MINEX Forum

Region: Europe

  • Cornwall’s Lithium Revival Offers Hope to England’s Most Deprived Mining Towns — But Jobs Promise Falls Short of the Legend

    Cornwall’s Lithium Revival Offers Hope to England’s Most Deprived Mining Towns — But Jobs Promise Falls Short of the Legend

    In a glass cabinet at the King Edward Mine Museum near Redruth, a bright blue display for Cornish Lithium sits incongruously among Victorian machinery and sepia-toned mining uniforms. It is, in its way, an apt symbol of what is happening beneath England’s most westerly county: the return of mining to a landscape that lost it, and the complicated question of what that return will actually deliver.

    Cornwall sits on one of Europe’s largest lithium deposits, a fact that has sent politicians into something approaching rapture. Boris Johnson called it the “Klondike of lithium” in 2021. Keir Starmer described critical minerals as “the backbone of modern life” last year. UK demand for lithium is projected to rise by 1,100% by 2035, driven by the government’s electric vehicle and battery storage ambitions. China controls roughly a quarter of global production and more than half of global processing capacity, and ministers are scrambling for alternatives. Cornwall, they hope, is part of the answer.

    Three companies are attempting to make that ambition real. Geothermal Engineering Ltd produced Britain’s first commercial battery-grade lithium earlier this year — somewhat accidentally, as the firm’s chief operating officer Tony Wilson acknowledges. GEL’s primary business is geothermal energy: water is pumped five kilometres into naturally heated granite, brought back to near boiling point and driven through a turbine to generate enough electricity for 10,000 homes. The lithium is a byproduct extracted from the brine before the water is returned underground. “Our lithium concentrations are actually going up rather than going down,” Wilson says. GEL believes it can produce enough lithium carbonate to supply around 250,000 electric vehicles a year within a decade, and targets around 10,000 tonnes of annual lithium carbonate by 2030 — approximately a fifth of the government’s projected UK demand.

    Cornish Lithium has been producing battery-grade samples through hard rock mining since late 2025 and targets a commercial plant by 2029. It projects a similar volume of output and 300 direct jobs over the 20-year lifespan of its Trelavour project, plus 800 during construction. The South Crofty tin mine — the UK’s last, closed in 1998 — is also being reopened to meet growing critical minerals demand.

    The jobs question is the one that matters most to communities like Redruth, which ranks among England’s most deprived towns. In its Victorian heyday, mining employed 30% of men aged 15 to 69 in the area. The collapse, when it came, was devastating — cheaper foreign tin and copper flooded the market, and tens of thousands emigrated in the late 19th century, giving rise to the old saying that at the bottom of every hole in the world, you will find a Cornishman. Today the economy runs on seasonal tourism, daffodil picking and foodbanks. Younger people leave. “Mining is well-paid, well-qualified work,” says David Ager, chairman of the King Edward Mine Museum. “This gives young people an opportunity to make a living here.”

    But the promise has already been punctured once. The most ambitious project on paper — a joint venture between British Lithium and French mining giant Imerys, sitting on one of the UK’s largest confirmed deposits near St Austell — was mothballed in February 2026 after Imerys pulled its funding. Global lithium prices had crashed more than 80% from their 2022 peak, driven by oversupply and slower-than-expected electric vehicle adoption. Between 40 and 70 employees were made redundant. The promised 300 jobs will likely not materialise.

    There is a further structural constraint even for the projects that do proceed. Cornwall can produce raw lithium — but that is only the first step. The metal must be refined and processed into cathode active material before it enters a battery cell. China controls around 60% of that processing capacity, meaning Cornish lithium could still be shipped east for processing before returning as battery components. Green Lithium’s planned Teesside refinery, targeted for completion by 2029, is the only domestic answer currently on the horizon.

    The Camborne School of Mines has relaunched its mining engineering degree at the University of Exeter, and early signs of workforce renewal are emerging. Wilson notes that staff are already working at GEL who would not otherwise be in Cornwall. A statue of a tin miner stands in the centre of Redruth, pick in one hand, ingot in the other. Whether a future statue will hold a battery and a bag of metallic powder remains uncertain. But the direction of travel, at least, has changed.

  • Germany and Brazil Forge Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials and Defence as Berlin Seeks to Break Asia’s Rare Earth Grip

    Germany and Brazil Forge Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials and Defence as Berlin Seeks to Break Asia’s Rare Earth Grip

    Germany and Brazil have agreed to significantly deepen their strategic partnership, with rare earth metals, defence contracts and supply chain diversification at the heart of a new bilateral framework unveiled following government consultations in Hanover.

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he hoped to double the volume of trade with Brazil in the coming years, describing the relationship as a critical hedge against global supply chain vulnerability at a moment of fundamental geopolitical change. “The closeness between our two countries is more necessary than ever at a time when the world order is changing so fundamentally,” Merz said at a joint press conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

    Rare earth metals — essential inputs for laptops, mobile phones and the electric motors used in wind turbines — are a central pillar of the agreement, as Germany and the broader European Union seek to reduce a deep dependency on Asian, and particularly Chinese, supply chains. The two governments also agreed to expand cooperation in artificial intelligence, energy, the circular economy, environmental technologies, agriculture and the defence sector.

    Lula was emphatic that the partnership would not replicate historical patterns of resource extraction without industrial benefit for Brazil. “We will not accept models that reduce our country to resource extraction simply to satisfy foreign demand,” he said, framing the agreement as a bidirectional industrial partnership rather than a supplier-client arrangement. The Brazilian president’s remarks reflect a broader posture among resource-rich emerging economies that are increasingly seeking to capture processing and manufacturing value from their natural endowments rather than exporting raw materials alone.

    Both leaders welcomed the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, an interim version of which enters into force on 1 May ahead of full ratification of the main deal — a framework that provides the commercial scaffolding for the expanded bilateral relationship. The German economy ministry and European wind industry developed a roadmap last year for reducing the bloc’s reliance on rare earth metals in wind turbines, and Brazil’s resources position it as a potentially significant contributor to that effort. Canada has also moved to position itself as a rare earth supplier to Europe, intensifying competition for the supply agreements Germany is now actively pursuing across multiple continents.

  • Norway Takes State Control of Fen Rare Earth Project After Resource Nearly Doubles to 15.9 Million Tonnes — Europe’s Largest Deposit

    Norway Takes State Control of Fen Rare Earth Project After Resource Nearly Doubles to 15.9 Million Tonnes — Europe’s Largest Deposit

    Norway’s government has stepped in to assume direct planning authority over the Fen rare earth deposit in Telemark, Europe’s largest known rare earth resource, citing the need to accelerate development and resolve potential land-use conflicts after a resource upgrade last month nearly doubled the project’s estimated size.

    The deposit was upgraded to 15.9 million metric tonnes of rare earth oxide in indicated and inferred resources — 81% larger than a 2024 estimate — a revision that significantly enhances Fen’s strategic importance to Europe’s push to reduce dependence on China, which dominates global rare earth production and processing. Europe currently has no operating rare earth mines.

    Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere framed the government’s intervention in explicit supply security terms. “The Fen field could be of major significance for Telemark, Norway and Europe’s supply security and competitiveness,” he said. “To ensure future access to critical minerals, it is important to increase production both in Norway and in other countries with which we cooperate in terms of security.”

    The government said it had taken over planning at the request of the local authority, pointing to the risk of land-use disputes and the need to balance competing national interests — a challenge familiar across Europe, where onshore infrastructure projects including wind farms have repeatedly faced delays due to opposition from environmental and agricultural groups.

    Approximately 19% of the oxides at Fen are neodymium and praseodymium, the heavy rare earth materials used in permanent magnets for electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and defence systems — placing them among the most strategically sensitive materials in the global energy transition. Developer Rare Earths Norway has said it expects production to begin in late 2031, with output of 800 tonnes of NdPr by 2032, equivalent to approximately 5% of total European Union demand.

  • KGHM Confirmed as World’s Second-Largest Silver Producer With 1,347 Tonnes Output as Polish Miner Expands Rudna Mine

    KGHM Confirmed as World’s Second-Largest Silver Producer With 1,347 Tonnes Output as Polish Miner Expands Rudna Mine

    Polish state-controlled mining giant KGHM has been ranked the world’s second-largest silver producer, generating 1,347 tonnes of the metal in 2025 — placing it behind only Mexico’s Fresnillo, which produced approximately 1,517 tonnes, according to the World Silver Survey, the industry’s longest-running annual market report now in its 36th year.

    Global silver production exceeded 26,000 tonnes in 2025, the survey found, with KGHM’s output reflecting the scale of its integrated mining complex in southwestern Poland. Silver is produced as a by-product of copper extraction at the company’s Lubin, Rudna and Polkowice-Sieroszowice operations and refined at the Głogów smelter, which has been processing precious metals from copper ore since 1993. The company sells silver in granulated form for industrial customers and as bullion bars primarily supplied to financial institutions, with smaller bars for private investors introduced last year.

    KGHM chief executive Remigiusz Paszkiewicz said the ranking reflected sustained effort rather than a single strong year. “This is not a one-time success, but the result of consistently building operational and technological advantage,” he said.

    Silver’s industrial importance continues to grow, with applications in electronics, renewable energy, medicine and jewellery accounting for nearly 60% of global demand — a figure that underpins the metal’s long-term strategic value alongside its role as a financial asset.

    Beyond silver, KGHM ranks among the world’s top ten copper producers and operates assets across Europe and the Americas, including in the United States and Canada. The Polish state holds just under a third of the company’s shares, making it the largest single shareholder.

    On the capital investment front, KGHM is expanding the Rudna mine in Lower Silesia — one of the world’s largest copper operations — with plans to sink a new shaft that could take up to 12 years to complete. The project carries a price tag of several billion zloty, with the final cost dependent on depth, eventual use and other technical factors.

  • Ferrexpo Warns of Total Investment Loss and Imminent Insolvency Risk Without $100 Million Fundraise by End of April

    Ferrexpo Warns of Total Investment Loss and Imminent Insolvency Risk Without $100 Million Fundraise by End of April

    Ukraine-focused iron ore producer Ferrexpo has issued one of the starkest warnings in its history as a listed company, telling shareholders they could lose the “entire value of their investment” if a $100 million emergency equity raise fails to complete by the end of this month — a deadline that, if missed, would trigger a suspension of its London shares and potentially force the group into insolvency.

    Shares in the Baar, Switzerland-headquartered FTSE 250 company fell 12% to 37.98 pence in London on Wednesday morning following the announcement. Ferrexpo said it currently has sufficient cash to operate only until around the end of August, with net cash at 17 April standing at just $20 million — down sharply from $101 million at the end of 2024. The proposed $100 million raise, described as the “only viable solution” available in the required timeframe, would cover short-term operational requirements at a reduced production level for the next 18 months.

    The company’s financial position has been severely eroded by the compounding effect of three overlapping crises: the ongoing war in Ukraine, the suspension by Ukrainian tax authorities of VAT refund payments to the group, and a legal claim against its main operating subsidiary FPM. Without recovery of the VAT refunds — which Ferrexpo acknowledged is outside its control — the group warned it would have “no option but to file for insolvency” if the fundraise does not proceed.

    The equity raise must be launched and completed on or before the end of April for Ferrexpo to be able to publish its audited 2025 financial results. If that deadline is not met, the company expects its shares will be suspended from 1 May until the audit is completed — with no certainty provided on when, or whether, trading would resume. “In such a scenario, there can be no certainty as to the expected timing of the lifting of the suspension of listing and resumption of trading of the company’s shares, if at all,” the company warned.

    Talks are continuing with Fevamotinico Sarl, which holds a 49% stake in Ferrexpo, regarding the potential dilution of its interests as a result of the fundraise and whether it will participate. The outcome of those discussions is material to the viability of the raise. Ferrexpo said a successful capital injection would strengthen liquidity, provide working capital and position the company to restore production capacity to a sustainable level, with potential for longer-term recovery once operating conditions stabilise.

  • Slovenian and Hungarian Consortium Launches Takeover Bid for Remaining Stake in Bosnian Bauxite Miner

    Slovenian and Hungarian Consortium Launches Takeover Bid for Remaining Stake in Bosnian Bauxite Miner

    A consortium comprising Slovenian alumina and zeolite producer Silkem Plus and two Hungarian holding companies, Aela and Atesz, has launched a joint tender offer to acquire the remaining shares in Bosnian bauxite miner Rudnici Boksita Jajce that they do not already own.

    The consortium announced the offer in a filing to the Sarajevo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, pricing the bid at 51.41 convertible marks ($30.80) per share. The offer will remain open for 28 days.

    The three companies collectively hold a controlling stake of 67.63% in Rudnici Boksita Jajce, split between Silkem Plus at 30.65%, Aela at 20.43% and Atesz at 16.55%. The takeover bid targets the remaining 32.37% of the company’s equity. Rudnici Boksita Jajce has 186,321 shares in issue, each with a nominal value of 27 marks. The company’s shares have not traded on the Sarajevo bourse in the past year.

  • Europe’s Green Energy Dream Collides With Local Fears at Czech Lithium Deposit Straddling German Border

    Europe’s Green Energy Dream Collides With Local Fears at Czech Lithium Deposit Straddling German Border

    In Cinovec, a small mountain town perched on the Czech-German border known for its clean air, pine forests and spa tourism, plans to extract one of Europe’s largest lithium deposits have opened a fault line between the promises of the green energy transition and the concerns of the communities expected to live with its consequences.

    The project is led by Geomet, the Czech subsidiary of London-listed European Metals Holdings, which argues that developing the deposit will bring jobs, investment and economic growth to a region that has long struggled to diversify beyond traditional industries. The Cinovec deposit has been confirmed as one of the largest hard-rock lithium resources in Europe, and its development is seen as strategically significant for the continent’s ambition to reduce dependence on imported battery materials, particularly from China.

    But for many residents, the prospect of industrial-scale mining in a landscape still bearing the scars of decades of coal extraction sits uneasily. The area around Cinovec is in the early stages of ecological recovery from the environmental damage wrought by its communist-era mining past, and locals fear that lithium extraction could set that recovery back — contaminating water sources, generating dust and noise, and undermining the region’s carefully rebuilt identity as a destination for health tourism and outdoor recreation. Tourism represents a significant share of the local economy, and business owners worry that the imagery of an active mine would deter the visitors on whom they depend.

    Geomet has maintained that the project will meet strict environmental standards and that modern mining techniques bear little resemblance to the open-cast coal operations that scarred the landscape in previous generations. The company points to the project’s classification as a strategic resource by both the European Union and the Czech government as evidence of its broader importance.

    The standoff at Cinovec is not unique. Across Europe, communities sitting above critical mineral deposits are grappling with the same fundamental tension: the green transition requires materials that must come from somewhere, and the places asked to provide them are not always willing to bear the costs that the broader project demands. The question of who benefits and who pays — and whether environmental pledges made at the planning stage can be trusted once extraction begins — remains unresolved at Cinovec as it does across the continent.

  • Environmental Groups Sound Alarm Over Closed-Door Meeting Between EU Commissioner and Mining Lobbyists on Water Protection Rules

    Environmental Groups Sound Alarm Over Closed-Door Meeting Between EU Commissioner and Mining Lobbyists on Water Protection Rules

    Environmental organisations have raised serious concerns after European Commissioner for Environment Jessika Roswall held a private meeting in Stockholm with a hand-picked group of industrial and mining industry lobbyists to discuss the future of the EU’s Water Framework Directive — the bloc’s primary legal instrument for protecting rivers, lakes and drinking water supplies — with no environmental or civil society representatives invited to attend.

    The Water Framework Directive underpins EU rules on clean drinking water, the health of freshwater ecosystems and climate resilience. Critics argue that any discussion of its future should be subject to open, transparent and inclusive consultation, rather than closed-door talks with an industry that has consistently lobbied to reduce regulatory constraints on extraction operations.

    The European Environmental Bureau condemned the format and framing of the meeting in stark terms. Athénaïs Georges, the organisation’s policy officer for biodiversity and water, said the Commission was “placing short-sighted and specific corporate interests above public and environmental protection” by convening with hand-picked participants while excluding wider civil society. She warned that reopening the directive risked “unleashing a Pandora’s box — jeopardising the health of current and future generations.”

    Diego Marin, the bureau’s senior policy officer for raw materials and resource justice, was equally direct: “Secret deals should not decide our water’s future. All mining projects have serious impacts on water, with pollution travelling far beyond the source and contaminating nature for decades — even permanently.”

    Environmental groups point to an already well-documented record of mining-related water contamination across Europe. Heavy metals, acid mine drainage and other hazardous substances from mining operations have been linked to the contamination of rivers and groundwater, the collapse of aquatic biodiversity and the emergence of ecological dead zones in multiple member states. The organisations argue that weakening the Water Framework Directive at the behest of mining industry interests would compound these harms at a continental scale, threatening public health, local livelihoods and the long-term resilience of freshwater ecosystems.

    The closed nature of the Stockholm meeting has drawn particular criticism at a moment when the EU is simultaneously accelerating its critical minerals agenda and facing mounting pressure from environmental and community groups concerned about the social and ecological costs of rapidly expanding European extraction.

  • Avrupa Minerals Cuts Reporting Frequency as Junior Explorer Focuses Resources on Copper-Gold Projects Across Europe

    Avrupa Minerals Cuts Reporting Frequency as Junior Explorer Focuses Resources on Copper-Gold Projects Across Europe

    Avrupa Minerals has announced it will shift from quarterly to semi-annual financial reporting, reducing its administrative compliance burden as the junior exploration company concentrates its limited resources on copper-zinc and gold projects across Finland, Portugal and Kosovo.

    The Canadian-listed company has confirmed its eligibility under Coordinated Blanket Order 51-933, a TSX Venture Exchange pilot framework that allows qualifying small-revenue venture issuers with a clean disclosure record to file financial statements and management discussion and analysis twice yearly rather than four times, while continuing to produce annual audited results. The change is intended to streamline administrative costs without affecting the company’s core exploration activities.

    Avrupa operates a project generator model, seeking joint venture partners to fund and advance early-stage assets while retaining meaningful interests. Its portfolio spans three European jurisdictions: a series of Finnish volcanogenic massive sulphide targets held through a partnership structure; a wholly owned Portuguese VMS project for which a mining licence application is pending; and a gold interest in Kosovo. The company’s strategy is focused exclusively on politically stable European countries, positioning it to attract partners cautious about jurisdictional risk.

    The most recent analyst rating on Avrupa Minerals stock is a Hold with a price target of C$0.07.

  • Zijin’s Serbian Copper-Gold Operation Posts €1.1 Billion Net Profit in 2025 as Revenues Surge 22%

    Zijin’s Serbian Copper-Gold Operation Posts €1.1 Billion Net Profit in 2025 as Revenues Surge 22%

    Srbija Zijin Mining, the Serbian arm of Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining Group, has reported a net profit exceeding €1.1 billion for 2025 — a 60% increase on the prior year and nearly four times the level recorded in 2021, when the Čukaru Peki mine first came into production.

    The company’s operating revenues reached 213.8 billion dinars in 2025, up more than 18% year-on-year, with the overwhelming majority — 210.9 billion dinars — generated through the sale of copper and gold ore concentrates to affiliated entities abroad. Total revenues climbed to 224 billion dinars, and with expenses growing at a slower pace, overall profitability surged by more than 22%.

    At the heart of the operation is the Čukaru Peki copper-gold mine, located six kilometres from the town of Bor in eastern Serbia, which processes three to four million tonnes of ore annually at average grades of 2.9% copper and 1.7 grams of gold per tonne. Zijin entered Serbia in January 2019 through its acquisition of Canadian company Nevsun Resources, which held ownership of the Čukaru Peki deposit — considered one of the richest ore bodies of its kind in Europe. The mine was formally commissioned in 2021.

    The company also holds five exploration licences across Serbia and retains 100% ownership of both the upper and lower zones of the Čukaru Peki deposit. Development of the Lower Zone is planned across three phases, with intensive construction scheduled to continue through to 2052, according to the annual report. Finalisation of studies and acquisition of trial permits are currently underway.

    Beyond its core mining operations, Srbija Zijin Mining acquired 930 hectares of land across 2,523 plots in 2025, paying €31.25 million in compensation, and took over a former Falkensteiner hotel in Novi Beograd through the acquisition of company Alba Invest. The company’s cash position nearly doubled, rising from 5.9 billion to 10.5 billion dinars, while total property, plant and equipment increased from 117 billion to 133 billion dinars. By the end of 2025, the company employed 1,369 people.

    Srbija Zijin Mining is wholly owned by Čukaru Peki, a Netherlands-registered entity, and forms part of Zijin Mining Group’s global portfolio, which spans 16 provincial-level regions within China and 21 projects across 15 countries, including the Kamoa-Kakula and Kolwezi copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Buriticá gold mine in Colombia.