With the start of summer, many investors in the mining space are likely shifting their focus to vacation plans and retreating to cottage country. However, with escalating turmoil in the Middle East and its growing impact on energy prices and market sentiment, taking an extended break might prove more difficult than usual. The sector, it seems, won’t be taking time off. 

In the Weekly Market Digest, the escalation of the Middle East conflict, following direct military engagement between Israel, Iran, and the US, has refocused investor attention on energy markets in anticipation of supply risks. Haven assets’ performance was mixed, hurting precious metal equities. However, with the US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities occurring after Friday’s close, I expect to see heightened volatility next week, including spikes in oil prices, the US dollar, and the gold price.

The Exploration Insights portfolio held steady last week, slightly underperforming the base metals equity benchmark while significantly outperforming precious metal equities. The outperformance was led by the debut of a grassroots precious metal explorer in Finland.  

In Stock Talk, a copper developer in southern Arizona closes a significant financing transaction while a REE developer adds to its management team to execute its mine-to-magnet strategy. A major drill program conducted by a gold-antimony explorer continues to support its geological model, while a copper explorer in the Yukon returns more encouraging results. Finally, a grassroots copper-gold explorer in Australia adds to its portfolio at no great expense.