MINEX Forum

Website: Eurasia.com

  • Critical Metals Proposes $835 Million All-Stock Acquisition of European Lithium to Consolidate Full Ownership of Greenland Rare Earth Project

    Critical Metals Proposes $835 Million All-Stock Acquisition of European Lithium to Consolidate Full Ownership of Greenland Rare Earth Project

    Critical Metals has proposed to acquire Australian-listed European Lithium in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $835 million, in a deal designed to consolidate full ownership of its Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland while eliminating its largest shareholder from its register.

    Under a letter of intent announced on Monday, Critical Metals is offering 0.035 of a common share for each European Lithium share, based on closing prices and exchange rates on 22 April. Shares in Critical Metals rose 5% on the announcement, lifting its market capitalisation to $1.5 billion. The company described the combination as a logical transaction that creates minimal dilution for its own shareholders while increasing its public float.

    European Lithium currently owns approximately 34% of Critical Metals’ outstanding shares, which carried a market value of $540 million as of 22 April. Upon completion of the deal, Critical Metals intends to cancel those shares — removing a dominant holder from its register and, the company says, making it more attractive to future strategic investors and potential acquirers.

    The transaction would also transfer to Critical Metals the remaining 7.5% interest in Tanbreez previously held by European Lithium, bringing its ownership of the project to 100%. Critical Metals secured a 92.5% stake last October and received Greenland government approval for the indirect licence transfer shortly before the deal announcement.

    Located at Killavaat Alannguat in southern Greenland, Tanbreez is regarded as one of the largest undeveloped heavy rare earth assets outside China. A preliminary economic assessment estimated a project value of $3 billion based on a 4.7 billion tonne resource across two deposits. Offtake agreements have already been secured for three-quarters of future production, and the project has been lined up for $120 million in US Export-Import Bank financing. Critical Metals is targeting first ore production in the fourth quarter of 2028 or the first quarter of 2029.

  • Boliden Beats Earnings Forecasts Despite Garpenberg Seismic Damage as Zinc Mine Faces Extended Capacity Constraints Through 2027

    Boliden Beats Earnings Forecasts Despite Garpenberg Seismic Damage as Zinc Mine Faces Extended Capacity Constraints Through 2027

    Swedish mining group Boliden has reported first-quarter adjusted earnings well above analyst expectations despite a production halt and significant damage at its Garpenberg zinc mine caused by abnormal seismic activity in March — though the incident has left a lasting mark on the mine’s output capacity that will extend into 2027.

    The company’s quarterly operating profit, excluding a revaluation of process inventory, rose to 4.4 billion Swedish crowns ($475.7 million) from 2.6 billion crowns in the same period last year, beating an analyst consensus of 4.06 billion crowns. The strong result was supported in part by record high gold prices, which at times exceeded $5,000 per ounce during the January to March period, boosting by-product precious metals revenue from Boliden’s mining and smelting operations.

    Garpenberg, one of Boliden’s largest and most strategically important mines and a key source of zinc and silver concentrates, suffered a production halt following the seismic event. The company confirmed that production will resume in the second quarter but at a low pace, with milled volume guidance for the mine reduced to 1.5 million tonnes and zinc grade revised down to 2.7%. Silver grade guidance was nudged up to 100 grams per tonne from 95 grams per tonne. Looking further ahead, 2027 milled volume is now estimated at 2.3 million tonnes — below previous capacity levels.

    Despite the setback, Boliden said its plan to invest in a new hoist at Garpenberg remains in place, with an ambition to reach production of 4.5 million tonnes by 2032, though the company cautioned that this guidance remains preliminary given significant uncertainties. Overall investment plans for 2026 were reiterated without change.

  • Turkey to Launch Critical Minerals Roadmap With Beylikova Rare Earth Project at Its Core, Minister Announces

    Turkey to Launch Critical Minerals Roadmap With Beylikova Rare Earth Project at Its Core, Minister Announces

    Turkey is preparing to officially unveil its Critical Raw Materials strategy in the coming weeks, with the Beylikova rare earth elements project positioned as the centrepiece of a national vision that links mineral extraction to deep processing and high-technology industrial development, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has announced.

    Speaking on 28 April at the OECD Critical Minerals Forum in Istanbul, part of the OECD Emerging Markets Forum Series, Bayraktar described Beylikova as potentially one of the largest rare earth element deposits in the world. State mining company Eti Maden is working intensively with partners to establish a full value chain at the site, and a pilot plant is already operational and moving toward industrial-scale production including separation and processing capabilities. “We will produce rare earth oxides needed for permanent magnets in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors,” Bayraktar said.

    The minister framed the forthcoming roadmap — based on findings from the 2025 Critical and Strategic Minerals Report — within Turkey’s broader energy transformation. More than 62% of the country’s installed electricity capacity already comes from renewable sources, and Turkey is targeting an expansion of wind and solar capacity to 120 gigawatts by 2035. Plans to build approximately 40 gigawatts of High Voltage Direct Current transmission lines to strengthen grid integration add further urgency to securing domestic critical mineral supply.

    “These represent a broad structural transformation, with critical minerals at its core,” Bayraktar said. “In this new era, it is not enough to have resources — you must be able to process them. Turkey is building exactly that, combining resource extraction with deep processing capacity and high-tech industrial value creation.”

  • Altynalmas Flags National Bank Gold Monopoly as Key Risk in AIX IPO Prospectus as Company Targets 750,000 Ounce Output by 2035

    Altynalmas Flags National Bank Gold Monopoly as Key Risk in AIX IPO Prospectus as Company Targets 750,000 Ounce Output by 2035

    Kazakhstan’s second-largest gold producer Altynalmas has identified the National Bank of Kazakhstan’s statutory right to purchase all refined gold produced in the country as a material risk to its business, according to the prospectus published ahead of the company’s initial public offering on the Astana International Exchange.

    Under Kazakhstan’s Law on Precious Metals and Precious Stones, the National Bank holds a legislated priority right to buy all refined gold produced domestically before it can be exported or sold to third parties. In practice, Altynalmas delivers virtually all of its output — in doré bar form — to the state refinery, with the refined gold then sold to the National Bank at prices linked to the monthly average LBMA gold price in US dollars, converted at the official dollar-tenge exchange rate. The prospectus, published in English only, warns that this arrangement concentrates credit risk in a single institutional counterparty and prevents the company from accessing international commodity markets directly.

    The regulatory structure also creates specific challenges for project financing. Many international lenders and project finance banks require that gold be processed at an internationally accredited facility and sold on international markets as security for loan repayment — conditions that the National Bank’s priority purchase right makes difficult or impossible to satisfy, the prospectus states.

    On production, the prospectus confirms that Altynalmas mined 433,000 ounces — approximately 13.5 tonnes — of gold in 2025, down from 511,000 ounces in 2024. The company holds proven and probable reserves of 4.4 million ounces under the JORC standard, alongside measured, indicated and inferred resources of 22.3 million ounces — sufficient, at last year’s production rate, to sustain at least a decade of operations from existing reserves alone.

    Near-term output is projected at 380,000 to 430,000 ounces annually through to 2029, supported primarily by existing and expanding assets. A more significant step-up is anticipated from 2030 to 2035, when production is forecast to rise to between 600,000 and 750,000 ounces per year — a level that would make Altynalmas one of the more significant mid-tier gold producers in Central Asia.

  • QAZ Gold BK Plans Five-Year Gold Exploration Programme at Berezovskaya Site in East Kazakhstan

    QAZ Gold BK Plans Five-Year Gold Exploration Programme at Berezovskaya Site in East Kazakhstan

    Kazakhstani gold exploration company QAZ Gold BK has announced plans to conduct geological exploration work at the Berezovskaya licence area in the Samarsky District of East Kazakhstan Region between 2026 and 2030, according to a notice of planned activities filed by the company.

    The programme covers the exploration of gold-bearing ores across a licence territory of 13.65 square kilometres, located 150 kilometres southeast of Ust-Kamenogorsk and five kilometres northeast of the district centre of Samarskoe village. The company holds a five-year exploration licence issued on 23 November 2025. It previously operated across ten licence blocks covering 22.5 square kilometres from 2021, but returned four blocks to the state in 2025.

    Active fieldwork will be concentrated on an area of approximately 0.47 square kilometres across five named target zones: Berezovsky, Kanavy 73, Shest Kanav, Shirotny and Kanavy 19-46. The exploration programme includes topographic and geodetic surveys, route prospecting, core drilling and surface excavation works including the clearance of old workings and the sinking of prospecting trenches. Geological teams will work on site for two to five months each year.

    The planned scope of work includes 60 linear kilometres of survey traverses, collection of 120 samples and drilling of 123 inclined boreholes totalling 7,395 linear metres. Eight old mining workings totalling 915 linear metres will also be cleared and examined. A second phase will encompass geomechanical and hydrological studies, culminating in a final resource report prepared to KAZRC standards and formal registration of resources and reserves with state authorities. The company noted that the licence area is home to foxes, wolves and occasional bears.

    QAZ Gold BK is registered in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Its co-owners are listed as Altyн Astau LLP, Rauana Kanapiyanova and Diana Kanapiyanova. The sole owner and director of Altyn Astau — a company focused on precious metal and rare metal ore extraction registered in Almaty — is Wang Godun.

  • Turkish Coal Miners Detained on Hunger Strike After Marching to Ankara Over Five Months of Unpaid Wages

    Turkish Coal Miners Detained on Hunger Strike After Marching to Ankara Over Five Months of Unpaid Wages

    More than 110 coal miners from Doruk Madencilik were detained and subsequently launched a hunger strike outside Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on Tuesday after a weeks-long march to Ankara ended in confrontation with police — the latest flashpoint in a deepening labour dispute over months of unpaid wages, denied compensation and what workers describe as dangerous working conditions.

    The miners, represented by the Independent Mine Workers’ Union, had begun their march on 11 April from the Mihalıççık district of Eskişehir province. Police detained union leader Gökay Çakır, organising specialist Başaran Aksu and 31 miners when the group attempted to reach the ministry building. The workers responded by banging their hard hats on the ground and whistling through the night, before 110 miners commenced a hunger strike outside the ministry the following morning. “We came to Ankara in our shrouds, we are here,” the union said in a statement. “We will not be deterred by detentions.”

    At the core of the dispute are approximately five months of unpaid salaries, as well as severance and notice pay the workers say has been withheld both before and after the mine was taken over by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund — known as TMSF — in 2016, on alleged ties to the Gülenist organisation designated by the Turkish state as FETÖ. The mine was subsequently transferred to Yıldızlar SSS Holding in 2022, and according to the union, labour rights violations escalated sharply following that transfer. The workforce shrank from approximately 1,200 to between 250 and 300 workers as payment disruptions mounted.

    Beyond wages, the miners are demanding an end to what they describe as involuntary unpaid leave being imposed on current workers, reinstatement of employees dismissed for union activity, and the creation of a safe working environment compliant with occupational health and safety standards. Workers say the company is forcing them to use outdated equipment. The union also called for the mine’s nationalisation to secure long-term employment and operational sustainability.

    Yıldızlar SSS Holding, a family-owned conglomerate chaired by businessman Sebahattin Yıldız, operates across mining, energy and ceramics. Its subsidiaries include silver producer Eti Gümüş, Nesko Maden and Söğütsen Seramik.

  • Navoiyuran Launches Commercial Production at Kizilkok Uranium Mine With Low-Cost Oxygen Leaching Technology

    Navoiyuran Launches Commercial Production at Kizilkok Uranium Mine With Low-Cost Oxygen Leaching Technology

    Uzbekistan’s state uranium producer Navoiyuran has commenced full commercial production at the Kizilkok deposit in Navoiy Region, following a pilot industrial phase that began in December 2024, the company’s press service has confirmed.

    The deposit is being developed using in-situ leaching with gaseous oxygen as the oxidising agent in a mini-reagent technology process. Navoiyuran says the approach allows significantly more uranium to be extracted while reducing production costs by a factor of two to three compared with conventional methods.

    Kizilkok holds uranium reserves of 9,400 tonnes and resources of approximately 10,900 tonnes, making it the third-largest asset in Navoiyuran’s portfolio after the Sugrali deposit at 20,800 tonnes and Uchkuduk at 14,800 tonnes. Mining at the site is planned to continue for 15 years, with annual extraction of up to 1,200 tonnes of uranium at peak capacity. The company also notes that the northern part of the licence area holds potential for further resource expansion.

    The commissioning of Kizilkok follows a year of strong output growth: Navoiyuran increased uranium production by 35% in 2025, reaching 7,000 tonnes. The expansion is set to continue in 2026 with the planned launch of three additional deposits — Arnasay, Yuzhny Zhongeldi and Vostochny Agron — alongside Western Kizilkok. The company has indicated that the increase in mining volumes will be accompanied by a corresponding expansion of processing capacity.

  • Zinnwald Lithium Secures German Permit to Build Exploration Tunnel at 193 Million Tonne Lithium Project

    Zinnwald Lithium Secures German Permit to Build Exploration Tunnel at 193 Million Tonne Lithium Project

    Zinnwald Lithium has received a permit from the Saxon Mining Authority to construct an approximately one-kilometre exploration tunnel at its Zinnwald Lithium Project in Germany, clearing a significant regulatory hurdle for one of Europe’s most advanced hard-rock lithium developments.

    The permit, granted to the company’s German subsidiary Zinnwald Lithium GmbH, allows construction of a tunnel from a portal at the former Zinnwald Border Station site — a location that has been largely idle since the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area in 2007 — adjacent to federal highway B170 between the villages of Zinnwald and Altenberg. The tunnel is valid until 31 December 2027 and may be extended.

    The exploration tunnel is designed to gather geotechnical, seismic and hydrogeological data on the ore body and will enable the extraction of up to 2,000 tonnes of bulk samples for metallurgical testing and product qualification. According to the company’s pre-feasibility study published in March 2025, a portion of the tunnel alignment may be incorporated into permanent mine infrastructure subject to future regulatory approvals — a provision that could reduce construction costs and timelines if the project advances to production.

    The permit does not authorise mining operations. Commercial production from the deposit will require additional permits, including the completion of an environmental impact assessment and a public consultation process.

    The Zinnwald project hosts a measured and indicated mineral resource estimate of 193.5 million tonnes and a proven and probable reserve of 128.1 million tonnes, with the project targeting production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Chief executive Anton du Plessis described the permit as “an important step in the ongoing de-risking of the Zinnwald Lithium Project” following what he called a comprehensive submission process.

  • Central Asia’s Critical Minerals Agreements Are Multiplying — But the Gap Between Diplomacy and Bankable Projects Remains Wide

    Central Asia’s Critical Minerals Agreements Are Multiplying — But the Gap Between Diplomacy and Bankable Projects Remains Wide

    Central Asia has spent the past three years accumulating a growing stack of critical minerals agreements, memoranda of understanding and strategic partnership frameworks with Western governments. The harder question — how many of those agreements are actually translating into funded, operational mining and processing projects — has a less comfortable answer.

    The backdrop is a genuine and deepening structural problem in global critical mineral supply. According to the International Energy Agency, lithium demand rose by nearly 30% in 2024, while demand for nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements grew by 6 to 8%. Yet investment in the sector grew by only 5% in the same year, down sharply from 14% in 2023, with real growth after inflation at just 2%. Capital deployment is becoming more cautious precisely as demand signals intensify. And concentration is worsening: the average market share of the top three refining nations for key energy minerals rose from approximately 82% in 2020 to 86% in 2024, with around 90% of supply growth coming from a single dominant producer in each category — Indonesia for nickel, China for cobalt, graphite and rare earths. By 2035, China is projected to retain more than 60% of refined lithium and cobalt and around 80% of battery-grade graphite and rare earth supply.

    Central Asia enters this landscape with significant geological endowments across minerals relevant to energy, defence, metallurgy and advanced manufacturing. The diplomatic machinery has moved quickly to connect that geology to Western strategic interests. The US launched the C5+1 Critical Minerals Dialogue in February 2024. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan both joined the US-led Minerals Security Partnership Forum. The EU signed an MoU with Uzbekistan in April 2024 and reinforced its Kazakhstan cooperation with a roadmap for 2025 to 2026, while launching the EBRD-administered GROW CRM programme to support project identification and feasibility studies. The US-Kazakhstan MoU signed in November 2025 has been linked to a concrete tungsten project involving Tau-Ken Samruk and Cove Capital, with reported transaction value of $1.1 billion, potential US EXIM financing and planned local refining in Kazakhstan. The EU-Central Asia Summit in April 2025 announced a €12 billion Global Gateway investment package covering transport, energy and critical raw materials.

    But a regional investment package is not the same as a pipeline of bankable mineral projects. The most important filter, as one analysis puts it, is not the signing of agreements but the conversion of agreements into technically credible, economically viable and institutionally governable projects. That conversion rate is low — and the reasons are structural rather than incidental.

    The first barrier is economic. Critical minerals projects are capital-intensive, price-sensitive and exposed to long development timelines. The sharp slowdown in investment growth in 2024 hit emerging-market projects particularly hard, as lower mineral prices and tightening financing conditions raised the threshold for commercial viability. The second barrier is the midstream gap. Central Asia has extraction potential, but processing and refining are where economic value is actually captured — and that is precisely where the region’s capabilities remain least developed. China is already moving to fill that gap, establishing new processing facilities in Uzbekistan for iron ore and copper. The third barrier is stakeholder misalignment. Governments want localisation, industrial upgrading and political control. Investors want returns, risk protection and exit routes. Industrial consumers want stable offtake, quality and ESG compliance. State-owned enterprises dominate mining in all five Central Asian countries, making project governance structurally complex. The fourth barrier is infrastructure: critical minerals move on railways, roads, energy grids and through customs corridors, not through diplomatic declarations, and Chinese and Russian capital already dominate the logistics networks that connect the region to markets.

    China’s position in Central Asia illustrates the difficulty Western actors face. It is built not on memoranda but on investment, project financing, engineering and procurement capacity, infrastructure integration and processing control. Zijin Mining holds a 75% stake in Zarafshon, Tajikistan’s largest gold producer. Chinese companies have expanded into antimony and lithium across the region. For Western governments entering through political frameworks and MoUs, execution requires a fundamentally different type of architecture — one that defines not only the resource target but the processing route, logistics corridor, financing structure, offtake mechanism, governance model and risk allocation. Without those elements, the alliance remains diplomatic rather than industrial.

    The most advanced partnerships in the region — the UK-Kazakhstan rhenium and vanadium projects, the US-Kazakhstan tungsten arrangement, and Uzbekistan’s emerging cooperation with the EU, Traxys, Orano and Metso — point toward what a credible model looks like. Whether they evolve from announcements into contractual, financed and operational structures will determine whether Central Asia’s critical minerals moment translates into lasting economic transformation or remains, for Western investors, largely a story of strategic intent.

  • EU and US Sign Critical Minerals Partnership and Action Plan Covering Full Supply Chain From Exploration to Recycling

    EU and US Sign Critical Minerals Partnership and Action Plan Covering Full Supply Chain From Exploration to Recycling

    The European Union and the United States have formalised a strategic partnership on critical minerals, signing a Memorandum of Understanding and agreeing a joint Critical Minerals Action Plan in Washington DC that commits both sides to coordinated action across the full mineral value chain — from exploration and extraction through processing, refining, recycling and recovery.

    The MoU was signed by EU Trade and Economic Security Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while the accompanying Action Plan was set out by Šefčovič and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Together, the two instruments formalise a partnership that traces its origins to commitments made at a Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting held in Washington on 4 February 2026, alongside Japan, and to a joint EU-US statement issued in August 2025.

    The MoU covers bilateral cooperation across the entire supply chain and encompasses support for innovation, investment and geological mapping, as well as both supply-side and demand-side measures. The Action Plan goes further, setting out a framework for exploring a broad range of trade policy instruments designed to reinforce coordinated international action. These include border-adjusted price floors — a mechanism that has been under active discussion among allied governments as a tool to protect non-Chinese producers from market distortion — alongside standards-based markets, price gap subsidies and offtake agreements.

    Cooperation under the Action Plan is also expected to extend to the development of common standards for mining, processing and recycling; joint research and innovation programmes; stockpiling strategies; and mechanisms for rapid response to supply disruptions. Both sides intend to advance the critical minerals agenda through relevant international forums including the G7 and the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement, known as FORGE, with the Action Plan explicitly paving the way toward a possible plurilateral trade initiative with a wider group of like-minded partners.

    The agreement reflects the convergence of European and American concerns about the fragility of critical mineral supply chains and the dominant position China holds across multiple points of the value chain — from mining through processing and refining — for minerals essential to the energy transition, advanced manufacturing and defence.