Morning Briefing: Meridian Mining Expands Santa Helena

Good morning and welcome back to the Mining Stock Daily morning briefing. I am Trevor Hall. 

It's Wednesday, June 17.

Gold is meeting resistance at $4,345 an ounce this morning — the metal has been pressing against this level since Monday's surge and hasn't found the catalyst to break through. Silver is down a quarter percent to $69.89, and copper is up two-tenths of a percent to $6.51 a pound.

Protesters from Mongolia's Radical Reform Movement have blocked copper exports from Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine — one of the world's largest copper operations — pushing for a greater share of mining revenue for Mongolians in a country where poverty persists despite significant mineral wealth.

Rare-earth refiner Phoenix Tailings has received a conditional $500 million loan from the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital to build a domestic rare-earth midstream processing facility — being called the Freedom Facility. It's part of a broader US government effort to break China's stranglehold on rare earth processing, which remains one of the more significant strategic vulnerabilities in the critical minerals supply chain.

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…Equinox Gold.

Equinox Gold is a Canadian multi-mine gold producer with operations across the Americas, including Greenstone in Ontario and Valentine in Newfoundland. The company is currently advancing a combination with Orla Mining that would create a new senior gold producer targeting over 1.1 million ounces of annual production from six North American mines — a deal expected to close in Q3 2026. Learn more at equinoxgold.com.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Meridian Mining has expanded the upside at its Santa Helena VMS system in Mato Grosso, Brazil with the discovery of a second distinct layer of gold-silver and zinc-lead mineralization — drill hole CD-869 returned 7.2 metres at 1.4 grams per tonne gold, 24.3 grams per tonne silver, 2.3% zinc and 0.9% lead from 177.6 metres, with the interval containing visible gold — the first appearance of visible gold reported at Santa Helena. The new layer sits below and east of the existing Santa Helena Central resource, confirming the system has a second mineralized horizon and adding meaningful scale to the project's resource potential (TSX: MNO, OTCQX: MRRDF). News Release

Kenorland Minerals and Auranova Resources have announced a large intrusion-related gold discovery at the South Uchi Project in Red Lake, Ontario, with Phase 3 assay results defining the 'North Papa' gold system — featuring broad mineralized intervals, high-grade shoots, approximately one kilometre of confirmed strike, and a footprint extending across a roughly seven-kilometre Papaonga target area. Follow-up geophysical surveys and additional drilling are planned for Q3 2026, with the discovery adding to a Papaonga corridor that previous drilling had shown returning grab samples up to 14.4 grams per tonne gold (Kenorland: TSXV: KLD, OTCQX: KLDCF; Auranova: TSXV: AURA). News Release

Banyan Gold has intersected 5.58 grams per tonne gold over 21.7 metres in a new high-grade zone at the Powerline Deposit within the AurMac Project in Yukon, adding a high-grade core to what is already one of the largest bulk-tonnage gold deposits in Canada's North. AurMac's May 2026 resource stands at 3.6 million ounces indicated at 0.68 grams per tonne and 5.0 million ounces inferred at 0.58 grams per tonne (TSXV: BYN, OTCQB: BYAGF). News Release

District Metals has received a drill permit for the Österkälen Mineral License at its Alum Shale Properties in central Sweden, clearing the way for the first-ever drill testing of a conductive anomaly measuring approximately eight kilometres in length and up to 3.5 kilometres in width — identified by a 2025 MobileMT geophysical survey and never previously drill tested. Drilling is expected to commence in late June or early July 2026, with Arctic DS AB contracted to conduct the core program (TSXV: DMX, OTCQX: DMXCF). News Release

Collective Mining has confirmed that construction of the planned exploration adit at the Guayabales Project in Antioquia, Colombia is on track to break ground in Q4 2026, with detailed engineering studies and execution plans advancing and permitting progressing — the adit will provide underground access to test the Apollo porphyry copper-gold system from below. The company has also appointed Josué Romanos as Vice President, Projects, bringing 32 years of major capital project experience from leadership roles at Ecopetrol, BP Exploration and PetroSantander (TSX: CNL, NYSE: CNL). News Release

Kingfisher Metals has commenced its 2026 exploration program at the HWY 37 and Forrest Kerr projects in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, launching a 15,000-metre diamond drilling campaign targeting the newly discovered Hank porphyry copper-gold system across a combined land package of more than 1,100 square kilometres. The program also includes new Magnetotelluric and magnetic surveys covering approximately 1,350 line-kilometres and LiDAR acquisition over roughly 550 square kilometres to advance the broader regional target pipeline (TSXV: KFR, OTCQB: KGFMF). News Release

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.

The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining Stock Daily and its affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.