Tim Hoff’s Diggers Wish List: Gold, Copper, and Lithium
Canaccord Genuity mining analyst Tim Hoff has revealed his latest shortlist of ASX mining stocks for 2026, focusing on copper, gold, and lithium despite current market volatility. The analyst joins Stockhead each year at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie to discuss opportunities in the emerging resources sector. This year, Hoff has selected eight companies ranging from small caps to larger entities, betting on a stabilization of commodity prices.
Hoff’s track record over the last three years has been strong, though not without significant swings. His first virtual portfolio, launched in 2023, included Spartan Resources, Azure Minerals, and WA1 Resources, generating a 116% gain by August 2024. Had a hypothetical $10,000 investment been made in that group in equal proportions, it would have become $21,600. The following year, a more challenging market for the 14 stocks in his sights resulted in a more moderate 10.85% return, reaching $23,944 as of August 2025.
Running a tighter five-stock portfolio in 2025, Hoff selected Prospect Resources, Loyal Metals, Torque Metals, Lion Rock Minerals, and TSX-listed Q2 Metals. This strategy yielded a 67% overall gain. The performance was driven by specific successes, including a 33% lift in Zambian copper hopeful Prospect and a 265% increase for Q2 Metals after it delivered a maiden resource for its Cisco lithium project in Quebec. However, losses on Lion Rock (-68%) and Torque (-29%) were notable, illustrating the high-risk nature of the sector. The virtual portfolio, minus fees and taxes, ultimately grew to nearly $40,000, nearly four times the initial investment.
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“It’s been an interesting market the last year. It goes to show why diversification matters,” Hoff said. “We had some winners, we had some losers. But I think right now there’s a lot of uncertainty. The market’s sort of pulled back and it’s poised to have a look at the end of the year and so we’re looking for opportunities in this pullback where we can buy some value.”
Lithium’s re-run
Hoff believes lithium is back in vogue after spodumene prices ran from cyclical lows of US$575/t in June 2025 to almost US$2900/t in May before returning to US$2050/t. He sees a logical place for value in the sector as big miners’ prices have come off hard. For a baseline play, Hoff is looking at Pilbara Minerals (PLS Group (ASX:PLS)), citing its production, growth, and team management. On the riskier end of the spectrum, he points to Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X), which plans to use direct lithium extraction technology to develop a project in Bolivia’s unloved Lithium Triangle.
“We think that’s a really interesting play. It’s a frontier jurisdiction, look it as high risk, but with high risk sometimes does come high reward,” Hoff said.
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Copper kings
Copper is the central play for large caps, with the red metal at the heart of M&A activity as benchmark prices on the LME sit near US$14,066.50/t. Demand from AI and electrification has increased the need for new mine development. Hoff is looking further down the curve at emerging operators with heap leach projects, specifically Chile-focused Cobre (ASX:CBE) and Western Australia’s Cyprium Metals (ASX:CYM). Cobre acquired the Sierra Atacama mine in Chile last year, while Cyprium is reviving the Nifty mine in the Pilbara.
“Once those are ramped up and they’ve proven their operations, there’s this interesting dynamic where they’re going to be looking to expand those,” Hoff said. “And so we see these guys being able to push production towards 50,000 tonnes of copper (per annum). We really don’t have a lot of that in the ASX.”
Golden daze
Gold remains a major feature despite a pullback in sentiment following the Iran War, which has made the precious metal feel like it’s trading at US$4000/oz. Hoff views several mid-tier and emerging gold stocks as cheap after their recent pullbacks. He highlighted Alkane Resources and Ramelius Resources as solid businesses building a base, suggesting they could outperform as gold rallies later in the year.
For a more speculative play, Hoff chose Falcon Metals (ASX:FAL), a spinoff from Chalice Mining that has made high-grade discoveries at its Blue Moon project north of the Bendigo gold field in Victoria. “Really interesting exploration ground, doing some interesting things, got a few things that they’re looking at. So that’s a bit of a wilder swing, but as we know, that’s where sometimes the gains are made,” Hoff said.
Rebalance
The final company on Hoff’s roster is WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1), which is progressing a potentially world-class niobium discovery at Luni in Western Australia’s frontier West Arunta province. The analyst suggests rebalancing the portfolio by including WA1 again, noting the company has good news flow coming up over the next year regarding a study update or pre-feasibility study.
“Sold off, it’s got some good news flow coming up over the course of the next year around a study update, or a PFS. That will give the market some economics to look at to assess this project and hopefully prove our thesis right, which is… this is a global scale project that we think will be really interesting to the broader market.”
