Top 5 Junior Copper Stocks on the TSXV in 2026
Junior copper stocks are seeing significant support from the copper supply and demand story in 2026 as companies look to make the next big discovery of the red metal.
Copper prices soared at the start of the year amid an increasingly tight supply situation.
The expectation is that copper demand will continue to rise over the coming years as more sectors, including the energy transition and AI, compete for the limited supply.
Copper demand is also expected to see sustained growth driven by modernization and rapid urbanization, particularly in the global south.
Meanwhile, there are few new discoveries and even fewer new mines on the horizon, and grades at existing mines are declining.
How has the shifting copper market affected small-cap copper companies on the TSX Venture Exchange? Read on to learn about the five best-performing junior copper stocks since the start of 2026.
Data for this article was gathered on March 16, 2026, using TradingView’s stock screener, and copper companies with market caps of over C$10 million at that time were considered.
1. Oreterra Metals (TSXV:OTMC)
Year-to-date gain: 164 percent
Market cap: C$22.31 million
Share price: C$0.66
Oreterra Metals, formerly Romios Gold Resources, is an exploration company advancing its flagship Trek South copper-gold porphyry project in Northwest British Columbia, Canada. Its copper portfolio also includes the Kinkaid and Lundmark projects in Nevada, US, and Ontario, Canada, respectively.
The company officially changed its name at the start of February following a half-year restructuring.
Its Trek South prospect is located on its 6,379 hectare Trek property in BC’s Golden Triangle. Exploration efforts since 2021 have identified a 1.6 kilometer by 1 kilometer zone of “intense porphyry-style alteration” with mineralized veins and wallrock containing visible copper throughout the area.
On January 22, the company reported it completed a technical report for the Trek South property that recommended a two-phase, widely spaced approach for the company’s first-ever drilling program at the site.
Phase one of the program will consist of 4,650 meters across eight holes, which it says will target a prominent magnetic anomaly. This will be quickly followed by a second phase consisting of 4,600 meters across a further eight holes, aimed at expanding the phase one area through step-back and step-out drilling.
To fund the drill program, Oreterra raised C$9.7 million through an over-subscribed, two-tranche non-brokered private placement it closed on March 2.
Oreterra has also been carrying out exploration work at its Kinkaid copper-gold project in Nevada. The property consists of 131 claims covering 1,101 hectares in the Walker Lane Trend.
On March 17, Oreterra announced assay results from recent fieldwork at Kinkaid that outlined epithermal gold mineralization above copper-gold porphyry intrusive centers.
Shares in Oreterra reached a year-to-date high of C$0.70 on February 3 in…