Daily Metals Mining Rundown for 17 Feb 2026 (after-market ASX)

Precious and base metals prices slipped over the long weekend since Friday's close, with gold & silver falling -2% & -4% and nickel & copper dropping -1% & -2.5%; ASX mining stocks were mostly mixed to flat thru Monday and Tuesday's sessions - with some rising gently and some falling gently;

Author

Host Rock Capital
February 17, 2026

Today’s metal price movements (since Friday’s close) and mining company peer group movements through ASX trading (including Friday’s TSX/NY movements):

Top and bottom 40 daily performing metals mining company stocks (out of 504 in our Peer Table) through ASX trading (including Friday’s TSX/NY movements):

Covered company announcements incorporated into today’s after-market ASX Peer Table (resource updates, economic studies, changes in attributable project ownership):

  • Copper producer Aeris Resources Limited Resources (ASX:AIS) announced Thursday (12 Feb) the acquisition of the South Cobar copper project from copper (and silver) explorer Peel Mining Limited (ASX:PEX), in an arrangement where AIS acquires all outstanding shares of PEX for its main copper asset (South Cobar with MRE 10.64Mt @ 1.85% Cu, 18 g/t Ag, 0.22 g/t Au, 0.10% Zn, 0.12% Pb) according to a share exchange ratio of 0.3363 sh AIS per share PEX valued at 19c/sh (16% premium to recent share price 16c/sh), and where PEX shareholders retain full ownership of its remaining precious and base metals assets in the Cobar Basin by way of new ASX listing/spin-out (valued at an additional 20c/sh PEX, increasing the combined equity premium for PEX shareholders to 49% at recent VWAP) – including the high-grade zinc-polymetallic Southern Nights complex (MRE of 10Mt @ 7.69% ZnEq) and the May Day deposit (1.6Mt @ 0.98g/t Au, 25 g/t Ag, 0.92% Zn, 0.61% Pb) as mentioned in the news release, but also appearing to include the South Cobar zinc-dominant deposit for an additional (significant) 10.66Mt @ 2.87% Zn, 0.42 g/t Au, 52 g/t Ag, 0.36% Cu, 1.34% Pb. The deal increases AIS’ basic shares by ~25% to 1.506b to grow its copper resources by ~25% (and copper-equivalent resources by ~15%) to 4.5 Blbs CuEq (5.6 Moz AuEq) – now (a larger) 48% from Cu (was 44%), 26% Au, 12% Ag, rest Zn-Pb at 3-month trailing average metal pricing with no recovery factors. The added project comes with 2 large high-grade copper deposits within trucking distance of AIS’ producing Tritton mine complex with its 1.8 mtpa processing plant – pushing out the mine's life to 10+ years, and creating a platform for further consolidation in the Cobar Region. Copper price is up ~40% in the past year, including ~20% in the last few months, while AIS is ramping up production (guiding for 24-29 kt Cu in 2026 – up from 19 kt in 2025) with a now enlarged resource base. AIS stock dropped slight -6% on 12 Feb after this announcement (vs. Cu producer group mean daily drop of -2.7%), before rising +6% on 16 Feb intraday to A$0.54/sh, proforma market cap A$813m or US$0.13/lb CuEq resource ($104/oz AuEq) – a 40% discount to 24-company Cu producer median US$0.21/lb CuEq ($169/oz AuEq) or a 67% discount to our 60-company intermediate gold producer median US$323/oz AuEq.

  • (2/2) And the deal looks even sweeter with even more upside for PEX shareholders – via the proposed NewCo junior miner (Peel Mining Limited "NewCo"), which effectively swaps ~30% of its pre-existing 2.38Moz mineral resource inventory (31% Cu, 29% Ag, 17% Au, rest Zn-Pb) for 20.5% equity ownership share of AIS’ proforma 4.5 Blbs CuEq (5.6 Moz AuEq) while retaining ownership of PEX’s other assets, which actually GROWS PEX (NewCo) attributable mineral resources by 18% (compared to former PEX) to 2.80 Moz AuEq (174 Moz AuEq) – which is now quite silver-dominant with 26% of its metal value coming from Ag, 25% Au, 26% Cu, 20% Zn, res Pb – and 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝗖𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟯𝟬-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 (PEX had been considered a copper-dominant copper explorer previously, but the silver explorer group enjoys a higher market cap/oz peer group median that is 2.5x higher than Cu explorer group on metal-equivalent basis). The proposed ASX listing/spin-co effectively acts as a 4.6-to-1 share consolidation where PEX shareholders will receive 1 share NewCo valued at 4.4c/sh NewCo (~20c/sh PEX) for every 4.6 shares PEX (reducing PEX basic shares from 917m to 199.4m NewCo shares), and was announced to be combined with a A$4m Initial Public Offering (IPO) at 20c/sh NewCo (equivalent to 4.4c/sh PEX) – which will increase Peel Mining NewCo shares by ~10% to 219.4m. PEX stock traded up +12.5% on 12 Feb to $0.18/sh, proforma (NewCo) market cap A$11m, or market cap/oz US$0.16/oz AgEq ($10/oz AuEq) – an 85% discount to our 30-company silver explorer group median $1.11/oz AgEq ($67/oz AuEq) – and a 74% discount to (former) PEX’s recent/pre-deal (copper-dominant) market cap/oz AuEq resource of US$38/oz AuEq.

Disclaimer: Provided for informational and educational purposes on an ‘as-is’ basis, and is not investment advice. For full disclosures, visit www.hostrockcapital.com/disclosures.