Gold was down last week as hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine before year-end were raised. Importantly, gold equities continued to outperform the metal. The commodities that underpin investors’ expectations of a higher global industrial production in the second half of 2020 had a good week. In The Rant, I take a deep dive into the copper market and review an explorer that has been negatively impacted by the drop in the price of copper and the lockdown in Peru. In Stock Talk, I review pending newsflow from two explorers expanding their resources in Vietnam (nickel) and Western Australia (gold), a prospect generator in Japan beginning work on a strategic alliance with a major gold producer, another one advancing a silver project in Argentina with a partner, a gold explorer reporting underwhelming results from Ontario, and a junior gold producer restarting a mine in Mexico.