Bullet briefing — MP shares rise, Barrick and Discovery talk Hemlo

MP Materials signs deal with Apple

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) was in the headlines after announcing a US$500 million partnership with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The companies said on Tuesday (July 15) that they have entered into a definitive long-term agreement through which MP will supply Apple with rare earth magnets.

The magnets will be made in the US, and will use 100 percent recycled materials.

The news follows last week’s new partnership between MP and the US Department of Defense. A key component is a 10 year deal that sets up a price floor commitment of US$110 per kilogram for MP’s neodymium-praeseodymium products, a move geared at creating supply chain stability.

The defense department will also become MP’s largest shareholder, buying US$400 million worth of preferred stock and receiving warrants to purchase additional common stock.

Shares of MP spiked on the news and have stayed high since then.

MP describes itself as the only fully integrated rare earths producer in the US, and the moves from Apple and the defense department reflect a growing push to diversify away from China.

Investors are taking note of the rare earths opportunity too. Here’s how Rick Rule of Rule Investment Media described the sector’s potential in a recent interview:

If you want a gamier suggestion, I really like the high-quality rare earths space. Nobody understands it, nobody cares. There are probably 50 pretenders in rare earths, but there are two or three speculations that, while you could easily lose 30 percent of your money, you could also easily enjoy 20 baggers.

Watch the interview for more, including Rule’s favorite ASX-listed mining stocks.

Barrick, Discovery Silver in Hemlo talks

Major miner Barrick Mining (TSX:ABX,NYSE:B) is reportedly looking to sell Hemlo, its last remaining Canadian gold mine, to Discovery Silver (TSX:DSV,OTCQX:DSVSF).

According to Bloomberg, the companies are in ‘advanced talks’ about a deal.

Located in Ontario, Hemlo’s 2025 output is forecast at 140,000 to 160,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,600 to US$1,700 per ounce.

The move to sell Hemlo comes as Barrick hones in on tier-one assets and broadens its focus. It changed its name from Barrick Gold to Barrick Mining earlier this year, with its latest divestment being the sale of its 50 percent stake in the Alaska-based Donlin gold project for US$1 billion in cash.

For its part, Discovery Silver has been on an expansion path, closing its acquisition of Newmont’s (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM) Porcupine complex this past April.

In addition to Porcupine, Discovery holds the Cordero silver project in Mexico.

20 year copper price performance.

Chart via Macrotrends.

The pandemic’s impact on mine supply and refined copper in 2020 pushed prices higher despite the economic slowdown. The copper price climbed from a low of US$2.17 in March to close out the year at US$3.52.

In 2021, signs of economic recovery and supercharged interest in EVs and renewable energy pushed the price of copper to rally higher and higher. Copper topped US$4.90 per pound for the first time ever on May 10, 2021, before falling back to close at US$4.76.

Also affecting the copper price at that time was expectations for higher copper demand amid supply concerns out of two of the world’s major copper producers: Chile and Peru. In late April 2021, port workers in Chile called for a strike, while in Peru presidential candidate Pedro Castillo proposed nationalizing mining and redrafting the country’s constitution.

In early May 2021, news broke that copper inventories were at their lowest point in 15 years. Expert market watchers such as Bank of America commodity strategist Michael Widmer warned that further inventory declines into 2022 could lead to a copper market deficit.

After climbing to start 2022 at US$4.52, the copper price continued to spike on economic recovery expectations and supply shortages to reach US$5.02 per pound on March 6. Throughout the first quarter, fears of supply chain disruptions and historically low stockpiles amid rising copper demand drove prices higher.

However, copper prices pulled back in mid-2022 on worries that further COVID-19 lockdowns in China, as well as a growing mortgage crisis, would slow down construction and infrastructure activity in the Asian nation. Rising inflation and interest hikes by the Fed also placed downward pressure on a wide basket of commodities, including copper. By late July 2022, copper prices were trading down at nearly a two year low of around US$3.30.

In the early months of 2023 the copper price was trading over the US$4 per pound level after receiving a helpful boost from continuing concerns about low copper inventories, signs of rebounding demand from China, and news about the closure of Peru’s Las Bambas mine, which accounts for 2 percent of global copper production.

However, that boost turned to a bust in the second half of 2023 as China continued to experience real estate sector issues, alongside the economic woes of the rest of the world. The price of copper dropped to a low for the year of US$3.56 per pound in mid October.

Elevated supply levels kept copper trading in the US$3.50 to US$3.80 range for much of Q1 2024 before experiencing strong gains that pushed the price of the red metal to US$4.12 on March 18.

Those gains were attributed to in part to tighter copper concentrate supply following the closure of First Quantum Minerals’ Cobre Panama mine, guidance cuts from Anglo American (LSE:AAL,OTCQX:AAUKF) and declining production at Chile’s Chuquicamata mine. In addition, China’s top copper smelters announced production cuts after limited supply led to lower profits from treatment and refining charges.

BHP’s (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) attempted takeover of Anglo American also stoked fears of even tighter global copper mine supply. These supply-side challenges continued to juice copper prices in Q2 2024, causing a jump of nearly 29 percent from US$4.04 per pound on April 1 to a then all-time high of US$5.20 by May 20, 2024.

What was the highest price for copper ever?

The price of copper reached its highest recorded price of US$5.72 per pound, or US$12,610 per metric ton, on July 8, 2025. The red metal’s price surged more than 13 percent from July 7 to its new all time high. Read on to found out how the copper price reached those heights.

Gold pricing 101

Gold pricing is often characterized as being driven by “fear and uncertainty,” at least in the short run, including geopolitical fears like war and economic uncertainties such as recession. It is also typically recognized to be an “inflation hedge,” in the long run anyway.

Gold is an asset with a price determined in a 24/7/365 global auction, most often quoted per troy ounce, in the world’s reserve currency of US dollars. New supply plays an unusually small role compared to almost all other commodities, goods or services. Thus, highest bid wins.

Perhaps none of these things about gold, and its price, are new nor surprising. But what might be, despite the end of the gold standard in 1971 and legalization of gold investment in 1974, is that gold is still a shadow currency to fiat ones, especially US dollar, in the ‘always run.’

The annual gold price from 1960 to 2024 is displayed below, as sourced from the World Bank. Rises include: late 1970s; late 2000s; and mid 2020s. Slides include: early 1980s; late 1990s; and early 2010s. Overall growth was: Sum 555 percent; Ave 8.7 percent; Max 98 percent; Min –24 percent; and CAGR 6.8 percent.

Gold yearly growth ($).

Source: World Bank.

Money supply 101

Gold is the inflation hedge, precisely because it is shadow currency. Money supply is the inflation source, precisely because it is fiat currency. As Chicago economist Milton Friedman wrote in Money Mischief (1994): “In the modern world, inflation is a printing-press phenomenon.”

There are multiple money supply measures, such as M0, M1, M2 and M3. M1 includes paper and coin currency held by the general public as well as liquid bank deposits (e.g. checking accounts). M3 includes M1, plus less liquid bank deposits (e.g. savings accounts) as well as “repos.”

Austrian economist Robert Murphy details in Understanding Money Mechanics (2021) just how the Fed’s printing, Treasury bonds and bank loans create US money supply, through open market operations. Since 2008 and 2020, the Fed has expanded to buying and selling just about anything.

Speaking on behalf of the Fed, and all major central banks, the Bank of England wrote in Money Creation in the Modern Economy (2014): “(B)ank lending creates deposits. At that moment, new money is created. (This is) ‘fountain pen money,’ created at the stroke of bankers’ pens(.)”

Annual M1 and M3 money supply from 1960 to 2024 are displayed below, as sourced from the OECD. M3 starts to take off from the mid 1990s. Both blast off in the early 2020s, M1 in part due to redefinition. Combined growth was: Sum 533 percent; Ave 8.3 percent; Max 126 percent; Min –6.4 percent; and CAGR 7.4 percent.

Money yearly growth ($).

Source: OECD.

Gold inflation 101

Christian economist Gary North points out in Honest Money (2011) that businesses have three choices in the face of money inflation: A) profit deflation; B) price inflation; C) quality shrinkflation. Investors have a fourth: D) gold inflation. A, B, and C are all bad options. D is good.

The chart below shows cumulative annual growth of gold versus M1 and M3. Gold performs and protects against both M1 and M3 from 1974 to 2019, even in 2001, but not against M1 from 2020 to 2024. In 2019, gold had a 150 percent lead on M1 and 92 percent on M3. By 2022, it shrunk to –110 percent and 80 percent.

Cumulative yearly growth (percent).

Sources: OECD and World Bank.

A 2020 regression study found: “When the Federal Reserve increases money supply by 1%, gold prices increase by 0.94%.” A 2023 academic paper: “Confirms a long-term relationship between gold price and US M2.” Note that M1’s 2021 redefinition has now made it nearly identical to M1.

Period yearly change (percent).

Sources: OECD and World Bank.

However, the authors of Austrian School for Investors (2015) wrote: “Gold does not correlate with the rate of inflation as such, but with the rate of change of the inflation rate. In order to buttress this hypothesis, we calculated the regression depicted in (the chart below).”

Source: Austrian School for Investors: Austrian Investing between Inflation and Deflation.

In conclusion, as per my Wokenomics 101 (2023) ghost blog, money inflation by: “increasing demand puts upward pressure on price and quantity and downward pressure on quality.” That puts upward pressure on: nominal CPI and GDP statistics; as well as real gold investment and price.

Inflation doesn’t harm all. It helps some. They are the “Bootleggers and Baptists,” as Public Choice economist Bruce Yandle dubbed them in 1983. Bootleggers are crony capitalists, politicians and bureaucrats whose inflated revenue outpaces costs. Baptists are the “useful idiots.”

Thus, “Follow the Money” back to the “inflationistas” of: Big Business; Big Government; and Big Banks. All gain supernormal profits from easy money: one, making more money; two, collecting more money; and three, creating more money. Also, “Follow the Money” when it comes to gold.

And, sadly, there is one policy that is always bipartisan; print more money. But, gladly, gold will always win.

About Darren Brady Nelson

Darren Brady Nelson is chief economist with Fisher Liberty Gold and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He previously was economic advisor to Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts. He authored the Ten Principles of Regulation and Reform, and the CPI-X approach to budget cuts.

Markets and commodities react

In Canada, equity markets were mostly positive this week. The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) gained 1 percent to close at 27,314.01 on Friday (July 18) and set a new all-time high during the week. The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) fared even better this week, gaining 2.53 percent to 797.75. However, the CSE Composite Index (CSE:CSECOMP) fell 2.6 percent to 126.84.

As for US equity markets, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:INX) gained 0.66 percent to close Friday at 6,296.78 and the Nasdaq 100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) climbed 1.35 percent to 23,065.47, with both also setting new record highs during the week. On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) fell 0.1 percent to 44,342.20.

In precious metals, the gold price rose 0.78 percent over the week to US$3,349.66 by Friday at 5 p.m. EDT. Meanwhile, the silver price continued to trade near 11-year highs, climbing 3.13 percent on the week to US$38.15 per ounce.

In base metals, copper ended the week were it started out, but was still trading near all time highs at US$5.60 per pound. The S&P GSCI (INDEXSP:SPGSCI) posted a 1.26 percent gain to finish the week at 551.61.

Top Canadian mining stocks this week

How did mining stocks perform against this backdrop?

Take a look at this week’s five best-performing Canadian mining stocks below.

Stock data for this article was retrieved at 4 p.m. EDT on Friday using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies trading on the TSX, TSXV and CSE with market capitalizations greater than C$10 million are included. Mineral companies within the non-energy minerals, energy minerals, process industry and producer manufacturing sectors were considered.

1. Altima Energy (TSXV:ARH)

Weekly gain: 97.96 percent
Market cap: C$43.99 million
Share price: C$0.97

Altima Energy is a light oil and natural gas exploration and development company with operations in Alberta, Canada.

Its primary asset is the Richdale property in Central Alberta. The property consists of five producing light oil wells and sits on 5,920 acres of long-term reserves. The property hosts combined proved and probable reserves of just under 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, with a pre-tax net present value of C$25.8 million.

The company also owns two wells at its Twinning light oil site near Nisku, seven producing wells at its Red Earth property in Northern Alberta and two multi-zone wells at its Chambers Ferrier liquid gas production property.

Shares in Altima started to gain after it released news on July 8 that it had completed a private placement for proceeds of up to C$5.5 million. Under the terms of the deal, the company will issue 20 million units at C$0.275 per unit, which each include one common share and one warrant allowing the holder to purchase a common share for C$0.40.

The company said that part of the proceeds would be used to complete field upgrades at its Red Earth and Richdale properties.

2. Kirkland Lake Discoveries (TSXV:KLDC)

Weekly gain: 81.82 percent
Market cap: C$11.26 million
Share price: C$0.10

Kirkland Lake Discoveries is a gold and copper exploration company focused on projects in its district-scale land package located in the Kirkland Lake area of Ontario, Canada.

Its holdings span an area of approximately 38,000 hectares in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt that has been host to past-producing gold and copper mines. It is broadly divided into KL West and KL East, which contain the Goodfish-Kirana and Lucky Strike gold projects, respectively, among others.

On April 29, the company announced it entered into a mining option agreement with Val-d’Or Mining (TSXV:VZZ) to acquire a 100 percent interest in the Winnie Lake and Amikougami properties, as well as mining claim purchase agreements with two vendors to acquire further claims around the Winnie Lake Pluton. The properties expand KL West’s southern portion.

Following the agreement, the company conducted grab samples at the Winnie Lake property and reported the results on July 9. One grab sample collected near the historic Winnie Shaft zone yielded grades of 1.6 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold, 28.2 g/t silver, 5.7 percent copper, 5.3 percent zinc and 1.65 g/t tellurium.

The company also discovered a quartz-veined intrusive outcrop 150 meters west of the shaft during field prospecting, with samples displaying characteristics of magmatic-hydrothermal copper-gold systems, including visible malachite and strong potassic alteration.

Additionally, Kirkland Lake reported it has received full drill permits for Winnie Lake and plans to initiate activities at the site this summer, focusing on the newly defined zones.

3. Happy Creek Minerals (TSXV:HPY)

Weekly gain: 70 percent
Market cap: C$10.33 million
Share price: C$0.085

Happy Creek Minerals is an exploration company focused on advancing a portfolio of assets in British Columbia, Canada.

Its primary focus has been on its Fox tungsten property located in the South Caribou region of the province. It comprises 135.9 square kilometers of mineral tenure and hosts deposits containing tungsten, molybdenum, zinc, indium, gold and silver. In total, 21,125 meters of exploration drilling have been carried out at the site, primarily in shallow holes, for resource definition.

Happy Creek’s share price began climbing Tuesday after the company announced a non-brokered private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to C$3.25 million in flow-through units at C$0.07 per share and non-flow-through units at C$0.05 per share.

The following day, Happy Creek upsized the offering to C$3.75 million.

The company plans to use the gross proceeds for drilling, exploration and development at Fox, as well as other exploration work in the Caribou.

4. Camino Minerals (TSXV:COR)

Weekly gain: 56.52 percent
Market cap: C$13.5 million
Share price: C$0.36

Camino Minerals is a copper exploration and development company with a portfolio of projects in Chile and Peru.

Earlier in 2025, the company shifted its focus to its newly acquired, construction-ready Puquois copper project in Chile.

In October 2024, Camino entered a definitive agreement to create a 50/50 joint venture with Nittetsu Mining (TSE:1515) that would acquire Cuprum Resources, which owns the Puquios project. The partners completed the acquisition April 17 and said they would turn their attention to project financing.

On March 17, Camino filed a prefeasibility study for the project. The study results demonstrate a post-tax net present value of US$118 million, with an internal rate of return of 23.4 percent and a payback period of 3.1 years at a fixed copper price of US$4.28. It also outlines all-in sustaining costs of US$2.00 per pound over a 14.2 year mine life.

In addition to the economic details, the included mineral resource estimate shows a measured and indicated resource of 149,000 metric tons of copper from 32.16 million metric tons of ore grading 0.46 percent copper.

Camino also owns the Los Chapitos project, which has been a long-time focus of the company. The project covers approximately 22,000 hectares near the coastal town of Chala, Peru, and hosts near-surface mineralization.

Camino has been conducting exploration efforts at Los Chapitos throughout the first half of 2025. On Wednesday, it reported trench results from the newly identified Mirador zone, including 1.07 percent copper over 90 meters, with a four-meter section containing 3.05 percent copper.

5. Solstice Gold (TSXV:SGC)

Weekly gain: 56.25 percent
Market cap: C$29.38 million
Share price: C$0.125

Solstice Gold is an exploration company focused on its flagship Strathy gold project in Ontario, which it acquired in June 2024.

The project consists of 45 claims covering an area of 45 square kilometers in the Temagami Greenstone belt. Historical documents report six gold showings in the central portion of the project areas, with documented mineralization at the Leckie prospect.

In its latest project update on July 2, Solstice announced it had wrapped up its spring drill program, which focused on four target areas. In total, the company completed 3,125 meters of drilling across 14 holes, and results are expected in July.

The company also reported that it had entered into an agreement to acquire 17 additional claims, which would increase the project area by 50 percent. It added that targets identified from its IP program may extend along strike into these claims.

FAQs for Canadian mining stocks

How much does it cost to list on the TSXV?

There are a variety of different fees that companies must pay to list on the TSXV, and according to the exchange, they can vary based on the transaction’s nature and complexity. The listing fee alone will most likely cost between C$10,000 to C$70,000. Accounting and auditing fees could rack up between C$25,000 and C$100,000, while legal fees are expected to be over C$75,000 and an underwriters’ commission may hit up to 12 percent.

The exchange lists a handful of other fees and expenses companies can expect, including but not limited to security commission and transfer agency fees, investor relations costs and director and officer liability insurance.

These are all just for the initial listing, of course. There are ongoing expenses once companies are trading, such as sustaining fees and additional listing fees, plus the costs associated with filing regular reports.

How do you trade on the TSXV?

Investors can trade on the TSXV the way they would trade stocks on any exchange. This means they can use a stock broker or an individual investment account to buy and sell shares of TSXV-listed companies during the exchange’s trading hours.