Today's Mining Pulse
Ximen Mining Deploys Robotic Dog to Speed Up Underground Surveys
Ximen Mining has introduced an autonomous robotic dog to survey underground excavations at its Kenville mine project in British Columbia. The platform delivers faster, safer data collection and the company says it trims survey time by roughly 30 percent, underscoring a broader industry shift toward automation.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Ganfeng invests $319M in Australian Mount Marion lithium mine
WireCo Reports that Synthetic Pendants Cut Mining Equipment Stress and Extend Asset Life
WireCo introduced UNION Gladiator synthetic pendants that damp vibration and shock in draglines and electric rope shovels, cutting harmonic energy by 13% and sideload stress by roughly 29%. The reduced dynamic loads translate into an average 14% extension of component life, helping mines lower fatigue‑related repairs. While the pendants cost more upfront than steel, they last the machine’s life, decreasing maintenance frequency and downtime. WireCo highlights the technology’s relevance for high‑value copper, gold and lithium operations where even modest uptime gains boost production.
CHART: Freeport-McMoRan Stock Craters on Grasberg Ramp-Up Delay
Freeport-McMoRan reported Q1 earnings that beat estimates but saw its shares tumble more than 13%, pushing the market value below $90 billion. The company confirmed a slower‑than‑expected restart at Indonesia’s Grasberg mine, cutting the second‑half 2026 operating rate to about 65%...
Fortuna Reports 15% Increase YoY in Consolidated Mineral Reserves and Updates Estimate of Sunbird Deposit, Séguéla
Fortuna Mining Corp. announced a 15% year‑over‑year increase in its consolidated proven and probable mineral reserves, now totaling 3.0 million gold‑equivalent ounces after accounting for production depletion. The Sunbird deposit at the Séguéla mine saw underground reserves rise 34% to 539,000...
War Turns Sulphur Market Toxic in Acid Supply Shock
Global seaborne sulphur shipments plunged in March 2026, falling 31% month‑on‑month to 1.5 million tonnes, the sharpest decline in a decade after the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed. The Gulf, which supplies over half of the world’s sulphur, saw exports...
Unki Output Falls on Lower Grades as Valterra Delivers Strong Q1 Production and Sales Growth
Unki’s PGM output fell 4% year‑on‑year to 51,700 ounces as the mine processed lower‑grade ore. However, Valterra’s total PGM production rose 7% to 743,500 ounces, driven by a 5% increase in own‑mined output and a 10% jump in purchased concentrate....
Interview with Mining.com
Gold is trading around $4,700‑$4,800 an ounce, held up by strong demand even as a firmer U.S. dollar and higher bond yields pressure prices. In a Mining.com interview, former banker Alasdair Macleod argues the market’s real shift is occurring in...
Firm Selected to Decommission Wells at North Sea Field Inaugurated in 1975
Aberdeen‑based Well‑Safe Solutions has secured a multi‑year contract with Apache North Sea Limited to decommission the historic Forties oil field in the North Sea. The award covers platform and subsea well engineering, project management and offshore delivery, with work slated...
Firebird Battery Making Tech Gets $2M ARENA Grant
Firebird, an Australian battery‑technology startup, received a $2 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to build a demonstration plant for its novel process that converts manganese ore directly into high‑purity manganese sulphate monohydrate, a key cathode precursor. By...
The ‘Age of Electricity’ Is Here. No One Knows What Comes Next.
The International Energy Agency and Ember report that 2025 was a watershed year for renewable energy, with solar becoming the largest electricity source and renewables surpassing coal for the first time in a century. China and India drove the shift,...
GSP Resource Secures Five-Year MYAB Drilling Permit in BC
GSP Resource has obtained a five‑year multi‑year area‑based (MYAB) drilling permit for its 185‑hectare Mer Property in British Columbia’s Highland Valley Copper Camp. Recent rock and soil sampling identified a 175 m × 120 m copper anomaly with grades up to 1.02 % Cu, prompting...
Rio2 Initiates TFF Commissioning at Peruvian Copper Mine
Rio2 has started commissioning its new tailings filtration facility (TFF) at the recently acquired Condestable copper mine in Peru. The $27 million, 18‑month construction delivers an 8,400 tonnes‑per‑day dry‑stacking plant that will initially process 43 million tonnes of tailings, with expansion potential to...
MicroVision Attempts 'Lidar 2.0' Comeback
MicroVision, the Redmond‑based lidar specialist, announced that its next‑generation "lidar‑2.0" sensors have moved beyond pilot trials and are now operating in active mining environments. The company, which endured a challenging 2025, highlighted deployments at multiple mine sites in both the...
EU Weighs Dropping Arctic Drilling Opposition
The European Union is reportedly re‑examining its long‑standing opposition to new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, a stance it has championed since 2021. Internal documents and multiple sources suggest the EU may abandon the proposed international ban, citing...
JHI Steamship Deepens Tanker Push with VLCC Newbuild
Greek shipowner JHI Steamship has placed an order for a 320,000‑dwt VLCC newbuild at South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean, with delivery expected in 2029. The order expands JHI’s ongoing fleet build‑out, which already includes three Aframax/LR2 vessels and two Suezmax tankers...
LHM Transforms Botswana Mine House as FATs Due
LH Marthinusen (LHM), a division of Actom, has finished manufacturing two 30 MVA high‑voltage transformers for a mining house in Botswana. The delivery comes after the existing power infrastructure proved insufficient for the mine’s growing energy needs. LHM’s engineered transformers are...
Gabon Sees PSC Deals with BP, ExxonMobil in Six Months
Gabon’s oil and gas minister announced that the country expects to sign production‑sharing contracts with BP and Exxon Mobil within four to six months. Both majors have already signed non‑binding preliminary agreements to explore offshore blocks along Gabon’s Atlantic coast. The...
Zimbabwe: Mining Authorities Back Freda Rebecca Claim in High Court Filing
The Provincial Mining Director of Mashonaland Central told Zimbabwe's High Court that Freda Rebecca Gold Mine Limited's 1,586‑hectare Mining Lease 21 remains fully valid and exclusive. He noted no record exists of the Mining Affairs Board approving any reduction to the...
Iran's Oil Still Flowing Despite Blockade, Analysts Misread
Can Iran Keep Pumping? The Blockade’s Impact on Oil Production, Exports, and Storage Analysts missed many facts about Iran's ability to generate revenues (with 4 charts) https://t.co/OARSMvZ93z https://t.co/99em4f6lOY
Iron Ore Consolidates as Investors Weigh Higher War-Induced Costs Against Rising Supply
Iron ore prices held steady on April 23 as investors weighed higher freight and input costs from the Iran war against a growing supply outlook. The Dalian Commodity Exchange price stayed at 785.5 yuan (≈$115) per ton, while Singapore’s benchmark hovered just...
Highlander Ag Gains Flexibility, Eyes Silver Index Inclusion
Thanks to Bear Creek's Mercedes Mine, @HighlanderAg has a lot of optionality. CEO @DanielEarle3 is also anticipating the company's inclusion in silver indices. $HSLV https://t.co/U2wFtVAxrr https://t.co/V6cZOs1lO2
Apache Stronghold Sues to Undo Rio Tinto Land Swap
Apache Stronghold had filed a lawsuit aiming to reverse a land swap that gave @RioTinto control of Arizona land needed to build one of the world’s largest copper mines
'It's Not Zero': WAF's Hyde on Kiaka's Sale Price
West African Resources (WAF) is negotiating the sale of a 25% stake in its Kiaka gold mine to the Burkina Faso government for an estimated A$175 million (about $115 million USD). Managing director Richard Hyde emphasized that the price is "not zero,"...
Arika Paves Yellow Brick Road with More Gold After Returning Thick High-Grade Results
Arika Resources announced new drill results from its Yundamindra gold project in Western Australia, extending high‑grade mineralisation along the "Yellow Brick Road" corridor. Intercepts at the F1 structure include 57 m at 1.42 g/t Au, 29 m at 1.50 g/t Au and a 13 m...
State Lease Looted: Botha Mine Faces US$40M Claim
A sworn affidavit from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines confirms that Mining Lease 21, a 1,586‑hectare state‑owned asset, remains fully valid, while Botha Mine’s four certificates cover only 31 hectares. Botha Mine has been operating on roughly 160 hectares of the state lease, allegedly...
Can Chile Turn Its Mining Waste Into a New Source of Minerals?
Chile is evaluating its 836 mining tailings deposits as a source of critical minerals such as cobalt and rare earth elements, which are essential for electric vehicles and renewable‑energy technologies. Researchers highlight the technical promise of circular mining but warn...
Firebird Metals Awarded $2m Grant to Advance Manganese-to-Cathode Processing Technology and Demo Plant
Firebird Metals has secured a $2 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to accelerate its manganese‑to‑cathode processing technology and build a demonstration plant in Perth. The integrated process will convert raw manganese ore directly into lithium‑manganese‑iron‑phosphate (LMFP) cathode material,...
Chile, U.S. Sign $1 Million Mining and Security Pact to Boost Critical‑Minerals Supply
Chile’s foreign and mining ministers and U.S. Undersecretary Thomas DiNanno signed a bilateral package that pairs a $1 million crime‑prevention fund with a framework to expand rare‑earth and rhenium supply chains. The deal ties resource security to law‑enforcement cooperation, underscoring both countries’...
Litchfield Minerals Records Strong Early Results From Silver Valley Sampling as Oonagalabi Drilling Completed
Litchfield Minerals (ASX:LMS) has completed an 11‑hole reverse‑circulation and three‑hole diamond drilling campaign at its Oonagalabi copper‑zinc project, with all samples now in the lab. Concurrently, rock‑chip sampling at the nearby Silver Valley project returned exceptionally high grades, including 378 g/t...
New Murchison Gold Bolsters Underground Plans with Deepest High-Grade Intercept at Crown Prince Pit
New Murchison Gold (ASX:NMG) announced its deepest high‑grade gold intercept at the Crown Prince project, logging 3.2 m at 48.9 g/t Au from 330 m, including a 0.35 m section at 345.5 g/t Au. The find lies 190 m below the main pit base and outside...
Barton Gold Commences Resource Upgrade Drilling Campaign at Tunkillia Project
Barton Gold (ASX:BGD) has kicked off a 3,000‑metre diamond drilling campaign at its Tunkillia gold project in South Australia, complementing a Phase 2 plan of 30,000 metres of reverse‑circulation drilling to push remaining open‑pit mineralisation into the Indicated category. The earlier Phase 1...
True North Copper Chases More Rewards at Mt Oxide
Australian miner True North Copper has begun an 11‑kilometre induced‑polarisation (IP) survey across its Mt Oxide project in northwest Queensland. The program aims to extend the high‑grade Aquila discovery—where a 7‑metre intercept returned 7.9% copper in 2025—and to rank new...
Gas Tax Vital for Democracy
Australian policymakers are debating a gas export levy that currently sits at 25% of revenue, with industry groups warning it could deter investment and push domestic gas prices from the $12 AUD/GJ benchmark (≈$7.9 USD/GJ) to about $15 AUD/GJ (≈$9.9 USD/GJ). The Queensland Resources...
Rio Tinto’s Q1 2026 Results Show 9% Copper Production Rise, Signaling Strategic Shift
Rio Tinto posted a 9% year‑on‑year increase in copper‑equivalent production in the first quarter of 2026, driven by the Oyu Tolgoi ramp‑up and a historic land exchange at Resolution Copper. The miner also confirmed the full implementation of $650 million of annualised...
Teck Resources Ltd (TECK) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Alcoa reported first‑quarter 2026 revenue of $3.2 billion, a 7% sequential decline, while net income more than doubled to $425 million, driven by higher aluminum prices and a marked earnings‑per‑share increase to $1.60. The aluminum segment posted a $174 million EBITDA boost, offset...
Q2 Metals' First Resource Estimate Surpasses Expectations
"We kind of had a feeling it was going to be big, but I don't think any of us thought it was going to be this big," says Alicia Milne, President & CEO at @Q2Metals. The company announced its inaugral...
How a Faster Protein-Screening Tool Could Strengthen US Rare-Earth Supply Chains
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory unveiled SpyCI‑LAMBS, a high‑throughput assay that screens bacterial lanmodulin proteins for rare‑earth element binding in weeks instead of years. The method captured data on 600 protein variants in a single month, revealing eight distinct clusters with...
Photocatalytic Filtration Enables Sustainable Mining Water Recycling
Researchers have created a photocatalytic‑biological membrane that eliminates 96.66% of organic pollutants from mining wastewater, enabling its reuse for underground backfilling. The modified PVDF filter, coated with TiO₂ and Fe(OH)₃, achieves a water flux of 551.65 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and extends cleaning intervals...
Mackay Gold Claims Nevada Comstock District Remains Under‑explored
"I just can't believe that this thing has been so under-explored," says Darwin Green CEO and director of Mackay Gold & Silver. The company has a consolidated land package in the Comstock district in Nevada. $MACK https://t.co/055jdnCBaA https://t.co/3CgN60zNo1
Explorers Podcast: Bindi Metals Lines up Maiden Drill Test at Serbian Gold Play
Bindi Metals (ASX:BIM) is preparing a maiden 2,000‑metre drill campaign at its recently acquired Ravni gold project in southwestern Serbia. Surface work has already returned high‑grade results, including a 6‑metre interval grading 15 g/t gold and rock‑chip assays as high as...
THE 2026 DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT & GRID EMERGENCY: The Critical Metals Demand Stack Is Unstoppable & Why Trump's Wartime Mobilization...
President Trump invoked Section 303 of the Defense Production Act, designating the U.S. electric grid as essential to national defense. The White House granted the Energy Secretary authority to bypass standard procedures and deploy federal capital for rapid domestic grid...
West Coast Silver Stacks up 2.8Moz Maiden Elizabeth Hill Resource
West Coast Silver announced a maiden 2.8 Moz silver resource at Elizabeth Hill, comprising 141,000 t at 617 g/t, positioning the deposit among Australia’s highest‑grade silver projects. Of the total, 369,000 oz are classified as Indicated, while 2.4 Moz remain Inferred. An optimised 200 m × 180 m × 130 m open...
Switzerland’s Gold Exports Rise 30% as Investors Seek Safe Haven Amid Global Uncertainty – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News –...
Swiss gold exports surged 30% month‑on‑month in March, driven by a sharp rebound in shipments to the United Kingdom and a solid rise to China. Deliveries to the UK jumped to 57.6 tonnes, the highest level since December, while exports...
Canada Signs over 20 Critical Mineral Deals but Faces $12-Billion U.S. Challenge to Turn Diplomacy Into Mines – by Staff...
Canada has signed more than 20 critical‑mineral agreements, including 30 new partnerships that together unlock roughly US$9 billion in project capital. The deals cover India, Peru, Greenland, Italy, the EU and a domestic memorandum linking western provinces with northern territories. Despite...
In Angola, Catholic Church Steps in to Give a Voice to Mining-Affected Communities (Catholic Register – April 21, 2026)
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe sued after more than 100 homes were demolished in Huíla province, securing new housing for displaced families. The court victory marks a growing pattern of church‑led legal and advocacy actions against...
Why Minerals-for-Security Deals Won’t Save the DRC – by Bram Verelst, Said Abdullahi and Veronica Chepseba (Institute for Security Studies...
In March 2026 the United States imposed sanctions on senior Rwandan army officers for backing the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The sanctions follow Rwanda’s December 2025 offensive on Uvira, a breach of the US‑mediated...
6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths – by Lorenzo Lamperti (Wired Magazine –...
Japan’s research team successfully extracted rare‑earth‑rich sediments from the seabed 6,000 meters beneath Minamitorishima, a remote Pacific atoll. The operation, carried out with the Chikyu deep‑sea drilling vessel, marks the world’s first sampling of rare‑earth deposits at such extreme depth. By...
Affirming Economic Sovereignty: Resource Nationalism in the Sahel – by Denis M. Tull (German Institute for International and Security Affairs...
Military juntas in the Sahel are intensifying resource nationalism in mining, raising taxes, royalties, and imposing local‑content rules to capture more state revenue. The moves are driven by soaring copper, nickel and gold prices and fiscal pressures, but are implemented...
Canada’s Gold Sector Fires up Amidst M&A and Frontier Potential
Canada’s gold sector is experiencing a wave of mergers and acquisitions as global miners chase production growth. In March, Coeur Mining completed a $7 bn purchase of New Gold, while Fresnillo spent $560 m on Probe Gold and Gold Fields is scouting...
How Much Rare Earths Does an F-35 Really Contain?
The long‑cited claim that each F‑35 Lightning II contains about 920 lb (≈417 kg) of rare‑earth elements stems from a single, unreleased 2012 Department of Defense study and has never been substantiated. Inspector General reports later flagged the underlying data as unreliable,...
Norway Takes State Control of Fens Rare‑Earth Deposit Planning, Boosting Domestic Neodymium Supply
Norway's central government has taken over planning for the Fens rare‑earth deposit in Telemark after the local municipality requested state intervention. The move targets the continent's largest documented neodymium resource and aims to smooth land‑use conflicts while advancing a domestic...