Insider Stock Picks - Cheap Resource Stocks as Metal Tighten

Welcome to Insider Stock Picks. Today, we're reviewing the current status of Resource Stocks and highlighting stocks to watch closely at the end of this email.

Copper is doing the talking.

COMEX copper traded near $6.63 per pound on Tuesday, August 4th, up roughly 1.7% and at a two month high, with the LME three month contract touching $14,000 per tonne. Copper is up about 7% over the past month and more than 50% over the past year. A record 200,000 plus tonnes landed at US ports in July ahead of an expected tariff decision, concentrate remains scarce in China, and data centre demand keeps buying regardless of price.

Gold is doing the opposite.

Spot traded around $4,096 per ounce, up 0.4% on the day, with December futures opening at $4,133.80. The equities are cheaper still: the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) closed Tuesday at $77.60, down about 9.8% year to date against a 52 week range of $54.57 to $117.18. Miners have been bid for a second session.

Uranium is the quietest and possibly the most interesting.

Spot has gone nowhere near $86 per pound after trading above $100 in January. The term price, which is where utilities actually contract the bulk of their fuel, finished June near $94 per pound, the highest in more than eighteen years.

Three different commodities, one pattern: the contracted, physical side of each market is tightening while the traded side is priced closer to surplus.

Producers do not sell forward pounds cheaply when they expect a glut. Utilities do not stretch to eighteen year highs on multi year contracts when they think spot is about to break. Smelters do not accept zero dollar treatment charges in a market with plenty of concentrate. In each case, the party with the most information is transacting at the higher price while the listed equity trades at the lower one.

The counterargument deserves airtime. Equities are discounting cost inflation, capital discipline that has not fully arrived, and the possibility that these prices are a tariff and inventory distortion rather than a demand signal. Two hundred thousand tonnes of copper in US warehouses is not consumption. And a gold market that spiked in January and gave back a quarter of it has trained investors to fade strength.

Our read: the divergence is real, but it argues for selectivity on quality rather than buying the whole sector. Simultaneous strength across seniors, mid tiers, and quality developers is the confirmation to watch for. Leadership from a handful of names is a signal, not yet a trend.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL)

Now a pure play silver producer after closing the sale of Casa Berardi in March. First quarter revenue from continuing operations topped $411 million and 2026 guidance calls for 15.1 to 16.5 million ounces of silver. The flow argument matters as much as the fundamentals: if capital rotates into silver, there are very few large and liquid North American primary silver producers able to absorb it.

Coeur Mining (NYSE:CDE)

Gold production with meaningful silver leverage attached. A useful confirmation name. Producers with exposure to both metals advancing together suggests rotation rather than a single stock story.

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN)

The clearest laggard against the copper price despite world class assets. The gap is the setup and the operational cuts at Kamoa Kakula are the reason the gap exists. Watch whether delivery catches up to the commodity.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ)

The uranium anchor. First quarter production of 6.2 million pounds, realized price up 6% to $66.21 per pound against costs of $34.05, and net earnings up 87% to C$131 million.

Snowline Gold (TSXV:SGD)

One of the higher quality gold discoveries of the past decade on scale and grade. Pre production and therefore pre cash flow, which is the entire risk.

Sector proxy: NYSEARCA:GDX

If the thesis is a sector re rating rather than a stock story, the ETF is the cleaner expression.