It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
China added 34 GW of nuclear capacity over the past decade versus a single new plant in the U.S., and is on track to overtake both the U.S. and France as the world's top nuclear producer within ten years.
Beijing's 15th Five-Year Plan prioritizes advanced reactor development, domestic nuclear fuel independence, and expanding China's nuclear footprint across emerging markets via the Belt and Road Initiative.
Both countries are racing toward next-gen nuclear tech -- SMRs and commercial fusion -- but China's state-backed spending and regulatory agility give it a structural edge Washington can't easily close.
China and the United States are facing off for nuclear energy dominance on the world stage. The United States has the world’s largest nuclear energy production capacity, but China has the fastest-growing nuclear fleet. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (15FYP), released back in March, sets out a bold nuclear power strategy for Beijing, aiming to continue to build the nation’s own nuclear fleet while also intensifying China’s presence in international nuclear energy markets, particularly in emerging economies.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the Trump administration is also rushing to loosen regulations on nuclear power development in order to revive the nation’s aging and slowing nuclear power sector. While the United States has added just one nuclear plant in the last decade, China added a staggering 34 gigawatts of capacity over the same time period. As a result, China is set to overtake the United States (and France) to become the world’s single biggest producer of nuclear energy within the next ten years based on current projections.
Beijing’s latest five year plan shows that China has no intentions of slowing down. “With innovation and security as its leading themes, the latest FYP illuminates how nuclear energy underpins multiple strategic priorities for China in the context of not only energy security but also technological innovation and global engagement,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonprofit policy research organization and bipartisan think tank recently reported.
The CSIS summarizes China’s recently unveiled nuclear power strategy for the years 2026 through 2030 and compares the rhetoric around nuclear power to previous five year plans. Based on this analysis, the report highlights seven key takeaways:
China is investing heavily into nuclear energy as a part of an ultra-diverse energy portfolio in order to shore up domestic energy security and resilience.
The Chinese government is propping up the nation’s nuclear sector in a big way, funding manufacturing as well as research and development of next-gen nuclear energy models like small modular reactors.
While China is intent on expanding its nuclear energy influence on a global scale, its exports of nuclear reactors are struggling – the country has seemingly abandoned plans for exporting large-scale reactors, and is apparently delaying the rollout of modular models.
While China’s desire to build up nuclear energy supply chains in other countries is central to its own interests in terms of energy security and (geo)political influence, Beijing is spinning this strategy as a contribution to energy security in poor countries in Global South under the banner of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a decadeslong development/soft-power-building infrastructural program.
China is focused on developing advanced nuclear reactors as a key priority of the domestic nuclear program, with particular attention to new reactor models that use less water and rely on alternative fuels, thereby reducing the sector’s resource needs as well as its dependence on nuclear fuel imports.
Speaking of those nuclear fuel imports, Beijing’s reliance on them means that China’s trade relationship with Russia remains critical to the country’s energy strategy – a dynamic that Beijing is eager to shift.
Finally, we can expect a major research and development push toward unlocking commercial nuclear fusion, the ‘holy grail of clean energy’, building upon the long list of fusion breakthroughs that Chinese labs have already been stacking up.
The United States’ nuclear energy ambitions are extremely similar to those laid out by China in March. The Trump administration is eager to “produce lasting American dominance in the global nuclear energy market” and is taking a Chinese approach to this goal, by issuing executive orders to reshape the national nuclear energy regulatory framework. The Trump administration is likewise bullish on developing next-gen nuclear reactors and nuclear fusion technology on its own home turf in order to stay at the technological vanguard of the nascent sector. Finally, the United States is also fighting to free itself from international nuclear fuel supply chains by building up domestic uranium extraction and enrichment capacities.
However, despite similar goals and leadership styles, China is a clear frontrunner in the nuclear energy race over the next few decades. Beijing has simply been outspending Washington for decades, and has the authoritarian ability to continue to prop up the sector without the pesky inertia of checks and balances. But the result of the nuclear energy race between the world’s two biggest economies could end up being a boon for the entire planet, nuclear expansion represents a key tenant of global decarbonization pathways.
The UK government will introduce legislation banning new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences as part of its Energy Independence Bill.
Critics argue the policy will increase Britain’s reliance on imported fossil fuels while damaging Scotland’s oil and gas industry.
Rising oil prices and disruptions tied to the Iran conflict have intensified political pressure on Labour to reconsider the ban.
The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state opening of Parliament, in a sign ministers are refusing to buckle in the face of a barrage of criticism that the policy is depriving the UK of billions of pounds in tax receipts without helping the environment.
As part of an Energy Independence Bill announced in the King’s Speech, the government will bake into law its pre-election pledge not to explore new oil and gas fields in a bid to “take control of our energy security”.
In its 2024 manifesto, the Labour Party made a ban on all new exploration and drilling licences in the North Sea a key pillar of its promise to turn Britain into a “clean energy superpower” by 2030.
But since entering government, the party has come under growing pressure to renege on the promise, with critics arguing it strangles one of Scotland’s most vibrant industries and fails to improve the UK’s environmental footprint.
Backlash against ‘deluded’ North Sea policy
Oil and gas still accounts for three-quarters of the UK’s energy mix. And the majority of those fossil fuels are now shipped in from abroad, meaning other economies benefit from the job creation and tax receipts that are derived from the lucrative drilling and refining processes.
Calls for the ministers to rethink the ban have grown louder since the outbreak of war in Iran led the price of crude oil to nearly double in a month. Last week, Norway, which drills for oil in the same area of the North Sea as Britain, approved plans to reopen three gasfields that had been shut for decades to help sate the global demand for fossil fuels caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.
Two of Labour’s main political opponents – Reform UK and the Conservatives – have both vowed to overturn the ban, in a move they say would help increase the UK’s tax take and inoculate it from any acute supply shocks.
The ban, which the government claims will help Britain off the “roller-coaster of fossil fuel markets”, has also drawn criticism from the US’s ambassador to the UK, who has used multiple interviews to urge Britain to make more of its reserves.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho accused her opposite number Ed Miliband of being “utterly deluded” for seeking to put the ban into the statute book.
“He is not making us more independent. He is making us more reliant on foreign imports,” she said.
South Africa has regained competitiveness in mining because of partnerships between the public and private sector to tackle regulatory issues and structural bottlenecks, according to billionaire Patrice Motsepe.
Policy uncertainty together with vandalism, power outages and logistics bottlenecks have weighed on South Africa’s mining industry for more than a decade. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government partnered with business groups including B4SA to address the nation’s sub-standard transport and energy infrastructure and operations.
“They’ve done very well over the last few years in ensuring” South Africa becomes a destination for investments, Motsepe said at the sidelines of a conference in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. “Part of what should take place in those partnerships is for the CEOs of the mining industry to keep telling the government what are the changes, the improvements and the areas that will ensure that South Africa is a globally competitive destination.”
The end of rotational blackouts and improvement in transport logistics have put South Africa in a better place to capitalize on higher commodity prices. Johannesburg’s industrial metals and mining gauge has climbed 30% this year, compared with just a 2.4% increase in the benchmark FTSE/JSE All Share Index.
Still, South Africa’s investment in mineral exploration dropped for a seventh straight year, despite the government’s ambitions to arrest the decline.
Exploration spending in South Africa fell 5.3% to 738 million rand ($44.8 million) in 2025, according to data published in March by the government’s statistics agency using 2015 constant prices. Investment in prospecting has slumped more than 85% in the past three decades, the data show.
Motsepe, South Africa’s wealthiest Black person who made his fortune in gold mining in the 1990s and 2000s, said his company plans to invest several billion dollars in the country’s mining sector, without providing any time line.
His African Rainbow Minerals Ltd. has interests in coal, iron ore and platinum group metals. The firm also owns 10% of Harmony Gold Mining Co., a top producer of the precious metal in his home nation.
Motsepe is the South African president’s brother-in-law.
(By Prinesha Naidoo and Jennifer Zabasajja)
Zambia eases ban on sulphuric acid exports to Congo as stocks recover
Zambia has cleared two copper producers to resume sulphuric acid exports to Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the country’s trade minister, as the country eased curbs on the mining input.
Smelters in Zambia – Africa’s No.2 producer of copper – generate about 2 million metric tons of sulphuric acid a year, mostly as a byproduct used by local mines. Any surplus is shipped to neighboring Congo.
In the central African copperbelt, sulphuric acid is used to extract cobalt and copper, in demand for the green energy transition, from oxide ores.
Zambia banned sulphuric acid exports in September followed by a permit policy in March after weak domestic output and global disruptions linked to the Iran war tightened the supply of leaching chemicals.
In response, miners in Congo, the world’s biggest cobalt producer and No. 2 in copper, cut usage and considered output reductions.
However, Zambia’s Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Chipoka Mulenga told Reuters on Thursday that the government has authorized Chambishi Copper Smelter and Mopani Copper Mines to resume sulphuric acid shipments after local stocks recovered.
They will export a “limited quantity to ensure the local market does not suffer,” Mulenga said, without specifying volumes.
The minister said Zambia could widen export permissions if supply conditions continue to improve.
A document seen by Reuters showed the ministry has also authorized chemicals trader Alliswell Investment Limited to ship 5,000 metric tons of sulphuric acid.
An industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Mopani had yet to receive its export permit.
Neither Mopani, Chambishi Copper Smelter nor Alliswell responded to requests for comment.
Congo chemicals imports declined
Congo’s imports of processing chemicals fell sharply in the first quarter, data from commodities logistics and warehousing group Access World showed.
Mulenga said the resumption of exports reflected improved availability. “We allowed them to export because local stocks have risen and these companies have [miners] that they need to supply in Congo.”
Mopani will supply Glencore, while CCS will export through three Chinese mines in Congo, Mulenga added, without naming the firms.
Glencore declined to comment.
(By Chris Mfula and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Editing by Barbara Lewis)
Larvotto Resources reports recoverable antimony, gold from tailings at Hillgrove
Hillgrove project is located 23 km east of Armidale in northern New South Wales. Credit: Larvotto Resources
Larvotto Resources (ASX: LRV) said Thursday results from its initial metallurgical flotation testwork on material from tailings storage facility 1 (TSF1) at its 100%-owned Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales.
Initial flotation testwork on TSF1 tailings achieved 80–95% antimony and 40–75% gold recoveries, the company said.
The results confirm that residual antimony and gold within the approximately 1.4 million tonne legacy tailings facility are recoverable using the same conventional flotation methods being deployed in the Hillgrove plant, scheduled to commence production in August 2026.
TSF1 was used to store tailings produced over an ~20-year period from a plant designed for the recovery of antimony. As such, the TSF1 material contains significant quantities of gold and tungsten, in addition to minor antimony.
“These results are a genuine milestone for Hillgrove. The testwork confirms that the legacy tailings contain commercially meaningful grades of antimony and gold, and that they respond well to the same flotation methods we are deploying in the upgraded plant,” managing director Ron Heeks said in a news release.
“The pathway is becoming very clear; reprocess the tailings, recover the metals, and simultaneously rehabilitate a facility that sits adjacent to a 500-metre gorge,” Heeks said.
“That environmental outcome matters both to the project and to the broader community. We are now moving quickly through the cleaner flotation work and resource estimation process.”
Last year, the company reported 90% tungsten recovery with a 16X increase in feed grade delivered in metallurgical testwork, which it said also indicates a simple and cost-effective processing circuit would produce a saleable tungsten concentrate.
The global copper market enjoyed one of its best years in 2025. The threat of US tariffs on the industrial metal and its elevated status as a critical mineral, together with major supply disruptions globally, all played a part to help to lift prices 40% last year.
That run extended into 2026, as expectations of surging AI-driven demand and persistent supply constraints drove prices to a record of $14,500 a tonne in January. This week, copper is nearing another record.
The prospect of higher mining costs due to rising energy prices and a shortage of sulfuric acid, which is used in a fifth of the global copper production, is considered the next big catalyst for copper prices, a Sprott analyst recently said.
Goldman Sachs is also optimistic of copper surging higher again, due to the supply-side disruptions. The International Copper Study Group recently outright abandoned its previous surplus projections, now forecasting a 150,000-tonne deficit for 2026.
The top 10 mines, many of which have been in production for decades (some even trace roots back to the late 1800s) are responsible for more than a fifth of total global mined production – producing 4.9 million tonnes in 2025.
And surprisingly, after only recently being surpassed by BHP as the world’s number one copper producer on an attributable basis, Chile’s state owned Codelco does not have any of its operations qualify for the top 10.
As last year amply showed disruption at these giant operations (like the Grasberg and Kamoa-Kakula accidents that saw 100s of thousands of tonnes taken off the market,) can have a big impact on copper prices.
1. Escondida
Escondida in Chile, a joint venture between BHP, Rio Tinto, Mitsubishi, and JX Advanced Metals holds the top spot, producing 1,347.6 kts of copper metal in 2025. Escondida has long ranked the world’s biggest copper mine, but BHP’s operational review for the nine months to March 31 pointed to record material mined and concentrator throughput.
Las Bambas mine in Peru, owned jointly by China’s MMG, CITIC and Pagoda Tree Investment Company, churned out 411.3 kts in 2025. The mine was plagued by protests in 2024, but protesters agreed to lift a road blockade on a key Peruvian transport route, and operations resumed in April 2025.
4. Buenavista
Southern Copper’s Buenavista mine in Mexico moves up in this year’s ranking to fourth place with 409.4 kts produced. Copper has been mined at the historic site, 22 miles south of the US border, since 1899.
5. Collahuasi
Chile’s Collahuasi mine, a joint venture between Glencore, Anglo American and Mitsui produced produced 404.1 kts. In April this year, contractors finished building a system that will carry water from the coastal town of Punta Patache to the Ujina deposit, more than 4,400 meters above sea level, as part of a $1 billion infrastructure improvement project.
Cerro Verde in Peru, a joint venture between Freeport-McMohRan, Sumitomo and Buenaventura takes seventh place, producing 391.5 kts. The Peruvian government first mined Cerro Verde’s oxide ores and built one of the world’s first SX/EW facilities in 1972.
8. Kamoa-Kakula
The Kamoa-Kakula complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo, owned jointly by Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin Mining, Crystal River and the DRC government drops from third place last year to seventh — it produced 385.8 kts. Ivanhoe halted operations for three weeks in 2025 after seismic activity severely flooded the underground mine. In April, Ivanhoe slashed near-term production guidance, citing a shift toward underground development, rehabilitation and access work that will constrain ore delivery over the next 18 to 24 months.
9. Antamina
Antamina in Peru, co-owned by BHP, Glencore, Teck and Mitsubishi, moves up to ninth from 10th place, producing 368 kts. Last year, Antamina’s operators forecasted an almost 20% boost in cooper output.
10. Oyu Tolgoi
Oyu Tolgoi, a joint venture between Rio Tinto and the Mongolian government, churned out 345.1 kts. The government, which holds a 34% stake through state-owned Erdenes Mongol LLC., this year demanded earlier profit payments and a larger share of revenue, reopening negotiations over the $18-billion project’s commercial terms.
Honorable mentions: Morenci in Arizona, USA (313,100 tonnes), Quellaveco in Peru (309,900 tonnes), Los Pelambres in Chile (295,400 tonnes)
CHART: First Quantum’s Peru project joins ranks of copper giants
First Quantum has completed 370,000 metres of drilling at La Granja. Image: First Quantum Minerals.
First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) has filed a new NI 43-101 technical report for its La Granja project in the Cajamarca region of northern Peru it holds with Rio Tinto, outlining one of the copper sector’s largest undeveloped deposits.
First Quantum, said according to La Granja’s (meaning “the farm”) updated mineral resource, the orebody contains 4.8 billion tonnes of measured and indicated resources grading 0.48% copper, equal to 23.0 million tonnes of contained copper.
A further 5.2 billion tonnes grading 0.40% copper sits in the inferred category, containing another 20.7 million tonnes of copper, setting La Granja up as a tier-1, multigenerational asset, in the words of the company.
That places La Granja second among undeveloped copper projects in terms of measured and indicated resources behind only Northern Dynasty’s Pebble in Alaska and when including operating assets, also behind Kamoa-Kakula, the Ivanhoe Mines complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
First Quantum acquired the majority stake for only $105 million and has since spent $70 million out of a committed $546 million to advance the project.
Engineering challenges
In an interview conducted last year, First Quantum CEO Tristan Pascall said while the La Granja deal “wasn’t up there in the deals in terms of dollars, in terms of copper in the ground is one of the largest deals done in the last 10, 20 years.”
“Rio Tinto saw in First Quantum a partner that could want a challenging project, because it’s challenging from an engineering perspective, and particularly around deleterious elements like arsenic,” Pascall said. “We had a development hypothesis that we went to Rio with, and really that revolved around dealing with the orebody in a different manner.”
First Quantum says the drillhole database for La Granja now consists of a whopping 832 diamond holes totalling a whopping 370,000 metres, with more planned. The deposit remains open at depth with further exploration targets, according to the company.
Last month, ahead of the latest mineral resource estimate, Pascal told a group of reporters during a tour of its Zambian mines the company has spent the last three years of drilling validating this hypothesis:
“Our view was that it [the arsenic] wasn’t disseminated, that it was discreet and we could package it. That means you have assayable concentrate through a conventional flow sheet, and you don’t need any exotics in order to deal with arsenic.”
La Granja in Peru. Image: First Quantum Minerals
Water and tailings
La Granja’s pit optimization was based on a copper-only cut-off using a $4.00 a pound copper price (versus today’s price of $6.65 per pound, or $14,450 a tonne). Silver, gold and molybdenum should provide by-product upside, which may well lure streaming companies.
Other challenges at La Granja (and most sites in the South American copper belt) include water and tailings management. Unlike many copper projects in the Andean belt, La Granja sits at a moderate elevation between 2,000m and 2,800m above sea level.
First Quantum plans to carry out comminution near the pit, then move material by pipeline through a 7 km access tunnel to a flatter, arid Pacific coastal plain about 100 km from the mine where processing and tailings management would be located.
First Quantum said primary water supply would come from desalinated seawater, with site contact water captured and reused in processing to reduce impacts on local environmental flows.
Next up for La Granja is permitting, and progressing baseline environmental and social studies and continuing community engagement – a process that would take several years under Peru’s strict Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) regulations.
A prior Peruvian government estimate put La Granja’s required investment at more than $2.4 billion. First Quantum is also advancing its Haquira project in the ApurÃmac region of southern Peru.
Annual output over the first 10 years at Taca Taca, which has qualified under Argentina’s fast-tracking program, is pegged at 291,000 tonnes of copper and 133,000 oz. of gold at cash costs of 97¢ per pound. Production over the mine’s life is projected at 209,000 tonnes of copper and 96,000 oz. gold at cash costs of $1.26 per pound.
Appian deepens Namibia push with $400M copper mine buy
Appian Capital Advisory has acquired Omico Copper in a deal giving the mining-focused private equity firm a 95% stake in Namibia’s Omitiomire copper project as it expands its exposure to a metal expected to face surging demand growth.
The mining-focused private equity firm plans to spend more than $400 million to develop Omitiomire into a mine producing about 30,000 tonnes of copper annually over a 15-year mine life, with first production targeted within three years.
The project, about 140 km northeast of Windhoek in Namibia’s Otjozondjupa Region, is considered one of the country’s most advanced undeveloped copper assets. Appian did not disclose the acquisition price for the asset, which was sold by Guernsey-based private equity fund Greenstone Resources LP and Australian mining company International Base Metals Ltd.
“Omico Copper is a technically robust development opportunity that aligns with Appian’s investment philosophy,” CEO Michael Scherb said in a statement. “The project complements our portfolio, offering near-term production alongside long-term growth potential.”
Scherb told Bloomberg News the firm could announce two more copper acquisitions before year-end involving projects at similar stages of development in South America, North Africa and southeastern Europe.
Mining investors are increasingly targeting copper assets amid expectations supply will struggle to meet rising demand from electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, power grids and AI infrastructure. S&P Global forecasts copper demand will climb 50% to more than 42 million tonnes by 2040 from 28 million tonnes last year.
The metal, crucial to electrification, is once again trading near a record high above $14,000 a tonne as a squeeze on Middle Eastern sulfur supplies threatens some operations, compounding disruptions at major mines elsewhere around the world.
Building a copper pipeline
Appian’s latest acquisition also builds on a broader strategy to expand its mining portfolio across Africa and Latin America. In October 2025, the firm established a $1 billion partnership with the International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s private-sector arm, to support mining investments in the regions.
The fund has already backed the development of an underground operation at the Santa Rita nickel mine in Brazil and the expansion of Asante Gold Corp.’s mines in Ghana, Scherb said. Namibia remains one of several “tier-one jurisdictions” where Appian is actively seeking investments alongside Morocco, Ivory Coast, Botswana and Zambia
The firm’s current portfolio includes operations producing about 480,000 ounces of gold annually, along with 55,000 tonnes of zinc and 19,000 tonnes of nickel.
