For one reason or another, there weren’t that many companies making moves over the weekend and going into Monday. Whether it’s because most investors were caught up in yesterday’s crypto crash or some other reason altogether, regular stocks didn’t see much in the way of trading activity on Monday. Some of the biggest winners on the day were companies in the commodities markets, including energy and mining stocks. One of the best performing mining stocks yesterday was Western Copper & Gold (NYSE: WRN), whose shares skyrocketed after winning a major investment from a world-class mining giant.
Western Copper & Gold announced on Monday that it received more than C$25.6 million from Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO), a major mining giant, to help expand one of its most promising discoveries, a copper gold mine project up in the Yukon. The junior miner confirmed that Rio would buy more than 11.8 million shares in order to support and finance the project. In exchange, Rio would have the right to appoint one member to the project’s committee as well as one director on WRN’s management team.
“The investment by Rio Tinto, a leading global mining group which operates in 35 countries around the world, and whose purpose is to produce the materials essential to human progress is a strong endorsement of the Casino Project. We look forward to working with Rio Tinto to advance Casino,” read an official press release from WRN.
The mining history has a unique relationship between older miners and junior exploration firms. These smaller, junior miners essentially do most of the exploratory leg work involved in finding new mining projects. Once once of these companies makes a big discovery, it typically receives investment from senior miners, who often end up buying out these companies outright. While it might seem odd that large mining companies don’t do much prospecting work themselves, this kind of industry model seems to have become the norm for decades now.
Shares of Western Copper & Gold were up 25.6% on Monday in response to the news. While it’s typically not a stock that gets lots of attention, higher commodity prices are helping drive interest into the mining sector once again.
Not only are gold prices staying steady at around $1,860 per ounce, a pretty high level for most companies, copper prices have also been hitting multi-year-highs now thanks to surging industrial demand from China and other countries.
Most commodities, even outside the mining sector, are seeing their prices rise as well. Lumber prices have reached a decade-long high, while corn and other agricultural commodities have skyrocketed in value as well. A lot of that is due to inflation concerns, and commodities often shoot up in price before the official inflation rate goes up.
Western Copper & Gold Company Profile
Western Copper & Gold Corp is a Canada-based exploration-stage company. It is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and future development of resource properties. The company is developing the Casino project into Canada’s premier copper-gold mine. It holds significant gold, copper reserves in its Casino project located in the Yukon, Canada. – Warrior Trading News
