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:
China Dominates the World’s Lithium Supply. The U.S. Just Found 328 Years’ Worth in Its Own Backyard
The US Geological Survey estimates the Appalachian region contains about 2.3 million metric tons of lithium oxide, enough to replace 328 years of U.S. lithium imports at 2023 levels. Roughly 1.43 million tons are concentrated in the Carolinas, with another 900,000 tons in Maine and New Hampshire. This resource could power 130 million electric vehicles or supply billions of consumer electronics. The find arrives as global demand for lithium‑ion batteries surges and China continues to dominate finished‑battery production.
The Perth Critical Minerals Report (04.30.2026): Dysprosium’s Price Drop Is a Mirage — Control of Supply Is Tightening
The Perth Critical Minerals Report shows dysprosium oxide has slipped 28.6% over the past year to $172 /kg, yet a 2.7% weekly rise to $179 /kg indicates the drop is more a correction than a collapse. China still dominates 85‑90% of global...
Astra Exploration Raises $15 Million From Upsized Bought Deal
Astra Exploration Inc. closed an upsized bought‑deal private placement, raising $15 million—above its $13 million and $10 million targets—by issuing 19.4 million common shares at $0.77 each. The proceeds will fund exploration and development of the La Manchuria gold‑silver project in Santa Cruz, Argentina. Insider Michael...
China’s African Mineral Strategy Threatens Kansas City’s Rail Hub, Endangering 30,000 Jobs
China’s long‑term investment in African mineral logistics, including a $1.4 billion upgrade of the Tanzania‑Zambia railway, could divert cobalt and copper away from Kansas City’s classification yards. A U.S. $753 million loan for Angola’s Lobito Corridor aims to counter the shift, but...
Applied Intuition Collaborates with Heidelberg Materials to Advance Quarry Fleet Autonomy
Applied Intuition is teaming with Heidelberg Materials to roll out its Self‑Driving System (SDS) for Construction on quarry haul trucks in Australia, beginning at the Clarence Sands site. The platform runs directly on each vehicle, eliminating the need for extensive...
USGS Finds $64 Billion Lithium Deposit in Appalachians, Could Cut Imports by 328 Years
The U.S. Geological Survey disclosed a 2.5‑million‑ton lithium reserve in the Appalachian Mountains valued at roughly $64.4 billion. The find could replace 328 years of U.S. lithium imports, bolstering mineral security and challenging China’s dominance in the battery supply chain.
Five Ways Ultra-Low Zinc Additives Are Redefining Drivetrain Performance
Ultra‑low zinc, ash‑less additives are reshaping drivetrain lubricants for mining fleets. By replacing zinc‑based ZDDP with phosphorus‑centric chemistries, manufacturers achieve superior wear protection, higher gear‑test loads, and reduced sulfur‑induced corrosion. The new formulas require lower treat rates, improve thermal stability,...
Axis Energy to Invest ₹30,000 Cr in Underground Coal Gasification, Set to Acquire Tech
Axis Energy Ventures, a Brookfield‑backed wind and solar developer, announced a plan to invest roughly $3.6 billion (₹30,000 crore) in underground coal gasification (UCG) at two deep‑dip coal blocks in Odisha. The company will acquire a confidential UCG technology to convert otherwise...
Australians Will Pay More if Albanese Prioritises Fossil Fuel Projects, Former Oil and Gas Leaders Warn
Former senior executives from BP, Shell and other oil majors warned Australia’s Albanese government that fast‑tracking new fossil‑fuel projects could deepen price volatility and raise consumer costs. They contend that the country’s untapped oil reserves would provide less than a...
GoldHaven Raising $5.0 Million for Exploration in B.C., Brazil
GoldHaven Resources Corp. announced a $5 million Life‑offering to fund its Magno Project in northern British Columbia and the Copecal project in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. The unit price is $0.25, each unit comprising one share and half a warrant that...
Shuka Minerals Begins First Kabwe Drilling in Decades to Boost Zinc Resource
Shuka Minerals has launched Phase 1 drilling at Zambia’s historic Kabwe zinc mine, appointing Ox Drilling to execute a 2,000‑metre diamond program targeting depths of 100‑500 m. The campaign, the first resource drilling at Kabwe since the 1970s, aims to expand the...
Noble Plains Uranium (NOBL) Reports Maiden Resource Estimate at Duck Creek Project
U.S. junior miner Noble Plains Uranium Corp. announced its first NI 43‑101 compliant mineral resource estimate for the Duck Creek Project in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. The estimate reports approximately 5.32 million pounds of indicated uranium and 1.04 million pounds of inferred resources....
US Deep-Sea Mining Policy Is Eroding Its Pacific Partnerships
The United States declared deep‑sea mining a national priority in 2025 and, through Executive Order 14285 and NOAA’s accelerated permitting, launched the $12 billion Project Vault. Instead of working through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the...
Schaeffler and CiDi to Cooperate on Development of All Electric, Autonomous Mining Trucks
Schaeffler and Chinese autonomous‑haulage specialist CiDi have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to develop all‑electric, autonomous mining and logistics trucks. The partnership will focus on distributed electric drive systems, vehicle‑wide electrical architecture, and advanced control and health‑management technologies. Both firms...
DRC Mineral Export Prices Rise Sharply as Key Metals Gain on Global Markets
Export prices for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral portfolio surged between April 27 and May 2, 2026. Gold rose to $155.28 per gram and copper to $13,177.50 per ton, while Germanium jumped 32 percent to $8,208 per kilogram. Tin and aluminum also...
Nouveau Monde Graphite Secures $297 Million to Advance Canadian Graphite Mine Project
Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) secured a $297 million financing package to fully fund its Phase 2 Matawinie graphite mine in Quebec. The deal includes an $82 million equity injection from the Canada Growth Fund, $61 million from Investissement Québec, $70 million from Italy’s Eni, and a...
Getchell Nears 1M Oz Indicated Gold in Nevada as Dispute Lingers over Claims
Getchell Gold raised its Nevada Fondaway Canyon indicated resource to 22.1 million tonnes, delivering 999,000 oz of gold—up 54% in tonnage versus the 2024 estimate. Inferred resources also grew to 45.6 million tonnes for 1.81 million oz. The company plans a preliminary economic assessment by...
Ecuador Grants China’s CMOC $1.7 B Rights to Build Country’s Largest Open‑Pit Gold Mine
Ecuador and China’s CMOC Group sealed a $1.7 billion contract to develop the Los Cangrejos deposit, the nation’s biggest planned open‑pit gold mine. The deal gives Quito a 50 % share of project value and $54 million in advance royalties, while projecting $4.39 billion...
South32 Shocks Market with Arizona Cost Blowout
South32 announced that first‑stage capital costs for the Taylor deposit at its Hermosa zinc‑silver project have jumped more than 50% to $3.3 billion, up from the $2.2 billion forecast in the 2024 feasibility study. The cost surge, driven by contractor under‑performance, inflation,...
Critical Minerals Boom Boosts Growth-Stage Juniors | Hotter Commodities
Capital is pouring back into junior mining, but the surge is skewed toward development‑stage assets that are nearer to production. In 2025 the TSX and TSXV together raised more than $33 billion in equity, a 60% jump from the prior year,...
Silver Elephant Mining Sells Silver Concentrate From Silver Mining, Bolivia
Silver Elephant Mining Corp. announced the sale of a second silver‑lead concentrate lot from its Apuradita Paca operation in Bolivia. The 31.6‑tonne dry concentrate, grading 8,795 g/t Ag and 24% Pb, contained roughly 8,936 oz of silver, sold at $74.8 per ounce....
India’s Critical Mineral Imports Remain Concentrated, Need Diversification: IEEFA
India’s critical mineral imports remain heavily concentrated, exposing supply‑chain risks as the country pushes its renewable‑energy agenda. A briefing by IEEFA highlights that five key minerals—cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium and nickel—are dominated by a handful of source nations. Chile, Tanzania...
July Oil Futures Hit $108, Pricing Gulf Shortfall
The June Brent future (black) expires today, so a better gauge for oil prices is the July future (pink) that is $108 and up 80% since the start of the year. By any stretch of the imagination, this fully prices...
Can the Lithium Export Ban Pose a Danger to Delicate Water Sources in Zimbabwe?
On 25 February 2026 Zimbabwe enacted a ban on the export of raw lithium and any ore already in transit, requiring miners to build lithium‑sulphate processing plants approved by the minister by 1 January 2027. The country’s hard‑rock lithium sector, dominated by Chinese investors,...
US Gas Producer Pens 20-Year Offtake with LNG Project in Louisiana
Expand Energy, the U.S. independent formed by the 2024 merger of Chesapeake and Southwestern Energy, has signed a 20‑year sales and purchase agreement to buy 1.15 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Delfin FLNG 1. The deal, tied to Henry Hub pricing,...
Boliden Somincor Out to Reach New Mining Technology Heights
Boliden’s recent acquisition of the Somincor zinc mine in Portugal is accelerating its push into advanced underground automation. The mine, part of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, now operates up to five orebodies to depths of around 1,000 m and aims to...
OceanaGold Mulls Next Electrification Steps at Macraes & Waihi North Based on Technical Studies
OceanaGold’s 2025 Sustainability Report shows the miner achieved 100% renewable electricity across its four mines, after boosting renewable energy certificates to full coverage at Haile and Didipio. The company is now focusing on fleet electrification, commissioning an external study at...
China’s Rare Earth Squeeze: Trump Wins, EU Loses
Chinese rare‑earth exports plunged nearly half in Q1, dropping to 8,643 tonnes—the lowest level since mid‑2025. The United States saw its imports jump 81% to 2,767 tonnes, a gain attributed to the Trump‑Xi agreement, while the European Union’s imports held...
Iran Conflict May Revive Undervalued Commodities Vs. Overheated Stocks
Commodities Too Cold, Stocks Too Hot or Both? The Iran conflict may mark a worthy recovery catalyst for broad commodities from roughly a quarter-century low vs. US equities. Were commodities just too low at the end of 2025, or equity prices...
Copper’s Gains Mirror S&P, Yet Lag Behind Trends
Highly Stock-Market Dependent Copper May Be a Guide Copper's increasing dependency for stability on a rising US stock market may underscore elevated risks across assets. My macroeconomic scorecard shows both copper and the S&P 500 up about 5% year to date...
ROSI Raises $23 Million to Scale Solar Panel Recycling Capacity
French cleantech firm ROSI announced a €20 million ($23 million) Series B raise to expand its high‑value photovoltaic‑module recycling business across Europe. The funding backs a new 10,000‑ton‑per‑year plant in Teruel, Spain, complementing its existing ROSI Alpes facility. The company’s process extracts high‑purity...
Energy Drives 2026 Commodity Rally, Metals Lag Behind
Energy Shifts Commodity Sectors - 2026 Performance Energy is pulling other commodity sectors higher in 2026 -- the key question is how far and for how long. Sector performance has reversed from 2025, with energy leading and precious metals lagging. Full report...
Understanding the World's Most Unusual Commodity Cycle
In this episode, Chris interviews Grant Isaac, COO of Cameco, to unpack why uranium is a uniquely atypical commodity—its primary consumers secure fuel years in advance, leaving virtually no in‑year demand. Isaac explains Cameco’s vertically integrated model, spanning mining, milling,...
Rare Earths Americas (REA) IPO Deck
Rare Earths Americas (REA) released an IPO deck outlining its plan to go public and raise roughly $150 million. The exploration-stage firm focuses on high‑grade heavy rare earth projects in the United States, notably near the historic Mountain Pass deposit, and...
Oil Prices Swing $15 in 48 Hours, Threatening Economy
Crazy price volatility in the oil market: In less than 48 hours, Brent crude has swung from a local low of $111 to a high of $126 and is currently trading at around $116 (Bloomberg chart below). This level of instability is...
Aztec Minerals Targets Q3 Maiden Resource, Buy Signal
Two projects, one countdown clock: that's how JV describes @AztecMinerals move toward a maiden Resource at TWO flagship projects in Q3. That makes this #gold stock a Buy ahead of these major updates, especially since they just hired a marketing...
Rare‑Earth Mine Runoff Pollutes Mekong Tributaries, Endangering $10 Billion Rice Export Industry
Heavy‑metal runoff from unregulated rare‑earth mining in Myanmar and Laos is contaminating the Mekong River’s tributaries, sparking fears among 70 million downstream users. Thailand’s $10 billion rice and fruit export sector faces a potential collapse as toxins threaten fish stocks and crop...
Rio Silver: Small‑Cap, Near‑Term Producer Leveraged to Silver
Rio Silver Corp $RYO.V $RYOOF. Weekly. Near term producer. 20M CAD market cap. Sprott involved. High leverage to price of Silver. On watch. https://t.co/yPZctGZYjA
First Majestic Silver Buying Time for Silver Stocks
First Majestic Silver $AG $AG.TO Could it be buying time for this and other Silver stocks? https://t.co/HRljMyuwxl
Our Recommended Stocks Surge, Backed by Our Own Ownership
One of our biggest issues of Paydirt Prospector today... 9 companies + Q&A entry + geologist @WestCoastSharyn It's exciting to see our recommended stocks push forward aggressively. And we love bringing our analysis to you—we own all these stocks too. https://t.co/7YI9vU2dLs
92.5M Barrel SPR Swap Part of Existing 172M Deal
On the 92.5 million barrels SPR exchange, do NOTE this a tranche that's part of the **already announced** 172 million barrels exchange (it was announced March 12). This is NOT an additional release.
Molybdenum Prices Surge Past $28, $MOLY Near $3B Valuation
Molybdenum prices keep rising. Now firmly above US$28 lb/Mo. That's roughly $ 3bn for $MOLY Expect more announcement re financing and off-take agreement over the quarters. $150m market cap.
Japan Confident of Crude Oil Supply Through Year‑end
Japanese top officials say that "even conservatively, we expect to ensure supply [of crude oil] through the end of the year."
Critical Mineral Mining Creates Sacrifice Zones for Poor
The AI and clean energy boom has a hidden cost. The rush to mine critical minerals is creating “sacrifice zones,” with environmental and health impacts falling disproportionately on poorer communities. It exposes a deeper tension. The technologies shaping the future can carry...
Record Beef Prices Trigger Shift to Other Meats
The biggest food price problem has nothing to do with the US-Iran war. Beef prices are rising higher, today setting a new all-time high above $2.55 per lb. The rise in beef is prompting demand switch to other meat forms, putting...
New High-Grade Silver Intercepts Boost 2026 MRE Outlook
Outcrop Silver $OCG.TO $OCGSF • 0.84m @ 2,844 g/t AgEq (DH567) • 1.17m @ 1,889 g/t AgEq (DH593) Sub-intervals >7,000 g/t AgEq. Results improve high-grade shoot definition for 2026 MRE update. System remains open. @OCG_Silver
Hole DDH 26-012 Shows High‑Grade Silver Continuity
Hole DDH 26-012 delivers 68.5m @ 343 g/t Ag, including 17m @ 917 g/t Ag confirms high-grade silver continuity between JAC and Oculto zones with expansion potential beyond the current conceptual open pit. 199 Moz Ag + 1.7 Moz Au...
US Becomes Top Crude Exporter, Overtaking Saudi Arabia
Clearly an anomaly that will end when the Strait of Hormuz re-opens. Still, noteworthy: tanker tracker @Petro_Logistics reckons the US was the world's largest crude oil exporter (note: crude) in April, overtaking leader Saudi Arabia (and ahead of Russia, the...
Economist Predicts Oil Still Undervalued, Prices Set to Rise
Oh dear, the curse of The Economist's oil cover: "... Why oil prices are not yet high enough..." You know what that means, don't you? https://t.co/fWwZunxd0P
Copper Dip Purchase Paid Off, Professionally Executed
If you bought the damn dip in Copper for the past few days, professionally done https://t.co/dwDgaAgfpU