The rush into silver, which has the hallmarks of a 1980 attempt to corner the market in the metal, drove the price up to an all-time high US$62.55 an ounce, a 120% increase in less than 12-months.

Forty five years ago, three brothers from Texas, Nelson, Herbert and Lamar Hunt, used the family oil fortune (and bank loans) to buy more than 100 million ounces silver, lifting the price by 730% from US$6/oz to US$50/oz, triggering U.S. Government intervention.

Unwinding the Hunt family silver squeeze saw banks lose billions of dollars as the metal’s price collapsed back to US$4.90/oz. The Hunt brothers survived and kept their oil business.

History never repeats exactly but there is enough evidence of bubbles in the global financial system for the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements (the central bank to central banks) to sound an alarm.

“The past few quarters represent the only time in the last 50 years in which gold and equities have entered this (bubble) territory simultaneously,” BIS said in its latest report. “Following the explosive phase, a bubble typically bursts with a sharp and swift correction.”

Investors shrugged off the warning, preferring to welcome the latest interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve which helped global markets edge higher.

Gold, which started the precious metal rush three years ago, has become a sideline player in the current phase of the rally, rising over the week by a lowly US$30/oz (0.8%) to US$4230/oz, a modest move compared with silver’s US$3/oz (7%) increase.

Copper also moved higher, trading at US$5.32 a pound thanks to strong industrial demand and the same sort of speculative interest propelling gold and silver.

The Australian stock market continued to sag in a pre-Christmas slowdown, slipping 0.3% lower over the week.

The gold index rose initially before fading, while the broad metals index did best, up 2.9% thanks to the effect of the copper price on the two biggest miners of the metal, BHP and Rio Tinto.

Important as share price moves are, a more interesting trend this week was the continuation of a never-ending flow of cash into the resources sector as investors prepare for what they hope will be a continuation of boom conditions in 2026.

The biggest deal of the week was US$2 billion raised by BHP from the sale of a 49% stake in its Pilbara electricity network.

The BHP deal is similar to those negotiated by other miners selling non-core assets but leaves unanswered the question of whether BHP is simply seeking to be more efficient with its capital or is it building a takeover war chest, perhaps with big copper miner Glencore in its sights.

A long list of other capital raisings demonstrated how easy it is to raise funds in the current hot-house climate with notable deals that included:

  • Almonty, the Canadian/Australian tungsten miner, raising $170 million to fund exploration in the U.S, Portugal, and South Korea.
  • Astral Resources rising $65 million to advance its Mandilla gold project in WA.
  • Medallion Metals announced a $55 million capital raising for work on its Ravensthorpe gold project in WA.
  • Andean Silver raising $30 million to accelerate exploration work.
  • Felix Gold raising $18 million through a share placement priced at 36c.
  • Torque Metals raising $15 million to fund work on its Paris gold project in WA.
  • Talga Group raising $14.5 million to expand graphite anode production in Sweden, and
  • Sunstone Metals raising $8 million to fund exploration and a scoping study into its Bramaderos gold/copper project in Ecuador.

Other raisings included: Ore Resources, $7.5 million. Cobalt Blue, $5.3 million. Somerset Minerals, $3.7 million. McLaren Minerals, $3.6 million. Austin Metals, $3 million. Anax Metals, $2.4 million and Desert Metals $1.25 million

Those fresh funds will ensure a busy start to exploration programs in the new year, especially when added to the $3.5 billion raised by explorer/developers in the September quarter.

Gold and silver stocks remained the primary focus of Australian investors thanks to the heavy flow of cash from the near-record prices for the metals with moves that included:

  • Sun Silver, up 23c to $1.49 after announcing a fresh resource upgrade at its Maverick Springs project in Nevada.
  • Marmota, up 83% to 13c after reporting bonanza grade gold at its Greenewood project in South Australia with a best hit of 109 grams a tonne from 26 metres.
  • Ramelius Resources, up 19c to $3.84 after announcing a $250 million share buyback and 2c per share dividend.
  • Black Bear Minerals, the old James Bay Mining, added 3c to 72c after announcing the start of drilling at its Shafter silver project in Texas.
  • West African Resources rose by 9c to $2.79 after reporting a drill hit of 11.2g/t over 16m below the existing ore reserve at its M5 North mine in Burkina Faso, and
  • Strickland Metals rose by 1c to 18c after reporting a maiden resource at its Gradina project in Serbia.

Lithium stocks continued their recovery as interest returns to the metal, both in the batteries of electric cars and battery energy storage systems.

Both UBS and Macquarie substantially upgraded their lithium price forecasts, offset by a more cautious view of Citi.

On the market, most lithium stocks move higher with moves that included:

  • Liontown, up by 24c to $1.51 after reporting the sale of 150,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate to a Chinese battery maker. UBS has a target price on Liontown of $1.80.
  • PLS, the former Pilbara Minerals, added 49c to $4.22, higher than the $4 target price of UBS.
  • Winsome Resources added 8c to 38c after reporting thick and rich lithium assays from drilling at its Adina project in Canda, and
  • Vulcan Energy continue to weaken, down another 54c to $3.88. It traded as high as $6.29 in October.

Copper continued to ride high as mine outage events dog the market, helping lift the price to US$5.34 a pound, while also feeding into a theory that takeovers are likely to continue at the top end of the market after shareholders in Teck Resources voted in favour of a merger with Anglo American.

Glencore has become the favoured stock of copper sector speculators, rising over the past six months by 33% on the London stock exchange with its copper-heavy development plans attracting the interest of failed Teck suitors BHP and Rio Tinto.

Locally, Sandfire led the copper sector higher with a rise of 11c to $16.81, despite a sell recommendation from UBS. 29Metals added 4.5c to 44c, and Orion Minerals rose by 0.3c to 2.2c but had the honour of receiving a speeding inquiry from the ASX after a mid-week jump to 2.2c.

Low key Alvo Minerals caught the eye of investors with a 3c (54%) rise to 8c after reporting the intersection of visible copper from drilling at its Touro project in Brazil.

Other news and market moves of interest this week include:

  • Ardea, up 1c to 56c as first signs emerge of interest returning to nickel and Ardea’s Goongarrie project in WA following reports of a crackdown on illegal tin mining in Indonesia with similar treatment of that country’s nickel industry likely to follow.
  • South32, down 6c to $3.43 after it reportedly joined the bidding for BHP’s West Musgrave nickel project, another early hint of a coming nickel revival.
  • Fenix Resources, up 5c to 50c after announcing a three year production plan for its Weld Range iron ore mine in WA and the iron ore price remained elevated at US$106 a tonne, and
  • Alchemy Resources, up 0.4c (44%) to 1.3c after reporting high grade iron ore assays from first drilling at its Southern Ridge project in WA with a best intersection of 20m at 62.9% iron from a depth of 14m.