Today's Mining Pulse
Indonesia grants export monopoly to state trader, targeting $66B in resource revenues
Indonesia’s employers association and major mining cartels have endorsed President Prabowo Subianto’s new export monopoly, giving exclusive rights to state‑controlled trader PT Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI). The policy aims to capture roughly $66.13B in annual resource revenues and curb historic tax leakage estimated at $908B.
Also developing:
ACG Metals Hunts Copper Deals to Build Western Supply
London‑listed ACG Metals is actively pursuing up to ten copper‑mine acquisitions, focusing on assets already producing or near production. The company completed its first 2024 deal, buying Turkey's Gediktepe gold‑silver mine for $300 million and plans to start copper output there this year. ACG aims to lift annual copper production to 300,000 tonnes, positioning itself as a western supplier amid rising copper demand and price volatility. Founder‑CEO Artem Volynets says sustained price swings could accelerate further M&A despite higher seller valuations.
War’s End Won’t End Oil Crisis, LNG Recovery Lags
Ending the war does not mean ending the crisis. We have countries that literally shut down production because their storage is full. To bring back that oil to a pre-crisis level takes time. For [liquified natural gas] in particular, it takes a very...
Falcon Seeks $100M From Guinea in World Bank Court
Falcon Energy Materials has lodged a $100 million arbitration claim with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, alleging Guinea illegally expropriated its Lola graphite project. The claim invokes the bilateral investment treaty between Guinea and the United...
David Stein on Kuya Silver’s Production Growth and the Opportunity in Peru’s Silver Sector
Kuya Silver’s Bethania mine in Peru is ramping up to produce about 1.5 million ounces of silver annually in Phase One. The company recently secured the mill processing its ore, improving control and paving the way for a second mill that...
Spartan Metals’ Brett Marsh on Reviving Nevada’s Tungsten District
Spartan Metals CEO Brett Marsh used PDAC 2026 to highlight the company’s tightly held capital structure and its plan to revive Nevada’s historic tungsten district. Largest shareholder Burton Egger exercised warrants, bolstering the treasury and giving the firm more financial flexibility. The...
NMDC Focus on Technology Helping It Become India’s First 50 Mt a Year Iron Ore Producer
NMDC Ltd announced it will become India’s first miner to produce 50 million tonnes of iron ore in a single financial year, targeting FY 2025‑26. The output surge, from roughly 30 Mt in 2015 to the projected 50 Mt, marks the fastest expansion in...
Botswana Minerals Reports Significant Exploration Progress
Botswana Minerals announced major exploration progress, securing eight copper‑focused prospecting licences covering about 7,000 km² in north‑west Botswana. The licences result from the company’s AI‑driven analysis of its extensive 95,000 km² geoscientific dataset, which includes over 375,000 line‑km of airborne and ground...
Fastmarkets to Launch Three New China Copper Scrap Grades, Increase Frequency
Fastmarkets will shift its CIF China copper scrap price publication from a monthly to a weekly schedule and add three new grades—millberry, cobra and clove—under the GB 38471‑2023 standard. Existing No 1 and No 2 grades retain their definitions, with minimum contract sizes...
Fox Tungsten’s Stephen Gray on the World’s Highest-Grade Tungsten Resource in British Columbia
Fox Tungsten Ltd., after selling its copper asset, rebranded at PDAC 2026 to focus exclusively on tungsten. The Fox project in British Columbia’s Cariboo region hosts a resource grading roughly 1 % tungsten, claimed as the world’s highest‑grade deposit. With about $4 million...
Africa’s Critical Minerals Gain Strategic Importance as Global Demand Intensifies
Africa is emerging as a strategic source of rare earths and critical minerals as the United States seeks alternatives to China-dominated processing. The continent hosts vast deposits, including DRC cobalt, Zimbabwe lithium, and new rare‑earth projects in Namibia, Tanzania, and...
Declining Exploration Spending Threatens the Future of South Africa’s Mining Industry
South Africa's mineral exploration spending fell for the seventh consecutive year, dropping 5.3% in 2025 to 738 million rand (about $44 million) at constant 2015 prices. Over the past 30 years, total exploration investment has slumped more than 85%, signaling waning investor confidence....
ABx Group’s Mark Cooksey on Dysprosium, Terbium and the Race for Heavy Rare Earths
At PDAC 2026, ABx Group CEO Mark Cooksey outlined the company’s plan to produce a mixed rare‑earth carbonate (MREC) from ionic clay deposits in Tasmania that are unusually rich in heavy rare earths dysprosium and terbium. The project leverages low‑cost...
Rising Fuel Price Could See Box Shipping Face a Bill of up to $35bn
Rising fuel prices linked to the Hormuz crisis could add $30‑35 billion to global container shipping costs if sustained for a year. Sea‑Intelligence estimates an extra $153‑$178 per TEU, potentially pushing freight rates higher. While direct fuel expenses are significant, analysts...
Toubani Begins Construction at Kobada Gold Project
Toubai Resources has broken ground on its Kobada Gold Project in southern Mali, following a board‑approved final investment decision. The initial construction phase targets bulk earthworks for the processing plant, tailings storage, water dam and staff accommodation, with the first...
Zambia to Allocate 8,000 Hectares at Kikonge Gold Site to Over 500 Artisanal Miners in Mufumbwe
Zambia’s Ministry of Mines will allocate roughly 8,000 hectares at the Kikonge gold site to more than 500 artisanal miners, organized into cooperatives. Each cooperative is slated to receive about six hectares, enabling regulated, government‑overseen mining. The move follows a...
At PDAC 2026, Power Metallic’s Terry Lynch Discusses Lion’s High-Grade Copper Results
At PDAC 2026, Power Metallic CEO Terry Lynch highlighted high‑grade copper results from the Lion zone in Quebec’s James Bay region. The company has completed 35,000 metres of a 100,000‑metre drill program, reporting intercepts such as 32 metres grading 7% copper‑equivalent and...
Gold-to-Crude Ratio Hits Record, Signals Potential Peak
Historic Gold Stretch vs. Crude May Signal Peak - "Unsustainably high" describes the 79 barrels of WTI crude oil equal to an ounce of gold at the end of February. Only the collapse to negative crude prices in April 2020...
Centaurus Inks Glencore Deal for Jaguar Nickel Output
Centaurus Metals secured a five‑year, $450 million off‑take with Glencore for 20,000 tonnes of 32% nickel concentrate annually, covering roughly one‑third of the Jaguar project’s planned output. The agreement ties sales to LME nickel prices and includes copper and cobalt by‑product terms....
Ghana: Parliament Passes Bills On University Charters, Mining Levy Reduction
Ghana’s Parliament approved two bills on Friday: the Education Regulatory Bodies (Amendment) Bill 2025, which makes the six‑year charter requirement optional for private tertiary institutions, and the Growth and Sustainability (Amendment) Bill 2026, which cuts the mining levy from three...
Uncle Sam Goes Mining in the Congo
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, together with Abu Dhabi’s ADQ and New York‑based Orion Resources, signed a non‑binding MOU to acquire a 40% stake in Glencore’s Kamoto and Mutanda cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The move...
Harena Signs Exclusivity Agreement to Acquire US Rare Earth, Uranium Permits
Harena Rare Earths has signed an exclusivity agreement to evaluate buying 100% of Paradigm Critical Minerals, which holds heavy‑rare‑earth and uranium exploration permits in San Bernardino County, California. The assets boast historic drilling that returned up to 2 % total rare‑earth oxide...
Mining Waste Could Be Repurposed as Sustainable Construction Materials
A new review in *Sustainability* evaluates how the 100 billion‑ton global mining waste stream can be transformed into construction inputs such as asphalt fillers, road bases, and concrete additives. Researchers found that mine tailings can replace up to 50 % of natural...
Hormuz Closure Won’t Cripple Uranium Supply, Says Analyst
Lots of commentators are suggesting the Strait of Hormuz closure will disrupt uranium supply. I think they’re wrong. Their logic seems simple and obvious: most uranium mining relies on sulphuric acid, a large share of global sulphur exports pass through the...
Passive Seismic Imaging of the Orthomagmatic Ore Deposits Using Regional Earthquake Interferometry: A Case Study of the Akanvaara V-Cr-PGE Deposit...
Researchers introduced a passive seismic imaging technique that leverages interferometry of regional Pn‑wave coda to generate empirical Green’s tensors. The approach was applied to the Akanvaara V‑Cr‑PGE ultramafic deposit in northern Finland using a dense network of 771 three‑component stations....
Sandvik Bringing New Levels of Flexibility, Quality and Safety to Underground Resin Injection Applications with HPA20 Pump
Sandvik has launched the HPA20 automatic injection pump, a next‑generation system for underground resin‑based ground support in hard‑rock mining and civil engineering. The pump combines intelligent automation with a flexible architecture, allowing both manual and fully automatic injection of two‑component...
5 Minutes with… Allison Coppel
Allison Coppel, founder of Pacha Associates and co‑founder of Maven Exploration, discussed the indispensable role of mining in modern economies during a rapid‑fire interview. She emphasized that every facet of daily life—from smartphones to renewable‑energy infrastructure—relies on mineral extraction. Coppel...
Resource Use, Physical Flows, and Costs of Select Technologies and Facilities in U.S. Chemicals, Cement, Iron and Steel, Food, and...
A new structured dataset characterizes technologies and facilities across U.S. chemicals, cement, iron and steel, food, and non‑manufacturing sectors. It provides facility‑level inventories for six manufacturing sectors and technology options for three non‑manufacturing sectors, harmonizing assumptions, costs, and resource use...
Iran Attacks Fujairah, Spares Saudi Pipeline Bypass
Iran has started a new phase of its oil war: Tehran is clearly going after the Strait of Hormuz bypass route, with Fujairah (UAE) coming under attack. But so far, the Saudi pipeline bypass hasn't been attacked (and neither the Yemeni...
South32 Too Risky for Predators, Says Outgoing CEO
South32 CEO Graham Kerr, who will depart after 12 years, says the Perth‑based miner is too risky for larger acquisition predators. He highlights a strategic pivot toward base metals, targeting 90% of production in that sector within 18 months, with...
Ariana Steps Up Dokwe Exploration as Drilling Points to Resource Expansion
Ariana Resources will commence Phase 2 diamond drilling at its Dokwe North gold project in Zimbabwe in late March 2026, following a successful reverse‑circulation program that returned high‑grade intercepts and suggested the mineralised system extends beyond the current resource envelope. The RC...
Why Use MetalMiner for Metal Price Forecasting?
MetalMiner provides metal price forecasting services tailored to U.S. manufacturers, combining proprietary price indices, market‑signal forecasts, and support/resistance analysis. Its indices aggregate 10‑15 years of data and are normalized to reflect the actual mix of metals bought by U.S. firms....
Saudi Reroutes Oil via Red Sea Amid Hormuz Closure
♦️Here’s a striking example of how a closure of the Strait of Hormuz can reshape global oil flows—and how Saudi Arabia can rapidly adapt by diverting supplies from its eastern fields to western Red Sea terminals. ♦️A VLCC oil tanker was...
Indonesia’s Nickel Pig Iron Spigot Reopens
Indonesia’s high‑pressure acid leach (HPAL) plants that produce nickel pig iron (NPI) saw output plunge more than 67% in mid‑February after a processing‑waste landslide disrupted operations near the Morowali Industrial Park. Satellite‑based monitoring by Navigate Commodities shows ore flows rebounding...
Tantalite Prices Jump to over Two-Decade High on Congo Supply Fears
Tantalite prices have surged to $200‑$210 per pound, the highest level in over twenty years, after a landslide shut the Rubaya mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC, which supplied more than half of global tantalum output in...
How the Pentagon Is Working to Wriggle Out of China’s Rare-Earths Grip
The Pentagon warned that the United States remains 95% dependent on China for rare‑earth minerals, a vulnerability that threatens national‑security supply chains. In response, the Defense Department has pledged over a billion dollars in direct investments and secured billions in...
Novelis Adds Bag Houses for 85k‑ton Recycling Boost
Novelis commissions bag houses at UK plant to support an 85,000 t/yr recycling expansion before UK DRS. https://www.metalnomist.com/2026/03/novelis-commissions-bag-houses-at-uk.html
Nova Takes Key Step Towards US Antimony Production as Equipment Arrives at Estelle
Nova Minerals has received its first batch of mining and processing equipment at the Estelle project in Alaska, marking a major milestone toward US antimony production. About 95% of the major equipment has been delivered, with roughly 70% already en...
US and Chile Launch Talks to Secure Critical Minerals
US-Chile critical minerals talks open to secure copper, lithium, and rare earth supply chains. https://www.metalnomist.com/2026/03/us-chile-critical-minerals-talks-kick.html
China’s Sodium‑Ion Drive Signals Mineral Dominance Contraction
One interesting topic that needs more work: China's push on sodium-ion batteries and whether this is actually more innovation or their acceptance of contraction on their critical minerals dominance (it's more the latter, but anyone can debate me after they've...
Evolution Recognised Again in S&P Global Sustainability Rankings
Evolution Mining secured a score of 68 in S&P Global’s 2026 Corporate Sustainability Assessment, marking its second consecutive appearance among the high‑ranking mining firms. The CSA evaluated over 9,200 companies, with only 848 earning yearbook membership, highlighting the assessment’s rigor....
Trump’s $50 Oil Goal Risks Global Recession
President Trump will get his $50 oil price wish before the elections— but only after triggering a global recession. Or: End the war this week and keep flooding the market with SPR releases in the coming months.
Mocoa Infill Drilling Beats 1.1B‑ton Resource Model
Copper Giant $CGNT.v strong infill results at Mocoa porphyry in colombia 257m @ 0.63% CuEq incl. 191m @ 0.72% CuEq from hole MD-057. Beats current 1.1B t inferred resource model. Higher grades at depth along southern margin. @Cu_Giant
BHP Starts Work on Major Port Hedland Car Dumper Project
BHP has broken ground on a sixth car dumper at its Nelson Point terminal, part of the $1.4 billion Port Debottlenecking Project 2. The new CD6 unit will tip two 135‑tonne rail cars at once, delivering up to 16,000 tonnes of iron ore...
Will 2026’s Commodity Volatility Spill Into Stocks?
Can we get through 2026 with crude and gold volatility not trickling up to stocks? https://t.co/owCVec57DY
Treasury Secretary Confirms No US Intervention in Oil Derivatives
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US government has NOT intervened in the oil derivatives market
Additional LNG Exports From Plaquemines LNG Approved
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright approved a 13% increase in exports at Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG terminal, adding up to 0.45 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) for non‑FTA destinations. The move raises Plaquemines' authorized export capacity to 3.85 Bcf/d, combining both...
Perth Mint's Silver Supply Stuck at 1oz Coins
Not much progress at Perth Mint on silver, I see. Only 1oz bullion coins available. https://t.co/5dJdMKZcbF
India Buys Pricey Russian Oil Legally, Boosting Putin
Somewhere in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin is rubbing his hands. India is paying ~$99 a barrel for Russian crude Urals (including shipping costs). And since the US eased its sanctions on Russian crude, it's all legal.
India's Energy Security Threatened by Iran War
Iran War Energy Crisis: How Long Will India Stay Exposed to Global Insta... https://t.co/JcyDp1BD9k via @YouTube
Mineral Resources Launches WA's First 2026 Iron Ore Mine
Mineral Resources brings little Lamb Creek to life as WA’s first new iron ore mine of 2026 https://t.co/ChB3CftVJn