Serial wealth creator and Franco-Nevada co-founder Pierre Lassonde is publicly backing a long-term gold price of US$4,000/oz, drawing on his experience as former Newmont president and architect of the royalty/streaming model. He links the bullish outlook to persistent fiscal deficits, central bank buying and constrained new mine supply, arguing that large greenfield projects face decade-long permitting timelines and rising capital intensity. For miners and project financiers, his view reinforces pressure to secure tier-one ounces and royalty exposure rather than chasing marginal, high-cost developments.

Western Gold Resources has approved a formal decision to mine at its 100%-owned Gold Duke Project in Western Australia, moving from pure exploration to near-term production. The project already holds mining approvals over the Eagle, Emu, Golden Monarch and Gold King deposits, allowing WGR to advance directly into detailed mine planning and contractor engagement rather than waiting on permitting. For geotechnical and mine planning teams, the pre-approved multi-deposit layout signals a likely staged open-pit schedule and shared infrastructure strategy across the four pits.

Copper prices set fresh records above $12,000/t in London and $5.60/lb in Chicago in 2025, amid outages at Grasberg, El Teniente, Kamoa-Kakula, Quebrada Blanca II and Cobre Panamá, and mounting geopolitical friction over US tariffs and Chinese processing dominance (53.1% of global capacity). Analysts are split, with Goldman Sachs seeing a 160 kt surplus capping 2026 prices at $10,000–$11,000/t, while Bank of America and BloombergNEF project spikes to $15,000/t and a 19 Mt structural deficit by 2050. Technically significant stories include Freeport’s 400 kt sulfide leach push at Morenci, the stalled deep-shaft Resolution Copper project in Arizona, and the proposed $53 billion Anglo–Teck merger that could create a copper complex larger than Escondida’s 1.28 Mt/y output.