This article is written on behalf of Orestone Mining Corp., Goldquest Mining Corp., Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. and Almonty Industries Inc., and is for informational purposes only. Please see full disclaimer here.
Among the 47 stocks that have graced the stage in Stockhouse’s Weekly Market Movers in 2025, as of June 26, a choice few stand out for their differentiated returns year-to-date (YTD), shrugging off an environment of extreme economic uncertainty driven by Trump’s tariffs, lingering inflation and ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East.
Here are the top-five stocks on the list, in all their outperforming glory, having bested the TSX Index’s 7.17 per cent return YTD by between 20.9 times and 38.6 times:
- Orestone Mining (TSXV:ORS), C$5.92 million market capitalization, 150 per cent return YTD.
- Goldquest Mining (TSXV:GQC), C$266.79 million market capitalization, 185.71 per cent return YTD.
- Voyageur Pharmaceuticals (TSXV:VM), C$44.74 million market capitalization, 188.89 per cent return YTD.
- Santacruz Silver Mining (TSXV:SCZ), C$348.74 million market capitalization, 228.33 per cent return YTD.
- Almonty Industries (TSX:AII), C$1.12 billion market capitalization, 277.72 per cent return YTD.
- Data as of June 26, 2025.
Let’s take a closer look at these small-cap stocks to clarify why they’ve performed so well as of late and how investors should begin to size up a potential allocation.
Top-performing small-cap stocks through mid-2025
5. Orestone Mining
Our first top-performing small-cap stock, Orestone Mining, featured in the February 21 edition of Weekly Market Movers, is advancing a property portfolio prospective for gold, silver and copper in Canada and Argentina. Here’s a breakdown:
- The flagship Francisca property in Argentina holds promise for an oxide gold deposit mineable by open pit and heap leach recovery.
- The Captain gold-copper project in B.C. hosts a large primarily gold porphyry system that is both permitted and drill ready.
- Finally, the Las Burras property in Argentina adds large-scale copper exposure backed by historical drilling up to 296 metres grading 0.18 per cent copper, 0.042 parts per million (ppm) gold and 0.006 per cent molybdenum.
The company ties it all together with a management team whose track record precedes it, having been involved in identifying, acquiring, developing and/or producing a combined 14 gold and silver deposits and mines.
Why is Orestone stock in an upswing?
Orestone has been enjoying strong momentum in 2025 thanks to acquiring the Francisca property in February, quickly complementing this milestone with encouraging sampling in March.
This was followed up with a value-accretive institutional investment from Crescat Capital closed in June, which will help the company to advance Francisca closer to production, capitalize on record gold prices and potentially generate further shareholder value.
4. Goldquest Mining
GoldQuest, featured in the May 2 edition of Weekly Market Movers, is a mineral exploration and development company active on projects in the Dominican Republic.
Its flagship Romero gold-copper discovery produced a 2016 pre-feasibility study detailing an after-tax net present value of US$203 million based on a gold price of US$1,300 per ounce and US$2.50 per pound of copper, both comfortably below prices of US$3,328 and US$5.04, respectively, as of June 26. The project is estimated to house 840,000 ounces of gold in probable reserves, almost two million ounces in resources, as well as value-added copper, zinc and silver kickers.
The broader Tireo project, which includes Romero, consists of a 50-kilometre-long land package with little in the way of historical drilling and an abundance of highly prospective targets supported by mapping, sampling and surveying.
With C$15 million in cash as of January 2025, support from major shareholder Agnico Eagle Mines, and a leadership team with major miner experience well-versed in the Dominican mining industry, Goldquest is primed for delivering more market-pleasing grades as it inches its way towards production.
Why is Goldquest stock in an upswing?
The top-performing stock has been accelerating with positive momentum in 2025 thanks to ongoing exploration, initiated in April, with a wealth of avenues through which to tease out exploration upside.
Exploration will be bankrolled by an ongoing C$16.2 million financing (C$10.7 million closed), which will also fund the finalization of a bankable feasibility study at Romero expected by year end.
3. Voyageur Pharmaceuticals
Voyageur, featured in the January 10 edition of Weekly Market Movers, develops and commercializes barium and iodine active pharmaceutical ingredients for reliable and low-cost imaging contrast agents.
The small-cap stock, earning the middle spot on our list, is rapidly making inroads into an estimated US$6.3 billion market – which is expected to hit US$12.6 billion by 2032 – having passed human trials for its barium contrast products with flying colors, successfully introducing them to the market this past April.
Voyageur’s first commercial sale followed soon after in June, demonstrating its revenue-generation capabilities and driving the company to ramp up sales and distribution efforts, most recently highlighted by:
- An alliance with Altillion to form North America’s first vertically integrated iodine supply chain.
- A letter of intent with a Latin American distributor to jump-start global expansion.
As per its investor presentation for June 2025, Voyageur intends to become the first vertically integrated company in the radiology contrast media drug market, offering much-needed competition for market leaders China and India.
The foundation for this goal, Voyageur’s Frances Creek project in B.C., is home to an estimated 120,000-ton barium sulfate resource valued at C$344 million, representing 50 years of production, which the company believes it can produce at 10x lower cost than legacy methods.
Why is Voyageur stock in an upswing?
Besides the obvious catalysts of positive human trials, initial revenue and partnerships geared towards vertical integration, there has been a confluence additional factors nudging Voyageur stock higher in 2025. These include initial ore processing at Frances Creek, advancements towards potentially game-changing MRI contrast agents, as well as multiple instances of non-dilutive funding from warrant exercises and Alberta Innovates.
2. Santacruz Silver Mining
Santacruz Silver, featured in the February 14 edition of Weekly Market Movers, is in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing mineral properties in Latin America.
In Bolivia, the company operates the producing Bolivar, Porco and Caballo Blanco mining complexes, as well as the Reserva mine and the Soracaya exploration project, with current resources of more than 290 million ounces of silver equivalent (AgEq) and reserves standing at more than 53 million ounces AgEq.
In Mexico, Santacruz operates the producing Zimapán mine, which achieved record annual production of 4.4 million ounces AgEq in 2024.
Collectively, these properties produced 1,590,063 ounces of silver, 20,719 tons of zinc, 2,718 tons of lead and 279 tons of copper in Q1 2025, generating net income of US$9.5 million. This marks Santacruz Silver’s fifth-straight quarter with positive results under the metric, following US$29.86 million in Q4 2024, US$4.06 million in Q3 2024, US$1.54 million in Q2 2024 and US$132.66 million in Q1 2024.
Armed with about C$47 million in cash on hand and all-in sustaining costs of only US$22.34 per silver equivalent ounce sold as of Q1 2025, Santacruz is in a strong position to meet its goals for the year, including improving recovery rates and reducing costs in Bolivia, as well as enhancing concentrate quality and optimizing processing operations in Mexico.
Why is Santacruz Silver stock in an upswing?
In the stock market, there’s really no better proof of deserving a higher share price than growth and profitability, and Santacruz has delivered on both counts, reaching profitability in Q1 2024, and growing revenue by 8.5x from US$33.1 million in 2020 to US$282.99 million in 2024.
The top-performing stock’s efficient operations and generational silver resources and reserves point to continued strength, contingent on silver prices holding on to their newfound heights, last trading at more than US$36 per ounce, having gained about 25 per cent year-over-year and about 105 per cent since 2020.
1. Almonty Industries
Almonty Industries, featured in the January 31 edition of Weekly Market Movers, is a global tungsten producer disrupting China’s dominance of more than 80 per cent of the market for the critical metal, which currently trades at about US$45 per kilogram and offers applications spanning the mining, construction, auto, aerospace, chemical, electronics and military sectors. Here’s a portfolio breakdown:
- Almonty’s producing Panasqueira mine in Portugal hosts 22.5 million tons in mineralized resources and reserves and has been in production for more than 136 years. The mine is expected to almost double annual revenue to about US$40 million and production to 124,000 metric ton units (MTU) of tungsten trioxide (WO3) after ongoing upgrades to be finalized in 2027. For reference, one MTU is equal to 10 kilograms.
- Its Sangdong tungsten mine in Gangwon Province, South Korea, is slated to begin production in 2025 at estimated start-up capex of only US$120 million and cash costs of US$110 per MTU. The property houses one of the largest and highest-grade tungsten deposits in the world, coming in at 36,000 tons of WO3 reserves, 41,000 tons measured and indicated and 218,000 tons inferred. Sangdong also offers value-accretive upside from a molybdenum deposit on the property. Offtake agreements are in place for both metals.
- The pre-feasibility stage Valtreixal tin/tungsten project in northwestern Spain hosts proven and probable reserves of 9,000 tons, 10,000 tons measured and indicated and 26,000 tons inferred. Initial capex to get the project up and running is estimated at US$42 million, with annual revenue up to US$24 million over five years under the pre-feasibility model.
- Finally, the Los Santos mine in western Spain, under care and maintenance, adds another 7,000 tons WO3 in resources and reserves to Almonty’s growing contribution to the global tungsten supply chain.
With production at Sangdong around the corner, U.S. processing ongoing in Buffalo and soon Pennsylvania, as well as effusive support from the U.S. Congress, Almonty is well on its way to fulfilling its goal of controlling 7 per cent of global tungsten supply and 40 per cent of non-Chinese supply by 2027.
Why is Almonty Industries stock in an upswing?
Looking through Almonty’s 2025 news releases, we see the company strategically strengthen its conflict-free tungsten thesis by redomiciling to the United States, securing a partnership with a top firm to build government relations, and signing offtake agreements for tungsten with Tungsten Parts Wyoming and molybdenum with major player SeAH Group.
As Almonty ramps up production, current net losses – C$34.6 million in Q1 2025 – will have to show signs of decreasing and eventually turn positive, as operations benefit from greater pricing power, for the top-performing stock to maintain and build upon its recent meteoric rise.
On a final note
While markets have been somewhat stunned by tariffs through the first half of 2025, and remain cautious moving forward as trade deals progress at a glacial pace, the case is always strong for value creation being stock prices’ ultimate arbiter, whether that’s on the income statement, through exploration results, or through strategic deals that de-risk the future.
I believe the five companies profiled above are a reflection of this fundamental tenet, and it’s my intention for the dozens to come in 2025 to be a reflection of it too.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you on July 18 for a new edition of Stockhouse’s Weekly Market Movers, where I delve into companies that sat down with Stockhouse for an interview over the past week. Here’s the most recent article, in case you missed it.
Join the discussion: Find out what everybody’s saying about these top-performing small-cap stocks on the Orestone Mining Corp., Goldquest Mining Corp., Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. and Almonty Industries Inc. Bullboards and check out Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.