MINEX Forum

Region: Europe

  • Austrian Lawmakers Seek Probe Into Ferrexpo’s Corporate Structure and Financial Transactions

    Austrian Lawmakers Seek Probe Into Ferrexpo’s Corporate Structure and Financial Transactions

    Austrian lawmakers have submitted a parliamentary inquiry calling for an investigation into the business activities and financial structures linked to Ferrexpo plc and its major shareholder, Konstantin Zhevago, following allegations concerning transfer pricing, corporate transactions and asset ownership.

    The inquiry names several Ferrexpo-related entities, including Ferrexpo AG, The Minco Trust, First-DDSG Logistics Holding GmbH, MAG Handels- und Transport GmbH, MAGferr GmbH, Eliomys Vermögensverwaltung KG, Oxanikus Vermögensverwaltung KG and Luxembourg-based Calexco S.a.r.l. Authorities have also been asked to examine potential business links involving several individuals connected to the companies.

    The request follows reports published by Austrian magazine Profil, Zhevago’s arrest in France in 2022 and Ukrainian sanctions imposed against him in February 2025.

    One of the main issues under review concerns the marketing of iron ore pellets produced by Poltava Mining and Processing Plant. According to allegations cited in the inquiry, pellets were sold through Ferrexpo AG in Switzerland rather than directly to European steelmakers, including Voestalpine, Salzgitter and Thyssenkrupp, at below-market prices, allowing profits to be shifted outside Ukraine. The alleged outstanding debt to the Poltava operation is estimated at more than US$500 million. Ferrexpo has rejected the allegations, stating that all transactions were conducted on market terms and complied with applicable transfer pricing regulations.

    The parliamentary inquiry also requests an examination of Ferrexpo’s historical relationship with Voestalpine, including the sale of interests in VA Intertrading AG to Calexco S.a.r.l., existing commercial agreements and whether any insider information may have been used in securities trading. Austrian financial regulators have been asked to clarify whether investigations into potential market manipulation or insider trading have been conducted.

    Separately, lawmakers are reviewing the activities of First-DDSG Logistics Holding GmbH, which transported Ferrexpo products. The inquiry notes that the logistics company reported losses of €44.8 million in 2022, €42.3 million in 2023 and €41 million in 2024, prompting questions over transfer pricing arrangements and management decisions.

    The inquiry further seeks information regarding four luxury properties in Austria, including Villa Schwarzenfels in Maria-Wörth, two villas in Vienna and another in Pressbaum, to determine whether they are connected to Zhevago and to establish the origin of the funds used for their acquisition.

    The investigation comes as Ferrexpo faces financial pressures. According to the company, it held approximately US$20 million in cash as of April 2026, while awaiting US$90.3 million in outstanding VAT refunds from the Ukrainian government. The company has announced plans to raise at least US$100 million through a share issue, sell the vessel Iron Destiny for US$7.7 million, implement cost reductions and has warned of potential insolvency risks if its financial position does not improve.

  • DPM Metals to Relocate Ada Tepe Processing Plant to Serbia’s Čoka Rakita Gold Project

    DPM Metals to Relocate Ada Tepe Processing Plant to Serbia’s Čoka Rakita Gold Project

    DPM Metals Inc. (Dundee Precious Metals) has announced that processing equipment from its Ada Tepe gold mine in Bulgaria will be dismantled and relocated for use at the company’s Čoka Rakita gold project in eastern Serbia.

    According to the company’s latest quarterly report, ore processing at Ada Tepe will cease on 15 July 2026, following the final blasting activities completed in mid-April. After operations end, selected processing equipment will be dismantled, refurbished and prepared for installation at the Serbian project.

    DPM expects construction of the Čoka Rakita mine to begin in early 2027. Reusing proven processing infrastructure from Ada Tepe is intended to reduce capital costs, shorten development timelines and lower execution risks as the project advances toward production.

    Alongside the closure of the Bulgarian operation, the company said it will carry out mine rehabilitation in line with European environmental standards. Following reclamation, approximately 95% of the Ada Tepe site is expected to be returned to the Natura 2000 protected area network.

    In its second-quarter update, DPM also reported stable financial performance supported by higher gold-equivalent production from its operating Chelopech mine in Bulgaria and the Vareš operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    The company noted that its strong financial position, supported by a share buyback programme that exceeded US$49 million during the quarter, provides a solid foundation for continued investment and project development across the Balkans.

    DPM Metals plans to publish its full operating and financial results for the second quarter after the close of trading on 30 July 2026.

  • Google Partners with Energy Dome to Scale Long-Duration CO₂ Battery Storage

    Google Partners with Energy Dome to Scale Long-Duration CO₂ Battery Storage

    Energy Dome has announced a global commercial partnership with Google to deploy its long-duration CO₂ Battery technology in support of Google’s goal of operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. As part of the agreement, Google has also made a strategic investment in the Italian energy storage company.

    The partnership aims to accelerate the deployment of Energy Dome’s technology across Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region. A pipeline of projects has already been identified, with several sites currently in the development and contracting stages.

    Energy Dome’s CO₂ Battery is designed to store renewable electricity and deliver power continuously for 8 to 24 hours, helping overcome the intermittency of solar and wind generation. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, the system relies on a patented thermomechanical process using carbon dioxide and is built from commercially available components, avoiding supply chain constraints associated with critical minerals and rare earth elements.

    The technology also contributes to grid stability by providing mechanical inertia through rotating equipment, helping compensate for the decline in system inertia as conventional fossil-fuel power plants are retired.

    Google said the agreement marks its first commercial deployment of long-duration energy storage technology and forms part of a broader strategy to secure reliable, clean electricity for its growing operations, including data centres supporting artificial intelligence.

    “Energy Dome’s proven and scalable long-duration energy storage solution can help us unlock rapid progress,” said Maud Texier, Director of EMEA Energy at Google. She added that wider deployment of the technology could improve access to reliable and affordable electricity while supporting greater integration of renewable energy.

    Energy Dome founder and CEO Claudio Spadacini described the agreement as an important milestone in demonstrating that continuous carbon-free electricity can be achieved through commercially viable long-duration storage technologies.

    Google’s investment comes as Energy Dome enters a commercial growth phase. The company already has contracted projects with Alliant Energy in the United States, Engie in Italy and NTPC in India, reflecting increasing global interest in long-duration energy storage as power systems integrate larger shares of renewable generation.

  • European Parliament Calls for EU Ban on Alumina Exports to Russia

    European Parliament Calls for EU Ban on Alumina Exports to Russia

    The European Parliament has adopted a non-binding resolution urging the European Commission to impose sanctions on alumina exports to Russia, increasing political pressure on Brussels to tighten restrictions on trade linked to Moscow’s metals industry.

    The motion follows an investigation by The Irish Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which found that Ireland’s Aughinish Alumina refinery has continued exporting substantial volumes of alumina to Russian smelters owned by Rusal. The resulting aluminium has reportedly been sold to Moscow-based trading company ASK, whose customer base includes more than 40 companies sanctioned by the European Union for their links to Russia’s defense sector.

    While investigators were unable to trace individual shipments of Irish alumina to specific military products because the material is blended during smelting, customs and trade data indicate that since 2023 more than half of Aughinish Alumina’s exports have been delivered to Russian smelters. Those facilities have subsequently sold more than $650 million worth of aluminium to ASK, which supplies companies associated with Russia’s military-industrial complex.

    The European Parliament’s resolution calls for stronger measures to limit Russia’s ability to finance its military operations in Ukraine. In addition to advocating a complete ban on alumina exports, lawmakers also supported proposals to blacklist Russian steel suppliers. Although the Parliament cannot impose sanctions itself, its position is expected to add pressure on the European Commission and EU member states, which must unanimously approve any new sanctions package.

    The Commission has so far refrained from restricting alumina exports because of Aughinish Alumina’s importance to European industrial supply chains. However, Irish Member of the European Parliament Barry Andrews argued that Irish alumina is highly likely to be contributing indirectly to Russia’s military production and called for immediate action if ongoing investigations confirm these links.

    The Irish government is completing its own investigation into Aughinish Alumina’s exports following the media reports. Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the findings will soon be submitted to the European Commission, while Enterprise Minister Peter Burke confirmed his department expects to finalize its report within days.

    Burke also rejected suggestions that Ireland had sought exemptions for Aughinish Alumina from EU sanctions, stating that the government has never lobbied on the company’s behalf and has not opposed any sanctions affecting its operations.

    The European Commission is expected to review the findings as it prepares its next package of sanctions against Russia.

  • Poland’s Coal Sector Loses PLN 300-400 Per Tonne as Output Falls to 42.8 Million Tonnes and Taxpayer Subsidy Reaches PLN 450,000 Per Job

    Poland’s Coal Sector Loses PLN 300-400 Per Tonne as Output Falls to 42.8 Million Tonnes and Taxpayer Subsidy Reaches PLN 450,000 Per Job

    Poland’s hard coal mining sector is generating losses of between PLN 300 and PLN 400 per tonne extracted, with average extraction costs running at approximately PLN 800 per tonne against a market value that does not exceed $100 — a structural deficit so deep that maintaining a single job in the loss-making segment of the industry costs Polish taxpayers approximately PLN 450,000 per year.

    Production has been on a consistent downward trajectory. Hard coal output fell to 42.8 million tonnes in 2025, 1.2 million tonnes below 2024 levels and a sharp decline from 52.8 million tonnes in 2022. Sales volumes of 43.2 million tonnes exceeded production in 2025, drawing down existing inventories. Domestic consumption of thermal hard coal stood at 37.8 million tonnes last year, with imports falling 26% to 3 million tonnes as domestic output remained sufficient to cover most needs.

    Despite the economic losses and declining output, coal remains indispensable to Poland’s electricity system. It accounted for more than 52% of electricity generation in 2025 — a share that fell by only 3 percentage points year-on-year. Renewable energy’s share of the energy mix grew by 0.7 percentage points to 31.4%, according to a report by Forum Energii, but the pace of transition remains insufficient to displace coal as the primary generation source in the near term.

    The paradox facing Polish energy policy is stark: the sector is economically unviable at current coal prices, yet without it the country would face immediate electricity supply deficits. The cost of maintaining jobs in loss-making mines exceeds what it would cost simply to pay miners their salaries without requiring them to extract coal — yet abrupt closure would threaten grid stability in a country still more than half dependent on thermal coal for power generation.

  • Euro Manganese Converts $23.5 Million Orion Debt to Royalty at Czech Chvaletice Project to Simplify Capital Structure

    Euro Manganese Converts $23.5 Million Orion Debt to Royalty at Czech Chvaletice Project to Simplify Capital Structure

    Euro Manganese has amended its financing facility with Orion Resource Partners, converting US$23.5 million in outstanding debt and accrued interest into a royalty structure on the Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic — a move designed to simplify the company’s capital structure and provide greater flexibility as it advances the project through permitting, financing and market conditions.

    Under the revised agreement, the outstanding loan and accrued interest will automatically convert into a royalty once a fundraising condition is met by a date acceptable to Orion, fully discharging the company’s repayment obligation. The revised structure removes time-based milestones contained in previous versions of the agreement. Following conversion, the royalty will range from 2.29% to 2.46% of project revenues, calculated quarterly on a sliding scale linked to achieved prices for the project’s high-purity manganese products.

    CEO Martina Blahova said the restructuring was a constructive outcome. “By converting the existing facility into a royalty, we are simplifying our capital structure, improving financing flexibility and positioning the company to advance the Chvaletice Manganese Project through its next stage of development,” she said. Chairman Rick Anthon described the revised arrangement as reflecting the strength of the company’s relationship with Orion, providing a clearer and simpler capital structure heading into the next development phase.

    Orion retains offtake rights covering 20% to 22.5% of the project’s high-purity manganese production for ten years from first delivery, with offtake terms matched to commercial terms achieved by the company to meet bankability requirements. The original Orion funding package, announced in November 2023, was structured as US$100 million split into two US$50 million components.

    The Chvaletice project aims to reprocess historic mine tailings to produce high-purity electrolytic manganese metal and high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate — battery materials in growing demand for EV cathode manufacturing.

  • DPM Metals Closes Ada Tepe Gold Mine for Rehabilitation as Chelopech Delivers Strong H1 Results and Major Porphyry Discovery Advances

    DPM Metals Closes Ada Tepe Gold Mine for Rehabilitation as Chelopech Delivers Strong H1 Results and Major Porphyry Discovery Advances

    Canadian mining company DPM Metals is closing its Ada Tepe gold mine in Bulgaria for rehabilitation on 15 July, following a final production blast at the site in mid-April. The mine produced 23,000 ounces of gold in the first half of 2026 before ceasing operations. DPM said that after rehabilitation, 95% of Ada Tepe’s land use will be returned to the Natura 2000 EU nature protection network.

    The closure marks the end of Ada Tepe’s operating life, while DPM’s other Bulgarian asset, the Chelopech gold-copper mine, continues to perform in line with expectations. Chelopech delivered 75,000 ounces of gold and 15 million pounds of copper in the six months through June, including 43,000 ounces of gold and 8 million pounds of copper in the second quarter alone. The mine is on track to achieve its full-year production guidance and had its operating life extended by ten years to 2036 in February based on updated mineral reserve estimates.

    Chelopech is also the focus of significant exploration activity. In June, DPM announced the discovery of high-grade gold-copper porphyry mineralisation at the Brevene South Porphyry target adjacent to the mine, with a standout drill hole returning 713 metres grading 1.31 grams per tonne gold and 1.16% copper — results that analysts described as distinguishing the BSP as a potentially very high-grade porphyry system. In May, the company also identified new high-grade intercepts at the Wedge Zone Deep target within the Chelopech mine licence area.

  • Europe’s Critical Materials Problem Is Not Too Much Regulation — It Is Too Little Orchestrated Demand

    Europe’s Critical Materials Problem Is Not Too Much Regulation — It Is Too Little Orchestrated Demand

    Whenever Europe falls behind in a strategic technology, the diagnosis defaults to the same cause: excessive regulation and insufficient risk appetite. Regulation can and should be simplified. But that is not the binding constraint holding back European critical materials supply chains. The real problem is the failure to turn world-class science into industrial scale — and the specific mechanism missing is aggregated, committed demand that turns potential buyers into anchor customers.

    Writing in the context of the EIT RawMaterials Summit 2026, Victor Mulas identifies a structural gap that is both precise and actionable. Europe produces serious research, capable entrepreneurs, promising companies and sophisticated industrial buyers. What it lacks is the coordination infrastructure that converts those ingredients into industries.

    What Japan does differently

    The contrast with Japan is instructive. Several European players in critical materials recycling are reaching commercial scale — HyProMag has opened a magnet-recycling plant in Germany, and Carester’s CareMag is building one of Europe’s first large-scale rare earth recycling and refining facilities in France. But each company assembled the missing commercial piece on its own: Carester through a ten-year Stellantis offtake agreement and Japanese state and industrial backing; HyProMag through individual industrial buyer relationships. The science was not the binding constraint. Bankable demand was — and in Europe, a company still secures it deal by deal.

    Japan, through JOGMEC and METI, does more of the orchestrating that Europe leaves to private initiative: equity, loans and guarantees the private sector will not provide alone, strategic stockpiles, recycling targets, and consortia that align buyers, researchers and processing capacity before projects need to stand on their own. The technology gap between Europe and Japan is small. The commercialisation gap is considerably larger.

    Lessons from Warp Speed and NASA

    The constraint for European startups is rarely the science. It is reaching scale at the speed the challenge demands. Neither Europe nor Japan can match American scale-up capital — but what both can do is manufacture scale on the demand side by committing to buy a solution before it exists. When NASA needed cargo delivered to the International Space Station, it did not build the vehicle itself; it part-funded development and bought delivery as a service. That combination drew in private capital and built the commercial launch industry that now leads the world. Operation Warp Speed applied the same logic to vaccines.

    Europe is beginning to build this instrument through the Raw Materials Mechanism, and proposals for a JOGMEC-style Critical Raw Materials Centre point in the same direction. But current tools remain too close to voluntary matchmaking. What is needed are two more forceful applications: EU-aggregated pre-purchase, pooling member states behind a clearly specified solution that does not yet exist; and the coordinated buying power of Europe’s large global companies, whose balance sheets and demand volumes can call a market into being.

    Guaranteed demand will not immediately make European critical materials supply cheaper than China’s. But that gap should not be treated as an inefficient subsidy. It should be treated as a strategic autonomy premium — the price of resilience against geopolitical shocks, export controls and supply disruption. Paid upfront, it buys the volume and time to drive costs down to competitive levels, through procurement rather than deregulation.

    Cluster or fall behind

    Europe has the ingredients: research, talent, corporations and procurement budgets. What it lacks is the connective infrastructure that turns them into industries — aggregated demand, patient capital to bridge the gap from pilot to plant, and institutions accountable for carrying named ventures to a first commercial contract. Europe funds many clusters and hubs; what it rarely runs is a programme with accountability for specific commercial outcomes. Without it, results come too slowly and at too small a scale.

    The opportunity grows with connection to like-minded economies facing the same vulnerabilities — Japan, South Korea, the UK, Canada and Australia. Linking European innovators to these ecosystems can open access to buyers, capital and expertise that no single region can reach alone. The technologies that will define strategic autonomy in this decade are already in European laboratories. The science is there, and so is the ambition. What is needed is the orchestration to turn them into industrial outcomes.

  • NATO Launches 12-Nation Critical Raw Materials Project for Defence Supply Chains at Ankara Summit

    NATO Launches 12-Nation Critical Raw Materials Project for Defence Supply Chains at Ankara Summit

    NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has announced the launch of a new multinational High Visibility Project on defence critical raw materials, bringing together 12 Allied nations to jointly strengthen the resilience of defence industrial supply chains.

    The project was announced on 7 July 2026 at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara. It focuses on the acquisition, storage, transport and management of critical raw materials, components and recycled products essential for defence production — addressing vulnerabilities that have become increasingly visible as China’s export controls on strategic minerals have disrupted Western manufacturing.

    “For our defence to remain ready and strong, we need our industrial base and our supply chains to be resilient,” Rutte said at the forum.

    The 12 participating Allies are Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. The initiative reflects growing Allied consensus that access to critical materials — including rare earths, tungsten, antimony and other defence-critical inputs — cannot be left to market forces alone and requires coordinated sovereign stockpiling, sourcing and logistics strategies.

    The announcement was made in Ankara, a city that hosted the MINEX Asia 2026 forum the previous month, where Turkey’s role as a potential industrial anchor for Central Asian critical minerals supply chains was a central theme — underlining the geographic and strategic significance of the Turkish capital in the emerging critical minerals geopolitical landscape.

  • US Trade Court Orders Review of Antidumping Ruling Against Kazakh Ferrosilicon Producers Kazchrome and YDD Corporation

    US Trade Court Orders Review of Antidumping Ruling Against Kazakh Ferrosilicon Producers Kazchrome and YDD Corporation

    The United States Court of International Trade has ordered the US Department of Commerce to reconsider elements of its antidumping determination against ferrosilicon exported to the American market by Kazakhstan’s Kazchrome and Karaganda-based YDD Corporation, following a legal challenge filed by the two companies.

    The court returned specific questions to the Department of Commerce for further consideration, including the treatment of YDD’s sales to its American customer and the date of sale applied to Kazchrome’s transactions. The court also deferred its ruling on the Department of Commerce’s application of partial adverse facts available — a methodology used to calculate dumping margins when companies fail to provide complete information — and on YDD’s antidumping duty calculation, pending resolution of the remanded sales question.

    The court ordered the matter to be returned for further review with supplementary materials and comments from the parties. Key points of contention during proceedings centred on the calculation of YDD’s margin in light of its product deliveries routed through the US to Canada, and the pricing timeline for Kazchrome’s sales to its trader Telf AG at the point of shipment to the American market.

    In May 2025, the US imposed countervailing duties on Kazakhstani ferrosilicon producers following an investigation: 16.82% on YDD Corporation and affiliated companies, and 265.53% on Kazchrome and its trader Telf AG. The measures followed complaints by US producers CC Metals and Alloys LLC and Ferroglobe USA Inc alleging material injury from unfair trade practices.

    Kazchrome is part of Eurasian Resources Group and represents the group’s primary revenue source. The Kazakhstani government holds a 40% stake in ERG. The Karaganda YDD plant was partially oriented toward the American market and was built with financing from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan. The plant’s ownership is also reported to be changing hands.