It was a tumultuous week for the S&P/TSX Venture Composite index (INDEXTSI:JX). Overall, the index lost just over 1 percent to close at 483.67 points. 

Still, a number of junior mining companies managed to come out on top. Wealth Minerals (TSXV:WML) was the top gaining stock from the mining sector last week, followed by Orex Minerals (TSXV:REX), Nevada Exploration (TSXV:NGE), Zenyatta Ventures (TSXV:ZEN) and Tirex Resources (TSXV:TXX).

From-LME-Copper-to-Copper-ETFs-copy  Updated December 2015

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Wealth Minerals

Wealth Minerals is an early stage exploration company with gold projects in Quebec and Peru and a silver project in Mexico. The company closed a private placement at the end of December for $540,000, but there has been no further recent news that would explain last week\’s price rise. Shares of Wealth Minerals gained 47.06 percent last week to close at $0.25

Orex Minerals

Orex Minerals was up 44.83 percent to $0.210 last week. The company holds a number of gold, silver and copper exploration projects in Mexico and Canada, including the Coneto, Sandra Escobar, and Jumping Josephine gold projects. The company began drilling at its Sandra Escobar silver project on December 10, but there has been no further news from the company that would have explained last week\’s share price rise.

Nevada Exploration

Nevada Exploration is focused on using its proprietary hydrogeochemistry (groundwater chemistry) exploration technology to explore for gold in Nevada. It holds a number of exploration projects in the state, including the Grass Valley, Kelly Creek and Hot Pot projects. The company closed a private placement for $363,825 on December 29, but has not put out any recent news to explain last week\’s price rise. Nevada Exploration gained 27.59 percent last week to close at $0.37.

Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV:LA) is the largest undeveloped copper project in South America not controlled by majors with excellent local and regional infrastructure: water, power, smelters and ports. Connect with Los Andes Copper to get updates on their development.

Zenyatta Ventures

Shares of Zenyatta Ventures gained 23.29 percent to finish at $0.9 last week. The graphite development company is focused on advancing its Albany deposit in Northeastern Ontario. Most recently, Zenyatta reported on December 22 that experts at Lakehead University had confirmed comparable properties of Albany Graphite Crystals to existing synthetic graphite.

“Evidence has shown that Zenyatta has discovered a sub-class of a hydrothermal graphite deposit unlike any other,” stated Dr. Andrew Conly. “Igneous breccia-hosted graphite deposits like Albany are rare, and to the best of my knowledge, none are currently being mined or even in an advanced stage of exploration globally.” There has been no further news to explain the