Morning Briefing: FireFly Metals Extends High-Grade Copper

Good morning and welcome back to the Mining Stock Daily morning briefing.I am your host Michael McCrae filling in for Trevor Hall. 

It's Monday, November 9. 

Dow and S&P 500 futures edged higher Monday as investors looked for a rebound after a volatile post-election week that left every major index lower. 

Gold is at $4,117, regaining last week's drop through the $4,000 mark last week. 

Copper futures are up 1.52% to $6.33. Industrial metals took it on the chin last week after the market sell off, dropping 7.45% in the past five days. 

Last week, Copper futures (COMEX:HGZ26) prices touched an 11-week low of roughly $6.02 due to the broader technology selloff tight supply signals out of China.

It’s a big data week with the US consumer price index on Tuesday and October producer prices to follow on Friday. 

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... 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

Here’s the news you need to know today. 

Meridian Mining says its Cabaçal gold, copper and silver project in Mato Grosso, Brazil, has entered pre-construction, with AFRY awarded the EPCM contract, US$30.9 million committed to long-lead equipment and site infrastructure, and the licences for a 24.3 km power line secured. The company received more than twenty indicative financing proposals, several of them fully funded packages of US$400 million covering debt, cost overruns and offtake, against a pre-production capex of US$322 million and a treasury of about US$90 million. The September DFS outlines an after-tax NPV5 of US$2.1 billion and a 108% IRR at US$3,570 gold and US$5.03 copper, but Meridian has yet to set a date for its final investment decision. (TSX: MNO) News Release

Barrick produced 816,000 ounces of gold and 50,000 tonnes of copper in Q3 2026, and while the company highlights a 6% year-over-year gain excluding divested assets, total attributable gold output actually fell 2%, which it attributes to extreme weather at Veladero and delayed access to high-grade ore at North Mara. Gold AISC climbed to $1,911 an ounce from $1,538 a year earlier, near the top of the $1,760 to $1,950 guidance range, yet higher metal prices drove revenue up 22% to $5.07 billion and adjusted EPS up 41% to $0.82. Barrick reiterated full-year guidance of 2.90 to 3.25 million ounces, returned $1.04 billion to shareholders through $761 million in buybacks and its $0.175 quarterly dividend, and ended the quarter with $0.9 billion in net cash, while capital spending at Reko Diq remains under review. (TSX: ABX) News Release

Surge Copper has completed its 2026 field program at the Berg Copper Project in central British Columbia, drilling 6,334.5 metres across 31 holes, almost all of it geotechnical, hydrogeological and acid rock drainage work to support feasibility-level engineering and the environmental assessment that follow the June 2026 PFS. The company also resampled 23 historical holes with modern methods and QA/QC, raising the share of assay intervals with both gold and silver data to about 87%, though it released no grades and has yet to decide whether those holes are suitable for future resource estimates. Results from two exploration holes at the Sylvia target and from the rest of the 2026 drilling are still being compiled and will be reported separately. (TSXV: SURG) News Release

Heliostar Metals has released results from 164 holes at its producing San Agustin Mine in Durango, Mexico, including shallow oxide gold intercepts such as 40.9 m at 0.99 g/t AuEq at the Corner Expansion Zone, which extends more than 200 metres beyond the current reserve, and 100.6 m at 0.42 g/t AuEq from surface at the newly defined East Wall Zone. The company says these two zones could supply about half of a targeted two-year mine life extension, though resource modelling, metallurgy, engineering and permit modifications are still under way and no new resource has been published. Heliostar has expanded the US$9.75 million drill program to 25,000 to 30,000 metres to follow open mineralization and test further targets, aiming to complete the expansion case in 2027 as it advances Ana Paula toward production. (TSX: HSTR) News Release

FireFly Metals reports underground drilling at the Ming Mine in Newfoundland that extends the high-grade core laterally and up-dip beyond its August 2026 resource, including 16.4m at 9.2% CuEq and 6.9m at 10.0% CuEq at roughly true thickness, while infill holes such as 15.5m at 12.4% CuEq and 9.8m at 14.2% CuEq support conversion of Inferred material to Measured and Indicated. The company says the extensions add copper per vertical metre close to existing access, though the A$3 billion NPV it cites comes from the 4.6tpa PEA case, while the DFS due in the March quarter of 2027 will be built on the smaller 1.8Mtpa base case. FireFly holds about A$349.7 million in cash and liquid investments, with six rigs underground and three surface rigs following up the recent Mount Joy discovery. (TSX: FFM) 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.