Though many wouldn't be surprised to see billion-dollar explorers De Grey Mining and Chalice Mining on the list, they weren't the two biggest movers.

The star performer of 2020 was recently recapitalised Brightstar Resources, with a 2400% gain as of yesterday's close.

It was formerly in the wilderness for years as Chinese-controlled Stone Resources Australia, but a project sale and debt restructure has allowed it to re-emerge with a goal to be producing gold at Laverton in the next two years.

It traded as high as 9c, but closed at 5c yesterday, giving it a modest market capitalisation of $21.8 million.

Leaving its 2020 run fairly late, Legacy Iron Ore catapulted to second on the list, with its entire 2250% gain notched up this month.

The Indian-controlled company was at less than a cent at the start of the month, but rose as high as 5c for no obvious reason.

In a December 14 price query, Legacy put the move down to the "rapid advancement" of its Mt Celia gold project in Western Australia, but it also holds an iron ore project.

If our list was generated using December 14 closing prices, Legacy would not have made the top 10.

CEO Rakesh Gupta took advantage of the big gain to offload more than half of its stake at prices between 1.6c and 4c per share.

De Grey was in third, up 1968.6% for the year off the back of the Hemi gold discovery in the Pilbara.

While still pre-resource, Hemi is being heralded as potentially the biggest WA gold discovery in more than a decade.

The company had been up well over 2000% until some of the heat came out of the gold market.

In fourth with a 1900% gain was Strickland Resources.

The company formerly known as Alloy Resources reinvented itself after acquiring projects in WA hot spots, the Paterson Province and Bryah Basin.

While well off 2020 highs of 13.5c, its Tuesday closing price of 4c was enough to see it make the list.

In fourth was Chalice, which soared in 2020 due to the Julimar discovery in WA.

Chalice was trading at just 19c in March when it announced a surprise discovery outside Perth.

The first drill hole at the Julimar project in Western Australia hit 19m at 2.59% nickel, 1.04% copper, 8.37 grams per tonne palladium and 1.11gpt platinum from 48m.

Chalice traded as high as $4.44, but last closed at $3.63, a 1544% rise for the year.

Just outside the top five was Vulcan Energy Resources, with a 1461.3% gain.

Vulcan is focused on its innovative Zero Carbon geothermal lithium brine project in Germany.

In sixth and the only other miner to rise more than 1000% was Auteco Minerals with a 1066.7% gain.

Auteco was a listed shell at the start of the year but acquired the Pickle Crow high-grade gold project in Ontario.

Other notable movers were Si6 Metals (up 900%), Surefire Resources (880%), Element 25 (776.5%), Estrella Resources (705%), Caeneus Minerals (700%), Predictive Discovery (648%), West Wits Mining (555%), Andromeda Metals (511%) and Suvo Strategic Minerals (500%)

There were another 11 companies up between 400% and 500% and a further 27 companies up between 300% and 400%.