Morning Briefing: A Democratic Sweep Puts Trump's Minerals Policy in the Spotlight

Good morning and welcome back to the Mining Stock Daily morning briefing.

It's Wednesday, November 4th.

Gold is surging this morning back above $4,000 an ounce for the first time since late September, up nearly three percent to $4,043, as midterm election results and a weaker US dollar flow through markets. Silver is up more than four percent to $51.95 an ounce. Copper is gaining half a percent to $6.41 a pound. The dollar is at its lowest level in five weeks, amplifying the move in precious metals.

The headline from last night is significant for markets and for the mining sector in particular. Congressional Democrats swept the midterm elections, flipping both the House and the Senate and dealing President Trump a major legislative setback heading into the second half of his term. For the mining world, the implications land quickly on the critical minerals policy that has driven so much investment activity in 2026. Democrats have been explicit that they intend to use newly won committee leadership to investigate the Trump administration's critical minerals equity agreements, in which the United States has taken ownership stakes in foreign resource projects in exchange for security guarantees. Those investigations will mean subpoenas, document requests, and public hearings, adding real uncertainty into a dealmaking pipeline that has been a central theme for this sector. On the broader regulatory side, a Democratic majority in both chambers creates headwinds for permitting legislation, though the executive actions that have driven most of the deregulatory changes in mining remain intact for now.

Layered on top of the political shift is a fiscal picture that continues to deteriorate. US federal debt surged $422 billion in October alone to a record $40.6 trillion. Since July 1st, total federal debt has risen $1.2 trillion, averaging roughly $300 billion per month, or approximately $10 billion every single day. The debt-to-GDP ratio now stands at 123%, the highest level since the 2020 pandemic peak. And last week, the Treasury borrowed a record $839 billion through auctions of Treasury bills and notes, surpassing the previous all-time high of $834 billion set during the same period last year, with the majority of those proceeds going toward repaying holders of maturing bills. That is the fiscal backdrop against which gold is trading above $4,000, and it helps explain why the metal has held up structurally even through periods of price volatility.

 We will get to the news from the miners and explorers in a moment, but first a mention of today's sponsor: 

Today's episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by…Equinox Gold.

Equinox Gold is one of the world's largest senior gold producers, operating seven mines across Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. The company's flagship asset is the Greenstone Mine in northern Ontario, Canada's largest new gold mine in decades, which declared commercial production in September 2024 and is advancing ramp-up toward a nameplate capacity of 400,000 ounces per year. In the United States, Equinox received a positive Record of Decision from the Bureau of Land Management for its South Railroad gold project on Nevada's Carlin Trend, advancing a development asset that targets more than 130,000 ounces of annual production in its first five years, with first gold planned for 2028. Equinox Gold trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE American, both under the symbol EQX.

Here's what you need to know today.

Radisson Mining has reported drill results from the O'Brien Gold Project in Quebec's Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, with holes extending high-grade gold mineralization both beneath and adjacent to the former O'Brien Gold Mine. Results reported this morning included 44.18 g/t Au over 1.3 meters and 3.21 g/t Au over 11 meters within the Pontiac Group. In the Piche Group, drilling returned 3.19 g/t over 6.4m and 3.47 g/t over 7.6m. Radisson Mining trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as RDS. NEWS RELEASE

Great Pacific Gold has released a drilling update from the Wild Dog project in Papua New Guinea, reporting progress on the exploration program and advising that work is now advancing to the Elamaraka target within the broader project area. The Company has completed 16 diamond drill holes totalling approximately 3,600 metres at Magiabe and Mengmut during the current drilling phase, bringing drilling at Wild Dog in 2026 to more than 7,200 metres. Assay results remain pending and will be reported in complete batches for each target once all results have been received and validated. Wild Dog is a large land package in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, a province with a history of significant gold and copper discoveries. Great Pacific Gold trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as GPAC. NEWS RELEASE

Scottie Resources has released another round of high-grade drill results from the Blueberry Contact Zone at its Scottie Gold Mine Project in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, 35 kilometres north of Stewart. The two headline holes are from the Lemoffe vein systems within the existing 2025 PEA mine plan: hole SR26-539 returned 6.0 grams per tonne gold over 21.20 metres at Lemoffe 4, including 18.9 grams over 3.35 metres; and hole SR26-513 hit 14.4 grams per tonne gold over 8.00 metres at Lemoffe 1, including 24.1 grams over 3.75 metres. Beyond the mine plan, holes at Blueberry 5 and Fifi 2 have intersected high-grade material at extensions outside the currently modelled vein envelope, pointing to resource growth potential. The company notes that the 2026 drill program is now complete at 61,578 metres across 227 holes, with most assay results still outstanding. Those results will feed into an updated mineral resource estimate and feasibility study, both targeted for the first half of 2027. Scottie Resources trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as SCOT and on the OTCQB as SCTSF. NEWS RELEASE

Cupani Metals has released results from a historical data compilation at the Blue Lake copper-nickel-PGE project, with the company reporting that archives from prior exploration programs validate and confirm the presence of mineralization at the project. 57,000 meters in 575 historic DDH from La Fosse and Hollinger have been drilled on and around the Blue Lake mineralized zones. Cupani intends to use the database to compile an independent 43-101 mineral resource estimate in 2027. Cupani Metals trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange as CUPA.  NEWS RELEASE

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That's it for today everyone. Have a great day. Stay safe.