Mining winners of 2013

Our Winners and Losers of 2013 series takes a look at the highs and lows of the main markets over the last year. Here we look at the best performers in the mining sector.

The vast majority of mining company shares have posted negative returns over the year to 17 December, which makes those with triple-digit gains even more impressive.

So who are these companies bucking the trend in the mining sector?

Rare Earth Minerals +932%

The vast majority of Rare Earth Minerals' gains were achieved in the final third of the year when updates about the group's lithium project in Mexico started to pick up speed.

The first drilling programme at the Fleur-El Sauz Lithium Project in Northern Mexico was completed in August and REM said it had intersected significant lithium values in both upper clay and lower clay units.

Towards the end of August it increased its ownership of the project to 30% from 10% and since then has increased its acreage 1,800% under a deal with its joint venture partner Bacanora Minerals.

Now it has found the minerals, the next step is to become a producer of Lithium, and to sign commercial deals to supply it.

Caledonia Mining +691%

Caledonia Mining is the second highest gainer of 2013, up 691% in the year to 17 December. The company saw the bulk of its share price increase in April and May and since then has been tracking south. It is currently sitting in the middle of its 52-week range of 5.88p (recorded on 17 December 2012) to 90.25p (12 April) at 46p.

In its fourth quarter and annual results for 2012, reported at the end of March, Caledonia revealed a new record high annual gold production at the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, which it owned 49% of.

Gold production at the mine in the first quarter of 2013 was reported at 10,463 ounces in May, an increase of 14% on the same quarter a year earlier and well ahead of the planned target.

Meanwhile, first half production, reported in August was also ahead of target and had gone well at the start of the third quarter. Management said Blanket was on track to produce 44,000 ounces in 2013 - 10% higher than the previous guidance of 40,000.

SolGold +180%

SolGold has seen a couple of main spikes in its share price this year, one in September, followed by a correction in October, and another in November. For the past month it has steadily trickled lower and it is also midway between its high of the year (16p) hit on 4 September and its low of 1.02p last seen on 25 April.

Its high was hit after the company reported drilling had commenced at its Cascabel copper-gold project in northern Ecuador, which its 50%-owned subsidiary Exploraciones Novomining SA (ENSA) holds 100% interest in.

Chief executive Alan Martin said at the time: "This is the time that every junior explorer dreams of, to be able to drill test a target deposit that has the potential to be a world-class deposit."

Since then SolGold has reported multiple times about the copper and gold grades in the project, with its latest update on 16 December stating it had elected to proceed to 85% ownership of ENSA and was in advanced stages of planning stage two drilling, expected to start in March 2014.

Churchill Mining +120%

Like its namesake, the Churchill insurance dog, Churchill Mining must be saying "Ohhhh YES!" at its share price movement this year.

Similarly to the others, Churchill shares rallied earlier in the year and have now retraced their gains somewhat. The 52-week high of 49p was hit on 13 May while the year's low was seen on 21 December 2012. It is currently trading at 20p.

Back in May the company announced it had filed with the Arbitration Tribunal at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes to claim for damages from the Republic of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, in October the company presented its final results for the year to 30 June where it continued to focus on its application for redress from the Republic of Indonesia for the £1.05 billion of damages it quantifies its losses as.

So far the company has yet to be granted redress and the tribunal is yet to reach a conclusion.

Karelian Diamond Resources +102%

Karelian Diamond Resources shares had been steadily increasing in price through the year and spiked in early December, hitting their year's high of 3.5p on 10 December. Its low for the year of 0.46p was posted on 29 May and it is currently trading on 1.52p.

On 13 November Karelian, which is focused on Finland, announced its results for the year ended 31 May. It said further microdiamonds had been recovered at the Seitapera Kimberlite pipe, two of which were 60% broken indicating the possibility of larger stone sizes.

In its AGM, chairman Professor Controy, said: "During the past 18 months the company has made a number of positive discoveries in Finland that lead us to believe there is a very strong possibility of successfully achieving our aim of discovering a major diamondiferous pipe.

On 17 December it said it had submitted applications for an additional two exploration claim reservations in the area, where it hopes to discover major deposits comparable to the world class finds across the border in Russia.

For more in the series, read: Mining losers of 2013,Oil and gas winners of 2013, Oil and gas losers of 2013,Technology winners of 2013, Technology losers of 2013, Sector winners of 2013, Sector losers of 2013.