Toward the end of the nineteenth century, mariners along South America's Pacific coast observed a periodic warm current arriving around the holidays, disrupting local fisheries and depleting food stocks. The phenomenon was christened El Niño de Navidad.

When the warming becomes particularly intense, a scenario currently anticipated for 2026, it can bring everything from severe flooding to prolonged droughts, depending on the region. 

For the mining sector, the concern is more specific. Extreme rainfall, flooding, drought, landslides, and damage to transport and power infrastructure can disrupt operations and concentrate supply risk in some of the world’s most important mining districts.

In the Weekly Market Digest, US Federal debt crossed the US$40 trillion threshold in August 2026, while the cost of servicing it has exceeded US$1 trillion. Moves to increase the pace of long-term bond buybacks helped push down real rates and the USD. As a consequence, precious metals fared well, as did precious metal equities. Base metal equities picked up the slack for industrial metals' mixed performance.

The Exploration Insights portfolio was up significantly last week, led by a Top Pick cash-flowing royalty generator. 

In The Rant, I review the “rinse and repeat” strategy behind a recent M&A transaction. 

In Stock Talk, I cover drill results from a copper-gold explorer in Kazakhstan and a Top Pick in the Yukon. A cash-flowing royalty company reports its first-half results while a PGM developer advances its metallurgical testwork.