block 14 gold project in the country. However, there has been no further recent news from Orca that would explain last week’s rise in share price.

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Los Andes Copper

Finally, Los Andes Copper saw its share price gain 42.11 percent last week to reach $0.135 on the back of strong drill results from its Vizcachitas copper- deposit in Central Chile. Highlights of results from the upper portion of hole V2015-08 include an intercept of 249 meters of 0.736 percent copper, 178 ppm moly and 1.4 g/t , including 54 meters of 1.023 percent copper, 190 ppm moly and 2 g/t silver.

Data for 5 Top TSXV Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday after market close using The Globe and Mail’s . Only companies with a market capitalization greater than $10 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the mining and precious metals sectors are considered.

Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: Focus Graphite and Los Andes Copper are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.

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