The market declined 2.43% Friday afternoon, placing it at a 0.55% gain for the year. But as market turmoil strikes, value investors can rejoice because more bargain stocks appear. That was the case this week, when five new stocks joined the Ben Graham Net-Net Working Capital Screener, after years when discounted stocks were hard to come by.

A valuation concept created by the founder of value investing, Ben Graham, a net-net working capital stock is one that is priced below its cash and short term investments, plus conservative estimates of accounts receivable and total inventory, minus its total liabilities,

Schneider Capital Management opened three new positions, hitting on the undervalued stock of a small-cap natural gas company that has experienced a surge in revenue.

Famed small-cap investor Arnold Schneider (Trades, Portfolio) began the positions in a portfolio of $456 million in the final months of the year.

Schneider bought stock for cheap in U.S. Gold Corp. (USAU), with an eye on recent geochemical surveys that provided some promising results. U.S. Gold has seen years of earnings declines.

Range Resources Corp. (RRC) is a Fort Worth-based producer of natural gas. The company, which has seen explosive growth

U.S. Gold Corp. (USAU) recently announced the results of its 2017 Keystone Scout drilling program.

Vice President Dave Mathewson revealed the project is massive: "The drilled intercepts bare many similarities to world-class gold deposits located on the north Carlin Trend and neighboring Cortez Trend deposits."

The north Carlin Trend and Cortez Trend are some of the most productive gold-producing areas in the world. The Carlin Trend is especially notable as North America's most prolific gold-producing area. The Cortez Trend is home to many highly productive gold sites, including Barrick Gold Corp.'s (ABX) Red Hill and Goldrush deposits.

So Mathewson's Keystone

Back in April, I took a look at U.S. Gold Corp., which had been acquired by Dataram (DRAM), as part of this analysis. I suggested that the company is one of the most interesting companies on the Nevada gold mining exploration scene right now, based on the involvement of a guru geologist in the space, David Mathewson.

Those familiar with the gold mining space, and especially the Nevada-specific side of the industry, will likely recognize the name – he's a geologist with more than 35 years' experience whose most notable role was head of exploration for gold mining giant

Spot gold dipped to $1,056 per ounce in November 2015. This price was the low point of a half-decade decline, which saw the yellow metal lose close to 45% of its value and at the same time resulted in a collapse in the value of many of the gold and precious metal industry's constituent companies.

This industry contraction had various implications for the sector – one of which was the dramatic decline in exploration spend. The chart below illustrates this decline:

Source

Put simply, gold miners weren't able to justify spending on