US, EU deepen cooperation on critical minerals with eye to broader agreement

Reuters | April 24, 2026 |

Entrance of the Louise Weiss building, inaugurated in 1999, the official seat of the European Parliament which houses the hemicycle for plenary sessions. Stock image.

The US and the European Union on Friday deepened their coordination on critical minerals as part of a broader push by Western allies to loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic signed a memorandum of understanding for a partnership on producing and securing critical minerals, with a specific action plan for trade announced separately.

Rubio did not mention China in his remarks, but said the preliminary agreement with Brussels reflected growing awareness among Western allies of the importance of supply chains and critical minerals for their economic success.

China has used its chokehold on the processing of many minerals as geo-economic leverage, at times curbing exports, suppressing prices and undercutting other countries’ ability to diversify sources of the materials used to make semiconductors, electric vehicles and advanced weapons.

“The over-concentration of these resources, the fact that they’re dominated by one or two places, is an unacceptable risk. We need diversity in our supply chains,” Rubio said before signing the memorandum.

Sefcovic told reporters he hoped the memorandum would jumpstart the overall push, and expressed hope that some initial pilot projects to test the price floor mechanism could kick off before the end of the year.

“The direction is clear,” he said. “Critical minerals … are the core of every industry shaping the future.”

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who also met with Sefcovic on Friday, announced a separate action plan to coordinate trade policies on critical minerals to address what they called “the non-market policies and practices that have distorted critical minerals supply chains.”

Greer said Washington and Brussels would explore how trade measures, such as border-adjusted price floors, could strengthen domestic critical minerals industries and downstream sectors critical to industrial competitiveness.

Speaking at the State Department, Sefcovic said the agreements would strengthen the transatlantic relationship and ensure faster work on their joint goals.

“I totally agree with Mr. Secretary (Rubio) that now the real test will be the execution of this project. How can we transform these agreements which we are signing into concrete, tangible projects to deliver for our business operators?”

‘Pervasive non-market policies and practices’

Washington and Brussels first announced their intent to develop an action plan in February when US Vice President JD Vance unveiled plans to create a preferential trade bloc for critical minerals, potentially with coordinated price floors.

Washington already has signed similar action plans with Japan and Mexico.

The US-EU action plan said it was imperative to address “pervasive non-market policies and practices (that) have left critical minerals supply chains of market-oriented economies vulnerable to a myriad of disruptions, including economic coercion.”

The plan said the longer-range view was on developing a plurilateral initiative with like-minded partners on trade in critical minerals that could bolster supply chain resilience for critical minerals for all.

The US and EU will discuss various measures and mechanisms, it said, including coordinated trade policies and mechanisms based on reference prices, such as border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price gap subsidies, or offtake agreements, focusing on mutually agreed select critical minerals and associated supply chains.

They also agreed to examine other possible measures, including standards for mining, processing, recycling, or trade in critical minerals; technical and regulatory cooperation; investment promotion and screening cooperation; and coordinated rapid responses to prevent disruptions and crises. Stockpiling cooperation is another possible measure, it said.

(By Andrea Shalal and Simon Lewis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)

US trade chief says allies need to pay “national security premium” for critical minerals

Reuters | April 22, 2026 

Rare earth elements visualized. Stock image.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has told American allies they must pay more for critical minerals sourced from outside China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

US allies must be ready to pay a “national security premium” for the minerals, which would be sourced from within a proposed group of trading partners including Europe, Greer told the FT in an interview.

“There is a premium we pay, and I call it the national security premium, and we will all pay a national security premium to have a secure supply chain,” Greer said in the interview.

Greer, who has been drawing up a draft of specific details to share with partners, said he blamed countries’ fixation on business costs for Western reliance on China for key minerals.

“When trading partners express concerns about the economic cost of price floors or mechanisms, I just say: what you’re talking about, which is cost efficiency, this is why we are in the situation we’re in,” Greer said.

Greer has earlier said that there needs to be some kind of price mechanism on rare earth minerals.

The US has been trying to get access to critical mineral reserves, ​especially rare earth supply chains currently dominated by Chinese players.

(By Chandni Shah; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Norway’s government takes over planning for Europe’s largest rare earth deposit

Reuters | April 22, 2026 | 

The Fen project. (Image courtesy of Rare Earths Norway.)

Norway will take over planning for the Fen rare earth deposit – Europe’s largest – to speed up development after a resource upgrade nearly doubled its estimated size, the government said on Wednesday.

Fen was estimated last month to hold 15.9 million metric tons of rare earth oxide in indicated and inferred resources, 81% more than a 2024 estimate, the project’s developer said at the time.

Europe has no operating rare earth mines, and development of the southern Norway project would support the region’s push to reduce reliance on dominant producer China.

Rare Earths Norway says its REE discovery is Europe’s largest

“The Fen field could be of major significance for Telemark, Norway and Europe’s supply security and competitiveness,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement. Telemark is the region where Fen is located.

“To ensure future access to critical minerals, it is important to increase production both in Norway and in other countries with which we cooperate in terms of security.”

About 19% of the oxides are neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), key materials used in permanent magnets for electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and defence applications.

The government said it had stepped in at the request of the local authority, citing the risk of land-use disputes and the need to balance competing national interests.

As elsewhere in Europe, infrastructure projects in Norway – including onshore wind farms – have faced opposition from environmental and agricultural interests, delaying development.

Rare Earths Norway, which is developing the project, has said it expects production to start in late 2031, with output of 800 tons of NdPr by 2032, equivalent to about 5% of European Union demand.

(By Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Mark Potter)

Saudi mining vehicle shifts strategy away from global M&A

Bloomberg News | April 22, 2026

Mining in Saudi Arabia. Photo by Jac Rijk Al-Rushaid, Twitter)

A Saudi firm that was to be a key vehicle for the kingdom to invest in foreign mining assets is shifting its strategy away from global acquisitions, people familiar with the matter said, as the Gulf country increasingly prioritizes building up its domestic economy.

Manara Minerals Investment Co. — initially tasked with snapping up stakes in mines overseas and funneling the raw materials back to the kingdom for processing — now plans to pursue joint ventures or partnerships with trading firms and make debt investments, the people said, declining to be identified discussing confidential matters.

The venture between the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund and Saudi Arabian Mining Co. could still look at some equity investments going forward, but that will no longer be its primary focus as it attempts to be more capital efficient, the people said.

Representatives for the Public Investment Fund, Manara and Saudi Arabian Mining declined to comment.

The shifts at the investment firm are the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s push for greater discipline in capital allocation and a sharper focus on investments that help boost its local economy.

The wealth fund sold a majority stake in one of the kingdom’s premier football clubs this month, and is considering cutting its funding for LIV Golf, the upstart league that cost it $5 billion since its launch in 2022.

The $1 trillion PIF said last week that it will step up efforts to boost returns and turn portfolio companies into global champions. That followed months of tough spending decisions in Riyadh, including sweeping reviews of ambitious projects like the planned megacity of Neom and a pivot toward areas more likely to attract foreign investment.

The regional conflict that saw Gulf nations bear the brunt of Iran’s attacks could add to the pressures. The Islamic Republic shut the Strait of Hormuz soon after the conflict started in late February, choking off a vital export route for Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries in the region. Riyadh quickly moved to activate a cross-country pipeline to carry its crude to the Red Sea coast, from where it’s now exporting around 5 million barrels a day, or about 70% of the kingdom’s total prewar levels.

Still, the war hasn’t slowed the kingdom’s dealmaking. Savvy Games Group, a unit of the PIF, agreed to buy Moonton in March in a deal valuing the mobile games maker at $6 billion, and more recently another affiliate committed an additional $550 million to electric-carmaker Lucid Group Inc.

Launched in 2023, Manara made an early splash by buying a $2.6 billion stake in Vale SA’s base metals unit, but has since struggled to find deals at attractive valuations. The firm’s original plan was to make investments in iron ore, copper, nickel and lithium as a non-operating partner with minority equity positions.

Manara is now in advanced discussions with some of the world’s biggest commodity houses as it pushes into trading, the people said. The firm has held discussions with traders including Glencore Plc and Trafigura Group about forming a partnership, Bloomberg News reported in January.

The company has been looking to increase its exposure to metals trading at a time when prices for many commodities are near record highs and securing supplies of critical minerals becomes a political flash point from Washington to Beijing.

As part of its shift toward capital efficiency, Manara would focus on loans to miners in return for offtake rights, allowing it to benefit once production begins, one of the people said.

Saudi Arabia has made the mining industry the so-called third pillar of its Vision 2030 plan to diversify the historically oil-reliant economy, leveraging untapped resources including phosphate, copper and bauxite that are crucial for the global energy transition.

The broader Saudi goal is to quadruple mining’s economic contributions by 2030 and draw in companies to help the country become a hub for the sector. Canada’s Barrick Mining operates a copper mine in Saudi Arabia while Hancock Prospecting recently won the right to dig for metals in the kingdom.

(By Dinesh Nair, Thomas Biesheuvel and Archie Hunter)

CU

Comex copper stocks hit record high after US arbitrage reopens

Reuters | April 22, 2026 |

Stock image.

Copper inventories on the US Comex exchange have climbed to a record high, data from the bourse showed on Wednesday, as traders take advantage of the renewed price arbitrage to ship metal to the United States.

Total copper stocks in Comex warehouses rose by 0.5% to 603,745 short tons (547,708 metric tons) on Tuesday from the day before, the data showed, beating the previous peak of 601,716 short tons on March 2.

Copper prices on the Comex began to trade higher than those on the London Metal Exchange again earlier this month, incentivizing shipments to Comex warehouses once more after a slight dip in stocks in March.

The US arbitrage was open for much of 2025, drawing in hundreds of thousands of tons of copper on expectations the metal could be hit with a US tariff; refined copper was ultimately given an exemption but remains under review.

More copper will flow to the US until at least July, when a decision is expected on whether to impose tariffs, the global head of metals at Mercuria said on Wednesday.

More than two-thirds, or 414,984 short tons, of the Comex copper stocks are in the key storage hub of New Orleans.

(By Tom Daly; Editing by Deepa Babington)

 

Copper price: Goldman maintains year-end forecast, Traxys sees $15,000

Staff Writer | April 22, 2026 |

Stock image.

Copper held firm above the $13,200-a-tonne level on Wednesday amid elevated supply risks caused by the ongoing war in the Middle East and optimism over its demand.

Prices briefly surpassed the $13,300 mark earlier in the morning, before pulling back to earlier-week levels. The red metal is coming off four straight weeks of gains and recently surged to nearly $13,500 per ton — about $1,000 short of the all-time high set in January.

Supporting the rally was the growing shortage of sulphuric acid caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It is estimated that around a fifth of the world’s primary refined copper supply relies on this input.

China — the largest sulphuric acid producer — is set to ban its exports starting next month, threatening the production outlook for copper miners.

As the world’s biggest consumer, China’s consumption of copper is also showing signs of growth. Satellite data showed that activity at Chinese copper smelters was at an all-time high in March, coinciding with a sharp decline in copper inventory held by the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

“We are currently in peak consumption season in China, and demand has maintained a high growth rate,” a China-based analyst told Bloomberg earlier this week.

Goldman maintains forecast

Given the supply risks, analysts at Goldman Sachs have maintained their average copper price forecast at $12,650 per tonne this year, despite predicting a 490,000-tonne surplus for the metal.

The disruption caused by the Strait of Hormuz closure, combined with China’s decision to ban sulphuric acid exports from May 1, could tighten a market critical for copper production, the bank said in a note on Tuesday.

Markets that are specifically exposed to these risks, as Goldman highlights, are the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chile — two of the metal’s largest producers.

While companies in the DRC still hold two to three months of inventory, if supply chain delays extend beyond late May through June, they could curtail about 125,000 tonnes of production this year, the bank warned, as the African country relies on the Gulf region for the majority of its sulphuric acid imports.

A shortage of acid could also cause similar problems for Chilean producers. Last year, mining companies in the world’s leading copper nation sourced roughly a third of its sulphuric acid from China in 2025, Goldman noted, adding that a Chinese ban could put 200,000 tonnes of production — or 1% of the global total — at risk.

According to Morgan Stanley, miners in Chile generate around 1.125 million tonnes of copper through the SX-EW process, which uses sulphuric acid as a leaching reagent, and rely on China for around 20% of their acid supply.

$15,000 in view

Commodity traders are also bullish on copper, especially in the long run. Those at Traxys expect prices to reach $15,000 a tonne within two to three years.

“I think we’ll see higher copper and maybe not by the end of this year,” said CEO Mark Kristoff at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne earlier.

“But in the next 24 to 36 months, I think we’ll see $15,000/t copper,” he predicted.

 

Lithium market to enter deficit until 2035, says Canaccord

Staff Writer | April 22, 2026 | 

Image courtesy of SQM.

The global lithium market is set to enter a near-decade-long deficit as a lack of mine investment weighs on supply of the EV battery metal, according to Canaccord Genuity.

In a note published Wednesday, Canaccord analysts said they expect to see a “material market deficit” starting in 2026, given that tightening supply has more than offset the weakness in near-term demand.

This deficit, they added, could last until 2035. Even if rising lithium prices through 2027-28 could ignite a supply response, that would still fall short of their demand growth forecasts, the analysts said.

In recent months, lithium prices have shot up on persistent worries over supply, led by the suspension of a key mine in China, one of the world’s leading suppliers. Earlier this year, Zimbabwe, another top producer, introduced a ban on raw lithium exports, exacerbating the market conditions.

Canaccord’s outlook assumes no further disruptions in China and elsewhere, which could well extend the deficit beyond the projected period.

According to Canaccord analysts, the lithium market would require “significant” investment in new supply in the long term, even if there are no more supply risks and drastic changes to demand forecasts.

AU

US Mint gold source tied to criminal networks in Colombia: NYT

Staff Writer | April 26, 2026 | 

Adobe Stock image.

The United States is increasingly being drawn into the opaque supply chains of illicit mining after an investigation by The New York Times tied some of its gold supply to Colombian criminal networks.

Drawing on interviews, trade records and field reporting, the NYT detailed how illegally mined gold in Colombia — often controlled by armed groups and drug cartels — is laundered through intermediaries and exported with seemingly legitimate paperwork before entering global supply chains.

In some cases, that gold made its way into the supply chain of the US Mint, which under federal law must use America-mined gold for its investor-grade coins.

The report highlights a fragmented chain of accountability. When questioned by a Times reporter, the US Mint blamed its suppliers, who then deflected the responsibility to other intermediaries. All parties maintained they had stopped accepting Colombian gold.

The US Department of the Treasury, which oversees the Mint, also denied the accuracy of these findings. A spokesperson also told the publication that buying foreign gold for investor coins does not violate the law.

At the same time, the NYT investigators noted that the Mint had long used a loose definition of “US gold,” allowing foreign material to qualify if offset by domestic purchases — a requirement that has not been enforced for more than 20 years, according to a 2024 federal watchdog report.

That year, roughly $1.5 billion of Colombia’s $4.1 billion gold exports ended up in the US, making it the largest single destination, according to trade data compiled by the United Nations.

Illegal gold in US market

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that illicitly mined gold has been penetrating formal US markets for years.

Previous investigations and enforcement actions have traced gold from Latin America — including Peru and Colombia — into North American refiners and traders, often after being mixed with legitimate supply and exported with falsified documentation.

Those cases have repeatedly exposed how difficult it is for downstream buyers to fully verify origin in a commodity that has such a long history in the global financial system. A World Wide Fund for Nature UK report earlier this year found that over 80% of financial institutions, including those in the US, were at risk of exposure to dealings with illegal mining for gold.

The latest findings also further highlight the persistent challenges in achieving full transparency in gold supply chains, as well as the limitations of existing oversight mechanisms.

Following the latest investigation, the Treasury said it is now reviewing the Mint’s procurement practices and has tightened its sourcing standards, the NYT report said.

The dead asset wakes up as crypto magic makes gold pay interest

Bloomberg News | April 23, 2026 |

Jewellery on display at Pure gold store in Singapore Changi Airport. Stock image.

Jewelers have long used a simple mechanism to protect themselves against volatile gold prices — borrow the precious metal rather than buy it outright.

It’s a trick with origins in antiquity and used from the gold souks of Dubai to the bullion desks of India, allowing artisans to produce and sell their wares before settling the tab to align costs with revenue.

If gold prices rise, the value of the rings and necklaces in the display case climbs with the debt. If they fall, both shrink together. The trade-off is interest on the loan.

Now, a jeweler, an asset manager and a fintech firm are wrapping this age-old wisdom in a crypto token, offering investors gold that actually pays a yield.

It’s an example of how digital technology is disrupting traditional finance. Gold has always been a “dead” asset, a store of value that, unlike stocks and bonds, pays no dividends or interest to its owner.

“For centuries, jewelers didn’t borrow paper money to buy gold, they borrowed the gold itself,” said Ivan Hoo, executive director at Singapore jeweler Mustafa Gold. “We are giving that ancient logic a sleek, synthetic upgrade.”

Mustafa has teamed up with FundBridge Capital which, in collaboration with tokenization platform Libeara, is offering investors digital tokens that track the price of gold.

The money FundBridge gets for selling its “MG999” tokens is lent to Mustafa, who pays 2.5% interest on the loan. Mustafa uses the money to buy physical gold and make jewelry.

Crucially, the loan is denominated in gold rather than cash. If Mustafa borrows $1 million, the debt is expressed as the amount of gold that sum could buy at prevailing market prices.

This means if gold prices rise, Mustafa’s repayment obligation increases — but so too does the value of its jewelry. If prices fall, the debt shrinks along with inventory value. The matching of costs and revenue helps to stabilize margins.

It’s a synthetic version of borrowing physical gold to avoid price risk.

Giving gold a yield

There’s an upside for investors too. They get exposure to gold but with the added bonus of yield derived from the interest Mustafa pays on the loan. After deducting management fees, FundBridge pays a 1% yield to token holders.

There are numerous ways to gain exposure to gold without holding the metal physically, from exchange-traded funds to futures, options and mutual funds. In the digital world, Tether Holdings SA and Paxos Trust Company offer tokens backed by gold.

But none of these directly offer investors a yield and some, such as ETFs, carry costs in the form of management fees, said John Bao Vu, chief portfolio manager at FundBridge.

“Typically, even though you get gold exposure, you get it in a negative carry sense,” he said. “We thought about doing something one step further to reduce that negative carry. This is how we came up with the idea with Mustafa.”

Gold lending, or leasing, has become more institutional and complex. Jewelers can manage risk with a mix of tools including gold loans, forward contracts and hedging programs, but smaller retailers are more likely to rely on ordinary bank financing.

For Mustafa, FundBridge is offering an alternative source of capital.

“Our biggest source of borrowing is from banks,” said Hoo. “But those loans are in US dollars, not denominated in gold terms. So this diversity of funding is good for us. It unlocks a fresh vault of capital from investors and meaningful diversification to how we fund the business.”

The price of gold has roughly tripled over the last four years as investors have sought safe havens amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Crypto firms have responded to that demand with more tokenized gold products.

FundBridge doesn’t need to hold any gold to maintain the value of its token. Instead, it is backed by the contractual claim against Mustafa — the right to receive back cash equal to a specific amount of gold at whatever the market price is at maturity.

To ensure the token is tied to the price of gold, the number on issue must maintain a prescribed ratio with the amount of outstanding loans.

“The price risk gets transferred to the investor in the fund,” said Vu. “They get the return (yield) as an upside while they take the exposure to gold-price risk. And the investors want to get exposure to gold.”

FundBridge has raised $15 million so far and hopes to reach $100 million initially. Working with a retailer like Mustafa, which requires a ton of gold a year, ensures quick deployment of the money.

“We are simply bringing this practice of borrowing on gold terms into the digital age,” said Mustafa’s Hoo. “What’s old is new again.”

(By Suvashree Ghosh and Yihui Xie)

Ghana directs Newmont, AngloGold, Zijin to shift mining ops to local firms by December

Reuters | April 22, 2026 | 

Ahafo North mine in Ghana. Credit: Newmont

Ghana’s mining regulator has given international companies Newmont, ‌AngloGold Ashanti and Chinese-owned Zijin until December 2026 to shift mining operations over to local contractors or face sanctions, according to five sources with direct knowledge of the matter and documents.

The three companies currently operate the mines with their own staff. They are the only ones still doing so after many firms outsourced mining operations ahead of Ghana, Africa’s top gold ​producer, revising local ownership rules in January 2025 and requiring all miners to switch to contract mining.

Under the rules, surface mining must ​be undertaken by fully Ghanaian-owned firms, while underground mining must be carried out by companies with at least ⁠50% Ghanaian ownership.

Apart from Newmont, Zijin and AngloGold Ashanti’s smaller Iduapriem gold mine, almost all large miners in Ghana have already transitioned to ​contract mining, two government officials and three mining executives said.

African governments have been tightening mining rules to extract more revenue against a backdrop of rising prices ​for minerals and metals produced. Mali ended a near two-year standoff with Barrick in November over enforcement of its new mining code.

Ghana’s Minerals Commission asked Newmont, AngloGold and Zijin to fully comply with the contract mining requirements by December 2026, according to separate letters sent to the companies in October and January that were seen ​by Reuters on Wednesday. The three companies had separately requested extensions to allow full compliance.

The regulator warned that miners that failed to meet ​the deadline could face sanctions, the letters showed.

Zijin’s Ghana unit said it has been engaging with the Minerals Commission since November 2025 to comply with the ‌local content ⁠rules, including preparing tenders and technical frameworks for a shift to contract mining, while rolling out new technologies that require initial benchmarking before a full tender process.

Newmont and AngloGold did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Regulator rejects Newmont’s request

Newmont’s compliance was discussed during meetings this month in Accra between its global CEO, Natascha Viljoen, and the Minerals Commission after the company again sought an extension, the government sources said.

Newmont, which operates the Ahafo North ​and South gold mines, had asked ​to comply fully by 2027, ⁠citing additional regulatory and governance requirements it must satisfy as a listed company, one government official said.

But regulators rejected that request, noting that other listed miners, including Gold Fields, had already complied, the official said.

The ​Ghana Chamber of Mines did not respond to requests for comment but a source in the group ​said it was ⁠engaging with the commission.

“It is a good option, but we think it should be commercially driven,” he said. “If I can be more efficient, why shouldn’t I mine myself?”

The government sources said the new rules are aimed at building capacity among Ghanaian mining service companies and retaining more value in-country, citing the emergence ⁠of Ghanaian ​firms such as Rocksure and Engineers & Planners.

Local companies have the capacity to take on expanded contract ​mining roles and the commission will hold their hands to execute, the first government official said.

Miners that fail to comply face “a huge fine for the first step,” the second official said. “If ​they still don’t comply, we have the right to shut down the mine.”

(By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Editing by Veronica Brown and Nia Williams)

Myriad builds Wyoming uranium district as report shows scale

Blair McBride | April 23, 2026

Myriad’s Copper Mountain project in Wyoming. Credit: Myriad Uranium

A merger is set to hand Myriad Uranium (CSE: M) a huge district under its Copper Mountain umbrella in Wyoming while a new report compiles decades of historical drilling that position the project at an advanced exploration stage.

The planned all-share tie-up with Rush Rare Metals (CSE: RSH), announced in February, would give Myriad Rush’s a quarter interest in the project. The deal consolidates a fragmented district for the first time in more than 50 years, mining analyst David Talbot said in Red Cloud Securities’ first note Thursday on the company. Copper Mountain is about 270 km west of state capital Cheyenne.

“No one firm has controlled so much of the district since Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) in the 1970s,” Talbot said, citing the railroad company’s past activity in the area, worth the equivalent of C$117 million ($85.5 million) in 2024 dollars in exploration spending.

Uranium spring

Wyoming has emerged as the United States’ dominant uranium output jurisdiction, with the state hosting most of the country’s producing uranium mines. The report’s release and looming merger come as the uranium sector has been boosted this year as countries seek cleaner energy sources and technology companies try to procure contracts for power-hungry AI data centres.

Two mines in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin uranium hotspot announced production starts over the past two months and Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom (LSE: KAP), the world’s top producer of uranium, unveiled plans to sell a large amount of nuclear metal output to India. Canadian producer Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) also signed a C$2.6 billion supply deal with the Asian country in March.

Uranium activity at Copper Mountain dates back as far as the 1950s, when about 500,000 lb. of uranium oxide (U₃O₈) was mined at the Arrowhead project, Myriad said in the technical report.

Myriad shares gained 3% to C$0.51 apiece on Thursday morning in Toronto for a market capitalization of C$55.1 million ($40.2 million).

Towards initial resource

Following initial drilling in 2024-2025 at the project, Myriad plans a second stage 4,500-metre program to test historical resource estimates and to expand mineralization at Copper Mountain. An initial resource and technical studies in a potential third stage would follow.

The historical estimate comprises 16.5 million to 26.7 million lb. across seven deposits, with the Canning deposit the largest.

Myriad’s drilling would also seek to prove estimates made by the Department of Energy and Bendix Field Engineering from 1976 to 1982. That drilling estimated that the “control and assessment” areas at Copper Mountain host 245 million to 655 million lb. U₃O₈. Myriad holds about 80% of the control area and 62% of the assessment area.

“Critically, Myriad’s own assay data suggest historical grades are understated … pointing to meaningful resource upside as modern drilling methods are applied for the first time,” Talbot said.

‘High conviction’

The company is entering its stage two exploration program with a “high level of conviction,” Myriad CEO Thomas Lamb said in a release this week.

“Our maiden drill program surpassed expectations by a significant margin … validating Copper Mountain as a genuinely world-class exploration address,” he said. “The picture that emerges is one of remarkable district-scale potential.”

 

US Department of Energy unveils “Nuclear Dominance — 3 by 33” campaign

Staff Writer | April 23, 2026 | 

Adobe Stock photo by pwmotion.

The U.S Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy announced Thursday it is kicking off an ambitious new initiative to secure the nation’s nuclear fuel supply chain.

The country’s need for secure and reliable energy is projected to rise in the coming years, driven in part by growth in industrial manufacturing, as well as the power needs of data centers to support artificial intelligence.

Nuclear energy currently provides the country with nearly 20% of its power. The long-term success of efforts to put more power on the grid through nuclear power plant uprates, restarts and the commercial deployment of advanced reactors will all depend on the availability of nuclear fuel.

Through the Defense Production Act (DPA) Nuclear Fuel Cycle Consortium, the federal government will work with the domestic nuclear industry to ensure that the United States continues to have enough nuclear fuel to power the current nuclear reactor fleet as well as future advanced reactors.

Comprised of representatives from more than 90 companies spanning the nuclear industrial base, the initiative will address all facets of the nuclear fuel supply chain including milling, conversion, enrichment, deconversion, fabrication, recycling, and reprocessing, the DOE said.

At the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center with partners and the public present, the Consortium on Thursday said it will focus its efforts on three goals to support the nuclear energy sector. 

Under the “Nuclear Dominance — 3 by 33” campaign, the Consortium aims to by 2033: catalyze a secure and cost-competitive domestic fuel supply chain; accelerate advanced reactor deployment and close the fuel cycle and explore how the DPA framework can be activated to grow and align workforce, finance, innovation and collaboration in support of nuclear build out.

The initiative will begin a series of 60-day sprints designed to make rapid progress on the Consortium’s goals, the DOE said.

“The Consortium’s work comes at a pivotal time for nuclear energy growth in our country,” Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said in a news release. “I’m pleased with the dedication of the Committee and am looking forward to rapid progress on near term goals to achieve a robust American-made supply of nuclear fuel.”

In May of 2025, US President Donald Trump released four executive orders to catalyze a nuclear energy resurgence. Within months, DOE announced the creation of the DPA Consortium to seek voluntary agreements with US companies focused on increasing fuel availability, providing more access to reliable power, and ending America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials.

 

BHP adopts new Chinese iron ore price index in deal to end dispute

Reuters | April 23, 2026 | 

Yandi operations. Credit: BHP.

BHP Group agreed to use an additional Chinese iron ore price index for one of its flagship products as part of a deal with China to end a months-long dispute, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

BHP, the world’s third-largest iron ore supplier, said on Wednesday that it had concluded negotiations on a new sales contract with China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG), ending the dispute stemming from bans on the procurement of the key steel-making ingredient from BHP.

Neither BHP nor CMRG – the Chinese state iron ore buyer – gave details of the agreement.

The new contract will last until the end of BHP’s 2027 financial year, according to an investor who said they were informed by the mining group’s executives.

Settlement for BHP’s Jimblebar fines, a medium-grade iron ore, will be based on a weighted average of four indices including the equivalent US dollar value of China’s COREX 61% iron ore portside index, which will carry a weight of 26%, two of the three sources said.

All the sources requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

BHP declined to comment.

CMRG did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Other indices for settling Jimblebar fines include the Argus 61% seaborne index, Mysteel 61% seaborne and the converted dollar value of the Mysteel 61% portside index.

Second miner to adopt index

Previously, BHP settled Jimblebar contracts with Chinese clients using either a fixed price or a combination of Argus and Mysteel seaborne indices.

The Beijing Iron Ore Trading Centre Corp, or COREX, launched its iron ore portside index last September in a push to gain a role in pricing iron ore imports, worth $123 billion in 2025.

BHP is the second Australian miner to adopt the COREX index following Hancock Prospecting, two of the sources said. China lifted a partial ban on iron ore procurement from Hancock last September, Reuters reported. It did not give a reason.

Hancock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Global miners and traders have been cautious about using COREX because of its relatively short data history and the fact that it is based on portside transactions rather than the seaborne market used in other indices, industry insiders said.

As part of the deal, BHP will offer a 1.8% rebate per iron ore vessel on term contracts, on top of a freight-linked discount for certain large ships, one of the sources said.

(By Reuters staff and Melanie Burton; Editing by Tony Munroe and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)