By Salini Krishnan
Skillings Mining Intelligence returns this afternoon with a deal- and development-heavy read on gold, silver, copper, and critical minerals. The day’s flow is centered on four themes that matter directly to operators and investors: permitting momentum in Chile, large-scale streaming capital in Peru, project execution progress in South Australia, and Canada’s accelerating push to translate critical minerals strategy into deployable capital.
Market Snapshot
| Commodity | Price | Daily Context |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | $4,765/oz | Elevated prices continue to support project advancement, reserve revaluation, and M&A screening across the gold complex. |
| Copper | $10,480/t | Tight medium-term supply expectations remain supportive for development-stage copper projects and contractor activity. |
| Silver | $34.50/oz | Strong pricing is reinforcing investor attention on streaming structures and long-life polymetallic assets. |
Kinross Gold Lobo-Marte: update, timeline, and key risks
Kinross Gold has submitted environmental permits for the proposed $1.5 billion Lobo-Marte gold project in Chile’s Atacama region, advancing one of the more closely watched undeveloped gold assets in South America. The project is targeting approximately 4.7 million ounces and, if permitted on schedule, would strengthen Chile’s position in the regional development pipeline at a time when high gold prices are improving the economics of large-scale builds.
For operators and investors, the immediate significance is timing. Permitting remains the main gating item for major greenfield gold projects in Latin America, especially in arid regions where water, infrastructure, and environmental baseline work can determine whether capex schedules hold. In Lobo-Marte’s case, the filing signals Kinross is moving from long-dated optionality toward a more active development phase.
The broader market backdrop matters as much as the project itself. At $4,765/oz gold, boards are revisiting previously deferred ounces, but the market is also assigning more weight to jurisdictional execution, social license, and infrastructure readiness. Lobo-Marte therefore stands out not only for scale, but for what it says about how producers are repositioning their project pipelines in a higher-for-longer gold environment.
Wheaton Precious Metals and BHP Antamina deal: update, timeline, and key risks
Wheaton Precious Metals has closed a $4.3 billion silver streaming deal with BHP tied to the Antamina Mine in Peru, one of the largest transactions in the precious metals streaming space in recent years. The scale of the deal reinforces how streaming capital is being used to monetize by-product exposure at large base metals operations while giving precious metals investors long-duration leverage to silver without taking on direct operating control.
The transaction is significant for several reasons. First, it underlines continued demand for alternative mining finance structures as producers look to optimize portfolios without resorting solely to equity issuance or conventional debt. Second, it places fresh emphasis on Peru’s role in the global silver and polymetallic value chain at a time when the market is balancing stronger precious metals sentiment against persistent operating and political risk questions in the Andes.
For decision-makers, the Antamina stream is also a reminder that silver is increasingly being priced not just as a monetary metal, but as a strategic industrial input. With silver at $34.50/oz, large-scale streams linked to established mines can attract premium attention because they combine operating scale, reserve life, and visibility on future deliveries.
Rex Minerals Hillside: update, timeline, and key risks
Rex Minerals has awarded Ausenco the EPCM contract for the Hillside copper-gold project in South Australia, a development that moves the asset further along the execution pathway as the market stays focused on shovel-ready copper exposure. The Hillside project carries a reported resource base of about 1.9 million tonnes of contained copper, making it one of the more consequential development stories in Australia’s copper pipeline.
The EPCM award matters because engineering and delivery sequencing increasingly separate funded projects from stalled ones. In the current market, investors are placing a premium on milestones that reduce uncertainty around buildability, contractor strategy, infrastructure planning, and capex discipline. Bringing in Ausenco signals a shift from concept toward implementation detail.
At $10,480/t copper, development assets with scale are drawing heightened attention from financiers, equipment suppliers, and strategic partners. For Hillside, the next key watchpoints are likely to be final project scope, schedule discipline, and how management frames execution risk in a market where labor, procurement, and energy costs remain central to returns.
Canada critical minerals partnerships: what changed and impact on project capital
Canada has secured 30 new critical minerals partnerships and helped unlock $12.1 billion in project capital, a notable signal that industrial policy is moving beyond headline strategy and into project-level financing and commercial alignment. For the mining sector, that combination of partnership-building and capital mobilization is becoming a critical indicator of which jurisdictions can convert policy intent into actual mine, processing, and supply chain capacity.
The practical implication is straightforward: capital now follows not only grade and geology, but policy coordination, permitting confidence, downstream demand visibility, and allied-country alignment. Canada’s progress on partnership expansion suggests governments are increasingly treating critical minerals supply as an integrated system spanning exploration, extraction, processing, infrastructure, and trade.
This matters well beyond Canada. For operators and investors, the benchmark is no longer simply whether a country has a critical minerals strategy on paper. It is whether that strategy is translating into bankable projects, cross-border commercial agreements, and sufficient policy certainty to crowd in private capital. On that measure, $12.1 billion is a number the market will notice.
Why this afternoon matters
Taken together, today’s developments show how capital is being allocated across the mining cycle. Gold developers are pushing permits while pricing remains favorable. Streaming companies are writing multi-billion-dollar checks for long-life silver exposure. Copper projects are advancing through execution gates. Governments are racing to turn critical minerals policy into investable pipelines.
That mix is important because it captures the current shape of the market: fewer generalized narratives, more asset-specific moves, and a sharper premium on projects that can show credible progression from concept to cash flow.
Read the full March 2026 Issue for deep-dive datasets and regional reports at https://Skillings.short.gy/March2026.
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