The Atacama Desert, stretching more than 1,600 km between the Andes and Chile’s Coastal Range, is the driest non-polar region on Earth. But every once in a while, a rare hint of moisture sparks a spectacular floral bloom, transforming the barren landscape into a sea of color. 

While visiting a copper mine and an exploration project between Vallenar and Copiapó last week, I caught a glimpse of this fleeting event, a reminder that in both nature and exploration, the unexpected can yield extraordinary results, proving that uncertainty isn’t always a bad thing.

In the Weekly Market Digest, a rise in the US equity markets was supported by optimism that the upcoming meeting between China and US leaders will generate some goodwill and the US Federal Reserve’s willingness to cut interest rates by 1 to 2 times in 2025. But the optimism did not hurt precious metal prices, which continue to hit record levels and support the cash-flowing producers. Buoyant industrial metal prices underpinned a positive week for base metal equities. Interestingly, investors took profits from the S&P TSXV, a proxy for the junior mining industry.

The Exploration Insights portfolio was down last week despite a spate of positive newsflow and underperformed the precious and base metal equity ETFs, but was roughly in line with a decline in the benchmark for junior mining equities. 

In Stock Talk, I cover a plethora of exploration updates, including drilling results from Central Asia, Chile, Quebec, Yukon, the northern US, and Idaho. Other companies operating in Chile and the Philippines provided updates on their permitting activities. And finally, a cash-flowing royalty generator creates a new royalty in Nevada while a prospect generator finds a partner in Serbia.