Follow where capital is actually entering junior mining — by month, by commodity and by financing type — because money moves into a theme before prices do.
Junior mining runs on raised capital. Nothing happens without it: no drilling, no studies, no permitting. That makes financing activity the sector's most direct measure of health, and it leads the things investors usually watch.
It leads them because raising money requires someone to write a cheque, and the people writing cheques into placements are generally better informed than the retail market. When capital starts flowing into a commodity that was ignored six months earlier, the drilling that money pays for arrives a year later, and the results a year after that.
This tool aggregates announced financings into monthly totals, broken down by commodity and by the type of instrument used, so that shift is visible while it is happening rather than in hindsight.
Monthly totals show the sector's overall funding conditions. Rising totals mean capital is available and companies are taking it; falling totals mean the window is closing, which is when treasuries start running down and quality companies get forced into bad raises.
By commodity is where the rotation shows. The absolute leader is usually gold simply because there are more gold juniors than anything else, so watch the direction of change rather than the ranking. A commodity whose share of financing has doubled is where attention is moving.
By financing type describes the terms companies are able to get. A market skewed towards flow-through and straight equity is a healthy one. A shift towards convertible instruments and heavily warrant-sweetened units signals that companies are having to pay more for the same money.
Deal count against total value separates two different markets. Many small raises describe a broad, healthy sector; a few very large ones describe capital concentrating into a handful of favoured names while everyone else goes hungry.
A healthy sector shows steady or rising monthly totals spread across a reasonable number of deals, with terms that are not deteriorating. That is a market where a good company with a real project can fund itself without giving away the upside.
The most actionable signal is a commodity whose share of financing is rising from a low base. Capital rotating into a previously ignored metal has repeatedly preceded the exploration cycle in that metal, and the companies raising early tend to be the ones with the ground already staked.
Falling totals with a shift towards expensive instruments is the warning pattern. In that environment, check the treasury position of anything you hold — a company that must raise into a closed window will do so at whatever price it can get, and the Dilution Tracker shows how much damage previous forced raises have already done.
Announced financings are grouped into monthly buckets across the selected window, which is specified in months and measured back from today. Commodity attribution comes from the raising company's projects rather than from the financing itself, and financing type comes from the announcement.
Because capital has to arrive before anything can happen. Money raised today funds drilling next season and results the season after. The people funding placements are also generally better informed than the retail market, so a shift in where capital flows tends to precede the shift in sentiment and price.
That companies are paying more for the same money. Warrant coverage is the sweetener that makes a placement sellable, so heavier coverage and more convertible structures mean investors are demanding better terms — a sign that the financing window is tightening even if headline totals have not yet fallen.
No. Financings are parsed from company announcements we collect, so the totals are a floor rather than a complete market figure. They are most useful as a trend across months and commodities rather than as an absolute measure of capital raised.
Because financing is strongly seasonal. Activity follows drilling seasons and, in Canada, the tax deadlines that drive flow-through issuance late in the year. A month-on-month fall may be entirely seasonal, so the same month a year earlier is the more meaningful comparison.