Danantara Indonesia, sovereign wealth fund, and GEM, battery materials producer, with Vale Indonesia, nickel miner, have agreed that Danantara will invest in a $1.4 billion high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) facility in Central Sulawesi that will produce about 66,000 tons a year of mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) using ore from Vale’s mines. The move advances Indonesia’s...
READ MOREKorea Zinc, nonferrous smelter, and Lockheed Martin, U.S. defense contractor, have signed a memorandum of understanding covering germanium supply and broader collaboration on critical-minerals supply chains. Under the deal, Korea Zinc will supply germanium refined in jurisdictions excluding China, North Korea, Iran and Russia via an offtake arrangement, while advancing plans to build a dedicated...
READ MOREAsian Development Bank, multilateral lender, and Reko Diq Mining Company, copper-gold project JV owned by Barrick Gold (50%), Balochistan (25%) and three Pakistani state firms (25%), have agreed on a $410 million financing package for the $6.6 billion Reko Diq development, with first-phase production targeted for 2028. The package complements a $700 million facility from...
READ MOREBHP, diversified miner, reported underlying attributable profit of $10.16 billion for the year to 30 June, down 26% year on year and below the Visible Alpha consensus of $10.22 billion, as softer iron ore prices outweighed firmer copper. The world’s largest listed miner also set its lowest full-year dividend since 2017 and lifted its net-debt...
READ MOREAlmonty, tungsten producer, and KfW IPEX-Bank, project lender, have cleared the last steps to start up the Sangdong mine in South Korea, with all plant equipment installed and financing fully drawn; initial production is targeted for the second half of 2025. The group said its Panasqueira mine in Portugal continues to provide steady output and...
READ MOREJapan’s Cabinet Office Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), a government R&D initiative, and research partners have set January 2026 for trial mining of rare-earth-bearing mud on the seabed off Minamitorishima, its easternmost territory, with pilot extraction targeted for the first half of fiscal 2027. The campaign—at around 6,000 meters depth—aims to cut exposure to China...
READ MOREHyundai Motor Group, automaker and EV battery developer, and Seoul National University, research partner, have advanced a solid-state battery architecture that enables copper to be used as the anode current collector in sulfide-electrolyte cells—long considered impractical due to corrosion—according to a newly published US patent application. The design layers a protective coating and carbon-based buffer...
READ MOREBarrick, gold–copper producer, and Pakistan’s federal and Balochistan governments, Reko Diq co-owners, have opened talks with U.S. and multilateral lenders on a financing package of as much as $3.5 billion to build the $9 billion copper-gold mine after long-discussed Saudi backing failed to materialise. The plan targets a 2028 start-up and includes prospective support from...
READ MORENavoi Mining & Metallurgical, Uzbekistan’s state gold producer, and Citi, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, global investment banks, have been mandated to lead a potential offering that would list global depositary receipts in London alongside a domestic float in Tashkent, according to people familiar with the process. The company is targeting about $20 billion including debt,...
READ MOREEmirates Global Aluminium, producer and smelter operator, and Emirates Nuclear Energy Company, nuclear utility, have delivered the UAE’s first batch of aluminium made with electricity from the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, branding the product “MinimAL” and sending initial tonnes to Egypt’s Canex Aluminium for downstream uses in infrastructure, solar, transport and architecture. The launch adds...
READ MORECopper demand is running hotter than forecasters expected, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and cable maker Prysmian, as a worldwide push to upgrade power grids and build data centres gathers speed. Supply isn’t keeping pace. That mix could keep prices elevated after trading near $9,700 per tonne in late July. The International Energy Agency now...
READ MOREWipro Infrastructure Engineering, industrial manufacturer, and Wipro Electronic Materials, its new PCB materials arm, have announced a ₹500 crore ($57.6 million) investment to set up a copper-clad laminate (CCL) and prepreg facility in Karnataka, targeting production start in 2026 and output of more than six million sheets a year. The unit is expected to create...
READ MOREPolyus, Russia’s biggest gold miner, and Nornickel, the world’s leading palladium supplier, have quietly stepped up deliveries of gold- and silver-rich ores to China, pushing first-half exports of precious-metal materials to about $1 billion—an 80 per cent jump from a year ago, Chinese customs data collated by Bloomberg show. The shift underscores how Western sanctions...
READ MOREZangge Mining—the Qinghai brine producer now under Zijin Mining’s wing—has been ordered to pull the plug on lithium extraction at the Chaerhan salt lake. The stoppage knocks as much as 5,600 tonnes of lithium-carbonate equivalent (LCE) out of second-half supply and has already jolted the Guangzhou futures market: the most-traded contract hit CNY 69,980 a...
READ MOREGlencore, the Swiss commodities miner-trader, and Kazzinc, its 70 %-owned Kazakh zinc and precious-metals producer, have agreed to accelerate upgrades at smelters and mines in East Kazakhstan, Akmola and the newly created Ulytau region after talks in Baar with Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Sarzhanov and chief executive Gary Nagle. The initiative follows a 53,600-tonne jump in...
READ MORESilvercorp Metals, a Canada-based silver-and-zinc miner, and Kazakh Invest, the state investment promotion agency, have opened talks on a potential exploration push that could see Silvercorp deploy its digital mine-management model in Central Asia. The company’s leadership team, including founder and chief executive Rui Feng, met officials in Astana last week after posting record annual...
READ MOREKuvimba Mining House, the state-owned diversified miner, and two yet-to-be-named Chinese partners will break ground in the third quarter on a 600,000-tonnes-per-year lithium-concentrate plant at Sandawana in southern Zimbabwe, the company confirmed last week. Chief executive Trevor Barnard said the venture, budgeted at US $270 million, should be commissioned in early 2027—timed to coincide with...
READ MOREVale Indonesia, the Jakarta-listed nickel miner 60 percent owned by Vale Base Metals and state holding MIND ID, plans to raise US $500 million in early 2026 from a syndicate of local and international banks and a further US $500-700 million via bonds in 2027, chief financial officer Andaru Brahmono Adi told investors in Jakarta....
READ MOREChina’s General Administration of Customs, the national trade monitor, said imports of unwrought aluminium and products reached 300,000 t in June, up 24.1 % from a year earlier, while bauxite arrivals soared 36.2 % to 18.12 Mt, underscoring the pull from smelters ramping output to multi-year highs. Smelter Restarts and Arbitrage Fuel Metal Flows Restarts...
READ MOREInalum, the state-owned aluminium producer, has asked the Indonesian government to tighten raw-material import rules and stimulate domestic demand after Washington doubled its tariff on imported aluminium to 50 per cent. Company president Melati Sarnita told Parliament the new US levy could slash exports of processed Indonesian products by about 30,000 tonnes next year, squeezing...
READ MOREChina’s Ministry of Commerce, the country’s trade regulator, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, its policy adviser, have revised the national list of technologies subject to export controls for the fourth time since 2001. The move inserts lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery-cathode preparation technology into the “restricted” column—requiring exporters to obtain a licence—while deleting three construction-related...
READ MOREA 50% proposed tariff on copper imports into the United States will have little impact on India’s copper sector. Its position as a net importer of the metal, along with record domestic demand from the renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors, offers a significant buffer against the prospective trade disruption. An Import-Dependent Market India’s role...
READ MOREThe Indonesian government, in an effort to control an acute oversupply of nickel ore, will reduce the validity period of its mining work plan permits (RKAB) from three years to one. The policy revision, which will commence in 2026, has attracted immediate objection from the nation’s miners, who caution it will hamper investment and cause...
READ MOREChina has made a huge lithium ore deposit discovery with 490 million tons of lithium and companion minerals in Hunan Province, another advance in the nation’s drive to lock in domestic battery metal supplies. The find in the Jijiaoshan mine area of Linwu County is one of China’s largest mineral discoveries in recent years and...
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