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:
Court Upholds Permit for Rhyolite Ridge
The U.S. District Court for Nevada upheld the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of Ioneer Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge mine plan, confirming compliance with the Endangered Species Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and NEPA. The decision removes the last legal hurdle for the project, which sits on North America’s largest lithium‑boron deposit—estimated 146.5 million metric tons, with a 60 million‑ton ore reserve. Ioneer plans to mine and process 63.8 million metric tons over a 26‑year lifespan at roughly 2.5 million tons per year. The final federal permit, secured in October 2024, positions the project as a cornerstone of Nevada’s emerging Lithium Loop and promises hundreds of jobs.
Key U.S. Antimony Mine Advances Towards Restart With EXIM Loan
Perpetua Resources announced that the U.S. Export‑Import Bank’s board unanimously approved a $2.7 billion loan to restart the Stibnite mine in central Idaho. The financing marks the final EXIM approval step and follows the mine’s recent permitting clearance and a Pentagon‑attended...
U.S. DOE Partners with Amazon to Recover Critical Materials From Clothing, Tech Waste
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory and the Critical Materials Innovation Hub have teamed up with Amazon to develop AI‑driven recycling of critical minerals from clothing and electronic waste. The DOE is allocating nearly $1 billion, with more than...
New Episode: What’s Next for Australia’s Iron Ore Sector?
GlobalData projects Australia’s iron ore output to reach about 1.1 billion tonnes by 2035, signalling a shift from rapid expansion to asset replacement. Mature Pilbara mines, tighter margins and decarbonisation pressures are driving a focus on higher‑grade ore and new processing...
New Episode: What’s Next for Australia’s Iron Ore Sector?
Australia’s iron‑ore industry, long the engine of global steel supply, is moving from rapid expansion to a constrained, replacement‑focused phase. GlobalData projects output modestly climbing to about 1.1 billion tonnes by 2035, driven more by asset renewal than new capacity. Ageing...
New Episode: What’s Next for Australia’s Iron Ore Sector?
GlobalData’s 2035 outlook predicts Australia’s iron‑ore output will climb modestly to about 1.1 billion tonnes, signaling a shift from rapid expansion to asset replacement. Aging Pilbara mines and tighter margins are prompting producers to focus on higher‑grade ore as steelmakers pursue...
Datamine Updates MineScape with Digital Twin Tools
Datamine unveiled MineScape 2026, its latest mining software suite that adds digital‑twin capabilities, AI‑driven assistance, and automated design and scheduling tools for coal and stratigraphic operations. The platform now integrates real‑time operational data with predictive scenarios, enabling teams to simulate...
Extended Proposal to Discontinue Certain Welded, Seamless Tube and Pipe Prices
Fastmarkets has extended its proposal to discontinue eight price assessments for welded and seamless tube and pipe products in Europe and India. The move follows a period of subdued market activity and limited data availability, prompting the firm to retire...
From Green Dreams to War Metals: A Critical Minerals Wake-Up Call for Europe
A new Hallgarten note warns that Europe’s critical‑minerals strategy is misaligned, focusing on lithium and ESG while overlooking the war‑driven metals tungsten, antimony, tin, rare earths and helium. The report highlights substantial domestic resources in Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, Cornwall and...
Suncor Reveals Expansion Plans as Key Oilsands Mine Enters Its Last Decade
Suncor Energy disclosed its growth plan at the annual investor day, revealing that its historic Base Plant mine will run out of bitumen by the mid‑2030s. To replace that supply, the company is evaluating two major expansion projects – an...
Mesabi Metallics Ties up $520 Million Credit Facility
Mesabi Metallics secured a $520 million senior secured credit facility from Valor Mining Credit Partners II, a mining‑focused fund backed by Breakwall Capital and Vitol. The financing supports the final phases of its $2.5 billion direct‑reduction iron ore mine and pellet plant in...
Unlocking Equitable Mineral Value Addition
NRGI launched a South‑South learning platform to help governments capture more value from transition minerals. Its inaugural convening in December 2025 in Indonesia gathered officials from ten countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, along with international organizations, to discuss...
Closed Loop Partners Acquires Metal Processing Company
Closed Loop Partners, the New York‑based circular‑economy investor, has acquired a majority interest in Sutter Metals, a regional metal‑processing firm operating in Washington state. The partnership will fund expansion of processing capacity, geographic reach, and a buy‑and‑build M&A strategy targeting...
Proudly South African Drill Rigs without Human Intervention on Way
South Africa’s Master Drilling reported a record $292 million revenue and a near‑billion‑dollar 2026 order book, driven by its raise‑boring business which accounts for over 80% of sales. The company announced the development of fully autonomous raise‑boring rigs, targeting deployment before...
Mining’s Capital Challenge with Sir Mick Davis, Vision Blue Resources
The mining sector faces a paradox: demand for copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths is surging to power the energy transition, yet the cost of capital to develop new projects has reached historic highs. Sir Mick Davis explains that modern...
MPV Operators Face Worsening Bunker Fuel Supply Crisis as Stocks Tighten
Multipurpose vessel (MPV) operators are confronting a deepening bunker fuel shortage as the Middle East conflict disrupts supply chains across key hubs, including the Middle East, Asia and South Africa. Prices for low‑sulfur marine gas oil (LSMGO) and very low...
Guinea Calls Time on Runaway Bauxite Growth | Hotter Commodities
Guinea is abandoning blanket bauxite export caps and will enforce production levels that match each project's original feasibility study commitments. The regime also ties export permissions to value‑addition pledges, such as alumina refining and railway investments. As the world’s top...
Fuerte Launches Coffee Drill Program
Fuerte Metals has launched a 40,000‑meter drilling program at its Coffee Gold project in Yukon, aiming to upgrade inferred resources to indicated status ahead of a feasibility study due in late 2026. The deposit, acquired from Newmont, already hosts 80 Mt...
A Massive Boost in KSM Metal Resources
Seabridge Gold announced a refreshed resource estimate for its KSM project in British Columbia, incorporating higher long‑term metal price assumptions. The update adds 19.7 million ounces of gold, 5.7 billion pounds of copper, 151.5 million ounces of silver and 233 million pounds of molybdenum,...
Abu Dhabi's Adnoc Raises Apr Sulphur Price by $70/T
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOc) raised its April official selling price for sulphur destined for the Indian subcontinent to $600 per tonne, a $70 increase from March. The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut roughly half...
Sandvik Awarded Order for 13 Toro® LH515i Loaders From Codelco for Chuqui Underground
Sandvik secured an order from Chilean miner Codelco for 13 Toro LH515i load‑haul‑dump machines to support the Chuquicamata underground expansion. Deliveries start in March 2026 and run through November 2027, coinciding with the ramp‑up of a new production panel at one of the...
Santana Secures Build Slots for Bendigo-Ophir Project
Santana Minerals has secured a NZ$115 million ($65.8 million) build‑slot agreement with Komatsu New Zealand to supply the primary mobile fleet for the Bendigo‑Ophir gold project. The package includes PC3400 and PC2000 excavators, 140‑ton HD1500 haul trucks, plus dozers, loaders and graders, all...
CIS Macro and Credit: Commodity Buffers Cushion Middle East Risks
The ongoing Middle East conflict is reverberating through the CIS region via higher oil prices, trade disruptions and imported inflation. Commodity buffers are cushioning the shock: Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan see stronger export prospects, while Armenia’s reliance on fuel imports makes...
EU-India FTA Boosts Indian Aluminium, CBAM Still Caps Gains
The EU-India FTA may help Indian aluminium exports, but CBAM still limits the real upside. https://www.metalnomist.com/2026/03/eu-india-fta-could-improve-indian.html
Google Signs Long-Term Deal with Amex GBT, Shell SAF Platform
Google has renewed its long‑term agreement with American Express Global Business Travel and Shell Aviation to source sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) data through the Avelia registry. The partnership, first launched in 2022, uses a book‑and‑claim model that lets business travelers...
Gold's Oversold Dip Offers Prime Buying Opportunity
Four consecutive weeks of outflows from gold ETFs. This will go down as one of the best opportunities to add to gold at historically oversold levels in my view. Bottoms are always a process, and I do believe we are in the...
Molymet, Maritime House Launch Rhenium Recycling JV for Aerospace
Molymet and Maritime House plan a rhenium recycling JV to support aerospace demand and APR supply. https://www.metalnomist.com/2026/03/molymet-maritime-house-rhenium.html
Sigma Lithium Proves Shorts Wrong: Market Reversal Underway
Sigma Lithium (NASDAQ: SGML) posted a solid Q4 2025 quarter, generating $31 million in operating cash flow and cutting debt by roughly 35%. The company resolved a regulatory shutdown at its Groto De Cirilo mine and now projects cash flow above $100 million and...
Viscount Mining Launches $5.3M Colorado Drill to Boost Silver, Gold‑
. @ViscountMining $vml.v $5.3M 2026 drill program in Colorado. - 10 drill holes to expand the 24Moz NI 43-101 silver resource - At least 3 deep holes at Passiflora gold-copper porphyry discovery a 1,500-meter-deep anomaly with 844 meters of continuous gold-copper mineralization.
Deep‑Sea Mining Debate Requires Systems‑Level Metal Comparison
Excited to share our latest paper in Environmental Science: Advances, with @saleem_ali and Aiden Kuo. We argue the deep-sea mining debate needs a systems-level framework to compare oceanic and terrestrial sources of battery metals. #CriticalMinerals https://t.co/78nnRhcdNX
Founders Factory, Rio Tinto Announce New Investments Through Mining Tech Accelerator
Founders Factory and Rio Tinto have invested in six mining‑tech startups after reviewing over 500 applications, marking the latest cohort of their accelerator program. The selected companies focus on exploration and processing innovations such as AI‑driven resource modeling, low‑cost lithium...
BRC Silver's Tonopah West PEA Shows 28% IRR
. $brc.v @BRCSilver strong PEA for Tonopah West: 7.1Moz AgEq/yr at $17.44 AISC, 28% after-tax IRR & $437M NPV at conservative $2700 Au / $31 Ag. Scales to 79% IRR & $1.56B NPV at consensus. High grade gold and silver...
INPEX Extends Pertamina LNG Pact, Signs Upstream MoU in Southeast Asia
INPEX Corporation has extended its strategic LNG collaboration with Indonesia’s PT Pertamina through its Masela subsidiary, keeping the Abadi LNG project on track in the Arafura Sea. Simultaneously, INPEX signed a new upstream memorandum of understanding with Pertamina Hulu Energi to...
Latitude 66 Concludes Phase 2 Drilling at Laverton Gold Project
Latitude 66 has finished Phase 2 reverse‑circulation drilling at Western Australia’s Laverton Gold Project, completing 38 holes over 3,914 m. The program focused on the Red Dog and Tin Dog prospects, seeking to extend the existing 231,000‑ton resource at 1.82 g/t gold and to clarify shear‑zone...
DEScycle Is Developing Salt-Based Metallurgy to Decentralize Metals Recovery
DEScycle is commercializing a salt‑based iono‑metallurgy platform that uses deep eutectic solvents (DES) and electrocatalysts to dissolve and recover metals from e‑scrap at low temperature. The pilot process delivers over 99% recovery in under 15 minutes, dramatically cutting leach time...
The Oil Crisis Is About to Get Physical
The Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about 20% of global oil, is now closed except for limited Iranian shipments, turning speculative price gains into an imminent physical shortage. J.P. Morgan predicts Gulf tankers will stop reaching Asian markets this...
Gold Fields to Trial Sandvik 66 Tonne Diesel-Electric Underground Truck at St Ives
Gold Fields announced a pilot of Sandvik’s 66‑tonne diesel‑electric underground haul truck at its St Ives mine in Western Australia, with contractor Byrnecut providing operational support. The test follows earlier battery‑electric loader trials and diesel‑electric pilots with Caterpillar and Epiroc,...
Trafo Delivers Custom Mini Substations to Power Zambian Underground Copper Mine
Trafo Power Solutions secured an order for seventeen custom mini substations to power an underground copper mine in Zambia. The units, comprising 800 kVA and 1,000 kVA dry‑type transformer packages, were engineered to fit the mine’s tight shaft‑cage dimensions and to be...
Epiroc Launches Underground Charging Suite
Swedish equipment maker Epiroc has introduced a new underground charging suite designed for battery‑electric mining fleets. The solution is OEM‑agnostic and can be installed up to 300 m from a central charging cabinet, offering a single charging platform for mixed‑fleet operations....
Lessons From Building 6 Gold Mines (Matt Wilcox)
In this episode, Matt Wilcox, a veteran of building six gold mines across West Africa, shares his playbook for rapid, on‑budget mine development, emphasizing meticulous logistics, a trusted contractor network, and the region’s abundant, under‑drilled deposits. He walks through the...
Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG Plant Remains Offline Due to Cyclone Damage
Chevron announced that its Wheatstone LNG plant in Western Australia suffered extensive damage from Tropical Cyclone Narelle, forcing both of its 8.9‑million‑ton‑a‑year processing trains offline. The damage includes fin‑fan arrays and air‑cooled heat exchangers, making repairs complex and time‑consuming. Chevron...
European Gas Prices Dip, Still 75% Above Pre‑War
The European benchmark natural gas price (TTF) is today **lower** than four weeks ago. Yup: Lower. (And yes, TTF prices are still up >75% from pre-war levels, but around the same level as they were in Jan-Feb 2025)
Platina Starts Phase 3 Aircore Drilling at Mt McKenna in WA
Platina Resources has launched Phase 3 air‑core drilling at its Mt McKenna Gold Project in Western Australia, targeting exploration Targets 2, 3, 4 and 5. The program will drill up to 9,000 metres, contributing to the company’s goal of 20,000 metres of air‑core and reverse‑circulation drilling across its...
GoldMining Initiates Drilling at São Jorge Project, Brazil
GoldMining has started an 8,000‑metre drilling campaign at its wholly‑owned São Jorge Project in Brazil’s Tapajós gold district. The two‑rig operation, fully funded, targets high‑priority zones near the existing resource, including the William South target that returned 12 m averaging 2.38 g/t gold...
Fidelity Gold Refinery Opens a Gold Buying Branch in Mazowe
Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) has opened a gold‑buying office inside the Mazowe Post Office, bringing instant cash payments directly to artisanal miners. The new branch eliminates the need for miners to travel to Harare, cutting transport costs, security risks, and...
Gold Buying Prices in Zimbabwe per Gram/ Ounce, 31 March 2026
Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) released its official gold buying rates for March 31 2026, covering a range of purity grades and sample sizes. The top tier (SG 90% and above) commands $134.84 per gram ($4,194 per ounce), while the fire‑assay cash price peaks at...
Zimbabwe Lithium Sector Adopts PGM Model as Beneficiation Deadline Nears
Zimbabwe’s lithium industry is shifting to a cooperative beneficiation model modeled on its platinum‑group metals sector, with larger miners offering toll‑processing capacity to smaller producers. Three lithium‑sulphate plants—Prospect Lithium’s $400 million Arcadia facility and Sinomine’s $500 million plant—are slated for commissioning between...
Resources Top 5: Uranium Junior Flies on US Resource Upgrade; AI Move Boosts Graphite Play
American Uranium (ASX:AMU) announced a 10% resource upgrade at its Lo Herma project in Wyoming, boosting indicated resources to 4 million pounds and lifting the share price as much as 33%. Pure Resources (ASX:PR1) entered a research partnership with Rice University to...
South Africa: North West Raises Alarm Over Illegal Mining, Chrome Wash Plants
The North West Provincial Legislature’s Economic Development Committee warned that illegal chrome wash plants and unregulated mining are proliferating in Bojanala and Madibeng. In the 2025/26 fiscal year, inspectors found 30 of 70 wash plants operating without environmental authorisation, and...
Iran Attacks Kuwaiti Oil Tanker in Dubai Port
Iran has hit a fully laden Kuwaiti oil tanker in the anchorage area of Dubai’s port, damaging the hull and starting a fire on board, state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said https://t.co/z0pPgEwdwx