This Series B financing round was also supported by Andium’s existing investors Climate Investment, Intrepid Financial Partners and former Citadel chief information officer, Thomas Miglis.

Combined with the company’s $15 million Series A funding in 2021, this investment brings the total funding to over $40 million.

The new capital will help Andium accelerate its global expansion, including scaling operations across oil and gas basins in the US and the Middle East. It will also reduce technology and equipment costs, support ongoing research and development, and enhance the range of services Andium offers in industrial automation and emissions monitoring.

Andium’s solution combines AI-powered software with on-site sensors and cameras to provide a comprehensive, real-time solution for remote field monitoring. This enables accurate tracking of environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, detecting issues like methane leaks, fires and equipment malfunctions.

By providing instant insights, Andium helps companies ensure continuous asset performance and regulatory compliance. The technology has already proven effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 65% per location while lowering field operational costs by up to 45% for major energy companies like BP and ConocoPhillips, the company says.

Andium’s real-time monitoring automation is also able to reduce windshield time by over 80%, addressing labor challenges, empowering workers, and improving efficiency across remote locations, it adds.

“This investment is a powerful endorsement of our platform, which will be pivotal as we enter our next stage of growth,” said Jory Schwach, founder and CEO at Andium.

“Our end-to-end operating system, which monitors and provides real-time, verifiable emissions data from remote locations, has already been proven to lower operational costs, cut emissions, and improve safety — helping energy, mining and waste companies meet their net-zero and zero-harm goals.”

Aramco Ventures’ $1.5 billion sustainability fund supports innovative technologies that reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. This investment aligns with Aramco’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, the group said.

Bruce Niven, executive MD at Aramco Ventures, commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with Andium. This technology platform has the potential to reduce fugitive emissions as well as provide operational benefits in a variety of applications. It is an elegant and cost-effective solution.”

The study, published just a day after the United Nations warned the world is falling “miles short” of what’s needed to curb devastating global warming, indicates that an investment of $78 trillion will be needed to change this course and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations committed to limiting global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above the average temperatures recorded between 1850 and 1900, aiming for a target of 1.5 degrees Celsius if feasible. Efforts to date have not succeeded in meeting this challenge, the annual “Energy Transition Outlook” from Wood Mackenzie shows.

Unlike the UN pessimistic outlook, the Scottish consultancy believes that while major obstacles hinder short-term targets, particularly for 2030, a 2050 net-zero goal remains feasible. Immediate and coordinated global action would be necessary, WoodMac warns.

Threats to climate progress

A series of global crises, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, escalating Middle East violence, rising populism in Europe and global trade tensions with China, are undermining the pace of the energy transition, Wood Mackenzie’s vice president head of scenarios and technologies, Prakash Sharma, said. 

He explains that without urgent policy changes and enhanced investment, a warming trajectory of 2.5˚C to 3˚C could become inevitable.

“We are under no illusion as to how challenging the net zero transition will be, given the fact that fossil fuels are widely available, cost-competitive and deeply embedded in today’s complex energy system,” Sharma added. “A price on carbon maybe the most effective way to drive emissions reduction but it’s hard to see it coming together in a polarized environment.”

Key investment are needed across several critical areas, according to WoodMac. As renewable energy sources grow, substantial upgrades to power supply and grid infrastructure are essential to meet the growing demand. Additionally, the need for critical minerals, such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, is projected to increase five- to ten-fold by 2050, as demand for batteries and other technologies essential for the energy transition continues to grow. 

WoodMac sees the need to back the development of emerging technologies, including carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen, and nuclear power, are vital for facilitating the shift towards cleaner energy sources.

Securing this funding won’t be easy, the consultants noted. “Doubling annual investments to $3.5 trillion by 2050 will be necessary in our net zero scenario,” Sharma said, adding that it will require unprecedented policy coordination globally.

The role of electrification

The electrification of energy systems will play a pivotal role in decarbonization. Transitioning from fossil fuels to electric power, Wood Mackenzie forecasts that electricity’s share of global energy demand will increase from 23% to 35% by 2050 in a base case, and could reach as high as 55% in a net-zero scenario.

Wood Mackenzie’s analysis reveals that global energy demand is set to rise by 14% by 2050. Emerging economies are projected to see even steeper growth at 45%, driven by rising populations and economic advancement. 

In parallel, data centres, electric vehicles, and AI are emerging as new drivers of electricity consumption, with AI-related energy use alone expected to increase from 500 TWh in 2023 to up to 4,500 TWh by 2050.

Including renewable energy source to meet electrifications demand could help reduce emissions, the report says.

According to Wood Mackenzie, solar and wind currently account for 17% of the global power supply, and renewables capacity is expected to double by 2030 in its base case. Yet, this increase still falls short of the COP28 commitment made in 2023 to triple renewables by 2030.

Transition or coexistence?

While nuclear energy holds promise for providing consistent, zero-carbon electricity, its high cost and frequent project delays pose significant challenges. WoodMac says that nuclear power could play a more significant role as it has attracted interest, particularly from tech companies looking to power data centres sustainably.

While fossil fuels is expected to plateau in the 2040s before beginning a gradual decline, Wood Mackenzie predicts that the high capital costs of low-carbon technologies coupled with strong demand for energy, will require the continued use of oil and gas in the near term.

Wood Mackenzie says to meet climate targets there will be necessary that nations gathered at the COP29 meeting in Azerbaijan next month finalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This section focuses on carbon markets and aims to establish a new climate finance goal to replace the previous annual target of $100 billion, which experts consider insufficient.

The consultancy’s report echoes concerns included in a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) study released last week. The document says the next decade is crucial in the battle against climate change, adding that failing to act now will jeopardize any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the UN body, the current rate of climate action could lead to a catastrophic increase of 3.1 degrees Celsius this century. 

“Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned.

Even if all existing commitments to reduce emissions are fulfilled, global temperatures would still rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, experts agree.

Using data from 2022, the study estimates that the US generated 13,767 kg of gold that year worth around £882.8 million from its e-waste. The gold was recycled from a world-leading 4.1 billion kg of wastes, owing to the nation’s consumerist culture.

In second place is China, which recycled fewer than half of the gold than its main rival at 6,630 kg worth £425.1 million. In 2022, the world’s top consumer recycled 1.9 billion kg of documented e-waste, contributed by its role as a global e-waste hub since the 1970s.

Germany ranks third in estimated gold value from recycled e-waste, with 3,249 kg of gold worth approximately £208.4 million. The country processed 956.6 million kg of waste in 2022, a result of strict EU policies that require responsible collection and recycling.

Rounding out the top five are two other G7 nations — France and Japan — with 2,924 kg (£187.5 million) and 2,084 kg (£133.6 million) respectively.

The country that recycled the least amount of gold in 2022 was Azerbaijan, with just 10,000 kg. This could be for a range of reasons, such as a limited e-waste management infrastructure or the lack of regulations, the study says.

On a per-capita basis, Norway led the way with 19.42 kg of documented and recycled waste from electronic goods in 2022, which could generate an estimated 0.066 gram of gold worth £4.23.

For the full list of the world’s top gold recyclers from e-waste, click here.

The Caribou mill complex includes a 3,000-t/d mineral processing facility with a primary grinding circuit, one semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and one ball mill. There are two regrinding circuits with three ISA mills and one pall mill.

A differential sulphide flotation plant and regent system, laboratories, a tailings management facility, an underground mine, connection to the hydro grid, and a water supply for operations are included.

Canadian Copper has agreed to pay approximately C$6.2 million for the fully permitted complex, consisting of a C$225,000 deposit, half of which is refundable against the purchase price. The transaction is scheduled to close next July.

Simon Quick, CEO of Canadian Copper, hailed the agreement, stating that “the proposed transaction creates important synergies for Canadian Copper.”

“By integrating our large Murray Brook deposit with an already permitted and constructed Caribou complex that operated as recently as August 2022, we aim to significantly reduce the schedule, capital cost, and permitting time required to produce copper, zinc and lead concentrate from Murray Brook,” he said.

The company has already hired consultants to design, engineer and develop the mining and milling processes for the Murray Brook deposit. A preliminary economic assessment is due in the first half of 2025. Modifications to the water and tailings facilities are also under consideration.

The Murray Brook deposit contains measured and indicated sulphide resources of 21.1 million tonnes grading 0.45% copper, 0.91% lead and 2.49% zinc. There is also a measured and indicated oxide resource of 2 million tonnes at 1.03% copper, 0.74% lead and 2.22% zinc.

Resources in the inferred category comprise 110,000 tonnes of sulphides grading 0.41% copper, 0.68% lead and 1.82% zinc.

This state-of-the-art refinery will be associated with the new e-waste recycling plant that Hindalco is building in Pakhajan, Gujarat, for which Metso has already been awarded a contract for three Kaldo furnaces, an anode furnace and an anode casting shop, gas cleaning and supporting equipment. 

For the precious metals refinery, the Metso scope of delivery consists of a Kaldo furnace with off-gas handling and silver refining equipment. The Finnish firm will also deliver basic engineering for the precious metals refinery. The order value was not disclosed.

In a press release on Monday, Hindalco stated that commissioning of the plant is expected to take place within two years.

“We are excited to have been trusted with yet another important order from Hindalco Industries. The new plant will allow Hindalco Industries to increase their production of precious metals,” Lauri Närhi, director of sales, smelting, at Metso.

“Our precious metals refining technology ensures high recovery, low operating costs and high-quality products, all achieved within a short processing time. The process is highly automated, offering a safe working environment and zero toxic gas emissions.”

The fatal incident occurred at the SimFer port site of the project on Saturday and the company said is collaborating with its partners and relevant authorities to conduct a comprehensive investigation.

Chief executive Jakob Stausholm extended his condolences to the family, friends, colleagues and communities affected by the tragedy. 

This is Rio Tinto’s fifth fatality in 2024. Four employees died in January when a charter flight to the Diavik diamond mine in northern Canada crashed. Before this accident, Rio had five consecutive years without fatalities at its managed operations.

The world’s second largest miner obtained in July all necessary regulatory approvals to resume construction at its vast Simandou iron ore asset, the world’s biggest mining project.

The mine, which Rio is co-developing with a Chinese consortium, is set to be the world’s largest and highest grade new iron ore mine, adding around 5% to global seaborne supply when it comes on line. 

First production from Simandou is scheduled for next year. The mine will contribute an annual supply of nearly 120 million tonnes of high-quality iron ore once it reaches full capacity.

Other updates and enhancements to its suite of products will empower users with cutting-edge tools to streamline workflows, ensure data consistency, and boost overall efficiency, the company said.

“We’re thrilled to expand Micromine’s product ecosystem with Micromine Advance – the first and only dedicated tool designed to model the operational complexity of underground operations,” Micromine CEO Andrew Birch said in a news release.

“Earlier this year, mine design and scheduling software Micromine Beyond introduced a powerful dynamic pit design toolset that provides an interactive user experience,” Birch said. “This allows mine planners to achieve optimal pit designs faster. Its functionality has been further enhanced, minimizing manual interaction and accelerating decision-making.”

Micromine Spry, mine planning for open-pit soft rock, provides a detail-oriented and flexible approach to assist with the intricacies of complex operations. The new Repair Solids Wizard feature does all the detective work, identifying problems such as self-intersections, holes, or invalid geometries and automatically resolving them, the company said.

Widely adopted by some of the world’s most significant operations, Micromine Alastri, mine planning for open-pit hard rock, introduces a new Expression Builder feature that provides a straightforward and guided process for calculating site-specific scheduling data such as drilling meters or explosive quantities.

Another key functionality introduced is that users can now forecast how long broken stocks can sustain production whilst meeting all necessary blend and grade targets.

Operation OEM-agnostic fleet management and mine control solution, Micromine Pitram, has also introduced new features. Real-time Deviation Tracking allows users to configure parameters tailored to specific operational needs. This functionality provides faster detection of variances, enabling immediate corrective actions, the company said.

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission on Nov. 4 is to hear an application filed by those companies and others to potentially set the royalty rate. They have proposed a 1.82% royalty, while landowners are seeking 12.5%, according to BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Greg Jones.

The landowners’ proposal is “a level that would strain project cash flows based on our modelling,” Jones said in a note on Thursday. “We assume a 2.5% royalty in our base case, within the range of royalties applied in other jurisdictions. We anticipate the commission will take a balanced approach to support development of Arkansas’s lithium industry.”

This week, the United States Geological Survey and the Arkansas government said they’d found enough lithium in brine in the Smackover Formation within the state to supply global demand. They estimated the amount in the formation’s porous limestone left from an ancient sea at 5 million tonnes to 19 million tonnes. Scientists used water testing and machine learning to calculate the resource. The formation stretches from Texas to Florida, suggesting there could be even more lithium.

Standard project

The discovery comes as Standard and partner Equinor (NYSE: EQNR), Norway’s state-owned petroleum company, develop their South West Arkansas project in the same geologic structure towards a definitive feasibility study and formal investment decision next year. Equinor paid $30 million in May for 45% of Standard’s lithium projects in southwest Arkansas and East Texas, plus a pledge to invest $130 million more in the projects if they go ahead.

The US Department of Energy said on Sept. 20 it’s considering funding the project with as much as $225 million, one of the largest ever US government grants for critical minerals.

It’s part of the Biden administration’s push to source domestically more of the critical minerals needed for the energy transition. The departments of energy and defence as well as the Export-Import Bank are potentially able to allocate billions of dollars in funding for projects from mining and processing to finished products like vehicles. Even projects in Canada are getting financed. But the industry faces significant challenges as the price of lithium has crashed over the past two years.

Royalty faceoff

The South Arkansas Minerals Association, which represents the landowners, says the companies haven’t provided enough financial information to justify their proposed rate, BMO reports.

An Oct. 11 pre-hearing referenced some of the measures in state law for calculating the rate, such as the brine has to be profitably extracted before a rate can be applied, BMO said. But even the hearing officer noted it was unclear what evidence the commission would require to ensure a fair and equitable rate.

The companies’ proposed 1.82% royalty is based on precedent from a 2007 commission order, BMO said. The ruling determined the additional compensation attributable was 5.65¢ per barrel of brine. That equalled 1.82% of the per-acre value of the bromine extracted.

Other jurisdictions have different rates, according to BMO. California charges per tonne of lithium carbonate-equivalent, from $400 to $800, depending on production totals. Nevada has a 5% tax on net lithium sales.

Western Australia levies a 5% royalty on revenue from sales of spodumene concentrate, which is from hard rock lithium ore, not brine. Argentinian provinces apply a 3% royalty to extracted minerals. Brazil charges a 2% royalty on gross income from lithium sales with deductions allowed for taxes paid on commercial sales.

Direct extraction

The projects in Arkansas, and in some other places where there is underground brine, such as Chile and Alberta, plan to use the emerging technology of direct lithium extraction (DLE). It’s somewhat like pumping crude oil, which would seem to be an opportunity for fossil fuel companies intent on expanding their energy focus. Miners can also benefit from vast petro-coffers. The combination is already tapping some Prairie former oil fields that have brine.

ExxonMobil is evaluating potential production costs after drilling exploratory wells at the 486-sq.-km Mobil Lithium project on the Smackover Formation this year. It plans initial production of the battery metal in 2027. By 2030 it wants to produce enough for 1 million vehicles.

In southern California, Occidental Petroleum and a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) have begun feasibility testing to produce battery-grade lithium from the brine of 10 geothermal power plants.

In Alberta, E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL) is advancing its $2.5 billion capex Clearwater project on one of Canada’s largest resources of the battery metal. It’s tapping former oil wells once pumped by ExxonMobil unit Imperial Oil (TSX: IMO), which is also helping fund the prefeasibility-stage project.

DLE advantages

DLE may cost more than using conventional brine evaporation ponds, but it can produce the battery metal in hours instead of months, can recover around double the metal, and occupies a much smaller footprint.

In Chile, where evaporation ponds dominate, heavyweight producer SQM (NYSE: SQM) has been testing various DLE technologies including a collaboration with French chemical company Adionics.

Their trials have shown recovery rates reaching up to 98% from brine at the Salar de Atacama. SQM aims to integrate DLE into its operations as part of Chile’s new public-private model for lithium production​.

Australian space exploration company Fleet Space Technologies announced on Wednesday plans to deploy its AI-powered mineral exploration technology, ExoSphere Discovery, in partnership with Canadian uranium developer IsoEnergy (TSXV: ISO) at its Larocque East project in the Athabasca Basin.

The Larocque East project is home to the world’s highest grade indicated uranium mineral resource, the Hurricane deposit, with 48.6 million lb. of uranium oxide (U₃O₈) at 34.4% U₃O₈, plus 2.7 million lb. of inferred resource at 2.2% U₃O₈.

After drilling targets identified in 2023 with the real-time 3D imaging, IsoEnergy confirmed an extension of a hydrothermal system on strike with the Hurricane deposit and alteration consistent with potential uranium mineralization.

The company conducted an expanded summer deployment of ExoSphere, which identified six new priority targets and, together with the four areas identified from 2023 work, became the focus of the summer 2024 drilling campaign.

Using the latest advances in AI for mineral exploration, IsoEnergy will build on these findings, pioneering the use of ExoSphere Discovery at the Larocque East project to predict new opportunity zones and optimise data-driven drill targeting at the project.

The Hurricane deposit is only 40 km away from the McLean Lake mill. With a diversified portfolio, IsoEnergy is positioned to be a near-term uranium producer, deploying scalable technologies to further ESG objectives and advance exploration in Canada’s premiere uranium producing region.

The company also holds more advanced projects, including past-producing uranium mines in the United States. Earlier this month, it said it would acquire Anfield Energy (TSXV: AEC) in a C$126.8 million ($91.6m), all-stock deal for its Shootaring Canyon conventional mill in Utah.

Pioneering AI exploration technology

Built on the end-to-end hardware foundation of Fleet Space’s smart satellite-enabled seismic sensors (Geodes) for global multi-physics data acquisition, ExoSphere’s real-time 3D ANT surveys have accelerated and enhanced data-driven targeting decisions across five continents.

For the end-to-end capabilities and sustainability benefits ExoSphere has unlocked for the global exploration industry, the tech company was recognized at the Banksia Foundation’s 35th National Sustainability Awards as winner of the Climate Technology Impact Award for 2024 and winner of the Innovation category of the 2024 Mining Technology Excellence Awards.

Following successful ore sorting trials, St Barbara (ASX: SBM) is looking hard at the Cochrane Hill gold project in Nova Scotia. The company is evaluating an alternative design that would process the ore at the proposed 15-Mile mill.

The deposit has measured resources of 10.7 million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t gold (370,000 contained oz.), indicated resources of 7.7 million tonnes at 1.0 g/t gold (240,000 oz.) and inferred resources of 21 million tonnes at 1.0 g/t gold (690,000 oz.).

Approximately half that tonnage is considered as proven an probable reserves: 15.4 million tonnes at 1.1 g/t gold (1.35 million oz.), in compliance with JORC guidelines.

The ore sorting trial was done on an 840-kg using X-ray transmission technology. The results recovered 89.7% of the gold from the bulk sample into a mass only 54.3% of the original sample, and the head grade was boosted 1.65 times in the concentrate.

With the ore sorting done, the idea of trucking it about 70 km by road to the site of the proposed 15-Mile mill makes economic sense, said the company.

Other de-risking considerations for the Cochrane Hill project include better recoveries using the 15-Mile mill and no need to establish a tailings management facility at the mine. The pit design could be optimized to eliminate the need to relocate a public road.

With no mill on site, water use would be considerably reduced, and the long-term waste rock storage could be altered to further reduce the project footprint and improve the landform design post-reclamation.

St Barbara’s Atlantic Gold division includes the now-closed Touquoy mine, development of the 15-Mile underground mine mill, the Beaver Dam open pit project and the Cochrane Hill open pit deposit. The mill from the Touquoy carbon-in-leach (CIL) mill can be relocated to the 15-Mile mine and its processing capacity increased to 2.1 million t/y.

Meanwhile, St Barbara is working on a feasibility study for a pumped hydro energy storage facility at the Touquoy mine. Capacity has been upgraded to 80 MW of power available to the grid for seven hours. Collaboration continues with Natural Forces Solar.

The partners also plan to evaluate the potential for similar pumped hydro energy storage at the 15-Mile and Cochrane Hill projects.

Australia’s Lucapa achieved third-quarter revenue of $16.9 million, an 86% year-on-year increase, driven mainly by the sale of high-quality diamonds, averaging $3,033 per carat. 

This growth was also attributed to the company’s access to higher-grade mining blocks, a result of strategic river diversions aimed at mitigating the impact of flooding at the Lulo operation in Angola.

Nick Selby, Lucapa’s managing director, expressed optimism about the future, especially with the access gained to the higher-grade Lazaria gravel, historically known for producing large, high-value diamonds. 

“We are aiming for a strong finish to the year,” Selby said, noting that the company sold a 176-carat diamond for $3 million, further boosting results.

Africa-focused Petra Diamonds also reported promising figures, with production rising by 7% to 679,625 carats for the quarter ended September 30. The increase was driven by higher grades at the company’s flagship Cullinan mine in South Africa and its Williamson mine in Tanzania.

Petra’s chief executive officer, Richard Duffy, attributed this growth to “solid performances” from these mines, despite weaker market conditions.

To counteract the softness in the rough diamond market, Petra deferred in August the sale of a significant portion of its South African diamonds. Its combined first and second tenders, however, indicated a 13% increase in overall average prices, thanks to an improved product mix, which included a standout 18.85-carat blue diamond from Cullinan that fetched $8.5 million.

Despite ongoing challenges in the global diamond market, both Lucapa and Petra’s results reflect resilience and strategic adjustments, injecting cautious optimism into a sector eager for recovery. 

As both companies continue to leverage high-value diamonds and strategic planning, industry observers remain hopeful for sustained market improvements heading into the end of the year holidays, which tend to help boost diamond sales.

The backing of the MSP, a coalition of 14 countries and the European Union committed to boosting investments in responsible critical mineral supply chains, highlights Serra Verde’s strategic importance in providing essential minerals for sustainable energy technologies, the company said.

“The announcement is a strong endorsement of the significant role that Serra Verde can play in establishing sustainable, secure, and diversified rare earth supply chains to enable the global energy transition,” chief executive officer Thras Moraitis said in a statement.

“Federal, state, and international coordination on critical minerals is essential to ensure these projects reach the necessary scale to compete and drive our industry forward.”

Serra Verde’s recognition, which also came with a $150 million investment from the Energy and Minerals Group, Vision Blue Resources and founding investor Denham Capital, makes it further stand out as one of only two producing rare earths mines in the Americas after MP Materials‘ (NYSE: MP) Mountain Pass project in California. 

As the only large-scale producer outside of Asia of neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium — four critical rare earth elements needed for efficient permanent magnets — Serra Verde is expected to play a key role in the diversification of global supply chains. The investment will be used for operational improvements as well as long-term growth initiatives.

“The United States, a member of the MSP, welcomes the new investment in Serra Verde’s rare earth elements project in Brazil,” government spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a separate statement.

“This milestone investment supports the sustainable development of critical mineral supply chains most relevant to clean energy technologies, such as for rare earth elements, which are core components of the permanent magnets needed for wind turbines, electric vehicle motors, air conditioners, and other vital applications,” Miller noted.

In production since early 2024, Pela Ema mine Phase I is expected to yield at least 5,000 tonnes per year of rare earth oxides over a 25-year mine life, with off-take agreements already in place for a large proportion of planned production. 

The company has detected significant potential to increase capacity through plant optimization and is mulling a Phase II expansion that could double production before the end of this decade.

Unlike rare earth elements present in hard rock, those in ionic clays can be extracted with low-cost mining techniques and processed using technologies that don’t require hazardous chemicals, crushing, milling or acid leaching. This means the environmental impacts of mining ionic clays are lower than at other rare earth operations.

Long haul

The MSP, chaired by South Korea, works with both governments and industry to develop sustainable, diversified energy mineral supply chains. By providing financial and diplomatic support, the group helps accelerate the growth of critical mineral projects worldwide. 

Brazil holds the world’s third-largest rare earth reserves and has big ambitions to build an industry as Western economies attempt to break China’s dominance of the supply chain.

Last year, the Asian powerhouse produced 240,000 tonnes of rare earths, over five times more than the next largest producer, the United States, data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows. The country also processed nearly 90% of the global supply into permanent magnets, which are critical components in products ranging from wind turbines and electric vehicles to missiles.

Nations such as Australia, Vietnam and Brazil are struggling to close the gap. Serra Verde’s project, for instance, took around 15 years to reach the production stage.

Cornish Lithium has opened the UK’s first low-emission lithium hydroxide demonstration plant as part of its Trelavour hard rock project in Cornwall, England.

The project aims to produce 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year by 2027.

When combined with its geothermal lithium projects, the company plans to produce a total of 25,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) by 2030.

This would enable Cornish to supply around 25% of the lithium needed in the UK. Currently, Britain imports 100% of its lithium.

“Our demonstration processing plant allows us to test and confirm the viability of extracting lithium from hard rock in Cornwall before scaling up to full-size production,” Cornish Lithium said in a statement.

The facility processes lithium-enriched granite, mined from a repurposed China clay pit, to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide using low-carbon processing technology — all on a single site.

Cornish estimates that the facility will contribute at least £800 million ($1 billion) in gross value added to the local economy and create over 300 jobs for the community.

This truck represents the culmination of years of hard work and the joining together of the autonomy and zero emission arms of the Liebherr-Fortescue partnership. The autonomous battery-electric T 264 has a 3.2 MWh battery (developed by Fortescue Zero).

A static charging solution has been developed alongside the autonomous battery-electric truck. The static charger will be available in both manual and robotic versions and includes an automated quick charger of up to 6 MW with a megawatt charging system connector that can charge battery-electric T 264 trucks in 12 to 58 minutes.

The truck on display at MINExpo was equipped with the Autonomy Haulage Solution (AHS) that was jointly developed by the two companies. Within the AHS is an energy management system that co-ordinates the static recharge assignments for the trucks and ensures the charger is fully used without causing queuing on site.

The T 264 battery-electric truck will commence onsite validation at the end of 2025.

The tires on the T 264 at the exhibition are Michelin 50/80R57 XDR 4 Speed Energy – the first energy efficient tire for the mining industry.

The separation flowsheet, developed in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Research Council, is based on solvent extraction of key elements such as neodymium (NdPr), dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb).

According to the company, its patented circular mineral harvesting technology, designed to extract heavy rare earths from ionic clays, boasts several environmentally friendly features. These include a low carbon footprint and over 95% water recirculation. The process avoids blasting, crushing, and milling, and generates no solid or liquid waste, eliminating the need for a tailings dam.

With this technology, Aclara aims to produce high-purity mixed rare earth concentrate (MREC) from its Penco module in Chile and the Carina project in Brazil.

“The initial results are highly encouraging and position Aclara to become the first vertically integrated heavy rare earths company outside of Asia,” the company said in a press release.

The initial capital expenditure is estimated at $354 million, including $244 million for the solvent extraction plant and $110 million for waste reduction and achieving zero liquid discharge.

Targeting ‘Zillennials’, the microgeneration born between 1993 and 1998, this mined diamond push leans into the themes of modern love and the evolving dynamics of relationships. 

These young adults are believed to be behind the rise of affordable lab-grown diamonds (LGDs), particularly in the North American market.

While companies dealing in man-made stones, like Pandora, are thriving — Pandora even boosted its annual forecast after first-quarter sales of LGDs soared 87% — the world of mined diamonds has seen a sharp decline. Prices have dropped nearly 20% in the past year after a 2022 spike.

Anglo American’s De Beers, the largest diamond producer by value, has consistently cut output over the past two years due to sluggish demand.

Sanctions-ridden Russian miner Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume, stopped publishing sales data in early 2022 and cut its output by 2.8% to 34.6 million carats last year.

The campaign comes as De beers seeks to reposition itself in the market as a top jewellery group. It is also the first major play from the recently announced partnership between Signet and De Beers.

It comes after months of intensive training for Signet’s 20,000 sales associates to equip them with the knowledge to talk about what makes mined diamonds special.

The different elements of the strategy are set to air across all the usual suspects: social media, online platforms, and at Signet’s Jared, KAY, and Zales stores. It’s centred on real-life couples, shining a light on the personal growth and relationship-building that often take precedence before tying the knot. The story of diamonds, journeying from deep within the earth to that final polish, parallels the twists and turns of a modern love story.

Signet’s data-driven insights predict a wave of engagements on the horizon, making this campaign perfectly timed. It taps into the milestones that today’s couples experience — moving in together, merging finances, breaking up, getting back together — and reflects those in their new collections, like KAY’s “Milestones Natural Diamond Collection”, which highlights love’s strengthening moments through rings, pendants, and earrings.

Jared is also getting in on the action with their signature bridal brand, Chosen, offering a curated selection of diamonds, custom centre stones, and personalized settings. Later this month, Jared will unveil “UNSPOKEN”, a collection of diamond jewellery set in high-polish yellow and white gold.

“Like the journey of a diamond formed deep in the earth, true love is forged by fire. A natural diamond, like true love, is always worth the wait,” De Beers Brands’ chief executive officer, Sandrine Conseiller, said.

De Beers is targeting annual core profits of $1.5 billion by 2028. Last year, the business made just $72 million, though traditionally its profits have ranged between $500 million and $1.5 billion as the diamond industry swings from boom to bust.

The diamond miner seems ready to fly alone as it did for 124 of its 136 years of existence. Anglo American is in the process of selling its 85% stake in the diamond miner.

With the clean energy transition well underway and demand for critical minerals skyrocketing, mining companies are facing an astounding $1 trillion funding gap as tough financing and economic conditions make it more difficult to deliver the metals needed. 

EY published a recent report on the top risks and opportunities for the mining industry – topping the list: access to capital. Last year access to capital came in number 2 in EY’s report, after environmental social and governance (ESG).  

“Raising capital for new mines and raising capital to expand existing mines in a brownfield environment, or even access to capital to streamline portfolios, has become front and center for mining executives,” Theo Yameogo, EY’s Mining and metals Leader for the Americas and Canada, said in an interview.  

Yameogo pointed out that to help address this gap, pension funds need to become bigger players in the mining sector, because there will be no energy transition without metals and minerals.  

Watch the full interview with MINING.com’s Devan Murugan:  

Amnesty International points out that human rights risks in supply chains include potentially leaving communities exposed to exploitation, health risks and environmental harm caused by the rapid expansion of mines required for the metals used in batteries.

In the new report, Recharge for Rights: Ranking the Human Rights Due Diligence Reporting of Leading Electric Vehicle Makers, Amnesty International uses criteria based on international standards to comprehensively assess human rights due diligence policies and self-reported practices of 13 major EV manufacturers, issuing each one with a scorecard.

The companies were assessed against criteria based on internationally recognized frameworks, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct.

Mixed scores across the board

Amnesty’s scorecard, which is marked out of 90, assesses companies’ performance on criteria including commitment to human rights policies, risk identification process, supply chain mapping and reporting, and remediation.

The scorecard breaks down whether these car brands are meeting their human rights responsibilities and highlights which of them are failing to show that they are addressing human rights concerns.

Companies assessed are headquartered in China (BYD, Geely Auto), France (Renault), Germany (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, VW Group), Japan (Mitsubishi, Nissan), Netherlands (Stellantis), South Korea (Hyundai) and the United States (Ford, General Motors, Tesla).

None of the companies scored higher than 51 on Amnesty International’s human rights due diligence assessment, it said.

Mercedes-Benz ranked the highest (51) Tesla came in second (49) and Stellantis third (42) . BYD scored the lowest, (11), followed by Mitsubishi (13) and Hyundai (21).

Lacking transparency

In terms of supply chain mapping disclosures, BYD, Geely Auto, Hyundai, General Motors and Mitsubishi Motors scored the lowest, failing to provide detailed information about their supply chains, Amnesty International said.

The report revealed BYD does not disclose smelter, refiner, or mine site names. Geely Auto provided only general supplier locations without specifying mineral extraction sites.

Hyundai and Mitsubishi Motors demonstrated a similar lack of transparency, Amnesty International said, with no evidence of comprehensive supply chain mapping or mine site identification for cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel, making it difficult for stakeholders to verify how these operations affect nearby communities.

As global demand for battery minerals soars, the report calls for car makers to identify and mitigate human rights risks and as well as risks of abuse of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in countries where minerals are extracted such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Philippines.

“The huge rise in demand for the metals needed to make electric vehicle batteries is putting immense pressures on mining-affected communities,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said in a media statement.

“The human rights abuses tied to the extraction of energy transition minerals are alarming and pervasive and the industry’s response is sorely lacking. Communities are suffering from forced evictions, health issues caused by pollution and difficulties accessing water,” Callamard said.

“As demand for electric vehicles increases, manufacturers must ensure people’s human rights are respected.”

Read the full report here.

This accomplishment follows last year’s successful bench-scale test program. FPX’s work has been supported in part by a grant from Natural Resources Canada under the federal government’s Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration program.

“The results of our hydrometallurgy refinery pilot plant test work confirm the technical advantages of awaruite nickel mineralization to produce battery-grade nickel sulphate, further demonstrating the opportunity to develop a more streamlined nickel supply chain entirely in Canada,” commented Andrew Osterloh, SVP projects and operations.

“Baptiste would represent an almost 50% increase to Canada’s current annual nickel production, all without adding to or displacing any of Canada’s nickel smelting or complex refinery capacity, thereby pioneering a uniquely low-cost, low-carbon link between mining and EV battery production,“ he said.

The pilot-scale tests used awaruite concentrate (60% nickel) as feed. The feed would be supplied by the Baptiste nickel-iron concentrator in central British Columbia. The concentrate would undergo an atmospheric leach followed by precipitation of cobalt, nickel sulphate, and nickel scavenging in the presence of ammonium sulphate. A copper concentrate would also be produced from the leach circuit.

The pilot plant had overall leach extractions of 99.3% for nickel and 97.9% for cobalt.

Using an assumed nickel price of $8.75 per pound, FPX produced a preliminary feasibility study last year for the Baptiste project that gave it an after-tax net present value (8% discount) of $2.01 billion and an internal rate of return of 18.6%.

The mine will have a life of 29 years with average annual nickel production of 132 million lb. The initial capex will be $2.18 billion followed by $763 million for expansion and sustaining costs of $1.18 billion.

The 1-oz Lady of Liberty gold bars will be made exclusively made with Newmont-mined gold, then refined and minted by MKS PAMP in Switzerland. The final product leverages the Provenance solution pioneered by MKS PAMP, which traces metals along the supply chain and guarantees responsible sourcing.

The gold bars will also be sealed within a secured CertiPAMP packaging as a certificate of authenticity and quality excellence. CertiPAMP represents the first packaging for the protection of small bars, and the first available to industry clients for custom design.

This traceable, one-of-a-kind gold bar is the culmination of a decade-long partnership between Newmont and MKS PAMP, who worked collaboratively on the project.

The launch underpins the companies’ common values and unwavering sustainability commitments. Newmont is the only gold producer listed in the S&P 500 Index, and is widely recognized for its principled environmental, social and governance practices.

“The opportunity for Newmont gold to be accessible, direct to consumers, is a testament to our commitment to promoting gold as a prized commodity worth pursuing and owning,” Newmont chief development officer Peter Toth said in the statement. “Our commitment to sustainable mining practices and sourcing transparency makes purchasing gold attainable for consumers – even while shopping for household goods.”

“Our joint collaboration on this project is a crucial steppingstone towards a more unified gold industry where we collectively work together to further strengthen consumer trust and uphold the integrity that drives the demand for responsibly sourced gold,” added Chris Carkner, global head of minting at MKS PAMP.

Indian steel producers are collectively the world’s second largest, and therefore will likely have a critical role in achieving the country’s target of net zero by 2070. With the increasing commissioning of blast furnaces in India with decades of life ahead of them, supporting longer-term decarbonization routes is essential.

Under a joint study agreement agreement, JSW and BHP will assess the feasibility of Carbon Clean’s CycloneCC modular technology to capture up to 100,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions – the largest scale CycloneCC deployment to date in steelmaking.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies like CycloneCC are anticipated to be a critical abatement to support a near zero CO2 emissions intensity for this process route, as well as potentially for other hard-to-abate industrial sectors.

However, there are several challenges with the adoption of carbon capture technology in the steel industry, including capital expenditure and ongoing operating costs, as well as the integration of new equipment into an existing site.

The CycloneCC rotating packed bed (RPB) technology, in combination with Carbon Clean’s proprietary APBS-CDRMax solvent, aims to address these challenges through reducing total installed cost and the unit footprint by up to 50%, and equipment that is ten times smaller in size than conventional carbon capture technologies.

This project, says BHP, is an important step towards supporting the scale-up of carbon capture, including understanding the potential performance, costs and carbon abatement outcomes. It is anticipated that the joint studies will be completed during 2026, at which time the parties will consider installing CycloneCC at JSW’s Vijayanagar site in Karnataka, India.

Utilization – the ‘U’ in CCUS – is a key component of the project. If the project is successful, JSW Steel intends to liquefy captured CO2 so that it can be sold locally, it adds.

“We are actively studying multiple pathways for steel decarbonization, including through use of hydrogen and renewable power, but we recognize that the blast furnace route will likely remain a pathway for the production of steel, particularly within India,” BHP’s chief commercial officer Rag Udd said in a statement.

“We believe CCUS could be a financially viable decarbonization lever which would be crucial to achieve near zero emissions in the steel sector and this collaboration for a scale-up application would help pave the way forward,” said Jayant Acharya, joint managing director and CEO of JSW Steel.

Acharya also noted that JSW, as India’s leading private sector steel company, has already achieved a reduction of carbon emissions intensity by 30% against its 2005 baseline, and is aiming to further reduce its steelmaking intensity to 1.95 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel by 2030 and achieving net neutral carbon emissions by 2050.

The first-of-its-kind facility produces a sustainable alternative to rare earth permanent magnets that are critical inputs to a wide variety of technologies and industries including electric vehicles, wind energy and consumer electronics, the company said.

Approximately 90% of all powerful permanent magnets are produced in China, and the concentrated supply chain creates significant national security risks and environmental challenges.

Rare earth magnets currently on the market contain neodymium and other rare earth elements, while Niron’s “Clean Earth Magnet” technology is the first and only powerful permanent magnet that does not require any rare earth elements, Niron said, adding it is manufactured from iron and nitrogen — two abundant materials that can be sustainably sourced in the US and do not require new mining projects.

Last year, Niron raised $33 million in additional funding from lGM Ventures and Stellantis Ventures, as well as previous local investors Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the University of Minnesota. The company is also partnered with the Department of Defense and the US Naval Research Laboratory.

The opening of the 70,000-square-foot Minneapolis facility is a key milestone on Niron’s path to scaled production and the ability to bridge the acute supply and demand gap for permanent magnets that is projected before the end of the decade.

“Niron is advancing the magnet industry with an inherently sustainable technology developed right here in the US,” Niron Magnetics CEO Jonathan Rowntree said in a news release.

“With the official opening of our commercial pilot plant, we’ve taken a significant step towards establishing a reliable, domestic supply of high-performance magnets critical for US national security, while launching the next generation of clean energy technologies and sustainable manufacturing.”

The commercial pilot facility has production capacity of greater than 5 tons of Clean Earth Magnets per year and defined manufacturing processes for Niron’s full-scale manufacturing facility.

In a separate announcement this week, Niron named the city of Sartell, Minnesota, as the site for its second manufacturing facility, which it said is expected to break ground early next year and go into production in 2026.

The company says its proprietary DLE technology minimizes water usage and environmental impact, and in February, it announced the successful completion of 1,500 hours of lithium extraction tests from brine using their pilot plant in Chile installed on the premises of SQM, the world’s No. 2 lithium producer.

At the new plant, selected brines will be analyzed and tested to get the required information to maximize industrialization efficiency. This marks the third demo plant built by the French firm worldwide.

In September, Adionics announced a breakthrough in lithium recycling from battery black mass. Their new technology can extract high-purity lithium from recycled batteries, achieving up to 98% recovery rates, the company said.

As lithium prices have seen significant volatility, Adionics says its efficient extraction and recycling methods could help stabilize supply and potentially impact the entire EV supply chain

“We will now be able to accelerate our development and gather information to launch basic engineering work for our plants,” Adionics CEO Gabriel Toffani said in a news release. “This project allows us to contribute to local employment and to the local economy.”

The company has successfully developed and validated its next-generation lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) cathode active material, which it says could increase electric vehicle (EV) range by up to 20%. In addition, it has overcome the drop in specific capacity compared that typically occurs as the percentage of manganese in increased.

The result, according to Integrals Power, is cathode active materials that support higher voltages and high energy density.

By overcoming this trade-off, these cathode active materials combine the best attributes of the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries — relatively low cost, long cycle life and good low temperature performance — with energy density comparable to more expensive nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) chemistries.

The company said this means EV range could increase by up to 20%, or — for a given range — allow battery packs to become smaller and lighter.

The LMFP materials feature 80% manganese, instead of the 50-70% typically found in competing materials, and have higher specific capacity: 150mAh/g, while delivering a voltage of 4.1V (Vs 3.45V for LFP).

Third-party testing by experts at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) have been completed on coin cells and now evaluated using EV-representative pouch cells, the company said, adding that the developed materials will soon be available for cell suppliers, battery manufacturers and OEMs to evaluate and benchmark.

“The challenge that the automotive industry has been trying to overcome for some time is to push up the percentage of manganese in LMFP cells to a high level while retaining the same specific capacity as LFP,” Integrals Power CEO Behnam Hormozi said in a news release. “Using traditional methods the more manganese you add, the more specific capacity drops, and this has meant it can’t deliver a high energy density. 

“With the third-party evaluation from the Energy team at GEIC, we’re proud to have developed a world-class cell material in the UK that can rival the performance of NCM but is more sustainable and more affordable, and will accelerate the transition to e-mobility.”

Integrals Power produced the LMFP cathode active materials at its new UK facility, alongside its proprietary LFP chemistry.

The capability to manufacture materials such as these in the UK is critical to the development of a sustainable domestic battery industry and supporting not just the 2030 ban on sales of new combustion engine vehicles, but also 2050’s net zero emissions targets, the company noted.

The round was led by Clean Energy Ventures, with participation from strategic venture groups TechEnergy Ventures and GS Futures as well as Lowercarbon Capital and MassCEC. The company also secured an additional $2 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank.

Lithios will leverage the funding to scale its R&D, manufacturing and operations, and to accelerate the development of commercial projects to produce thousands of tonnes of lithium carbonate annually, it said.

Lithium, a key component of batteries for electric vehicles, is expected to undergo a worldwide shortage as early as 2025. To meet EV and energy market demand, approximately 7 million tonnes of lithium carbonate will be required by 2040, eight times more than the current supply.

Suppliers are seeking solutions to overcome bottlenecks including infrastructure constraints in remote locations and lack of affordable processing technologies for high-contaminant sources.

Lithios said it is developing the first scalable electrochemical lithium capture solution, advanced lithium extraction (ALE), to efficiently extract lithium from untapped brine deposits where existing solutions cannot operate.

The company says its ALE technology allows miners, operators and the battery supply chain to unlock sources of lithium previously considered uneconomical and inaccessible due to difficult contaminant profiles and resource constraints.

“After assessing dozens of new lithium extraction technologies, we believe Lithios’ ALE approach addresses serious pain points for customers across the entire lithium value chain and brings a much-needed step-change improvement to recover lithium from contaminated and forsaken sources,” Clean Energy Ventures managing partner Daniel Goldman said in Tuesday’s news release.

Currently, there are three prevalent energy- and resource-intensive approaches to lithium extraction: hard rock mining and the evaporation of brines in surface ponds — both of which are limited to high-grade lithium deposits — and the nascent direct lithium extraction (DLE) from brines.

Lithios says its ALE platform is designed to be capital efficient with low resource intensity and consumes ten times less energy compared to DLE approaches when used to process low-grade sources of lithium.

Developed by MIT scientists and engineers, the ALE technology unlocks more than 85% of known but currently inaccessible lithium brine sources, making the lithium recovery process for low-grade brines up to twice as cost-effective as emerging DLE methods.

Through ALE, tough-to-process low-grade sources of lithium become just as valuable as scarce high-grade ones, opening up a pathway for lithium resource owners to increase supply to battery manufacturers, it adds.

The New Jersey-based university had initially implemented the restrictions in 2022, as part of a broader effort by educational institutions across the US to dissociate from oil, gas, and coal. The policy included divesting from 90 companies with assets in those sectors in its endowment. 

According to Princeton, some faculty members have argued the directive limited their ability to secure funding for research on pressing environmental issues.

In an update published last week, three senior university officials stated the rules had “adversely and inequitably affected scholars whose research programs are addressing pressing environmental problems.” They pointed out that researchers lost access not only to external funding, but also collaborative partnerships focused on combating climate change, despite these efforts aligning with the university’s values.

Under the revised policy, Princeton’s endowment will continue to divest from fossil fuel companies, but faculty members will now be allowed to accept research funding from these companies for projects specifically aimed at mitigating the environmental impact of carbon emissions.

The measure aims to continue protecting academic freedom to publish results, Provost Jennifer Rexford, Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett ’97, and Dean for Research Peter Schiffer, said in their statement.

Students reacted negatively to the news. An editorial published in the university newspaper, The Daily Princentonian, qualified the decision as “a betrayal” of the University’s mission and academic integrity, as well as “a disservice” to its students and the global community.

“How can an institution that prides itself on shaping the future be so willing to sell it off to the very companies that are burning that future to the ground?,” the article reads. “Research funded by fossil fuel interests is more likely to support the industry and often serves to entrench fossil fuel reliance rather than advance solutions that run counter to their financial interests.”

Since the initial implementation of the policy to January this year, Princeton had cut funding ties with 29 companies and identified a list of 2,371 fossil fuel groups for potential dissociation. While Princeton had no direct links with most of these business, the number marked a significant increase from the original list of 90.

The university will no longer update such list, which had included mining giants such as BHP, as well as oil and energy titans ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. Princeton noted it will continue to disclose all external research funders and the amounts contributed each year.

According to its latest report, research sponsorships in 2023 included nearly $3.4 million from BP, $848,000 from ExxonMobil, $120,000 from Shell and slightly over $100,000 from Syncrude.

A congressional investigation by Democrats, published in April, identified several instances of oil companies collaborating with universities to advance their business strategies.

At the end of the third quarter of 2024, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, up just under $76 billion from end-June, largely on the back of gold and royalty stocks.

The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies is up a fairly modest 8% year to end-September and despite the good run is still $240 billion below the peak hit in the second quarter of 2022.  

Ranks, value of gold stocks swell

The value of precious metals and royalty companies climbed by a combined $42 billion or 16% during the quarter and gold counters dominate the best performing ranks. 

Were it not for the limited tradability of stock in Russia’s Polyus, which lost some ground over the three months despite gold’s stellar performance, bullion’s effect on the Top 50 would have been even more pronounced. 

Canada’s Alamos Gold joins the top 50 for the first time with a  more than 31% jump in value lifting it six places to number 48 with a valuation of $8.2 billion at the end of the quarter while the second quarter’s newcomer Pan American Silver (following its absorption of Yamana Gold) hangs on at no 50.

Alamos Gold last month raised its production guidance by over 20% for 2025-2026 with the inclusion of the Magino mine and its integration with its Island Gold operation in Ontario. The Toronto based miner has long term ambitions to grow its production base to 900,000 ounces per year.

Uzbekistan is readying an IPO for Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combinat – the world’s fourth largest gold mining company and significant uranium producer in 2025. NMMC debuted a $1 billion bond offering last week, marking the first global debt market issuance from a gold mining company since June 2023.

Navoi should easily join the ranks of gold producers in the top 50 thanks to ownership of the world’s largest gold mine, Muruntau, and annual production of 2.9 million ounces at grades and per ounce extraction costs the envy of the sector.  

The Muruntau open pit mine southwest of the Kyzylkum desert, originally developed during the Soviet era as a source of uranium, has estimated reserves of around 130 million ounces of gold. 

Goldilocks copper

Copper specialists, and those with fat gold credits, have gained a combined 36% year to date as the copper price continues to flirt with the $10,000 a tonne level but momentum slowed dramatically during Q3 with the group contributing only $7.2 billion in added market worth during the quarter. 

Amman Mineral’s fierce rally also came to an abrupt halt during the quarter with the counter losing 18% over the three months and coming close to falling out of the top 10.

Investors who bought Amman, owner of the world’s third largest mine worldwide in terms of copper equivalent, at the IPO price in Jakarta a year ago, are still enjoying 400% gains since then however. 

Southern Copper’s position as the world’s third most valuable mining stock seems entrenched after a double digit percentage gain in Q3 compared to a much more sedate performance by Freeport-McMoRan which now has to gain a full $20 billion in market cap to haul in its Mexico City-based rival.

Light on lithium 

Rio Tinto’s vote of confidence in the long term future of the lithium sector (and its own ability to make M&A work) dominated the news at the start of the December-quarter but it’s worth noting that Arcadium’s more than 90% surge since the all-cash offer was first announced are not enough for the stock to enter the rankings.

Three lithium counters exited the rankings this year, Australia’s  Pilbara Minerals and Mineral Resources and China’s Tianqi Lithium as the deep slump in prices for the battery metal continues to take its toll.  

Last quarter’s no 50, Ganfeng Lithium jumps six places after being swept up in the stimulus-induced rally on Chinese stock markets at the end of the quarter while Tianqi’s performance so far in October should see it reenter the Top 50 in due course. 

Ganfeng was barely holding on at position 50 at end-June and with gold price momentum continuing and two gold mining companies waiting in the winds – Yintai and Alamos – only three lithium counters in the top 50 may be a reality for some time to come. 

After peaking in the second quarter of 2022 with a combined value of nearly $120 billion, the remaining lithium stocks’ market value has now shrunk to $34 billion.  

Iron ore ground down

Despite a modest improvement during the quarter, the mining industry’s traditional big 5 – BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Vale and Anglo American – remain in the red for 2024, losing $24 billion since the start of the year. 

The big 5 diversifieds now make up 29% of the total index, down from a height of 38% at the end of 2022.  

Iron ore’s less than rosy outlook – the late boost China’s recent stimulus package notwithstanding – saw Fortescue once again feature on the biggest losers list and Cleveland Cliffs exit the ranking with the US iron ore miner’s 37% decline this year exacerbated by its inability to capitalize on the blocking of the Nippon-US Steel tie up. 

Iron ore’s representation in the top 50 have diminished in the last couple of years – Brazil’s CSN Mineração dropped out during Q1 this year while Anglo-controlled and separately-listed Kumba Iron Ore has lost touch with the top tier after a 40% fall year to date.

Click on image for full size table.

NOTES:

Source: MINING.COM, stock exchange data, company reports. Share data from primary-listed exchange at close Oct 4, 2024 close of trading converted to US$ where applicable. Percentage change based on US$ market cap difference, not share price change in local currency.  

As with any ranking, criteria for inclusion are contentious. We decided to exclude unlisted and state-owned enterprises at the outset due to a lack of information. That, of course, excludes giants like Chile’s Codelco, Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining (the gold and uranium giant may list later this year), Eurochem, a major potash firm, and a number of entities in China and developing countries around the world.

Another central criterion was the depth of involvement in the industry before an enterprise can rightfully be called a mining company.

For instance, should smelter companies or commodity traders that own minority stakes in mining assets be included, especially if these investments have no operational component or warrant a seat on the board?

This is a common structure in Asia and excluding these types of companies removed well-known names like Japan’s Marubeni and Mitsui, Korea Zinc and Chile’s Copec. 

Levels of operational or strategic involvement and size of shareholding were other central considerations. Do streaming and royalty companies that receive metals from mining operations without shareholding qualify or are they just specialised financing vehicles? We included Franco Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton Precious Metals on the basis of their deep involvement in the industry.

Vertically integrated concerns like Alcoa and energy companies such as Shenhua Energy or Bayan Resources where power, ports and railways make up a large portion of revenues pose a problem. The revenue mix also tends to change alongside volatile coal prices. Same goes for battery makers like China’s CATL which is increasingly moving upstream, but where mining will continue to represent a small portion of its valuation.  

Another consideration is diversified companies such as Anglo American with separately listed majority-owned subsidiaries. We’ve included Angloplat in the ranking but excluded Kumba Iron Ore in which Anglo has a 70% stake to avoid double counting. Similarly we excluded Hindustan Zinc which is listed separately but majority owned by Vedanta.

Many steelmakers own and often operate iron ore and other metal mines, but in the interest of balance and diversity we excluded the steel industry, and with that many companies that have substantial mining assets including giants like ArcelorMittal, Magnitogorsk, Ternium, Baosteel and many others.

Head office refers to operational headquarters wherever applicable, for example BHP and Rio Tinto are shown as Melbourne, Australia, but Antofagasta is the exception that proves the rule. We consider the company’s HQ to be in London, where it has been listed since the late 1800s.

Please let us know of any errors, omissions, deletions or additions to the ranking or suggest a different methodology.

The South African miner, which took 13 years to develop the project from exploration to production, is bringing 3D subsurface imaging to the Brecha Principal and Agua Amarga resource areas of Salares Norte. The goal is to uncover new exploration targets within the mine’s vicinity by using Fleet Space’s solution.

Fleet Space Technologies’ ExoSphere, which integrates satellite connectivity, 3D multiphysics, and artificial intelligence (AI), is expected to unify the end-to-end exploration journey and deliver more sustainable outcomes at scale on the path to discovery, said co-founder and chief executive Flavia Tata Nardini. 

“We are proud to deploy ExoSphere to further Gold Fields’ data-driven exploration and ESG targets, reinforcing their position on the forefront of innovation and supporting the development of their world-class operation in Chile,” she said.

Located in the Maricunga Belt of the Andes Mountains, between 3,900 and 4,700 meters above sea level, Salares Norte presents challenges due to its remote location, rugged terrain, extreme seasonal conditions and even the presence of a handful of endangered rodents.

First gold was poured in March 2024, marking a significant milestone for Gold Fields. To maintain progress in such challenging conditions, Gold Fields adopted Fleet Space’s ExoSphere solution following its success at their St. Ives operation in Australia. The system’s smart seismic sensors, called Geodes, offer low-impact, rapid 3D subsurface imaging, making ExoSphere a logical choice to support sustainable exploration at Salares Norte.

Gold Fields previously applied ExoSphere technology at its St. Ives gold mine in Australia, where it reached near-zero surface impact from Fleet Space’s smart seismic sensors (called Geodes). By streamlining the data acquisition and processing steps of exploration, ExoSphere offers immediate, actionable insights for onsite teams, dramatically improving the efficiency of operations and reducing the environmental impact of traditional exploration methods.

Fleet Space’s innovations have earned it global recognition, including the 2024 Climate Technology Impact Award at the Banksia Foundation’s National Sustainability Awards.

Salares Norte has incorporated other critical new technologies, including filtered tailings, a method to optimize water use by recirculating over 86% of the resource. This is also a safer technology as it replaces a conventional tailings storage facility. 

The mine will also have a solar plant on site, which is expected to cut its annual carbon footprint by over 10,000 tonnes of CO2, Gold Fields said in March.

Battery metal technology company Pure Lithium announced Tuesday the acquisition of all the assets of Dimien Inc., a private US vanadium cathode materials company.

Pure Lithium acquired Dimien’s intellectual property, manufacturing equipment and an experienced team, which it says will accelerate the development of its lithium metal vanadium (LVO) battery.

The Boston-based company says it has invented a unique lithium metal battery that swaps nickel and cobalt for vanadium – enabling it to make lithium batteries from scratch going from “from brine to battery” in less than 48 hours.

In July, Pure Lithium won the startup Coup de Coeur award at the World Materials Forum for its battery-ready lithium metal electrode, and received the best new project award at Fastmarkets, competing against several more mature companies.

Meanwhile, Dimien developed a class of vanadium-based cathode material known as zeta vanadium oxide (ZVO).

The company says this low-cost cathode material has high energy density and does not cause fires like some nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) and nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) cathodes.

Dr. Brian Schultz, founder and CEO of Dimien, will join Pure Lithium in the role of vice president of business development and technology.

“This asset purchase will expedite the commercialization of our LVO battery. Dr. Schultz and his team have taken ZVO from a university science project to commercially relevant prototypes, which cycle beautifully against our lithium metal,” Pure Lithium CEO Emilie Bodoin said in a news release.

“We have a lithium metal electrode production technology that dramatically reduces costs, and together with our LVO battery technology, we will bring to market a next-generation battery that is superior to lithium-ion in performance and safety,” Bodoin added.

“Eliminating graphite, nickel and cobalt is disruptive for the industry and will ensure US supply chain security ending dependence on China.”

The partnership falls under Vale’s ambitious “Mega Hubs” initiative, which aims to produce hot briquetted iron (HBI) and other steel products with significantly lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than conventional methods.

Vale has been actively seeking partners to help position Brazil among the first countries to develop a green hydrogen industry. The government sees green hydrogen, a clean energy source that only emits water vapour and leaves no residue in the air, as a “real possibility” to expand the country’s role in renewable energy sectors.

For Vale, this partnership aligns with its broader decarbonization goals. The company is focusing on low-carbon innovations for the steel industry, with a target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Vale and GEP said their first goal is to jointly assess the feasibility of establishing a green hydrogen plant in Brazil. The facility would eventually supply one of the mega hubs that Vale plans to develop in the home country.

“This is a win-win partnership for Brazil and Europe”, Ludmila Nascimento, Vale’s director of energy and decarbonization, said in the statement. 

“We are leveraging Brazil’s competitive advantages, such as high-quality iron ore and abundant renewable energy, to potentially develop green hydrogen supply, which will enable the offer of a “green” iron with high added value to European steelmakers”.

Bart Biebuyck, chief executive officer of GEP, noted the tie-up was a major milestone on the company’s journey. “We are proud to work with the largest producer of direct reduction pellets in the world to help decarbonize the steel sector,” he said.

Coal out of the equation

The iron and steel sector is responsible for around 8% of global carbon emissions, largely due to the use of coal in blast furnaces. 

For every tonne of steel produced in blast furnaces about two tonnes of CO2 equivalent are released into the atmosphere. In contrast, the companies said, the HBI produced with green hydrogen as the reducing agent when supplied to Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs), reduces carbon emissions to approximately 0.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per ton of steel produced, accounting for all emissions along the value chain. This process results in an 80% reduction in emissions, enabling “green steel” production.

Vale and GEP, supported by Europe’s Global Gateway program, said they would collaborate on various aspects of the hydrogen value chain, including the deployment of electrolyers, the design of industrial plants for green hydrogen and its derivatives, as well as other industrial decarbonization applications of renewable hydrogen.

GEP had previously collaborated with Brazil’s Eletrobras to explore green energy prospects, while Vale has set up comparable partnerships with H2GS and Hydnum Steel as it considers establishing “mega hubs” in various nations.

The value of the order is approximately 70 million euros, to be booked in Metso minerals segment’s 2024 third-quarter order intake.

”We are honored to have been selected by Barrick as the strategic partner for this project,” Markku Teräsvasara, president of the Metso’s minerals business area and the group’s deputy CEO, said in a press release.

According to Teräsvasara, the copper concentrate production process in Lumwana has been designed with sustainability and production efficiency in mind, with most of the equipment selected from Metso’s Planet Positive offering.

Lumwana is a significant contributor in Barrick’s expanding copper portfolio, catering to the rapidly increasing demand for copper required for the energy transition. The project is also elemental in reviving Zambia’s copper industry and contributing to the local economy.

The expansion, according to Barrick, will turn Lumwana into one of the world’s major copper mines, with projected annual production of 240,000 tonnes of copper per annum.

A feasibility study for the expansion project is expected to be delivered by the end of this year.

Through Perenti’s mining business, Barminco, the companies will work together to optimize loaders and trucks. The partnership will enhance operations and providing insights to refine Sandvik’s technology.

Initially, they will establish a shared vision to tailor Sandvik’s machines to Perenti’s needs. Perenti will contribute to design and offer feedback during testing stages.

Perenti’s CEO Mark Norwell welcomed the agreement, stating that exploring diesel-electric solutions is part of the company’s move toward decarbonization.

“We constantly seek ways to improve the working environment and boost safety, efficiency and sustainability,” he said. “Diesel-electric equipment can help us achieve this. Collaborating with Sandvik allows us to benefit from advanced technology and shape the equipment the industry will use tomorrow.”

President of Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions Mats Eriksson emphasized that collaboration leads to better products and safer more efficient operations.

“Perenti is a leading mining services provider and can offer design suggestions and insights into real-world conditions,” he said. “Together, we can create equipment optimized for Perenti’s operations while developing advanced diesel-electric machines.”

Diesel-electric equipment offers cleaner and more reliable mining without needing full electric infrastructure. These machines use a diesel engine to drive a generator, supplying electricity to motors for movement and operation. They have fewer rotating parts, need less maintenance and lower operating costs while staying reliable.

Karelian said it has collected twenty-one glacial till samples for analysis and is now preparing for a drilling program in the winter. This campaign would depend on the results of the mineral analysis, which aims to further explore the identified kimberlitic targets. 

The company noted that the thickness of the glacial till cover increases up-ice to the north-west towards a swampy area, which is inaccessible to an excavator until the ground is frozen.

Karelian said it had dug as close as possible to the area down-ice that might be the source of the kimberlite minerals and the green diamond. Six possible kimberlite locations, identified earlier using geophysical methods, are in this same zone, it said. 

Many of the pits were positioned directly down-ice from these targets, with one pit placed in a straight line up-ice from where the green diamond was found, following the trail of indicator minerals.

Court win

The Dublin-based company is simultaneously exploring and advancing other assets in Finland. These include the Lahtojoki deposit, which would become the first diamond mine in the European Union if and when developed.

Karelian recently settled in court differences with the land owners close to Lahtojoki. It is now awaiting a decision from the country’s the National Land Survey to finish establishing the project boundaries. 

The company believes the Lahtojoki diamondiferous kimberlite pipe has the potential to become a profitable low strip ratio open pit diamond mine. 

The asset is said to contain high-quality white diamonds, as well as pink and other coloured diamonds, which can command prices up to 20 times that their colourless counterparts.

Located 120 km north of Montreal, Matawinie will be connected to the provincial hydropower network, enabling the access to clean energy to support mining activities and concentrator production of carbon-neutral graphite concentrate destined for the lithium-ion battery market, Nouveau Monde said.

The company added that the infrastructure is set to equip Matawinie as the world’s first all-electric open-pit mine when it starts operating.

“We are excited to move one step closer to building the mine of the future, powered by clean energy to responsibly extract and produce a critical mineral for global decarbonization,” Nouveau Monde CEO Eric Desaulniers said in a news release.

ABB will lead construction of the substation as the primary connection point between the mine site and Hydro-Québec’s hydropower generation facility, enabling full electrification of the Matawinie mine using clean energy.

Nevertheless, says McKinsey, the industry is in healthier financial shape compared to historical averages. 

From 2000 to 2023, metals and mining revenues grew by $1.7 trillion, a jump of roughly 75% and affording the industry a 70% slice of the overall materials business which also includes plastics, pulp, and building materials. As a whole, materials represent some 7% of the global GDP.  

Profits in the industry have also been robust with mining, refining and metal fabrication EBITDA nearly doubling over the almost quarter century going from $500 billion to $900 billion. 

Moreover, Mckinsey points out, mining and metal companies’ debt burden has decreased with net debt over EBITDA ratios of 1.3 times, well below the through-cycle average of 1.8 times. 

“However, 2024 has already proven to be a more challenging year for the industry as overall economic growth slows down and the shift toward low-carbon technologies unfolds more slowly than expected, both of which are putting downward pressure on price levels, especially for battery materials, such as nickel and lithium,” McKinsey says.

Not only are battery and other metals associated with decarbonisation facing headwinds, the sector – even when lumping in bellwether copper – hardly makes up 15% of global metals and mining revenues. Until such time the copper price reaches the levels predicted by more outlandish scenarios, the share is not likely to grow much.  

For instance, the market size of rare earths mining, and metal and alloy production (included in the other section of the graph) which is used in defence applications and many energy transition applications including wind turbines and motors for electric vehicles, is below $20 billion.

Thermal coal and steel account for around 60%–70% of revenues and production volumes of 7 billion tonnes and 2 billion tonnes respectively are more than 30 times higher than all other metals and minerals combined. Output by the largest among the latter, aluminum, at roughly 100 million tonnes, does not make much of a dent in the overall total.

The bulk of mining and metals activity and revenues remains subjected to the ups and downs of the global economy, particularly the outlook for China where the signs are not great.  

While the green energy transition may rightfully represent a new dawn for mining, it’s still very early in the morning.

The effort is focused on selling black mass, made by recycling dead lithium-ion batteries, to Electra’s proposed refinery in northern Ontario. It aims to recover lithium, nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals to produce new lithium-ion batteries with its planned startup, though a timeline wasn’t yet known. The JV plans to build a recycling plant in southwest Ontario.

“Aki Battery Recycling aims to address the environmental impact of future battery waste in Ontario and beyond, by returning battery scrap back into the supply chain,” Electra CEO Trent Mell said in a release on Wednesday. “This venture not only aligns with our mission to onshore North America’s EV battery supply chain, but to do so sustainably and through a scalable solution to meet the growing needs of the North American electric vehicle industry.”

The JV comes almost one month after Electra received a $20 million investment from the United States’ Department of Defense to help it develop its cobalt refinery in Temiskaming Shores, about 500 km north of Toronto. Just last week, it received a bid for an additional $20 million investment from an unnamed party for the refinery, expected to be the first of its kind in North America. 

Electra shares gained 7.3% to C$0.88 apiece on Wednesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$50.3 million ($37m). Its shares traded in a 52-week range of C$0.41 to C$0.98.

Indigenous participation

Electra and Three Fires will work together to source and process the battery waste from manufacturers to produce black mass at a new plant to be built in southern Ontario.

Three Fires, based at the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation on Lake Huron, is to lead the capital raising for the recycling facility as well as determining its location. Electra will provide technical and commercial leadership. The proposed plant’s cost or location weren’t immediately clear.

“Aki Battery Recycling will provide a full-circle solution including a new primary recycling facility located in southern Ontario to shred lithium-ion batteries, process the scrap, and provide a steady supply of black mass,” Reggie George, Three Fires’ executive director of special projects and partnerships, said.

“With the billions of dollars being invested into the southern Ontario battery manufacturing industry, ensuring that valuable materials are recovered and reused in Ontario, rather than discarded, is central to our shareholder First Nations’ interests.”

Battery recycling cycle

Several electric vehicle and battery storage facilities are coming online across southwestern Ontario, such as in Windsor and St. Thomas. The black mass is to be treated further at Electra’s hydrometallurgical refinery in Temiskaming Shores to recover critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The recovery of those minerals can help shrink the carbon footprint of the EV supply chain and reduce reliance on foreign countries for critical minerals, Electra said.

In 2023, Electra processed 40 tonnes of black mass at its Temiskaming Shores complex to test its proprietary recycling process. It’s believed to have been the first plant-scale hydrometallurgical recycling of black mass material in North America, and the first domestic production of nickel-cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate product (MHP). Electra recovered MHP, lithium carbonate, graphite and other products.