Morning Briefing: Metals on the Move Following Maduro Arrest
Good morning and welcome back to the Mining Stock Daily morning briefing. I’m your host, Trevor Hall.
It's Monday, January 5th.
Here’s your early metals market snapshot as of this morning’s trading — led again by strong safe-haven flows and renewed geopolitical volatility:
Gold futures are bid strongly, trading around $4,430z this morning, up nicely on the session as traders continue to price in risk-off demand.
Silver futures remain elevated near $75, reflecting both industrial demand support and safe-haven positioning after late 2025’s volatility.
Platinum futures are near $2,210/oz, crossing higher alongside other precious metals.
Palladium futures are trading around $1,691/oz, also up on the session.
Copper futures are stronger, with COMEX copper near ~$5.89/lb
Markets are reacting to escalating tensions following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. That event has triggered a classic flight-to-quality rally in gold and silver, with precious metals climbing on safe-haven flows and haven hedging demand. Brent Crude opened its market last night with a swift sell-off but has since climbed higher. Currently trading in an orderly fashion of $61 a barrel.
In other news, the U.S. has struck a deal to build a major new “U.S. Smelter” in Clarksville, Tennessee — a large-scale non-ferrous metals processing facility to handle silver and other raw materials from Latin America and beyond. The project is being developed with Korea Zinc and backed by U.S. government support, with approximately $6.6 billion in capital expenditures and total financing pushing the investment to around $7.4 billion. Once built, the smelter is intended to significantly expand domestic critical minerals processing capacity and support supply-chain security for silver and other strategic metals.
We’ll get to the news from the miners and explorers here in a moment, but first a quick word about today’s sponsor.
This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by… Integra Resources.
Integra is a growing precious metals producer in the Great Basin of the Western United States. Integra is focused on demonstrating profitability and operational excellence at its principal operating asset, the Florida Canyon Mine, located in Nevada. In addition, Integra is committed to advancing its flagship development-stage heap leach projects: the past producing DeLamar Project located in southwestern Idaho, and the Nevada North Project located in western Nevada. Learn more about the business and their high industry standards over at integraresources.com
And here’s what you need to know this morning…..
K2 Gold Corp has approved a $9.8M budget for this year. The approved budget is designed to aggressively advance the Mojave Project upon receipt of the final Record of Decision, while also funding drill testing of new high-priority targets recently defined at the Si2 Project in Nevada. Mojave represents a polymetallic mineralized system, hosting a 5 km long corridor of high-grade gold mineralization in the east and 5km of strike of high-grade copper mineralization in the west. K2's Si2 Project is a compelling analogue to other significant low-sulphidation epithermal gold deposits, including AngloGold Ashanti's Expanded Silicon Project. (TSXV: KTO) (OTCQB: KTGDF) News Release
Apex Critical Metals has received approval from the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment for its mineral exploration permit ("drill permit") at the Company's flagship Rift Rare Earth Project, located within the Elk Creek Carbonatite Complex in southeastern Nebraska, U.S.A. The Rift Project now covers approximately 3,500 acres across the Elk Creek Carbonatite Complex-an area with extensive historical drilling by previous operators, including Molycorp and Quantum Rare Earth Developments. Historical programs reported broad, high-grade REE mineralized intervals, including 155.5 metres of 2.70% REO and 236.2 m of 2.10% REO. With a permit now in hand, Apex has begun advancing all pre-drilling activities, with drilling expected to commence during the first half of Q1/2026. (CSE:APXC) (OTCQX:APXCF) News Release
Lavras Gold announced new assay results from its program on the Fazenda/Butiá Project at the Lavras do Sul Project in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The company says today’s results demonstrate broad, continuous zones of gold mineralization consistent with the geological model for the Lavras do Sul alkaline intrusive complex. Highlights included 190m of 1.01 g/t Au from surface, 65m of .88 g/t Au from a depth of 23m and 21m of 3.12 g/t Au from a depth of 42m. Results showed wide envelopes of continuous mineralization with periodic higher-grade intersections related to zones of more intense brecciation, alteration and generally higher sulphide percentage. Drilling also continues to enhance geological, structural, and metallurgical understanding across the Fazenda/Butiá Project. (TSXV: LGC) (OTCQX: LGCFF) News Release
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That’s it for today everyone. Have a great day. Stay safe.
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