Today's Mining Pulse
Chinese financing fuels a $98 billion mineral power shift
A wave of $98 billion in Chinese financing and heightened U.S. diplomatic activity has thrust critical minerals into the geopolitical spotlight. Resource‑rich nations such as the DRC, Brazil and Zambia are leveraging their mineral wealth to negotiate better terms and assert greater control over strategic industries.
Also developing:
Metallurgical Coal Has Finally Been Classed a Critical Mineral
The United States has officially classified metallurgical (coking) coal as a critical mineral, recognizing its indispensable role in blast‑furnace steel production. Over 70 % of global steel still relies on coke made from this high‑grade coal, which cannot be replaced without jeopardizing output. Prices for premium coking coal hover around $230‑$250 per tonne, far above thermal coal, reflecting its scarcity and strategic value. Meanwhile, green hydrogen steel remains under 1 % of primary steel, making recycling the most viable near‑term decarbonisation route.
300 Artisanal Miners to Graduate as Mutapa Gold Accelerates ASM Formalisation in Chegutu
Mutapa Gold Resources will graduate the first 300 artisanal miners on 30 April 2026, marking a key milestone in its programme to formalise 1,500 miners nationwide. The capacity‑building effort, run with Magaya Mining, equips participants with safety, environmental, legal and financial skills,...
Indonesia’s Huafei to Cut MHP Output on Sulphur Costs
Huafei Nickel Cobalt, the Indonesian arm of China’s Huayou, will place half of its mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) capacity into temporary care and maintenance from 1 May due to sharply higher sulphur costs and sustained high plant utilisation. Granular sulphur prices have...
Comment Sought on Ellison and Rinehart Backed Lithium Mine
A proposal for a greenfield lithium mine in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region has been released, backed by mining veterans Chris Ellison and Gina Rinehart. The project, led by Delta Lithium, entered a seven‑day public comment period, inviting stakeholders to weigh...
Western Gold Extends Toll Milling Deal with Wiluna Mining
Western Gold Resources has secured a six‑month extension to its toll‑milling agreement with Wiluna Mining. The deal allows the Gold Duke project in Western Australia to continue using Wiluna’s Matilda carbon‑in‑leach plant while the company refines its mine‑planning and development...
Kenya: Ruto Pushes for Mineral Processing in Africa As Leaders Call for Value Addition
President William Ruto reaffirmed Kenya’s strategy to halt raw mineral exports and shift to local processing, refining, and manufacturing. At the Kenya Mining Investment Conference, he highlighted an 11 billion KSh (~$81 million) iron‑ore pelletisation plant in Taita Taveta that will create roughly...
Renascor Starts Commissioning PSG Demonstration Facility
Renascor Resources has moved into full‑plant commissioning of its purified spherical graphite (PSG) demonstration facility in South Australia. The plant, funded by a A$5 million grant (≈US$3.3 million), will test the company’s hydrofluoric‑acid‑free purification process using feedstock from the Siviour graphite deposit....
Eclipse Shares Surge on Big Upgrade at Greenland Rare Earths Play
Eclipse Metals shares surged up to 80% after the company announced a 234% increase in the size of its Grønnedal rare‑earth project in southwest Greenland, reporting 208 million tonnes of total rare‑earth oxides (TREO) at a 0.72% grade and 456,000 tonnes of...
Western Gold Resources Extends Toll Milling Agreement for Gold Duke
Western Gold Resources has secured a six‑month extension to its toll‑milling agreement with Wiluna Mining Corporation, ensuring that all Stage 1 ore from the Gold Duke project can be processed at the Matilda plant. Stage 1 targets 686,000 tonnes grading 2.1 g/t for...
Solaris Resources (TSX:SLS) Receives EIA Technical Approval for Warintza Copper Project
Solaris Resources announced that Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment and Energy has granted technical approval for the Environmental Impact Assessment of its Warintza copper project. The approval clears a major permitting hurdle after an 18‑month review and enables the company to...
Locksley Taps Columbia Uni Tech to Fast-Track US Rare Earths
Locksley Resources has teamed with Columbia University to develop faster, cleaner processing routes for bastnaesite‑rich rare‑earth ores at its Mojave project in California. The collaboration is mapping rare‑earth distribution, testing leaching and molten‑salt electrolysis methods, and refining spectroscopic detection techniques....
'Deeply Unjust': Could a Rush for Critical Minerals Harm the World's Most Vulnerable Communities
A new United Nations report warns that the surge in demand for critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt is creating severe, hidden environmental and health crises in low‑income regions of Africa and South America. While wealthy nations benefit from...
WM Cites Recycling as a Factor in Earnings Growth
WM reported a 13.5% rise in first‑quarter net income to $723 million, driven by disciplined pricing, cost optimization and sustainability projects. The blended price for single‑stream recycled commodities dropped to about $65 per ton from $88 a year earlier, yet recycling...
Off-Grid Gold Mine Achieves Record 93.8 Pct Renewables Share over Whole Month
The off‑grid Bellevue gold mine in Western Australia recorded a 93.8% share of wind and solar power in February, the highest monthly renewable contribution for any remote mining operation. Over the March quarter the 90 MW hybrid plant averaged 85.2% renewable...
Terra Links Discovery Zones as Southwest Platinum Group Metals Find Continues to Grow
Terra Metals announced that infill drilling has linked two previously separate intercepts at its Southwest discovery within the Dante project in Western Australia, revealing a continuous 172.4‑metre zone of PGM‑copper‑nickel mineralisation. The interval grades 1.11 g/t PGE3, 0.11% copper and 0.15%...
NATO Warns Allies That Dependence on Chinese Critical Minerals Threatens Defense Budgets
Senior NATO officials cautioned that U.S. and European defense spending plans are at risk because of an overreliance on Chinese critical minerals. The warning underscores a strategic push to diversify supply chains for rare earths, lithium and other essential inputs,...
World Bank Predicts 24% Jump in 2026 Energy Prices, Biggest Commodity Shock Since 2022
The World Bank’s latest commodity outlook projects global energy prices to rise 24% in 2026, the sharpest increase since the 2022 Ukraine conflict. Brent crude is expected to average $86 a barrel, up from $69 in 2025, while fertilizer costs...
Lodestar Minerals Confirms Visible Copper in Second Three Saints Drill Hole
Lodestar Minerals announced visible copper and iron‑oxide mineralisation in its second diamond drill hole (L3SDD004) at the Three Saints project in Chile’s Atacama region. The hole intersected copper‑bearing minerals from 219 m to 510 m depth, extending the IOCG‑style system identified in...
Indonesia Reexamines QMB Nickel Licence Amid Tightening RKAB Quotas
Indonesia reviews QMB nickel licence after IMIP landslide as RKAB quotas tighten nickel supply. https://www.metalnomist.com/2026/04/qmb-nickel-licence-review-signals.html
Solar Waste Turns Profit: Copper, Aluminium Sales Booming
Can’t recycle solar? This local business is making millions from copper, aluminium sales #energysky -- via Renew Economy: https://t.co/CiL9zAv5MG https://t.co/uVGknqyOar
Mariana Minerals Restarts Utah Mine as World’s First Fully Autonomous Mine and Refinery
Mariana Minerals has resumed operations at its Copper One site in Utah, creating the world’s first mine and refinery that run entirely on autonomous systems. The restart, announced on April 27, 2026, ties together driverless trucks, autonomous drill rigs and...
Mining Contractors Prepare for Growth as Activity Rebounds, Says Grant Thornton
Grant Thornton’s latest report shows mining contractors are gearing up for a new growth phase as commodity prices rebound, especially for gold, copper and lithium. Contractors are adopting profit‑sharing and joint‑venture contract models, diversifying portfolios and tightening capital discipline to...
Austral Resources Accelerating Towards 50,000tpa Copper Production Target
Austral Resources Australia is accelerating toward a 50,000‑tonne‑per‑year copper output by leveraging a dual‑hub model that pairs the Mt Kelly oxide plant with the Rocklands sulphide facility. Recent operational upgrades pushed Mt Kelly’s heap‑leach stacking to a record 194,193 tonnes in a single...
India Flags Data Gaps as Global Coal Mine Methane Emissions Remain Flat Since 2021: Ember
Coal mining released roughly 35 million tonnes of methane in 2023, a level comparable to oil and gas emissions, and global coal‑mine methane (CMM) output has not moved since 2021. India’s latest report shows 1.2 million tonnes for 2024, yet the IEA’s...
Market Misprices Lithium: Brazil, Canada Offer Arbitrage Opportunity
Brazil is a Tier One mining jurisdiction. Canada is a sophisticated capital market for mine financing. Why does Mr. Market continue to underappreciate and undervalue its lithium producers and developers? Modern portfolio theory suggests such arbitrage should not exist where...
Seismic Velocity Tomography Predicts Mining-Induced Rockburst Risks
A study in Scientific Reports shows that passive seismic velocity tomography can forecast mining‑induced rockbursts with over 86% accuracy. By mapping high P‑wave velocity zones, researchers linked these anomalies to future seismic events at the 1,100‑meter‑deep Xingcun Coal Mine in...
Biomining’s Potential Unlocked – by Kristen Frisa (CIM Magazine – April 27, 2026)
University of British Columbia’s Bradshaw Research Institute for Minerals and Mining has partnered with Genome British Columbia, embedding the effort within Rio Tinto’s Centre for Future Materials. The collaboration seeks to move biomining—using microbes to dissolve minerals—from lab proof‑of‑concept to...
Critical Minerals: China’s Grip, America’s Volatility, Europe’s Choice – by Michael Barnard (Clean Technica – April 28, 2026)
The article warns that the global energy transition is vulnerable to supply‑chain bottlenecks in critical minerals such as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt, graphite, manganese, phosphate, and rare earths. China currently dominates the mining, refining, and component‑manufacturing stages of these value...
China Ramps up Efforts to Establish Hong Kong Gold Hub with Major Moves in Public, Private Miners and New Market...
China is accelerating its push to turn Hong Kong into a global gold hub by establishing a state‑owned clearing house and expanding storage capacity. The Hong Kong Precious Metals Central Clearing will begin trial operations by the end of 2026, while the...
An Old Factory in Welland, Ont., Sat Derelict for Years — Until Someone Discovered It Could Be Worth Billions –...
Steve Charest, a real‑estate investor known for reviving abandoned industrial sites, bought the 65 Canal Bank Street property in Welland, Ontario, and uncovered a massive stockpile of synthetic graphite. The landfill holds roughly 340,000 tonnes of high‑grade material, a key component in lithium‑ion batteries. At...
Op-Ed: Chile Must Act Fast as Argentina Inches Ahead in Copper Race – by Manuel Viera Flores (Mining.com – April...
Chile’s new administration under President Gabriel Kast has launched a fast‑track agenda to revive its copper sector. Daniel Mas was appointed dual minister of Economy and Mining, and the government is prioritizing $62 million of projects through the SEIA while a...
Carbon Direct and Arca Announce Collaboration on Industrial Mineralisation Technology
Carbon Direct and Arca have teamed up to commercialise Arca’s Industrial Mineralisation (IMin) carbon‑dioxide removal technology, which speeds up natural mineral carbonation in mine waste. After an 18‑month pilot with BHP that demonstrated net CO₂ removal, the partners plan to...
The $11 Trillion Engine Beneath the $110 Trillion Economy – by Amanda Van Dyke (Substack – April 26, 2026)
Amanda van Dyke argues that the $110 trillion global economy rests on a far smaller $11 trillion physical foundation of energy, minerals, chemicals, and food. This "commodity quad" forms an interlocking hierarchy that supplies the raw inputs for every sector, from data...
Integra’s George Salamis on Florida Canyon’s Q3 Production Numbers and Its Path Towards Cash-Flow
Integra Resources CEO George Salamis detailed the Q3 production surge at the Florida Canyon mine, driven by eight new Cat 785 haul trucks that set a record mining rate. He explained that the elevated 2026 All‑In‑Sustaining Cost (AISC) is largely temporary,...
Hormuz Insurance Remains Critical Amid Global Energy Turmoil
⭕️UAE Exits OPEC: Implications for Global Oil Markets ⭕️Oil & LNG Tankers Transit Hormuz: What About Insurance? ⭕️The Media Hype Around Iran’s Oil Storage Situation ⭕️Aramco OSPs: Will They Lower the Premium? ⭕️Malacca Strait: The Next Flashpoint? ⭕️EU Jet Fuel Crisis: One Among Many ⭕️Vietnam to...
Unreported Coal Methane Costs Nations Cheap Emission Cuts
Nations that fail to report coal mine methane emissions could be missing out on cheap opportunities to slash releases of the potent greenhouse gas, according to a report from energy think tank Ember https://t.co/WRVgOiwN88
Sandvik Grows PNG Footprint as Porgera Attempts 100K Oz
Sandvik announced an expansion of its Lae service center in Papua New Guinea, boosting support for more than 40 mining machines and adding new repair and rebuild capabilities. The upgrade includes a Remote Monitoring Service to predict equipment failures and...
UAE and Qatar, Both Ex‑OPEC, Deepen Energy Ties
Surely a coincidence this happened today (😇): The country leaving OPEC meets the country that left OPEC.
3D Imaging Connects Surface and Underground at Madison Mine
Turning the Lights On Underground: That's what @AmerPacMine's 3D imaging results have done, creating the first dependable modern spatial dataset tying surface and underground workings together at Madison in Montana. See the cool image and what comes next: https://t.co/FwV4vgkCjV
Canaan, Tether Deepen Partnership on Immersion-Cooled Mining Systems
Canaan announced an additional order from stablecoin issuer Tether for high‑density, immersion‑cooled Bitcoin mining modules destined for a South American facility. The deal expands a prior R&D collaboration and includes an option for further purchases, giving Tether flexibility to scale...
NewScorpioGold Uncovers Expansive Gold Corridor, Remains a Buy
A Corridor Starts Talking—that's JV's message behind @NewScorpioGold's step-out holes at the Manhattan District in Nevada. It's now defining a much larger mineralized corridor than previously thought. See the map + why this #gold stock is still a Buy: https://t.co/2oQrOjcX9O
Aluminum in Crisis: War, Tariffs and a Market Running on Empty
The ongoing Iran‑UAE conflict has sparked a severe aluminum shortage after a missile hit Emirates Global Aluminium’s Al Taweelah smelter, halting production. Recovery is projected to take up to twelve months even if hostilities cease tomorrow. Simultaneously, heightened U.S. tariffs on...
Drilling Has Begun at Our Sacred Site Pe' Sla, Setting a Dangerous Precedent for Indigenous Lands Across the Country. It...
Drilling has started in the 2‑mile buffer around Pe' Sla, a federally protected sacred site in South Dakota, after the U.S. Forest Service issued a permit for exploratory graphite mining. The project uses a categorical exclusion, bypassing a full NEPA environmental...
West Red Lake Gold Hits 471 G/T Gold Intercept, Reviving High‑grade Red Lake Project
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. announced a 471 g/t gold intercept over 1 m from Vein 013 at its Rowan project in Ontario, the highest grade in the latest drilling campaign. The result, part of a 6,300‑metre, 37‑hole program, will feed an...
Oilfield Services Majors Bank on Flood of Oil, Gas Projects Linked to Middle East War
Oilfield‑services giants Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB say a wave of new oil and gas projects is likely as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran tightens global energy demand. Their latest quarterly earnings highlight expectations for a surge in upstream contracts...
Tether Collaborates on Bitcoin Mining with Canaan, ACME Swisstech
Tether announced a partnership with chipmaker Canaan and mining services firm ACME Swisstech to launch a modular Bitcoin mining infrastructure. The collaboration introduces the Mining Development Kit (MDK), an open‑source framework that lets operators tune compute, cooling and upgrades independently....
Democrats Need a Critical Minerals Policy Beyond Anti-Trumpism
Democrats are urged to move past partisan opposition and adopt a comprehensive critical‑minerals strategy while President Trump remains in office. The article highlights bipartisan actions—tariffs, stockpiling, and Defense Production Act financing—that already support domestic supply chains, yet many House members...
Mariana Minerals Starts Its Copper Mine
Mariana Minerals has restarted the Copper One mine in Utah, formerly known as Lisbon Valley, positioning it as an autonomous‑first copper producer. Backed by Silicon Valley capital, the project aims to leverage end‑to‑end automation to cut operating costs and boost...
UAE Exits OPEC to Boost Production, Accept Lower Prices
REACTION COLUMN: Why is the UAE leaving OPEC? The announcement has little to do with the US-Iran war; the exit road started in Riyadh, with a detour in Texas. It's all about the UAE wanting to pump more oil, even at the...
Antimony Shines While Rare Earths Stay Red
all of my rare earths watch list is in the red...except for #antimony #Chad in the house