MINEX Forum

Website: Eurasia.com

  • Cornwall Is the Engine Room of Britain’s Critical Minerals Future — But Only If Westminster Commits the Capital to Match the Ambition

    Cornwall Is the Engine Room of Britain’s Critical Minerals Future — But Only If Westminster Commits the Capital to Match the Ambition

    The United Kingdom has set an aggressive benchmark: secure at least 10% of its critical mineral needs through domestic production by 2035. Achieving that target is a mathematical impossibility without unlocking the geological wealth of the South West. Cornwall is no longer simply a landscape of industrial heritage — it is the strategic engine room of the nation’s technological and economic future.

    The region holds world-class concentrations of tech-critical metals that map directly onto the materials the modern clean energy economy requires. Cornish Lithium and Imerys British Lithium are actively targeting the production of tens of thousands of tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually from hard-rock deposits and geothermal brines. The UK’s own strategy includes a standalone goal of producing 50,000 tonnes of domestic lithium per year by 2035 — sufficient to sustain a meaningful electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem. The planned reopening of South Crofty by Cornish Metals, backed by $210 million in bond financing and a letter of interest from the US Export-Import Bank, positions the region as a primary domestic supplier of tin, the metal that binds virtually all modern electronics and green infrastructure.

    The geopolitical driver behind this Cornish renaissance is what strategists have taken to calling securonomics. China controls the dominant share of the global critical mineral supply chain, giving it leverage over Western manufacturing that has been demonstrated repeatedly through export controls and pricing policy. The UK’s updated Critical Minerals Strategy mandates that no more than 60% of any single critical mineral come from a single foreign partner by 2035. A domestically anchored Cornish supply chain directly insulates British automotive, aerospace and advanced manufacturing sectors from weaponised supply shocks, and aligns with the US-UK Critical Minerals Memorandum of Understanding which emphasises collaborative, secure supply chains among allied nations.

    Cornwall’s environmental credentials add a further competitive advantage. Unlike virgin mining projects in ecologically sensitive regions elsewhere, Cornwall’s ancient mining heritage provides pre-existing, adaptable infrastructure. Modern operators are pioneering a low-carbon co-located model, combining lithium extraction with geothermal power generation to achieve an ultra-low carbon footprint. This makes Cornish minerals particularly attractive to ESG-conscious automakers seeking verifiable sustainability credentials for their battery supply chains. The Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter provides the academic and technical depth to support next-generation sustainable extraction technologies at the regional level.

    The barriers are substantial. Scaling up requires capital that competes with the vast subsidy programmes deployed under the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act. While initial backing from the National Wealth Fund has helped de-risk midstream processing projects, the funding environment remains insufficient to match the pace of investment mobilised by international competitors. Without more aggressive public capital deployment and sustained regulatory support, the geological potential of Cornwall risks remaining precisely that — potential.

    Britain’s road to industrial independence and technological sovereignty does not bypass the South West. It begins there.

  • General Base Minerals to Drill Over 20,000 Metres for Gold in Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone

    General Base Minerals to Drill Over 20,000 Metres for Gold in Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone

    General Base Minerals LLP is planning geological exploration across an 11 square kilometre licence area in Abai Region of Kazakhstan, within the boundaries of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone — a designated area established on the former Soviet nuclear test site to facilitate gradual remediation and the return of contaminated land to productive use.

    The exploration area is located approximately 50 kilometres from the village of Sarzhal. The company received its geological exploration licence in February 2026 and plans to begin fieldwork this year, with the full project to be completed by 2031.

    The programme is designed to confirm the presence of gold mineralisation across five blocks of the Shan area, which forms part of the Boko-Vasilyevskoye gold ore field. Resources will be estimated across three standard categories: Inferred, Indicated and Measured. Planned drilling exceeds 20,000 linear metres, complemented by geophysical and geochemical surveys, mapping boreholes and surface excavation works including more than 20 trenches totalling 6,000 linear metres.

    The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone, established on the site of the former Soviet nuclear weapons test polygon where more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted between 1949 and 1989, has been progressively opened to regulated economic activity including mining exploration as remediation work advances.

  • Kazakhstan’s Zhezkazganredmet Signs $107 Million Rhenium Offtake Deal With UK’s Maritime House as $30 Million Processing Plant Planned for Saran

    Kazakhstan’s Zhezkazganredmet Signs $107 Million Rhenium Offtake Deal With UK’s Maritime House as $30 Million Processing Plant Planned for Saran

    Kazakhstan’s state enterprise Zhezkazganredmet has signed a five-year offtake contract worth $107 million with British company Maritime House Ltd for the supply of rhenium metal produced from secondary raw materials, providing the commercial foundation for a $30 million rhenium processing plant planned for the city of Saran in Karaganda Region.

    The long-term contract was signed at the Ministry of Industry and Construction in the presence of Minister Yersaiyn Nagassayev. The agreement is designed to ensure stable production loading at the new facility and underpins the investment case for the project before it has even been launched.

    Maritime House is described as one of the world’s leading producers of metallic rhenium and has been collaborating with Zhezkazganredmet since 2023 on the development of technologies for extracting and processing rare earth elements from various raw material streams, including waste from the aviation and petrochemical industries. Zhezkazganredmet has already developed and implemented a technology for processing heat-resistant nickel alloys, with Rolls-Royce serving as the primary supplier of raw material supported by Maritime House — producing rhenium, nickel-cobalt concentrate and tungsten-tantalum concentrate in the process.

    Looking further ahead, Zhezkazganredmet is planning to develop green technology for processing lithium-ion batteries from electric scooters, electric vehicles and power tools, in partnership with an Australian company. The enterprise also plans to form a consortium with Kazatomprom, SGS and Maritime House to extract rare earth elements from Kazatomprom’s uranium processing streams, and separately to process neodymium-based permanent magnets.

  • Critical Metals Launches Strategic Review to Sell or Spin Off Non-Core Assets and Focus Capital on Greenland’s Tanbreez Rare Earth Project

    Critical Metals Launches Strategic Review to Sell or Spin Off Non-Core Assets and Focus Capital on Greenland’s Tanbreez Rare Earth Project

    Critical Metals Corp has launched a strategic review of its portfolio with the intention of selling, spinning off or partnering non-core assets, directing capital and resources toward its flagship Tanbreez rare earth project in southern Greenland — one of the largest undeveloped heavy rare earth deposits outside China.

    The company has hired Clear Street as financial adviser and White & Case LLP as legal adviser to evaluate options including asset sales, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, alliances and business separations. Critical Metals cautioned there is no assurance the process will result in a transaction.

    Chairman Tony Sage said the review is designed to position Critical Metals as “a premier pure-play Western source of heavy rare earths and other critical minerals essential to defence, energy, and advanced technology supply chains.”

    Critical Metals became the sole owner of Tanbreez in April following an $835 million deal to absorb European Lithium. The project at Killavaat Alannguat in southern Greenland carries a preliminary economic assessment valuing it at approximately $3 billion based on a 4.7 billion-tonne resource across two deposits. The company has secured offtake agreements covering approximately 75% of future production and has lined up up to $120 million in financing from the US Export-Import Bank. First ore production is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2028 or the first quarter of 2029.

  • KGHM Eyes Morocco, Argentina, Canada and US Acquisitions as Overseas Assets Already Generating Half of Core Profit

    KGHM Eyes Morocco, Argentina, Canada and US Acquisitions as Overseas Assets Already Generating Half of Core Profit

    Polish state-controlled copper and silver producer KGHM is actively exploring acquisition opportunities across Morocco, Argentina, Canada and the United States as part of its new Strategy 2055+ plan, CEO Remigiusz Paszkiewicz confirmed, with the company’s existing overseas operations already accounting for approximately 48% of core profit in 2025.

    “Over the next five to ten years we are focusing on raw material diversification, seeking access to critical metals, developing and building new revenue sources that strengthen our resilience to copper and silver market fluctuations,” Paszkiewicz said.

    The international profit contribution is driven by KGHM’s 55%-owned Sierra Gorda copper mine in Chile and the Robinson mine in Nevada. The company’s development pipeline includes the Victoria and Ajax projects in Canada and the Sierra Gorda Oxides project in Chile, providing a foundation for further Americas expansion.

    KGHM also plans to expand the global reach of its contracting subsidiary DMC Mining Services to secure new mining contracts internationally, adding a services revenue stream alongside its producing and development asset base.

    The international push complements KGHM’s domestic ambitions, which include building a new “KGHM 2.0” mine in Poland and committing more than 32 billion zlotys in investment through 2030 targeting 730,000 tonnes of annual copper output.

  • Uzbekistan’s Technological Metals Complex Meets Astera Minerals and RJLL Drilling to Advance Critical Minerals Exploration Partnership

    Uzbekistan’s Technological Metals Complex Meets Astera Minerals and RJLL Drilling to Advance Critical Minerals Exploration Partnership

    Uzbekistan’s Technological Metals Complex has held meetings with representatives of Canadian drilling company RJLL Drilling and consulting firm Astera Minerals to discuss cooperation in geological exploration and the introduction of advanced technologies, according to the company’s press service.

    RJLL Drilling specialises in deep, surface and underground diamond core drilling, with an annual drilling volume exceeding 600,000 metres across various climatic conditions. Astera Minerals is a consulting company focused on international project management in geology, mining, and the extraction and processing of critical minerals including rare and rare earth metals, and facilitates the attraction of global investors for mining initiatives in Central Asia and other regions.

    The Technological Metals Complex expressed readiness to cooperate with British and Canadian partners on geological diamond core drilling and reverse circulation drilling, and outlined plans for joint geophysical surveys and geochemical rock analysis.

    The meeting reflects UzTMK’s continuing effort to broaden its Western technology and investment partnerships as Uzbekistan positions its critical minerals sector as an alternative to Chinese-dominated supply chains.

  • More Than Half of EU’s Strategic Mining Projects Located in Water-Stressed Regions as Brussels Prepares to Weaken Water Protection Law

    More Than Half of EU’s Strategic Mining Projects Located in Water-Stressed Regions as Brussels Prepares to Weaken Water Protection Law

    More than half of the 33 planned new or expanded mines designated as strategic projects under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act are located in areas that have been drying over the past two decades, according to analysis by Watershed Investigations using NASA satellite data — a finding that has alarmed environmental groups as the European Commission prepares to revise the bloc’s flagship water protection law to speed up mining permitting.

    Nearly half of the strategic mines are in zones that experienced drought conditions in the past three months according to EU data, and a quarter are in regions deemed water-stressed. Six of the strategic mines are planned for highly water-stressed areas in Spain, with others in Portugal and Greece — countries that rank among the top ten EU nations with the worst water scarcity according to the European Environment Agency. In 2024, Catalonia declared a state of emergency over its worst-ever drought and water-use restrictions were imposed in Andalucía. In 2022, 96% of Portugal was experiencing extreme or severe drought conditions.

    The European Commission is preparing to revise the Water Framework Directive — the EU’s key law protecting rivers, groundwater and wetlands — with the stated aim of removing permitting bottlenecks and improving access to strategic minerals. Mining industry trade association Euromines has been pushing for these changes, including longer deadlines for countries to meet water quality targets, amendments to how the WFD’s no-deterioration rule is applied, and greater legal certainty for industrial projects. The association insisted the proposed changes are “not a licence to pollute” and maintained that its priority remains strong environmental safeguards alongside legal clarity.

    Environmental groups dispute that framing. Sara Johansson of the European Environmental Bureau said the mining industry had “not presented a shred of evidence” that the WFD was creating bottlenecks for mining projects, and described the planned revision as reckless. Professor Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, warned that weakening water protections in drought-prone regions was “a form of Russian roulette” that could produce long-lasting or irreversible damage to rivers, aquifers and ecosystems. “Fast-tracking mining in water-stressed regions by weakening safeguards is a form of Russian roulette,” he said. “History may judge it as recklessness tomorrow.”

    The European Commission defended the strategic project selection, saying mines were assessed by independent experts and must comply with EU environmental law, with environmental and water impact assessments carried out by national authorities. Several mining companies contacted by the Guardian disputed suggestions their projects would place undue pressure on water resources, pointing to closed-loop recycling systems, monitoring programmes and regulatory oversight.

    The tension reflects a broader structural conflict within EU critical minerals policy: the same regions with the richest mineral endowments for the energy transition — Spain, Portugal, Greece — are among the most acutely water-stressed, and the mining processes needed to extract those minerals are among the most water-intensive in industry.

  • Europe’s Aluminium Supply Chain Is Quietly Fracturing as Primary Output Collapses and Scrap Exports Surge

    Europe’s Aluminium Supply Chain Is Quietly Fracturing as Primary Output Collapses and Scrap Exports Surge

    Europe recycles more of its available aluminium scrap than any other major industrial region on earth, and yet it still runs a structural supply deficit of an estimated 2 million tonnes annually. That paradox sits at the centre of one of the most consequential and least-discussed industrial supply chain failures facing the European economy — one with direct implications for electric vehicle production, renewable energy infrastructure and defence manufacturing.

    A two-decade collapse in primary output

    The structural retreat of European primary aluminium production is stark. In 2002, Europe produced 4.9 million tonnes of primary aluminium and imported 2.6 million tonnes to supplement domestic demand. By 2025, the equation had inverted entirely: domestic output had fallen to 3.4 million tonnes while imports climbed to 4.4 million tonnes. Within the EU specifically, primary production contracted from 2.9 million tonnes in 2005 to approximately 1.2 million tonnes by 2025 — a decline of close to 60% over two decades.

    The cause is energy. Primary aluminium production through the Hall-Héroult electrolysis process requires 13 to 16 megawatt-hours of electricity per tonne produced, with electricity representing roughly 40% of total operating costs. When European wholesale electricity prices surged after 2021, the financial arithmetic of domestic smelting collapsed rapidly. Nearly 50% of EU primary smelting capacity was curtailed or permanently closed between 2021 and 2023.

    The scrap leakage paradox

    Europe achieves an 81% recycling rate on its potentially available aluminium scrap — yet ships approximately 1.4 million tonnes offshore each year, primarily to Asian buyers who account for roughly 75% of EU scrap export destinations. EU aluminium scrap exports surged 74.7% year-on-year in March 2026 and have risen 66% since 2014. The trajectory is moving in precisely the wrong direction as downstream manufacturers face intensifying feedstock pressure.

    The mechanics are straightforward: Asian buyers consistently offer prices that European recyclers, facing elevated energy and operating costs, cannot match. This is not a market failure in the conventional sense — it reflects genuine cost differentials. But the consequence is that high-grade scrap exits the domestic system, leaving lower-quality material for European processors, increasing costs and reducing alloy yields.

    Secondary production carries compelling economics where feedstock is available. It requires approximately 600 to 800 kilowatt-hours per tonne versus 13,000 to 16,000 for primary production — a 95% energy reduction. Yet even at world-leading recycling rates, the 2-million-tonne structural deficit persists, because the export channel means the effective feedstock pool available to European recyclers is significantly smaller than aggregate scrap generation figures imply. There is also a metallurgical ceiling: repeated recycling cycles introduce trace element contamination that prevents secondary metal from substituting for primary aluminium in high-specification aerospace, electrical and structural applications.

    Demand is accelerating while supply retreats

    This structural supply deterioration is colliding with a demand surge. Global aluminium consumption is projected to rise approximately 40% between 2020 and 2030, requiring an additional 33.3 million tonnes across all sectors. For Europe specifically, the energy transition alone could add approximately 5 million tonnes of annual demand by 2040 — roughly 30% growth above current consumption levels. Electric vehicles use substantially more aluminium than internal combustion vehicles; solar and transmission infrastructure, construction and packaging are all growing additional demand drivers.

    What policy can and cannot do

    The EU has assembled a meaningful regulatory framework: the Waste Shipment Regulation holds potential to restrict scrap exports to non-OECD countries, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation will boost beverage can collection through deposit return schemes, the Critical Raw Materials Act encourages recycling infrastructure investment, and end-of-life vehicle rules will improve automotive scrap recovery. European industry has committed approximately €700 million to new recycling plants and processing capacity.

    But regulatory measures cannot override the price differential that makes exporting scrap to Asian buyers economically rational for collectors and traders. Deposit return schemes do not extend to industrial and post-production scrap streams where volume is largest. And without targeted energy cost relief for energy-intensive recycling operations, the structural incentive to export rather than process domestically remains intact regardless of the regulatory framework.

    A realistic pathway forward requires three simultaneous interventions: enforced trade measures that retain more scrap within the EU, targeted industrial energy policy that allows European recyclers to operate on a viable cost basis, and design-for-recyclability requirements embedded across automotive, construction and packaging sectors. No single intervention closes the gap. Recycling is not a replacement for primary aluminium production — it is the foundation of a more resilient, lower-carbon supply architecture, and the strategic objective is integration rather than substitution.

  • Norra Kärr’s 25-Year Mining Lease Marks Europe’s Best Shot at Heavy Rare Earth Sovereignty — But the Window Is Closing

    Norra Kärr’s 25-Year Mining Lease Marks Europe’s Best Shot at Heavy Rare Earth Sovereignty — But the Window Is Closing

    The grant of a 25-year exploitation concession to Leading Edge Materials for the Norra Kärr heavy rare earth project in southern Sweden represents one of the most significant developments in European critical minerals in years — not because it completes the supply chain, but because it creates the legally secured upstream anchor without which no European mine-to-magnet chain is possible.

    Why heavy rare earths are different from every other critical mineral

    Dysprosium, terbium and yttrium are not simply scarce — they are structurally irreplaceable in the applications that define the energy transition and modern defence. Dysprosium maintains the coercivity of neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets at elevated operating temperatures; without it, EV motor performance degrades in real-world conditions. Terbium performs a similar function at even smaller addition volumes, making it among the most cost-sensitive elements in the entire battery supply chain on a per-kilogram basis. China controls approximately 85 to 90% of global rare earth processing capacity, and its dominance in the heavy rare earth segment specifically is even more pronounced, because ionic clay deposits that supply much of the world’s heavy rare earth production are geologically specific to southern China’s weathering conditions.

    What makes Norra Kärr exceptional

    Most operating rare earth mines produce predominantly light rare earth elements, with heavy rare earths as a byproduct. Norra Kärr inverts that ratio. The deposit’s eudialyte-group mineralogy concentrates dysprosium, terbium and yttrium as the primary economic drivers. At projected annual output of approximately 248 tonnes of dysprosium oxide and 36 tonnes of terbium oxide from a 5,340-tonne mixed rare earth oxide operation, independent research by the Edison Group estimates Norra Kärr’s dysprosium output alone would exceed total current European annual demand of approximately 200 tonnes — making it potentially the first European project capable of satisfying the continent’s entire requirement for this critical element.

    Technical work on the deposit spans 15 years, including a pre-feasibility study from 2015. That foundation means the company is advancing from an accumulated knowledge base rather than a greenfield position.

    What the mining lease actually changes

    Before the exploitation concession, every conversation with investors, financiers and potential offtake partners was framed by the residual risk of the concession not being awarded. That risk no longer exists. The project has moved from contingent to confirmed: 25 years of legally secured development rights transform the investment conversation from whether the project can proceed to when and on what terms.

    For the European Investment Bank and Nordic Investment Bank — both of which require completed feasibility studies and de-risked development assets before entering formal due diligence — the mining lease is a prerequisite. Binding offtake discussions with European refiners and separators seeking dysprosium and terbium supply are now transactional conversations rather than planning exercises.

    How the 2016 setback was overcome

    The original exploitation concession granted in 2013 was revoked in 2016 on environmental grounds relating to the project’s proximity to Lake Vättern, one of Sweden’s largest freshwater bodies. The redesigned project incorporates two fundamental changes: the mine footprint has been reduced by 65%, and all chemical processing has been fully decoupled from the mine site, with downstream hydrometallurgical work to be conducted at a separate pre-permitted industrial facility. The mine site sequence is now limited to quarrying, crushing, grinding, magnetic separation and concentrate transport — removing the most complex chemical activities from the ecologically sensitive location without materially altering project economics.

    The race between European policy and non-European capital

    The Norra Kärr concession arrives at a moment when US capital is already moving faster than European policy. Energy Fuels has acquired Vacuumschmelze, Europe’s largest permanent magnet manufacturer. USA Rare Earths has taken stakes in French refiner Carester and UK metallisation company Lescoma Metals. The pattern mirrors the US approach of deploying public capital as a catalyst for private investment — a mechanism that has mobilised significant private sector activity in the United States while European critical minerals policy has generated frameworks without equivalent capital deployment.

    The next steps for Norra Kärr are an updated pre-feasibility study, environmental permit application under Sweden’s Environmental Code — benefiting from 15 years of baseline data and the project’s reduced footprint — and engagement with CRMA strategic project designation. Sweden is implementing a single-authority environmental permitting framework that should be operational when the Norra Kärr application is submitted, potentially reducing timeline and procedural complexity. The company targets first production within four years.

    A genuinely sovereign European heavy rare earth supply chain requires not just Norra Kärr but separation capacity, alloying capability and magnet manufacturing infrastructure built by European entities with European capital. The mining lease provides the upstream anchor. Whether European policy can move quickly enough to build the remaining links before non-European capital occupies those positions is the defining industrial sovereignty question of this decade.

  • Azzuro Resources Intercepts 21m at 1.70% Copper and 0.85g/t Gold at Mongolia’s Red Hill VMS Discovery as Shallow Gold Zone Extends to 600 Metres

    Azzuro Resources Intercepts 21m at 1.70% Copper and 0.85g/t Gold at Mongolia’s Red Hill VMS Discovery as Shallow Gold Zone Extends to 600 Metres

    Azzuro Resources has reported a second batch of assay results from its 2026 drilling programme at the Red Hill copper-gold project in southwestern Mongolia, with hole MU2603 returning 21.45 metres at 1.70% copper, 0.85 grams per tonne gold, 16.86 grams per tonne silver and 0.21% zinc from 83.2 metres — confirming a thick massive sulphide zone with higher copper grades than the comparable 2025 due diligence hole drilled up-dip from the same system.

    The interval includes a higher-grade core of 8.0 metres at 3.27% copper, 1.04 grams gold, 18.09 grams silver and 0.20% zinc from 95 metres. The hole also returned subsidiary mineralised intervals beneath the main lens, including a semi-massive sulphide vein grading 2.67% copper from 126.95 metres, suggesting the system extends beyond a single narrow intercept.

    MU2602, drilled to test the eastern extension beneath a surface hydrothermal breccia, returned an 18.25-metre copper zone averaging 0.67% copper from 68.75 metres, including a four-metre high-grade sub-interval at 1.51% copper, alongside a separate shallow gold zone of 12 metres averaging 0.74 grams gold from 19 metres and a three-metre interval at 1.58 grams gold.

    Reverse circulation drilling north of the main volcanogenic massive sulphide system is defining a near-surface oxide gold-silver zone that Azzuro says may extend across approximately 600 metres of strike. Two of three RC holes returned gold intersections: MURC02 hit 5.0 metres at 0.63 grams gold from five metres, and MURC03 returned 9.0 metres at 0.59 grams gold and 4.17 grams silver from surface.

    Managing Director Gan-Ochir Zunduisuren said the MU2603 results exceeded expectations and reinforced confidence in a substantial high-grade copper-gold VMS system, while the shallow gold zone adds meaningful exploration optionality. Nine additional diamond holes remain pending, with assays expected in July alongside integration of geology, drilling and geophysical datasets including DHEM, gravity, resistivity and chargeability results.

    Azzuro completed its 100% acquisition of the Red Hill project in April 2026. The mining licence covers 79.14 hectares and is valid to 2045.