Know What's Happening in Mining
Know What's Happening in Mining
Mining Titans Surge $250B Amid Iran Conflict, Valuing Sector at $2.41T
The MINING.com Top 50 miners posted a combined market capitalization of $2.41 trillion at the end of Q1 2026, up roughly $250 billion from the start of 2025. Valuations rose despite the US‑Iran war and a sharp drop in gold and silver prices, with copper only modestly down and lithium firms re‑entering the list. Six companies now exceed $100 billion in market value.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s second "Big Beautiful Gulf" auction (BBG2) yielded $46.98 million in high bids, a steep decline from the $279.4 million generated in the inaugural sale. Only 38 bids from 13 firms covered 25 blocks on roughly 141,000 acres, far fewer than the 80 million acres offered. Bids concentrated in established deep‑water basins such as Mississippi Canyon and Green Canyon. A third auction (BBG3) is scheduled for August, targeting another 80 million acres.
Titan Mining has begun shipping graphite concentrate from its Kilbourne demonstration plant in New York, marking the first U.S. graphite output in decades. The demo facility, capable of 1,200 tonnes per year, has produced roughly 1,600 kg and is supplying customers for...
◾️Saudi Arabia deserves more recognition for its prudent, forward-thinking approach—strategically prepositioning oil in storage facilities around the world to hedge against potential supply disruptions. ◾️What @AlexLawler100 missed in this story is going back to previous reports to see that...
Guinea, now the world’s largest bauxite producer, is weighing export curbs as a glut has driven prices down roughly 50% since January 2025. Export shipments surged 25% to 183 million tonnes last year, far exceeding licence‑based production plans. The government is...
Maersk has begun sourcing marine fuel from the United States and Europe to supply its Asian fleet, after recent disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz left key Middle‑East and Asian bunkering hubs unable to meet demand. Chief commercial officer Karsten...
Teck and Korea Zinc have set the benchmark zinc concentrate treatment charge (TC) at $85 per tonne, a $5 increase from the previous level. The agreement introduces a payable for germanium and revises the silver payable, though sources disagree on...
Canada’s mining landscape is shifting as Manitoba approved an amended licence for a First Nation‑owned critical minerals project, signaling stronger provincial support for Indigenous participation. A new ICMM report highlighted that steel and aluminium production remain the sector’s biggest emission...
Faraday Copper Corp. completed a $100 million private placement, issuing 23.8 million shares at $4.20 each, backed by strategic investors including the Ludin Family Trust and a BHP unit. The capital will fund the Copper Creek project in Arizona and support a...
Banyan Gold Corp. announced new high‑grade gold intercepts from the Airstrip deposit at its AurMac project in Yukon, including 6.80 g/t Au over 9.3 m and 1.49 g/t Au over 8.8 m. The latest drilling refines the geometry of the intrusion‑related system and supports...
Draslovka a.s. has signed a multi‑year agreement to supply sodium cyanide (NaCN) to Barrick Mining’s Nevada Gold Mines, the United States’ largest gold operation. The chemical will be 100% U.S.-produced at Draslovka’s Memphis facility, the world’s largest NaCN plant, and...
At PDAC 2026, Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) and Energy Fuels announced a strategic partnership aimed at creating a fully vertically integrated critical‑minerals platform, spanning mining to alloy production. The companies are pursuing Australian FIRB approval and plan a shareholder vote,...
Ferreyros continues its strategic alliance with Minera Chinalco Peru, supporting the digitalisation of mining through the Integrated Operations Management (GIO) Center in Lima that remotely controls the Toromocho copper mine. The partnership introduced Caterpillar’s autonomous MD6640 electric drills and the...
Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. disclosed impressive drill results from its 25%‑owned Brazilian rare‑earth project, where 13 holes returned more than 2.55% total rare‑earth oxides and localized zones above 14%. In Canada, the wholly‑owned Alces Lake monazite deposit is...
Australian federal and state governments will spend $16.3 bn subsidising fossil fuels in 2025‑26, equivalent to $31,020 each minute, according to the Australia Institute. The subsidies are set to grow 9.4%, outpacing the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s 7.6% increase. The federal...
Africa is confronting a cascade of economic shocks and policy pivots. A three‑year study links CMOC’s cobalt expansion in the DR Congo to severe respiratory illness and stillbirths, while Ethiopian Airlines reported a $137 million loss in a single week due to...
At the PDAC 2026 conference, Critical Minerals Americas CEO Denis Clement announced the relaunch of the SBH Project in northern Alberta, a 466‑sq‑km deposit containing an estimated 35‑50 billion tonnes of mineralized black shale. The company’s NI 43‑101 report values the...
Samancor Chrome announced plans to retrench roughly 2,400 employees across its smelting plants and corporate offices. The move comes even after South Africa’s government and Eskom agreed to lower electricity tariffs for ferrochrome producers to 62 cents per kilowatt‑hour. The...
Questcorp Mining has finished a 12.8‑kilometre induced polarisation (IP) survey across the Marisa Zone of its North Island Copper Project in British Columbia. The new geophysical data will be merged with a 1992 IP survey to produce a 3‑D inversion...
Geophysx Jamaica has finished a comprehensive island‑wide exploration program, sampling 45,000 rock, soil and stream specimens and flying over 20,000 line‑kilometres of airborne geophysical surveys. The data enabled the company to license anomalous ground and partner with majors such as...
On February 27, 2026 the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC) released a new Request for Project Proposals (RPP) focused on thirteen strategic and critical minerals, with Phase 1 submissions due March 20. The solicitation follows Executive Order 14241 and aims to diversify U.S....
Premier Danielle Smith argues that global energy security cannot be achieved without Canadian energy supplies. She points to Canada’s 177 billion barrels of recoverable oil, valued over $12 trillion, and proposes doubling output to eight million barrels per day by 2035. Smith...
Montero Mining announced the completion of a comprehensive data compilation and exploration program at its Potrero gold project in Chile's Maricunga Belt. The effort integrated historic magnetic data, new IP/resistivity surveys, high‑resolution geochemical sampling, and AI‑assisted modelling to refine the...
OneSubsea, the SLB‑Aker Solutions‑Subsea 7 joint venture, won an EPC contract from PTTEP for subsea production systems at the Kikeh 3B Phase 2 deep‑water project offshore Malaysia. The award includes three subsea trees, a manifold, a distribution unit and integrated control systems, with...
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed toured the Nasiol Cave in eastern Ethiopia and called for an urgent, scientific mapping of the nation’s natural and mineral wealth. He highlighted the cave’s striking marble‑like stalactites and the surrounding deposits of marble, granite, and...
Titan Minerals announced that its 2025 drilling at the Kaliman target of the Dynasty Gold Project in southern Ecuador intersected extensive gold‑silver‑copper porphyry zones, including a 159.9 m intercept at 0.7 g/t AuEq. The mineralized body spans roughly 500 m of strike, 350 m...
South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willie Aucamp, announced that the government will move forward with determining appeals against offshore oil and gas exploration authorisations, ending a period of deferral. The appeals were filed under section 43 of...
Petrobras’ P‑78 FPSO recorded its first gas injection on March 2, 2026, just 61 days after achieving first oil on December 31, 2025. The milestone moves the vessel toward full operational readiness and expands output at the deep‑water Búzios field in Brazil’s Santos Basin. Seatrium...
A Down 2026 for WTI Crude Oil Is Under $57.42; What Stops It? The world's largest energy producer and net exporter's attack on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz provided strong reasons to pump crude oil prices...
Collapsing US, Canada Demand vs. Supply and Energy - The Bloomberg Energy Spot Index (BCOMENSP) has had an exceptional year in 2026, gaining about 30% to March 10. Is it sustainable? My graphic shows top reasons why the 1Q pump...
Freegold Ventures reported new high‑grade drill intercepts at its Golden Summit project in Alaska, confirming mineralized corridors within the Dolphin‑Cleary resource. Holes GS2539 and GS2542 returned up to 13.5 g/t Au over narrow intervals, while other holes averaged between 1.7 and...
TotalEnergies, together with Repsol and Shell, has placed the Lapa South‑West development into production in Brazil’s Santos Basin. The three‑well subsea tie‑back to the existing Lapa FPSO adds roughly 25,000 barrels of oil per day, lifting total field output to...
Eco Atlantic has agreed to acquire the remaining shares of JHI Associates for approximately $52.3 million, issuing up to 96.3 million new common shares that could represent about 21.8% of its post‑transaction capital. The deal grants Eco a 35% working interest in...
Nordec has signed an agreement with Gruvaktiebolaget Viscaria to build the processing plant structure for the Viscaria copper mine in Kiruna, Sweden. The scope covers groundworks, foundations, a steel‑and‑concrete frame and the building envelope for a 14,000 sqm facility designed for...
Equinor has signed a two‑year agreement to supply ISCC‑EU certified bio‑methanol to Wallenius Wilhelmsen for its new dual‑fuel vessels. The fuel, produced at Tjeldbergodden and blended with biogas certificates, will be delivered at Zeebrugge and Antwerp and claims a 95 % CO₂...
ABL Group has secured a marine warranty survey contract for ExxonMobil’s Hammerhead development, the seventh offshore project in Guyana’s Stabroek block. The $6.8 billion venture will install 18 subsea wells and a spread‑moored FPSO, targeting 120,000‑180,000 barrels per day by 2029....
Also, as the IEA releases, member countries are reaching out to China to make sure it doesn't use the opportunity to buy more barrels for its own reserve (as it did in 2022). (...the IEA-Chinese coordinate was last done in 2011...
Liebherr Chile has supplied and commissioned two PR 776 G8 mining dozers equipped with its LiReCon teleoperation system for SQM's Nueva Victoria iodine mine in northern Chile. The dozers, the largest hydrostatic models on the market, have demonstrated strong pushing...
Uranium Energy Corp reported Q2 FY2026 production costs in the low $40s per pound while selling at roughly $101, creating a clear profit margin. The company is establishing a domestic refining and conversion subsidiary, positioning it as the only vertically...
Jindal Steel has been declared the preferred bidder for Odisha’s 202‑hectare Thakurani‑A1 iron‑ore block, securing the asset at a 101.20% premium. The block, part of a December 2025 auction of 12 virgin mineral blocks, contains roughly 50 million tonnes of iron‑ore resources....
Rainbow Rare Earths announced an economic assessment for its Uberaba project in Brazil, partnering with US fertilizer giant Mosaic to extract rare‑earth elements from phosphogypsum waste. The study projects a post‑tax NPV of $916 million, a 45% IRR, $217 million annual EBITDA...
Exail secured contracts to provide its long baseline (LBL) subsea positioning systems for two deep‑water energy projects in Brazil and Angola. Over 70 acoustic transponders and integrated navigation suites will support operations at depths up to 4,000 m. The hybrid acoustic‑inertial...
Researchers at POST, Griffith and King Khalid Universities unveiled a graphene‑based nanofiltration membrane that uses sunlight to pull lithium ions from magnesium‑rich brines. The hybrid membrane, combining edge‑functionalized graphene nanoribbons with photothermally reduced graphene oxide, delivers a lithium flux of...
Brazil and Saudi Arabia launch a critical minerals working group and seek Saudi funding for Brazil mapping. https://www.metalnomist.com/2026/03/brazil-saudi-arabia-to-cooperate-for.html
Rather than the IEA's own 400 million barrels, the most important number right now is Japan's announcement that's releasing from Monday (March 16th) ~80 million barrels from its reserve. Those are actual flow barrels that will hit the market immediately...
Westgold Resources’ board approved a $145 million final investment decision to expand the Higginsville Processing Hub from 1.6 mtpa to 2.6 mtpa. The upgrade adds a new primary crusher, a 5.8 MW SAG mill and extra leaching capacity, targeting an extra 60,000 oz of gold...
Sulfur and Helium and Fuel and Fertilizer and Food … needed for the GCC & World… held hostage from Trump-Netanyahu’s war on Iran. Collateral damage: AI ecosystem of Investments, US hegemony and lives.
More on the IEA reserves: US has only crude Japan has a mix of crude and products Europe has mostly products The mix of the release is as important as the size of the release
Critical Metals has approved a $30 million acceleration programme to move its Tanbreez heavy rare earth project in Greenland toward production, targeting ore output by late 2028 and concentrate exports in Q3 2029. The plan allocates $12.5 million to exploration, up to...
When the IEA release is announced, my focus won't be on the headline number (say 300-400m barrels). Ignore that number. The key is the flow, in BARRELS PER DAY, the IEA promises FOR THE FIRST 20-30 DAYS of the stockdraw, and...
Datamine says Zimbabwe’s mining sector can gain substantial productivity by adopting digital tools, as many small‑scale operations still rely on paper‑based records. The company highlighted that digital mine planning and geological modelling can optimise extraction and extend mine life. To...
