Last Friday (May 24), the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) was up by 5.66 points, or 0.94 percent, to reach 607.68.

News last week was dominated by late news that Prime Minister Theresa May quit following months of stalled Brexit negotiations with her own party, while trade war ructions between the US and China were driving rare earths values.

Speaking of commodities, gold enjoyed a weekly gain while those trade war shenanigans made base metals dive yet again, with copper falling almost US$150 from its weekly high.

Looking at junior resources companies on the TSXV, here are the top five gainers for last week:

• Meridian Mining (TSXV:MNO)
• Radius Gold (TSXV:RDU)
• ML Gold (TSXV:MLG)
• Namibia Critical Metals (TSXV:NMI)
• Leading Edge Materials (TSXV:LEM)

Read on to find out what each has been up to recently.

Meridian Mining

Meridian produces manganese from its Espigão project in Rondonia, Brazil, where it’s doing additional exploration and development work. The company also has interests in the nearby Ariquemes tin joint venture, which is part of Meridian’s “two-pronged strategy” for a multi-commodity regional exploration program.

The company’s most recent news was the increase in a loan facility to US$4.5 million — though that was back in April.

Regardless, Meridian’s share price was up by 105.56 percent last Friday, at C$0.18 over the week.

Radius Gold

Radius is a gold and silver explorer with four projects in the US, Guatemala and Mexico, where it has the Amalia gold-silver project.

Amalia has been the subject of Radius’ last three press releases, with a steady stream of news about its drilling project there. In early May, the company reported that it had intersected 44 meters grading 12.38 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 309 g/t silver.

On the TSXV last week, Radius was trading up by 65.85 percent, reaching C$0.34.

ML Gold

ML Gold is focused on exploration and development in North America and is currently focused on its Stars property in British Columbia as well as an iron ore project in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Despite the gold in its name, ML Gold’s latest news is all about its iron ore project, Block 103. The company reported last Thursday (May 23) in a corporate update that “recent increases” in the iron ore price mean that Block 103 is receiving renewed interest, so it is working on updating its preliminary economic assessment for the project.

In Toronto, ML Gold was up by 62.16 percent last week, reaching C$0.60.

Namibia Critical Metals

Namibia Critical Metals has a shotgun approach to commodities, with a portfolio focus that includes cobalt, copper, gold, lithium, niobium, nickel, tantalum, vanadium and rare earths.

In a release in March, the company announced it is advancing its gold, base metal and vanadium projects, though the company’s place on this list may be due to media coverage of rare earths and its role to play in China-US brinkmanship in the trade war.

Namibia Critical Metals was up by 60 percent last week, reaching C$0.16 by Friday.

Leading Edge Materials

Canada based, with assets primarily in Scandinavia, Leading Edge Materials has crafted a portfolio that skews heavily towards materials used in lithium-ion batteries.

It has three assets so far: the Woxna graphite project, the Bergby lithium project and the Norra Karr rare earths project, which are all in Sweden. In mid-May, Leading Edge Materials reported that it had received an engineering report for a battery graphite demonstration plant associated with Woxna.

On the TSXV last week, Leading Edge Materials was trading at C$0.16, an increase of 57.14 percent over the week.

Data for 5 Top Weekly TSX Stocks articles is retrieved each Friday at 10:30 a.m. PST using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies with market capitalizations greater than C$10 million prior to the week’s gains are included. Companies within the basic materials and energy sectors are considered.

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

Editorial Disclosure: Leading Edge Materials is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.