Rare earth elements are important both for high-tech sectors, including electric cars, defence and electronics, smartphones and wind turbines, and for the carbon-free economy of the future. As technology continues to advance, demand for rare earths is expected to remain high.
On the supply side, China still accounts for more than 50 per cent of global refined rare earth production in 2025. In response to the high tariffs enacted by US President Donald Trump, the Chinese government has imposed the latest round of export controls on strategic minerals, fuelling instability in the rare earths market. It has also fuelled interest from local miners, producers and refiners in North America.
In this article, we’ve rounded up the Canadian rare earth metals companies with the biggest share price gains on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) over the past year (as of May 6).
Yearly gain: 173.97 percent
Market cap: C$147.88 million
Share price: C$2.00
Founded in 2006, Ucore Rare Metals focuses on rare earth element processing and exploration in North America, with operations in the U.S. and Canada.
Following the acquisition of Innovation Metals in 2020, the company has accelerated the commercialisation of its RapidSX separation technology, which provides efficient purification of heavy rare earth elements with superior ESG scores.
In January 2025, Ucore was awarded a C$500,000 Critical Minerals Innovation Fund grant from the Government of Ontario, Canada, to optimise the performance of the RapidSX demonstration plant in Ontario. Shortly thereafter, the company completed a 3.6 million share private placement (C$0.60/share) to raise C$2.16 million to accelerate technology iteration.
Driven by technological breakthroughs and favourable policies, the company’s share price hit a new yearly high of C$2.02 on 4 May 2025, up 180% from a year earlier.
Yearly gain: 127.78 percent
Market cap: C$47.57 million
Share price: C$0.20
Vancouver-based Leading Edge Materials is focused on the development of three key raw materials projects in the European Union. The project portfolio includes the wholly-owned Norra Kärr heavy rare earth (HREE) project and the Woxna graphite mine in Sweden, and the company also owns a 51 per cent stake in the Bihor Sud nickel-cobalt project in Romania.
In January, Leading Edge reported its 2024 results and noted that it had applied to the Swedish Mining Inspectorate for a 25-year mining concession for the Norra Kärr mine. Leading Edge’s shares hit a new high for the year of C$0.30 on 23 March, when news broke that the company was awaiting a decision on the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act decision on the application for strategic status for the Norra Kärr project.
A few days later, the company was informed that the Norra Kärr project had not been granted the designation; however, the company plans to reapply for strategic project status when it receives a new round of application materials.
Yearly gain: 87.5 percent
Market cap: C$117.46 million
Share price: C$0.30
Mkango is a leader in the production of recycled rare earth magnets, alloys and oxides. The company holds approximately 79.4 per cent of Maginito, which owns HyProMag, a UK-based company specialising in the recycling of rare earth magnets. In addition, its subsidiary Lancaster Exploration signed the Songwe Hill Mining Development Agreement in June 2024 with the Malawi government.
Mkango is also developing the Pulawy rare earth separation project in Poland through its subsidiary Mkango Polska.
In January, Mkango’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Lancaster Exploration and Mkango Polska, signed a non-binding letter of intent with special-purpose acquisition firm Crown PropTech Acquisitions to merge their businesses and list them on NASDAQ. The deal will create a vertically integrated rare earths company with plants at Songwe Hill in Malawi and Pulawy in Poland.
On 25 March, the European Commission granted Mkango’s Pulawy rare earth separation project in Poland strategic project status under the Critical Raw Materials Act, highlighting the importance of the project to the EU supply chain and will simplify the licensing process while improving access to finance and support from EU institutions and potential offtakers. The company’s share price reached a yearly high of C$0.41 on 13 April 2025.
