Morning Briefing: US 30-Yr Bond Yield Rises to Highest Level Since 2007

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

It's Tuesday, August 18th, and the bond market is making a lot of noise this morning.

The metals complex is on the back foot this morning, and the macro is going to explain why in a moment. Gold is off 0.40% to $4,398 an ounce. Silver is lower by 0.87% to $65.20. Copper gives back some of yesterday's gains, down 0.98% to $6.54 a pound. 

The yield on the 30-year US Treasury bond climbed to 5.31% on Monday. This is its highest level since July 2007. The selloff reflects a confluence of anxieties that have been building all year: a federal government that is spending at an historic pace, a flood of long-dated bond supply needed to finance it, and inflation that has sat above the Federal Reserve's 2% target for five consecutive years. The market is also recalibrating around new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who took office in May, with investors uncertain about how far he is willing to let long rates run.

Adding to that pressure, the Treasury Department reported Monday that foreign holdings of US government debt declined in June, with Japan, the United Kingdom, and China each reducing their positions. Its a notable shift given that these three countries have historically been among the largest buyers of American sovereign debt. The combination of reduced foreign demand and heavy domestic supply is a structural headwind for the long end of the curve, and it's the kind of backdrop that tends to weigh on gold and rate-sensitive assets in the near term.

We will get to the news from the miners and explorers in a moment, but first a mention of 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. Learn more at vizslasilver.ca.

Here’s what you need to know today. 

Collective Mining is reporting meaningful progress at its Guayabales Project in Caldas, Colombia, where the company has completed a 1.8-kilometre access road connecting the Pan American Highway to the proposed exploration adit portal — enabling immediate commencement of portal platform and box-cut construction — with all required permits in hand and adit construction on track to begin in Q4-2026. Underground drilling of the newly identified Trap East greenfield target is expected to begin in Q1-2027, with the main Trap System to follow in H2-2027, and the Plutus target and Apollo Ramp Zone in 2028; Collective Mining trades on the Nasdaq and the TSX, both under the symbol CNL. NEWS RELEASE

K2 Gold has reported the first three holes of its 14,000-metre 2026 campaign at the Mojave Project in Inyo County, California — the largest drill program ever undertaken on the project — with the three holes returning high-grade oxide gold from Site DF-A, a 40-metre step north from the company's 2020 discovery hole: DF26-020 returned 39.62 metres of 5.35 grams per tonne gold including 25.91 metres of 7.14 grams; DF26-019 returned 10.67 metres of 7.75 grams; and DF26-018 returned 18.29 metres of 3.77 grams including 7.62 metres of 7.48 grams. The Dragonfly Zone is now confirmed over 400 metres of drilled strike length and remains open along strike and at depth, with 12 additional holes completed and results pending; K2 Gold trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as KTO and on the OTCQX as KTGDF. NEWS RELEASE

American Eagle Gold has reported what it calls the longest mineralized intercept ever drilled at the NAK copper-gold porphyry project in British Columbia's Babine Porphyry District, with step-out hole NAK26-87 returning 1,001 metres of 0.46% copper equivalent starting from surface — including 218 metres of 1.01% CuEq — a 40-metre step-out from NAK25-78, which had previously returned 802 metres of 0.71% CuEq from surface. Three additional western holes have extended the mineralized footprint with positive implications for a future open-pit strip ratio, and the South Zone now measures 700 metres east-to-west by 600 metres north-to-south and extends to over 800 metres depth, with only five holes reported of an approximately 80-hole 2026 program; American Eagle Gold trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as AE and on the OTCQB as AMEGF. NEWS RELEASE

Westward Gold has reported results from the first core hole drilled at the SSD target on its Toiyabe Hills Property in Lander County, Nevada — T2601 returned 12.0 metres of 8.06 grams per tonne gold within 27.0 metres of 3.72 grams, hosted in Wenban Formation carbonates on the Cortez Trend — with the key takeaway being the confirmation of high-angle fault controls on Carlin-style gold mineralization, a significant interpretive shift from historical stratiform models at the target that opens up the down-dip geometry for testing. A deep-capacity RC rig has now arrived on site and is advancing the first of several planned holes targeting the down-dip projection of these structural controls; Westward Gold trades on the CSE as WG and on the OTCQB as WGLIF. NEWS RELEASE

Kirkland Lake Discoveries has released the complete analytical dataset from its 65-hole, 19,162-metre district-wide KL West program in Ontario's Abitibi Greenstone Belt, identifying three distinct mineralizing systems across the company's 420-square-kilometre land package: a polymetallic VMS-style system with a 5.2-by-6.6-kilometre footprint, an intrusion-related gold system over 3.1 by 7.0 kilometres, and structurally controlled gold corridors — with gold highlights including 5.57 grams per tonne over 1.13 metres at Winnie Lake and 1.41 grams per tonne over 3.40 metres at Wolverine Bend. The dataset has converted a collection of independent targets into a district-scale exploration framework, with the company now prioritizing Winnie Lake, Wolverine Bend, and Cross Roads as follow-up drill targets; Kirkland Lake Discoveries trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as KLDC and on the OTCQB as KLKLF. NEWS RELEASE

TNR Gold has disclosed that Executive Chairman Kirill Klip has added 4.2 million shares this year and now holds 31.4 million shares, and that strategic partner Altius Minerals acquired 7.44 million shares in July at C$0.23 per share, building to 30.9 million — both disclosures coming simultaneously with the company's acknowledgment that it has received advance notice from a shareholder intending to nominate four directors at the September 22 annual meeting. The activist shareholder is Eucalyptus Resources Opportunities Fund, which describes itself as TNR Gold's largest shareholder and has nominated Sandra Bates, Michael Horner, Dusan Petkovic, and Jon Christian Evensen — alleging that management rushed the meeting notice filing at 6:24pm on August 11 with a next-day record date, a compressed timeline compared to the 21-to-25-day advance notice provided ahead of the past three annual meetings; TNR has retained Kingsdale Advisors as strategic shareholder advisor and Norton Rose Fulbright as legal counsel, and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as TNR and on the OTC as TRRXF. NEWS RELEASE

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