Morning Briefing: Severe Winter Weather in South America Tightens Physical Copper Supply

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

It's Wednesday, July 22.

Gold is up 1% this morning to $4,119 an ounce. Silver is up just under 1% to $59.32. Copper is slightly lower at $6.47 a pound — more on why that's interesting in a moment.

The story worth paying attention to in gold right now is not just the price — it's the context around it. Gold was higher yesterday alongside rising interest rates and a strengthening U.S. Dollar Index. That combination is usually bearish for gold. When rates rise and the dollar strengthens, gold historically comes under pressure. The fact that it's doing the opposite suggests a different kind of buyer is in the market — likely China and global central banks, who are less sensitive to dollar dynamics and more focused on de-dollarization and reserve diversification. This has been one of the structural themes supporting gold through a rate environment that, in any other cycle, would have broken it.

On copper — a couple of supply stories are worth flagging. The U.S. physical premium for copper has doubled, and Shanghai exchange stockpiles have dropped 82%, pointing to the tightest physical market we've seen in years and copper nearing a U.S. price record. Lundin Mining put out a statement yesterday saying their Caserones mine suspended operations on July 18 due to heavy snowfall and remains offline as crews restore power and access. Lundin says it's retaining full-year guidance, but the supply disruption is real and the market is taking note.

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 gold producer operating across seven mines in North and South America, anchored by two Canadian cornerstones — the Greenstone Gold Mine in Ontario and the Valentine Gold Mine in Newfoundland and Labrador. The company is putting on their finishing touches with a merger with Orla, which would put the new Equinox as one of the newest top-tier gold producers in North America. Learn more at equinoxgold.com.

Here's what you need to know today.

District Metals has released an independent Economic Impact Study on the Viken Energy Metals Deposit in Sweden, and the headline number is US$7.66 billion in total economic contribution over a conceptual 13-year Phase 1 mine operation, with US$7.63 billion of that accruing directly to Sweden. The study projects US$1.58 billion in direct corporate income taxes, US$199.6 million in employment income taxes from approximately 1,065 direct and indirect jobs, and US$1.48 billion in capital and operating spending flowing into the local Swedish economy. (TSXV: DMX, OTCQX: DMXCF). News Release

Pirate Gold is out this morning with visual observations from 13 drill holes at its Crippleback project in central Newfoundland, reporting evidence of orogenic gold mineralization at the Scurvy Fault — a new target 1.5 kilometres south of the company's Moby Dick copper-gold porphyry-epithermal discovery. The significance is that Moby Dick is a Cu-Au porphyry system and Scurvy introduces a different style of mineralization on the same property, potentially expanding both the scale and the type of gold targets at Crippleback. Pirate's land position straddles 92 kilometres of the Valentine Lake Fault Zone between Equinox Gold's 4-million-ounce Valentine Mine and New Found Gold's Queensway Project. Assays are pending on these holes (TSXV: YARR, OTCQB: YARRF). News Release

Valkea Resources has completed an initial prospect pipeline identifying 24 new drill targets across its five 100%-owned properties in Finland's Central Lapland Greenstone Belt, and has secured rig capacity for a 2026/27 campaign starting in August. The first drill program — 1,000 to 1,500 metres at a target called Kari on the Paana property — is designed to test structural complexity in BIF-bearing volcanic rocks associated with anomalous base-of-till gold results. Valkea is planning up to 10,000 metres of diamond drilling and 6,000 base-of-till points across its highest-priority targets through the winter (TSXV: OZ, OTCQB: OZBKF). News Release

GreenLight Metals has returned its best results yet at the Bend copper-gold VMS deposit in Taylor County, Wisconsin — hole B26-009W drilled 52.18 metres grading 1.12 grams per tonne gold from 423 metres depth, including 10.82 metres at 2.49 g/t gold, while B26-011 returned 18.75 metres at 0.53% copper and 0.93 g/t gold including 10.07 metres at 0.96% copper and 1.09 g/t gold. The results extend mineralization approximately 75 metres down-dip from earlier holes, with two rigs continuing to drill the interpreted 45-50 degree eastward plunge of the system. Notably, Bend was just posted to the U.S. Federal Permitting Dashboard as a FAST-41 Transparency Project two days ago (TSXV: GRL, OTCQB: GRLMF). News Release

And Gladiator Metals has reported results extending high-grade strike continuity at Cub East to over 300 metres at the Whitehorse Copper Project in the Yukon — hole BCG-035 returned 32 metres at 1.36% copper and 0.63 grams per tonne gold including 18 metres at 2.12% copper and 1.06 g/t gold; BCG-030 returned 38 metres at 1.20% copper; and BCG-024 returned 32.77 metres at 1.06% copper. Gladiator has increased its 2026 drill program to 50,000 metres from 35,000 metres, and is tracking toward a maiden NI 43-101 resource at Cowley by year-end (TSXV: GLAD, OTCQB: GDTRF). News Release

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