Ethiopia has launched its first gold refinery, a $50-million joint venture aimed at turning the East African nation into a regional processing hub for precious metals, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said over the weekend. Gold exports are one of Ethiopia’s main sources of foreign exchange, earning the country $5.6-billion last year, according to government data. Ahmed said the new refinery would process gold from Ethiopia and elsewhere. “It enables neighbouring countries and regional mining companies to bring their gold to Ethiopia for advanced refining, certification, value addition, and sale, eliminating the need to export it outside the continent,” Ahmed said…
Author: TJ Markle
The West needs an unprecedented mobilization of government, academia and industry to help narrow China’s lead in the critical minerals sector, according to Robert Friedland, chairman of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and Sunrise Energy Metals Ltd. The US remains decades behind China in processing, supply chains and industrial expertise, Friedland says, with much of China’s advantage comprising accumulated know-how, versus patents or technology developments. Beijing’s rare earth restrictions have shifted the focus from mines to factories, and companies that depend on magnets, semiconductors and advanced electronics are discovering that access to critical minerals can matter as much as access to capital…
Queensland communities could find it harder to challenge new mining projects under proposed laws that would restrict who can object to a mine and give politicians greater control over whether objections are heard in court. Resources Minister Dale Last introduced the Mineral Resources Objections Reform and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 on Tuesday, arguing the changes would cut red tape and stop “vexatious” objections from holding up projects. But farmers, environmental groups and lawyers said the reforms would instead make it harder for communities to have their say and weaken independent scrutiny of mines. Under the proposed laws, objections would…
USAKA – Zambia is negotiating a critical minerals deal with the US government after “decoupling” it from a separate health funding agreement it signed on Thursday, its foreign minister said. “There was this (Memorandum of Understanding) on health and another on critical minerals, and we were saying that these need to be decoupled, and this has been done,” Mulambo Haimbe said at a signing ceremony for the health pact, which will see the US provide $1.5-billion in funding. Asked for more details about the minerals deal, the minister said it was “still being negotiated” but declined to elaborate. Zambia had…
High-purity iron producer Hertha Metals has broken ground on its Chalyx plant, which is the US’s first commercial plant for magnet-grade high-purity iron. The Texas-based plant will use a single-step process to produce 10 000 t/y of high-purity iron for rare earth magnets and steel for US manufacturers. The company has already produced initial quantities of high-purity iron from its next-door Pi100 pilot plant. Hertha explains its process as heating iron-ore and natural gas in a single furnace, with controlled process chemistry producing either liquid steel or high-purity iron. The process works with any grade of iron-ore, including the lower-grade…
AASX-listed Arafura Rare Earths has secured a binding five-year offtake agreement with a leading global raw materials trading company to supply 850 t/y of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide. This compares to a supply agreement of 500 t/y having been envisioned in the companies’ prior binding term sheet signed in May this year. The pricing of the contract will be linked to an independent and transparent global seaborne index, such as the recently established Benchmark Minerals Intelligence indices or S&P’s Global Platts North America pricing index. Notably, Arafura says the trader has been tapped under the US government’s Project Vault…
Ghana is expected to replace a draft mining bill before Parliament with a revised version that restores a maximum 20-year mining lease term and clarifies provisions that have raised concerns among miners, three people familiar with the matter said. Reuters reported last month that the Minerals and Mining Bill, 2026, published by Parliament would limit new mining leases to 15 years, or the projected life of the mine, whichever is shorter, compared with up to 30 years under current law. It would also give the minister power to require mining companies to issue the state a special share Two senior…
Canadian miners Green Shift Commodities and Myriad Uranium Corporation have reached a definitive share purchase agreement whereby Myriad will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Buenavida Metales, Green Shift’s wholly-owned Argentinian subsidiary that holds the Los Altares uranium project. Green Shift will receive C$300 000 in cash, C$700 000 in common shares of Myriad and a 2% net smelter return royalty on the project. Buenavida will retain the right to purchase half of the royalty for C$1-million in cash. The transaction provides Green Shift with cash proceeds while maintaining exposure to the project. “The deal reflects our…
Indonesia is discussing a plan to impose a moratorium on development of new nickel processing facilities that produce partly processed metals, the senior minister overseeing mining, Bahlil Lahadalia, said on Wednesday. The plan is part of the country’s efforts to prop up prices of nickel products, said Bahlil. Bahlil was named as Coordinating Minister of Downstreaming and Energy Transition in President Prabowo Subianto’s cabinet reshuffle last week, on top of his current role as energy and mining minister, to streamline investment policies into downstream resources industries. Oversupply of partly processed nickel products from Indonesia has caused prices to drop, Bahlil…
The European Commission has chosen 46 strategic raw material projects to benefit from faster permitting and help in bidding for public and private funding, as the bloc races to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on China, it said on Friday. The EU, along with other major Western economies, is heavily dependent on China for critical minerals and components such as batteries and rare earths used in the defence, aerospace, automotive and renewable energy sectors. Beijing has increasingly used those dependencies as a trade lever over the last two years, adding urgency to EU efforts to secure supplies and explore…