Since its launch in 1995, London's Alternative Investment Market has sought to attract a flock of small and medium-sized international companies to British shores.

However, last month investors watched aghast as the Aim 100 index took a hammering, falling to its lowest point this year.

With so much turmoil in the financial markets, we take a look at a handful of commodities companies that joined Aim five years ago and see how they have fared.

Stratex International (STI)

Stratex International was the first of the group to hit the bright lights of Aim at the start of January 2006, offering European investors the chance to tap into a gold and copper play in Turkey.

The company has spent its time developing a portfolio of high-priority prospects in the Eurasian country, with two major gold development projects under its belt; Inlice and Antintepe.

It kicked off drilling activities at its Inlice project in the south-west of the country in March 2006 with an initial 1,000-metre scout drilling programme which went on to unveil high-grade gold findings.

A year later it announced its intentions to acquire 100 per cent of Altinepe in northern Turkey from its strategic partner Teck Cominco's Turkish subsidiary.

By the close of 2007, the company had grown its gold resource base from zero to over 800,000 ounces and seen its share price soar to the 12p mark.

However, events took a turn for the worse as the share price plummeted in 2008 in the wake of the global economic crisis. Despite the company ploughing ahead with the development of its projects, a sharp sell-off saw its shares drop below the 2p mark.

But not one to be put off, Stratex spread its wings in September 2009 with its entry into Ethiopia through a 5.6 per cent interest in Sheba Exploration and by the end of the year boasted a total resource base across its assets of 1.17 million ounces of gold.

Towards the end of 2010, it signed an agreement with Thani Ashanti to fast-track development of its 2,780 square kilometre position in the Afar Depression of eastern Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Today the company is eagerly awaiting its first gold pour from Inlice in the first half of next year and has engaged in discussions with a Turkish company to fast track its Altintepe project - which in August enjoyed a gold resource increase to 593,131 ounces - after original partner NTF announced it was unwilling to commit to a feasibility study before Inlice comes into production.

In chairman Christopher Hall's own words: 'I look forward with great enthusiasm to the coming months as we see the results of the Ethiopian drilling and the approach of cash flow from the first of what we hope will be a series of Turkish gold mines. Both have the potential to transform the company and deliver value for shareholders.'

Solomon Gold (SOLG)

Solomon Gold made its Aim debut in February 2006 having raised £5 million. The copper and gold explorer was making a name for itself in the Solomon Islands, with four exploration licences under its belt at the time.

In the first six months of its listing, the company extended its exploration work and finalised drilling sites at Mbetilonga, discovered a new porphyry system at Sutakiki and identified a new target at Mbetsihata.

And events looked even more promising the following year, with shares spiking towards the end of 2007 after it made a spectacular high-grade gold discovery at Sutakiki.

But by 2008, Solomon had failed to shake off the wrath of the financial crisis, admitting that the situation had meant that raising equity funds for companies at its stage of development had become very difficult. Consequently, its shares slid to below 2p in the second half of the year.

In turn, this junior miner spent much of 2009 taking steps to develop its strategic direction to diversify and de-risk its gold assets. By June 2010 the company had secured an exploration licence over a highly prospective area over Fauro Island and acquired two 'nearer-term' gold projects in Queensland, Australia.

It was a move that has paid off for the company and indeed its investors, with its shares up an impressive 241 per cent during the past year.

In May of this year, it told investors that it was making progress across both its Australian and Solomon Islands projects, with drilling campaigns under way across the board.

And just a month later, it announced a 34 per cent increase in its inferred resource for its wholly-owned Central Rannes prospects Crunchie and Kauffmans-Homestead.

In its most recent update, the company unveiled further significant gold and silver intersections at its Kauffmans-Homestead prospect in Queensland, Australia as it moves towards its target of two million ounces.

Carlton Resources (nee Kimcor Diamonds)

Kimcor Diamonds floated on Aim in March 2006 having filled its coffers with a £3.35 million fundraising. Unlike its predecessors, Kimcor opted for the allure of South African diamond exploration to attract investors.

The company made its debut with two diamond projects already under its belt; Bellsbank and Van Zoelens.

At the time of its IPO, the former was already generating revenue and producing diamonds for the company with an eye to ramping up to 50,000 carats per annum following the construction of the processing plant at the end of 2006.

The latter, located close to Bellsbank, contained one proven kimberlite pipe and other pipe-like and alluvial targets.

But despite a promising start, just a month later the company was forced to issue a statement saying it knew of no reason why its share price had fallen sharply. It reiterated its commitment to its projects and just over a year later had acquired the diamond operations of Dwyka Resources for £8.7 million as it charged ahead with its growth strategy.

By mid-2008, the company said it had been 'delighted' at the significant progress made both in terms of new acquisitions and mining over the past years. It dubbed the new acquisitions as the 'foundation to transform Kimcor from a small-scale producer to a multi-mine operation that has the scope to become a mid-tier diamond producer'.

But in a disappointing twist to the story, the company announced in December 2008 that it would sell all of its existing diamond operations to Belmont Mining as it fought with the downturn in the financial markets.

As a result, KimCor underwent a transformation, changing its names to Carlton Resources in March 2009 and repackaging itself as an 'investing company'. But while it stressed its dedication to find suitable acquisitions in the minerals sectors, by mid-2010 the company had delisted from Aim after failing to identify a suitable asset.

Pantheon Resources (PANR)

An entirely different commodities company was oil and gas explorer Pantheon Resources, which listed in April.

The company was first formed in 2005 with an initial focus on the deep geological plays under and around Padre Island, South Texas.

To that end, it entered into a farm-out agreement for six defined exploration targets in an under-explored deep section of the Gulf of Mexico.

And with a taste for the region, in 2007 Pantheon farmed into two separate exploration ventures in South Louisiana, raising £0.9 million in November of that year to fund its drilling campaign.

But by 2008, the company had undergone a transformation of sorts, shifting its focus from high risk/high reward deep gas plays to a lower-risk extension/development play and unveiling a new chief executive, Jay Cheatham.

However, within a short period of time, the spate of encouraging development had given way to a series of disappointments. The Nottoway Dome well was abandoned for mechanical reasons, a well on the Point Clair prospect was successful and at Padre Island, increased risk factors and changed commercial terms forced it to back out of drilling the deep Manzano prospect.

At the same time, the oil and gas industry suffered the wrath of severe price declines and a sharp fall in demand as the major economies grappled with recession.

Nevertheless, the company ploughed ahead with its operations, confirming an extension of the adjacent Brookeland field into Pantheon's Tyler County acreage and achieving commercial production from its Jumonville #2 well on the Bullseye prospect in June 2009. It also raised a further £7.3 million to fund drilling on the Tyler County project.

But Pantheon was forced to admit last November that both itself and its shareholders had endured a 'frustrating 12 months' and the months since haven't proved overly successful for the company either, with shares down 37 per cent over the past year.

Nevertheless, the company has benefited from the dramatically higher oil prices towards the end of 2010 and in March it posted a near-halving in losses. It also reiterated its commitment to the drilling of the Kara Farms #1H well, the second at its Tyler County venture.

'The key for Pantheon remains to drill and bring the well into production. The board's confidence for the forthcoming well and project continues to be undiminished,' it said in a statement.

With site works now completed and casing acquired, the final step for the company is to secure a rig to drill the 15,500 feet well.

Horizonte Minerals (HZM)

May 2006 welcomed on board South America-focused Horizonte Minerals.

Its unique selling point? Its track record in partnering with major mining companies.

Since its inception, Horizonte has focused on identifying nickel and gold deposits in Latin America and then entering into joint venture agreements allowing the other company to incur the development costs while Horizonte retains an interest.

It made its Aim debut with three wholly-owned core projects under its belt; Tangara, Falcao and El Aguila. However, it was quick to add to its original portfolio after listing, with the Crixas and Lontra projects.

By mid-2008, Horizonte had made strong progress and said its strategy of working in tandem with majors was proving successful; first in its joint venture with Troy Resources on the Tangara gold project and secondly, in its joint venture with Barrick Gold (ABX) to explore the Pararapa gold-silver project in southern Peru.

But while its strategy was on track, its share price had veered off and was touching lows towards the end of the year, prompting management to note that they were 'cognisant of the performance of the share price and all efforts are being made to redress this situation'.

Luckily for both company and shareholders, it started back on an upward curve in 2010, bolstered by progress on the exploration alliance with AngloGold Ashanti (AGD) and a transformational deal in August 2010 to acquire 100 per cent of the advanced Araguaia nickel project in Brazil.

The company went on to combine the Araguaia project with its existing Lontra project, opening up the potential for a 100-million-tonne resource.

Today the company is fast-tracking the development of the project, having now defined a maiden resource of 76.6 million tonnes and has six drill rigs active on the resource drilling programme, which is due to be completed in the fourth quarter, along with a resource upgrade.

It has also commenced a 3,000 metre drill programme at Falcao gold project in Brazil with AngloGold Ashanti.

With a strengthened balance sheet thanks to a fundraising worth £8.25 million and a shiny new listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange in June, Horizonte believes its investment case 'is currently stronger than ever'.

Let's hope investors agree.

This article was written for our sister website, Interactive Investor