Morning Briefing: A Tech-Led Sell-off in Asia Brings More Volatility Metals
Good morning and welcome back to the Mining Stock Daily morning briefing. I am Trevor Hall.
It's Tuesday, June 23rd.
It's an ugly morning across the metals complex. Gold is down 1.72%, off about 72 dollars to $4,119 an ounce. Silver is getting hit far harder — down 4.64% to $62.04. Copper is off 3.11% to $6.16 a pound, and even platinum is down two and a half percent. And notably, gold is not catching any kind of safe-haven bid here, even with a global equity rout underway — it's being sold right alongside everything else.
Because the story this morning is a sharp, tech-led sell-off that started in Asia. South Korea's KOSPI closed down nearly 10% — a 910-point drop from a record high just one session earlier — with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both falling more than 12%, and the Korea Exchange tripped circuit breakers, halting trading for 20 minutes. The damage spilled outward: the Nikkei fell around 3%, Europe's Stoxx 600 opened lower with its technology index down 3%, and it follows an overnight slide in the big U.S. tech names. With respect to that decline, as Peter Boockvar put it, all you have to do is look at the Korean market: roughly half the index is just Samsung and SK Hynix. While the KOSPI is still up about 95% year-to-date, the players in these two stocks are now heavily retail, each of the big two now has leveraged ETFs that can be traded, and margin debt in Korea has climbed to a record high. A lot of leverage and a lot of concentration in exactly the names everyone had crowded into.
That risk-off tone is colliding with a turn in sentiment from the sell-side on gold. This morning, Deutsche Bank cut its gold forecasts by as much as 22%, now seeing bullion around $4,300 in the third quarter and $4,800 by year-end — both still above where we are now, but a clear step down. It follows Goldman Sachs trimming its target last week, and the driver in both cases is the same: a more hawkish Fed, with rate cuts pushed out, alongside signs that investment demand for the metal is drying up. Gold now sits roughly 25% below its January peak. The structural bulls aren't capitulating — but the banks are clearly tempering the view.
We'll get to the news from the miners and explorers in just a moment, but first a word about today's sponsor.
This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by…Vizsla Silver.
Vizsla Silver is advancing the Panuco silver-gold project in Sinaloa, Mexico — one of the highest-grade silver development projects in the world. The project hosts the world's largest, undeveloped high-grade silver resource, and the company has been aggressively expanding its drill program to grow that resource ahead of a development decision. Learn more at vizslasilver.ca.
Here’s what you need to know today.
NGEx Minerals delivered another monster hole from its 100%-owned Lunahuasi copper-gold-silver project in San Juan, Argentina. Hole DPDH064 cut 1,540 metres at 1.17% copper-equivalent — including 88 metres at 8.65% — in the Saturn zone, alongside a separate 501-metre interval at 0.73% copper-equivalent in the expanding porphyry deposit. CEO Wojtek Wodzicki called it one of the most important holes the company has drilled, crossing the high-sulphidation system and continuing well into the adjacent porphyry, and confirming a large high-grade breccia body. Lunahuasi sits in the Vicuña District alongside the Caserones mine and the Filo del Sol and Los Helados deposits, and NGEx is part of the Lundin Group (TSX: NGEX, OTCQX: NGXXF). News Release
Energy Fuels has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VAC — Germany's Vacuumschmelze — from Ara Partners in a cash-and-stock deal valued at roughly $1.9 billion. VAC is an established permanent-magnet maker, and the deal links its magnet business with Energy Fuels' growing rare-earth mining, processing and refining platform — creating a fully integrated "mine-to-magnet" chain aimed at strengthening Western supply away from China. CEO Ross Bhappu called it a transformational moment for the company and the global rare-earth supply chain. The plan feeds rare-earth oxides from the White Mesa Mill in Utah into metal and alloy production, ultimately supplying magnets for defense, robotics, drones and electric mobility — and it lands just days after Energy Fuels secured a $725 million conditional government loan. The transaction is expected to close in early 2027 (NYSE American: UUUU, TSX: EFR). News Release
Sitka Gold continues to expand high-grade gold at the Blackjack deposit on its RC Gold Project in Yukon's Tombstone Gold Belt. Hole 125 returned 94.5 metres of 1.62 grams per tonne gold — including 2.0 metres of 11.85 grams — plus a second interval of 197.0 metres of 1.06 grams, including 2.0 metres of 9.95 grams. That pairing of broad widths with higher-grade cores continues to fill out what Sitka is shaping into an intrusion-related, bulk-tonnage gold system (TSXV: SIG). News Release
Talisker Resources pulled some bonanza-grade gold from its 2026 resource-conversion program at the Bralorne Gold Project in southern British Columbia — one of Canada's highest-grade historic gold camps. The standout: 85 grams per tonne gold over half a metre, within a broader 18.76 grams over 2.3 metres. The drilling is aimed at converting and growing the resource as Talisker advances Bralorne (TSX: TSK). News Release
Kirkland Lake Discoveries continues to extend its Mirado gold system, about 20 kilometres southeast of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. A 120-metre step-out to the south hit 79.63 grams per tonne gold over 2.1 metres, while a 100-metre step-out to the west cut a much broader 0.98 grams over 62.3 metres — again pairing high-grade shoots with bulk-tonnage width. The past-producing Mirado property carries a historical inferred resource of 10.6 million tonnes, and KLDC is drilling a 30,000-metre program across the property (TSXV: KLDC). News Release
And finally, Trident Resources intersected 1.32 grams per tonne gold over 132 metres — including 2.85 grams over 40.3 metres, from just 22 metres depth — at its Preview SW deposit, located about three kilometres southeast of the past-producing Contact Lake mine in Saskatchewan's La Ronge Gold Belt. Trident framed the hole as confirming both the high-grade and bulk-tonnage potential of the belt, where it's running a 20,000-metre-plus summer program across roughly 35 holes (TSXV: ROCK). News Release
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The Mining Stock Daily morning briefing is produced by Clear Commodity Network. It is distributed throughout the world through your podcast network of choice, and at Clear Commodity Network.
That's it for today everyone. Have a great day. Stay safe.
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