I spent most of October in South America on site visits and saw that copper exploration takes many forms. 

The “easiest” wins often come from brownfields exploration, as it compresses the discovery-to-production timeline while adding years to the mine life and pushing reclamation further into the future. 

At the same time, others are revisiting old projects with more advanced tools and drilling them to depths that would have been uneconomic just a decade ago. 

But with copper grades falling, supply repeatedly disrupted, and a structural deficit on the horizon, the industry also needs fresh discoveries. That’s why more explorers are stepping off the beaten path and into new ground, looking for copper deposits with the grade and scale to matter in the next cycle. 

In the Weekly Market Digest, US equities retreated while market volatility rose in line with consumer sentiment falling to a 3-year low due in part to a protracted government shutdown. The risk-off sentiment pervaded all asset classes, including commodities, except for gold and resource equities.

With the risk-off sentiment, the Exploration Insights portfolio underperformed both the precious and base metal equity ETF benchmarks, with only a few leaders, including a Top Pick precious metal development play in Argentina. 

In Stock Talk, I provide site visit notes to the Caserones copper mine in northern Chile, where a Top Pick holds a royalty. I also review drill results from a copper explorer in Kazakhstan, a nickel-copper explorer in Minnesota, and a pair of advanced gold explorers in Idaho and Victoria. 

A grassroots copper explorer in Peru taps the equity markets while a grassroots gold explorer in Nevada provides an exploration update. Finally, a PGM developer project is listed as a priority to develop an export zone in northern Brazil.