It’s been a busy week as I juggled a conference presentation and a short course at Latin Rocks in Santiago, while squeezing in site visits to the Caserones copper mine near Copiapó and a pair of advanced copper exploration projects straddling the Argentina-Chile border. From the classroom to the core shack, the message is clear — interest in the red metal across the Andes is running high.
In the Weekly Market Digest, US market volatility surged amid the ongoing government shutdown, dragging down the major equity indices. But while Washington fumbled, gold soared to over US$4,000 per ounce, a new record. Unfortunately, gold equities were unable to keep pace. Despite ongoing supply concerns I flagged last week, the copper price fell, though base metal equities held up slightly better.
The Exploration Insights portfolio outperformed both the precious and base metal equity ETFs, led by an advanced nickel-copper explorer and a copper-gold explorer in Central Asia.
In Stock Talk, a Top Pick precious metal explorer in Argentina opportunistically returns to the equity markets while the ‘ducks are quacking’. A rare earth element developer upgrades its resource in Brazil. I review exploration updates from a copper explorer in Peru and eastern Australia.
As I am still travelling to my last site visit this week in northern Chile, I will defer my review of exploration updates from a Central Asian grassroots copper explorer and a nickel-copper explorer and a prospect generator in eastern Canada until next week.