Report

Mining Monthly: March Edition

What you need to know:
• The metals and mining market showed a third straight month of strong gains in March as investors moved into safe haven assets to protect from trade tensions and economic uncertainty.
• In March, gold was up 3.4%, silver was up 0.8%, and copper was up 6.1%. The equities largely outperformed compared to the commodities, with the GDX up 15.7%, GDXJ up 17.6%, and SIL up 13.6%.
• The Trump administration announced an executive order to increase American mineral production across critical minerals, uranium, copper, potash, and gold.

The metals and mining market posted a stellar month in March on the back of escalating global economic uncertainty, stemming from the Trump-led trade tensions. Investors flocked to safe-haven assets like gold, which was up 3.4% in the month, reaching all-time highs of $3,132/oz; despite the 10-year yield increasing slightly during the month. This compares to silver up 0.8% and platinum down 2.6%. Equities outperformed the commodity prices with the GDX up 15.7%, GDXJ up 17.6%, and SILJ up 13.6%. This outperformed broader markets with the S&P500 and TSX down 5.7% and 1.9%, respectively. Copper posted another strong month with spot prices up 6.1% while the COPX was up 2.2%. The other metals and commodities were mixed, with cobalt as the best performer (up 41%) on fears of an export ban from the DRC. We will reiterate that despite the increased commodity prices, equities are trading at below average multiples, telling us that the market does not trust the upward move in the underlying commodities. If the gold price can sustain these levels over the coming months, it is only a matter of time before we get a re-rate in valuations.

Financings in March continued to be highly elevated, growing over January and February as generalist investors continued to move into the sector. Companies that struggled to raise $1-5M last year are now raising $10M+. M&A was quite low during the month, similar to February. However, we expect M&A to be a major theme for the sector in the second half of 2025 as the valuation spread between the majors and juniors is massive.

The most notable news came on March 20th, when the Trump administration created an executive order to increase American mineral production across critical minerals, uranium, copper, potash, and gold. The executive order aims to create jobs, fuel prosperity, and reduce reliance on foreign nations. Companies under coverage that directly benefit from this include Sailfish Royalties (FISH:TSXV), Allegiant Gold (AUAU:TSXV), and even BQE Water (BQE:TSXV).
Underlyings
ALLEGIANT GOLD

Amerigo Resources Ltd.

Amerigo Resources is engaged in the production of copper and molybdenum concentrates with operations in Chile. Through its subsidiary, Minera Valle Central S.A., Co. has a contract with Chile's state-owned copper producer National Copper Corporation to process the tailings from El Teniente underground copper mine.

ANDEAN PRECIOUS METALS CORP

CAPITAN SILVER CORP

DYNACOR GROUP INC.

Endurance Gold

Endurance Gold is engaged in the exploration and development of mineral properties in North America and has not yet determined whether its properties contain ore reserves that are economically recoverable. The recoverability of the amounts expended on mineral interests by Co. is dependent upon the existence of economically recoverable reserves, the ability of Co. to obtain necessary financing to complete exploration and development of its mineral properties and upon future profitable production or proceeds from disposition of its mineral interests.

Giga Metals

GIGA Metals is an exploration stage mineral resources company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties, primarily in northern British Columbia. Co. has not yet identified any mineral resource on any of its properties that is of a commercially exploitable quantity.

MOON RIVER MOLY LTD

Nicola Mining Inc

Nicola Mining is a fully integrated silver mining, exploration and development company.

OMAI GOLD MINES CORP

Rio Tinto plc

Rio Tinto is engaged in finding, mining and processing mineral resources. Co. has four product groups: iron ore, which supplies the global seaborne iron ore trade; aluminium, which includes bauxite mines, alumina refineries, and aluminium smelters; Copper and Diamonds, which has managed operations in Australia, Canada, Mongolia and the U.S., and non-managed operations in Chile and Indonesia, with by-product including gold, silver, molybdenum and others such as sulphuric acid, rhenium, and lead carbonate; and Energy and Minerals, which comprises mining, refining and marketing operations across borates, coal, iron ore concentrate and pellets, salt, titanium dioxide and uranium sectors.

Sailfish Royalty Corp.

Santacruz Silver Mining

Santacruz Silver Mining is engaged in the operation, acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Mexico, with a primary focus on silver, but also including gold, zinc and lead. Co. is focused on meeting and maintaining its primary production objective of producing approximately 1.5 million silver equivalent ounces on a yearly basis at its producing property, the Rosario Mine. In addition, Co. is exploring three other mineral properties, being the San Felipe Project (an advanced stage project), the Gavilanes Project (an exploration project), and the El Gachi Property (an early stage exploration project).

Tembo Gold Corp

Tempo Gold is in the exploration stage and is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of gold resource properties in Tanzania, East Africa.

Tocvan Ventures

TRIGON METALS INC.

Provider
Atrium Research Corporation
Atrium Research Corporation

Atrium Research provides institutional quality issuer paid research on North American public equities using deep fundamental analysis. Our research reports are disseminated through Bloomberg, FactSet, Capital IQ, Reuters and many more, as well as through our social media and email distribution lists. 

Analysts
Ben Pirie

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