Mining

Why Silver, Juniors, and Critical Minerals Are Set for a Major Rerating | John Feneck teaser image

Why Silver, Juniors, and Critical Minerals Are Set for a Major Rerating | John Feneck

(Kitco News) Precious metals are closing out 2025 with strong momentum as silver pushes to new highs, gold holds its breakout, and investors return to a junior mining sector that has been largely ignored for years. Speaking with Kitco Mining’s Digging Deep following the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 10, 2025, rate cut, John Feneck, Founder and CEO of the Feneck Commodities Report, said the tone of the announcement signaled a clear shift in how the central bank is responding to weakening U.S. economic conditions.

How tight supply, AI demand propelled copper price towards $12,000 teaser image

How tight supply, AI demand propelled copper price towards $12,000

Mali returns possession of seized gold to Barrick teaser image

Mali returns possession of seized gold to Barrick

Colombia to offer 14 areas for copper exploration teaser image

Colombia to offer 14 areas for copper exploration

Trump thinks more should be done to lower interest rates, White House says teaser image

Trump thinks more should be done to lower interest rates, White House says

Dec 11, 2025 - 2:55 PM

Albemarle wraps up validation of lithium pilot plant in Chile teaser image

Albemarle wraps up validation of lithium pilot plant in Chile

Dec 11, 2025 - 2:54 PM

Vietnam curbs exports of refined rare earths, reaffirms ban on ore trade

Vietnam’s parliament on Thursday approved a revised law that restricts exports of refined rare earths and reaffirms a ban on ore exports, in a bid to support a domestic industry that has struggled for decades to exploit its substantial reserves.Vietnam has some of the world’s largest deposits of rare earths, according to the US Geological Survey, though the government agency earlier this year significantly lowered its estimate of the country’s reserves to 3.5 million metric tonnes from 22 million tonnes.

Dec 11, 2025 - 2:50 PM

Ghana bans mining in forest reserves to curb environmental damage

Ghana has banned mining in forest reserves as part of sweeping environmental protections aimed at safeguarding water bodies and halting deforestation, the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology said.Africa’s top gold producer is battling a surge in poorly regulated small-scale mining that is destroying cocoa farms, degrading forests and rivers, and heightening sustainability risks for its mining sector, sparking protests.

Dec 11, 2025 - 2:44 PM

Chile raises mining investment forecast through 2034 to $105 billion

Chile’s mining investment is expected to reach $104.549 billion from this year through 2034, state-run agency Cochilco said on Thursday, up 26% from last year’s forecast.Chile is the world’s largest producer of copper and second-largest of lithium, a key ingredient of rechargeable batteries.The increase represents the highest investment forecast since the 2016-2025 period.New investment includes an expansion at BHP’s Escondida, the world’s biggest copper mine, and new concentrators at Collahuasi, a copper mine jointly owned by Anglo American and Glencore.

Dec 11, 2025 - 2:36 PM

Chinese zinc smelter breaks contract with Teck’s Alaska mine amid tariffs teaser image

Chinese zinc smelter breaks contract with Teck’s Alaska mine amid tariffs

Zhuzhou Smelter Group, one of China’s largest zinc smelters, broke a supply contract with Teck Resources’ Red Dog mine in Alaska earlier this year due to hefty tariffs fueled by Beijing and Washington’s trade war, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.Vancouver-based Teck supplies zinc concentrate from Red Dog, one of the world’s largest zinc mines, to global clients including in Asia.The world’s two largest economies imposed triple-digit tariffs on imported goods from each other at the height of a trade war earlier this year.

Dec 11, 2025 - 2:33 PM

Indonesia sets rules to fine miners operating in forest areas teaser image

Indonesia sets rules to fine miners operating in forest areas

Indonesia has set the fines it will impose on miners operating illegally in forest areas, part of government efforts to protect forest areas from illegal clearing, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Wednesday.Nickel miners found to be clearing forest illegally will be fined 6.5 billion rupiah ($389,688) per hectare, bauxite miners will be fined 1.76 billion rupiah per hectare, and tin miners will be fined 1.25 billion rupiah a hectare, the ministry said in a statement.Coal miners will be fined 354 million rupiah per hectare.

Dec 10, 2025 - 9:17 PM

Copper output from Codelco falls 14% in October teaser image

Copper output from Codelco falls 14% in October

Copper production from Chilean state-run miner Codelco fell 14.3% in October, data from copper commission Cochilco showed on Wednesday, falling to 111,000 metric tons.Meanwhile production at BHP’s Escondida mine, the world’s largest copper mine, climbed 11.7% from the same month a year earlier to 120,600 tons.At Collahuasi, another major copper mine jointly run by Glencore and Anglo American, output fell 29.3% to 35,000 tons.(By Fabian Cambero; Editing by Sarah Morland)

Dec 10, 2025 - 9:16 PM

Ford suppliers receive China’s new streamlined rare earth licences teaser image

Ford suppliers receive China’s new streamlined rare earth licences

Chinese rare earth magnet suppliers to US automaker Ford Motor were included in the first batch of new export licenses issued by Beijing to boost shipments and reduce shortages of the vital components, the carmaker said on Wednesday.The so-called general licenses were agreed after Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in South Korea and will reportedly allow larger shipments with fewer hurdles under year-long permits for individual customers.

Dec 10, 2025 - 9:15 PM

Peru weighing agreement with US on critical minerals, minister says teaser image

Peru weighing agreement with US on critical minerals, minister says

Peru is evaluating a “memorandum of understanding” with the United States on critical minerals, foreign minister Hugo de Zela told journalists on Wednesday.He noted that the US has shown a strong interest in critical minerals in Peru, the world’s third-largest copper producer.(By Marco Aquino and Daina Beth Solomon)

Dec 10, 2025 - 9:14 PM

Albemarle wraps up validation of lithium pilot plant in Chile teaser image

Albemarle wraps up validation of lithium pilot plant in Chile

Albemarle said on Wednesday it completed the validation of its direct lithium extraction (DLE) pilot plant in Chile, allowing the company to finalize its design of a future commercial facility and proceed to environmental review.The US company is one of two lithium miners in Chile, which is the world’s second-largest producer of the metal that is key for electric vehicle batteries.By the numbers:Lithium recovery exceeded 94% during stable operation.The pilot plant ran for over 3,000 hours, equivalent to more than 90 consecutive days.

Dec 10, 2025 - 7:39 PM

Geopolitics Hit Copper Assets While Barrick and Newmont Reshape 2026 - Neil Adshead teaser image

Geopolitics Hit Copper Assets While Barrick and Newmont Reshape 2026 - Neil Adshead

(Kitco News) The mining sector is heading into 2026 with two major tensions reshaping the landscape. The first is a copper industry unable to build the large projects needed for future supply, and the second is growing pressure on the world’s biggest gold producers to consider major structural changes.

Dec 10, 2025 - 6:27 PM

REalloys reaches rare earths tie-up with Canada-backed council teaser image

REalloys reaches rare earths tie-up with Canada-backed council

US heavy rare earths magnet startup REalloys said on Monday it would partner with the Saskatchewan Research Council, the Canadian province’s technology innovation unit, on an expansion of a heavy rare earths processing plant due to start operating in early 2027.REalloys will invest about $21 million in the facility to expand production of heavy rare earths, in return for a long-term offtake agreement of 80% of annual production, it said.

Dec 09, 2025 - 12:02 PM

Liontown inks spodumene supply deal with China’s Canmax Technologies teaser image

Liontown inks spodumene supply deal with China’s Canmax Technologies

Australia’s Liontown said on Tuesday it has signed an offtake deal to supply 150,000 wet metric tons of spodumene concentrate in 2027-2028 from its Kathleen Valley project to Chinese lithium chemicals maker Canmax Technologies.Pricing will be based on a formula linked to spodumene concentrate indices, the lithium miner said in a statement.Spodumene concentrate, used to make lithium chemicals for EV batteries, is seeing growing efforts to standardize auctions for clearer benchmarks and stronger market links.

Dec 09, 2025 - 12:01 PM

BHP strikes $2 billion funding deal with GIP for iron ore power network teaser image

BHP strikes $2 billion funding deal with GIP for iron ore power network

BHP Group said on Tuesday that BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Fund (GIP) would invest $2 billion in Western Australia Iron Ore’s (WAIO) inland power network for a minority stake.The two firms will form an entity in which BHP will hold a 51% stake and GIP the remaining 49% stake. BHP will pay the entity a tariff linked to its share of WAIO’s inland power over a 25-year period.“It’s a great deal that will help BHP with its capital recycling,” said analyst Baden Moore of CLSA in Sydney.“I hope to see more of this from BHP as they pursue growth.”

Dec 09, 2025 - 12:00 PM

Costs of EV battery material cobalt hydroxide jump on Congo export restrictions teaser image

Costs of EV battery material cobalt hydroxide jump on Congo export restrictions

Prices of cobalt hydroxide used to make chemicals for electric vehicle batteries have risen sharply this year due to cobalt export restrictions from top producer Democratic Republic of Congo, industry sources said.Congo suspended all cobalt exports in February, but then introduced a quota system in October, aiming to boost state revenues and tighten oversight in a country that produces more than 70% of the metal globally, estimated at more than 280,000 metric tons this year.

Dec 09, 2025 - 11:58 AM