Happy Saturday, Apes.
We ran five editions this week, and the metals finally found some footing.
Gold climbed from $4,142 on Monday to $4,195 by Friday, silver held around $60, oil chopped between $89 and $92 on every Hormuz headline, and uranium's term price quietly broke a 19-year-old record.
The headlines split almost evenly between rock and cheques. Big grades on one side, billion-dollar deals on the other.
Here's the week, ranked by what you actually opened.
The usual housekeeping: this is still a small list, so treat the ranking as directional, not gospel. It's built from open rate first, then clicks, then web traffic.
Friday's edition has had less than a day in your inbox, so its spot at #5 is mostly a timing penalty.
#1: Osisko's Gaspé Hole Runs 8% Copper
Osisko Metals drilled 94.4 metres at 1.47% copper, including 5.3 metres at 8.31% copper and 51.0 g/t silver, at its Gaspé project in Quebec.
That high-grade core runs roughly 17 times the deposit's average grade. A second hole returned 121.0 metres at 0.71% copper, including 9.5 metres at 4.97%, in what may be a previously unknown third porphyry centre south of the main pit.
The same edition had Chevron handing its Hess Midstream stake back for $200 million cash and a roughly 50% cut to its own Bakken midstream costs, Founders Metals hitting 54.0 metres of 8.45 g/t gold at Froyo in Suriname, and uranium's term price topping its 2007 record at $96/lb.
Why it topped the list: 57.5% open rate, best of the week.
Bulk-tonnage copper deposits live and die on their rich pockets, and an 8% core inside a 94-metre run gets a resource re-rated, not just extended.
The skeptic's footnote: the "new porphyry" is still a hypothesis until follow-up drilling confirms it.
#2: Magna Mining Greenlights Its Levack Restart
Magna Mining's board didn't just read the Levack PEA, it approved restarting the past-producing Sudbury mine on the strength of it.
The headline numbers: C$227 million after-tax NPV, a 92.4% after-tax IRR, and a 0.6-year payback on C$70.1 million of initial capital, with commercial production targeted for mid-2028.
Also in that edition: Tourmaline sold another $330.6 million of Topaz shares (its third trim this year), Eric Sprott anchored a $20.17 million raise at Kirkland Lake Discoveries, and the WCS discount widened to $25.15 a barrel, its worst look in over a year.
Why it ranked here: 53.7% open rate and a 9.1% click rate.
A company putting capital behind a defined plan beats another drill-hole press release every time.
The honest caveat still applies: this is a PEA built mostly on Inferred resources with no reserves, and part of the tax-credit math leans on legislation that isn't law yet.
#3: A Yukon Hole Runs Six Ounces of Gold to the Tonne
Prospector Metals pulled 41.34 g/t gold over 7.81 metres, including 194.23 g/t over 1.03 metres, from the TESS Zone at its ML Project in the Yukon.
It's the richest single interval the project has logged, and 84 of the season's 100 holes were still at the lab.
That edition's energy lead was the biggest corporate deal in Canadian history: Emera agreeing to acquire Canadian Utilities and ATCO in a $14.3 billion all-stock deal, building a combined entity worth roughly $72 billion.
Metatek also locked up seven years of global exclusivity on Lockheed Martin's new gravity-mapping instrument, and Canterra grew its Buchans resource 55% while grades slipped 13 to 14%.
Why it ranked here: 52.5% open rate.
Six ounces a tonne with 84 holes pending is the kind of setup that tends to grow a step-out program. But one bonanza interval is a metre of rock, not a deposit. Watch whether the pending assays show the grade carries along the 400 metres of strike.
#4: Cenovus Swallows Athabasca Oil for $5.7 Billion
Cenovus agreed to buy Athabasca Oil in a cash-and-stock deal valuing it at $5.7 billion enterprise value, adding roughly 45,000 boe/d of Leismer and Corner thermal barrels and pencilling in $85 million of annual synergies.
On the mining side, Evergold's first 2026 holes at Golden Lion returned 4.9 metres of 7.70 g/t gold and 186.0 g/t silver inside 13.5 metres of 2.84 g/t gold.
Suncor also agreed to sell its East Coast offshore stakes to Ithaca Energy for US$860 million upfront and cranked its buyback to C$750 million a month.
And LaFleur Minerals hit 6.05 g/t gold over 8.0 metres at a target untouched since 1987, with our Promo Radar flag riding along.
Why it ranked here: 51.2% open rate, the week's best click rate (9.5%), and the most web views.
Fewer of you opened it, but the ones who did dug in. Consolidation in the oil sands is the cleanest read on where the big balance sheets think long-life barrels are headed.
Watch the shareholder vote and the Competition Bureau review before pencilling in the December close.
#5: Discovery Grows Its Timmins Camp, and Shell Buys Into Bay du Nord
Discovery Mining is paying US$55 million, mostly in stock, for McEwen ground next to its Dome Mine, and Franco-Nevada is paying Discovery $8 million to extend its royalty over the new land.
Net it out and Discovery's cash outlay is close to zero; the bill lands as dilution instead.
On the energy side, Shell agreed to take a 30% stake in Equinor's roughly C$14 billion Bay du Nord project off Newfoundland, with first oil targeted for 2031.
Cold Lake First Nations also took Ottawa to Federal Court over the fast-tracked Pacific Link pipeline, and the silver market is heading for a sixth straight supply deficit at 46.3 million ounces.
Why it ranked here: 43.9% open rate, with by far the least time in inboxes of any edition this week.
Expect this one to climb as the weekend opens catch up.
The Pacific Link court challenge is the sleeper story: it won't kill the line, but it could easily push back next September's targeted construction start.
8.31% copper: the week's most-opened number, about 17 times Gaspé's average grade.
The Pattern Worth Noticing
Strip out the drill holes and this week's money went to things that already exist.
Magna is restarting a mine with headframes, shafts, and permits already in place.
Discovery signed for the land next to a mill it already owns. Cenovus agreed to buy producing thermal barrels instead of drilling new ones, Emera agreed to buy two utilities instead of building a grid, and Shell bought into Bay du Nord rather than chasing its own frontier play.
None of these deals have closed yet.
Buying beats building when capital is disciplined, and permits are slow. That's good news for juniors sitting on past-producing ground or infrastructure-adjacent land.
The catch hasn't changed: the acquirer pays for that certainty, and somebody's shareholders eat the dilution or the premium. Check which side of the cheque your position sits on.
Keep your grades high, and your dilution low.
See you Monday. ⛏️