During the late 1800s, miners extracted 8.26 million ounces of gold and 192 million ounces of silver from the Comstock Lode along the northern margin of Nevada’s Walker Lane Belt.

Significant gains in precious metal prices have renewed interest in historic mining districts such as Comstock, particularly those that have seen limited application of modern exploration techniques.

However, investors should distinguish between juniors relying more heavily on a district’s mining history and those actively pursuing its exploration potential.

In the Weekly Market Digest, the fall in real rates supported precious metal prices and the precious metal equity benchmark ETFs, albeit modestly. Despite the stronger US dollar and the risks of a global economic slowdown, copper prices were up last week due to supply disruptions in Chile and restocking in China after a holiday, but this did not help equities.

The Exploration Insights portfolio underperformed the major equity ETF benchmarks last week with only a few names generating positive returns, including a Top Pick cash-flowing royalty generator. Current sentiment toward junior resource equities supports last week’s divestment of a partial position in a precious metal developer and the outright sale of a cash-flowing royalty company. The funds will be used to add new names, though. 

In Stock Talk, the main piece centers around the release of a technical report on a PGM-nickel deposit in Brazil. I review drill results from a Top Pick nickel producer and developer in Michigan and a copper explorer in Kazakhstan. 

A REE developer advanced its downstream capacity in the USA and Chile while a Top Pick royalty generator picks up another on a BC porphyry. A pair of grassroots copper explorers report community support for their projects in the Yukon Territory and Perú.