Mining equities ended the week sharply lower in the growth metals, even as the underlying precious metals held most of their ground. In the site market tables, rare earth miners fell 11.05 percent on the week, uranium miners 8.92 percent, the lithium and battery basket 8.15 percent and copper miners 6.73 percent. Silver miners fell 5.01 percent on the week and gold miners 1.76 percent.
The metals did not fall as far. Gold eased 0.83 percent on the week to 4,181.10 dollars an ounce and rose 0.26 percent in the latest session; silver fell 6.06 percent on the week to 56.99 dollars but rose 0.28 percent on the day; copper rose 0.30 percent on the day to 6.53 dollars a pound, down 1.68 percent on the week. The diversified majors steadied on Friday, BHP up 0.47 percent and Rio Tinto up 0.12 percent, after weekly falls of 3.98 percent and 4.71 percent.
The pattern is a positioning washout in the crowded critical minerals trades rather than a commodity collapse. The same week brought the sector’s largest lithium investment decision of the downturn, PLS Group’s Pilgangoora expansion, published here on Friday, and a new US stockpile financing round from Project Vault, which suggests the selling is in the equities’ multiples, not in project appetite.
What to watch is whether the divergence closes from the metal side or the equity side. Gold miners lagging a gold price still above 4,100 dollars has been the year’s recurring trade; this week the lag spread to every growth metal basket at once, which is what a broad de-risking looks like rather than a single name problem.