Site visits to mining projects often involve staying in all sorts of places — hotels, motels, and camps — each with its own set of rules and quirks to navigate. That said, the ones in northern Québec stand out for being a bit more…visually instructive than usual.

In the Weekly Market Digest, US equity markets posted strong gains as volatility declined and investors appeared to conclude that the worst of the Iran-Israel crisis had passed. With the perceived risk of oil supply disruptions easing, the appetite for haven assets diminished, pressuring the gold price and dragging down precious metal equities. In contrast, industrial metals posted gains, led by PGEs, which supported base metal equities.

The Exploration Insights portfolio ended the week modestly lower, underperforming the base metal equity benchmark but outperforming precious metal peers. Positive moves from a copper developer in southern Arizona and a base metal prospect generator in eastern Europe weren’t enough to offset profit-taking in several recent outperformers.

In The Rant, I tackle financing activity in the first half of 2025 and its implications for exploration across commodities.

In Stock Talk, I break down how a southwest US copper developer has accretively reduced its royalty burden on its flagship asset and cover recent exploration updates from a pair of grassroots explorers in Europe. The bulk of this week’s letter is devoted to site visit notes from northern Québec, where I reviewed a prospect generator’s multi-commodity strategy across gold, nickel, lithium, and antimony projects.