New York copper futures close 1.21% higher on tight supply concerns

Trekor Metals has reaffirmed its 2026 output targets for the Gibraltar and Florence projects following a recent corporate rebrand. The copper producer's shares have risen 37.65% over 90 days and delivered a 122.69% total shareholder return over one year. Against a last close of CA$12.76, the most followed narrative pegs fair value at CA$14.13, implying the stock is 9.7% undervalued, while a separate valuation lens using a current price-to-sales ratio of 4.7x against a fair ratio of 4.3x and a peer average of 3.4x suggests the shares look expensive. The company points to a decline in capitalized stripping at Gibraltar and the winding down of Florence construction spending as drivers of improved free cash flow and potential deleveraging. Risks remain if project timelines slip or the two projects hit operational or regulatory setbacks.

Mineral Road Discovery Inc. announced that it continues to advance its 100%-owned Bergslagen Tungsten Project in Sweden, reporting excellent WO3%, Cu%, and CaF2% drill intercepts from a review of the previous operator's drilling around the historical Yxsjöberg Mine. Select discovery intercepts within the company's Conceptual Exploration Targets include KD-004 with 3.78m at 0.74% WO3, 0.38% Cu, and 11.11% CaF2 from 36.42m; KD-005 with 17.15m at 0.42% WO3, 0.23% Cu, and 6.66% CaF2 from 39.85m; KD-006 with 12.60m at 0.65% WO3, 0.21% Cu, and 8.35% CaF2 from 14.50m; and KD-007 with 10.50m at 0.79% WO3, 0.15% Cu, and 6.76% CaF2 from 25.50m. The company said the historical assays indicate a robust multi-commodity opportunity in tungsten, copper, and acid-grade fluorite, which is currently trading at industrial benchmarks of $500 to $630 per tonne, and that this approach, integrated with its proposed re-processing of the two tailings repositories at Bergslagen, aligns directly with European Critical Raw Material supply security mandates. Mineral Road outlined a three-stage program beginning with its Stage 1 tailings re-processing proposal, followed by a shallow hard-rock mining proposal as Stage 2 and longer-lead-time work on deeper hard-rock mineralisation as Stage 3, supported by a compiled database including approximately 15,000 metres of historical diamond core drilling. Executive Chair and Interim CEO Damien Reynolds said the company is establishing a conceptual exploration target of multi-million-tonnes of surface tailings as a potential cash-flow anchor, while the near-surface conceptual exploration targets are interpreted as the upper expression of a larger continuous system. The Yxsjöberg mine operated from the mid-1930s to 1989, yielding approximately 5.3 million tonnes of material at an average grade of 0.38% WO3 and 0.16% Copper, and supplied over 90% of Sweden's historical tungsten.

US Critical Metals Corp. announced the appointment of James Hocking, a director of the company, as Chief Executive Officer, effective today. Hocking succeeds Darren Collins, who is stepping down as CEO but will remain a director of the company. Hocking is a commercial and capital markets executive with over 20 years of experience in the resources sector, including 7 years with BHP Group where he led commercial initiatives supporting major mining and infrastructure operations. He said his focus will be on building long-term shareholder value, noting that copper was added to the U.S. critical minerals list in 2025 and that the company's Korn Kob Copper Project is an exploration-stage property in Arizona, alongside its lithium, uranium and cobalt exploration properties. USCM's assets consist of five discovery focused projects in the United States: the McDermitt East Lithium Project and Clayton Ridge Lithium Property in Nevada, the Long Canyon Uranium Property and Haynes Cobalt Property in Idaho, and the Korn Kob Copper Project in Arizona.

Coeur Mining outlined a record US$158 million exploration program for 2026, with US$24 million allocated to New Afton and US$18 million to Rainy River in Canada. The company reported past exploration results showing extended mineralization and higher-than-expected gold and copper intercepts at its New Afton K-Zone and East Picrite Trend, alongside growth-focused drilling across underground and near-surface targets at Rainy River. The record budget underscores how aggressively Coeur is pursuing potential resource growth and mine-life extension, sharpening the tension between funding aggressive drilling and managing cash flow. The step-up in exploration follows Coeur's move into shareholder returns with a new dividend and a large buyback authorization in early 2026, a balance the company is trying to strike between capital returns and a sizable spend on potential resource growth. Coeur's narrative projects US$5.1 billion in revenue and US$1.5 billion in earnings by 2029, yielding a US$23.95 fair value and 36% upside to its current price, while some of the lowest ranked analysts project about US$5.4 billion of revenue and US$1.9 billion of earnings by 2029 and may now see the exploration push as increasing execution and cost risk.