Cobre intercepts high-grade copper in first deep hole at Sierra Atacama

[SMM Shanghai Spot Copper] According to SMM data on social inventory of copper cathode as of September 21, Shanghai had only 43,900 mt of inventory, down 14,700 mt from September 17. During the morning trading session, Shanghai spot copper premiums were traded instantly at 700 yuan/mt at the open, then continued to climb to above 850 yuan/mt. In the afternoon session, SMM tracked market dynamics, with some buyers pushing spot transactions to around 1,000 yuan/mt in premiums to lock in supply ahead of time. During the day, the SHFE copper 2610 contract fluctuated around 110,000 yuan/mt, and the nearby backwardation structure widened compared with the morning. Amid the "three highs" market conditions, spot market buyers should also be mindful of risks amid stockpiling sentiment ahead of the dual holidays.

Mt Malcolm Mines (ASX:M2M) has opened a new copper-gold exploration corridor in Western Australia. The company identified four copper-gold prospects across targets including Braiser, where surface rock-chip samples returned copper grades up to 1.37% and gold up to 0.44 g/t. The new corridor broadens the project's mineralisation styles and search space. Mt Malcolm plans systematic surface sampling and follow-up drilling to test the anomalies and further assess copper-gold potential.

Caravel Minerals (ASX:CVV) is advancing its Caravel copper project in Western Australia, keeping the definitive feasibility study on track for September 2026. The updated ore reserve stands at 597 million tonnes at 0.24% copper, containing 1.42 million tonnes of copper. Mining Plus completed the mining study in July, supporting a conventional open-pit operation that would use a tier-one contractor for early pre-strip before transitioning to owner mining. Caravel signed a non-binding offtake term sheet with Adani's Kutch Copper covering up to 100% of copper concentrate, and secured A$30 million from Regal plus up to US$220 million in export-credit debt interest.