Trafigura was behind a major part of the just over 20,000 tons requested for withdrawal on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public. The orders cut available inventories of copper on the LME in Asia to the lowest in a year.

Mercuria and other traders have also been taking delivery from the LME in recent months, the people said. Bloomberg previously reported that Mercuria had been a major buyer of copper on the exchange.

The withdrawals come amid growing signs of tightness in China: the Shanghai copper market is in the steepest backwardation in nearly two years and inventories on the exchange witnessed record drawdowns.

Traders say that Chinese copper buying has been strong in spite of concerns about the trade war with the US. At the same time, the threat of tariffs on American copper imports has spurred a rush to ship copper to the US, draining stocks in the rest of the world.

Available, “on-warrant” LME stocks dropped to 108,725 tons as a result of Friday’s drawdown. That includes 66,700 tons in Europe, which traders say is almost all Russian material, for which there are fewer buyers.

Available LME copper stocks in Asian warehouses fell to 42,025 tons, the lowest since May 2024. Most of that was in Kaohsiung, the Taiwanese port that accounted for more than 80% of Friday’s requested drawdowns.

Mercuria’s head of metals Kostas Bintas told Bloomberg in March that the rush to ship metal to the US risked leaving the rest of the world perilously short of copper, and predicted that prices could hit record highs.

While prices plunged in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariff announcement on April 2, they have since rebounded. On Friday, benchmark LME copper prices rose as much as 2.7% to $9,485.50 a ton.

Spokespeople for Trafigura and Mercuria declined to comment.

“The LME monitors its markets closely and has the necessary controls in place to ensure continued market orderliness,” a spokesperson said.

(By Jack Farchy and Alfred Cang)

On the COMEX, copper for July delivery rose for a second straight session, gaining 2.5% to $4.743 per pound ($10,434 per tonne).

China’s Commerce Ministry said it had taken note of US officials’ interest in talks and was evaluating the possibility of engagement. The development offered some relief to markets rattled by escalating trade tensions.

Copper has come under pressure from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, which have raised concerns about slowing economic growth and weakening demand for industrial metals. So far, Beijing has rebuffed requests for direct talks between the two leaders.

Adding to the bullish sentiment, copper stockpiles in Shanghai have dropped significantly.

On Friday, available inventories on the London Metal Exchange also declined, following a large drawdown of material stored in Taiwan.

Copper and the new resource spheres of control

MINING.COM and The Northern Miner mapped global copper production through a geopolitical lens, dividing the world into five “spheres of control”: American, Chinese, Russian, Coalition of the Willing, and Undrafted.

These groupings reflect geographic, social, cultural, and economic ties—as well as potential alignments in an increasingly polarized world.

Explore the full infographic:

The projects – which would supply copper, palladium and other minerals – have been granted FAST-41 status, a federal initiative launched in 2015 to streamline approvals of critical infrastructure.

The Trump administration last month had named an initial 10 projects to the list and said that more would be added in the future.

All of the projects are listed on a US federal website where their permitting progress can be publicly tracked, part of what the administration calls a push for greater transparency and faster permitting.

The latest 10 include a proposed copper and nickel mine in Minnesota from a joint venture of Glencore and Teck Resources; a New Mexico uranium project from Energy Fuels; expansion of a Montana palladium project from Sibanye Stillwater; an Alaskan silver project from Hecla; and a Georgia titanium dioxide project from Chemours.

South32’s Hermosa zinc-manganese project in Arizona was fast-tracked by former President Joe Biden, the first mine to receive the FAST-41 treatment.

President Donald Trump also last month ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all US critical minerals imports, a major escalation in his dispute with global trade partners and an attempt to pressure industry leader China.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

The initiative, led by US President Donald Trump’s senior Africa advisor Massad Boulos, is designed to accompany the bilateral minerals pacts being ironed out with both nations, which would see billions of dollars of Western investments in the region.

“The (agreement) with the DRC is at a much bigger scale, because it’s a much bigger country and it has much more resources, but Rwanda also has a lot of resources and capacities and potential in the area of mining as well,” Boulos told Reuters.

DRC is currently the world’s largest cobalt producer and the leading copper producer in Africa. The country also produces nearly 70% of the world’s tantalum, extracted from coltan. Its eastern provinces hold significant reserves of tin, tungsten and additional coltan deposits.

For decades, Congo has been at odds with the neighbouring Rwanda due to ethnic tensions and control over the region’s natural resources. The conflict escalated earlier this year when the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels attacked and seized control over parts of eastern Congo, including the strategic mining hub of Walikale.

As part of the US peace mediation process, both African nations are expected to submit separate drafts of a peace agreement on Friday, with meeting scheduled in mid-May involving US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the DRC and Rwanda to finalize the accord, according to Reuters.

For the peace agreement to succeed, Boulos said several key security concerns must be addressed: Rwanda must withdraw its troops and cease support for the M23 rebels, while the DRC must address Rwandan concerns with militias like the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

A multinational oversight committee, including the US, Qatar, France and Togo, is monitoring the progress of the peace deal, Boulos added.

“Listing is an option,” Ajay Goel, chief financial officer of Mumbai-listed Vedanta Ltd., said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It is hard to give a timeline definitely, but it’s under active consideration.”

He did not provide details on the size or location of the potential float.

The company regained control of the Konkola Copper Mines assets in Zambia last year, after the southern African nation’s government triggered its provisional liquidation about five years earlier, accusing Vedanta of lying about expansion plans and paying too little tax. The company has pledged to invest $1 billion in the operation as part of negotiations with the state to secure its return to Konkola.

Konkola boasts resources with copper concentrations much higher than those in South America — today’s biggest global source of the metal needed to build electric cars and artificial intelligence data centers. But the deposits are also deep underground, where vast rivers make the operation one of the world’s wettest.

Read More: Mining billionaire Agarwal moves closer to breaking up his empire

MABC’s 2025 Economic Impact Study assesses the potential economic impact of 18 proposed critical mineral mines, six precious metal mines and three steelmaking coal mines.

The independent study examines 27 mining projects in advanced stages of development. Of the 27 projects assessed, 21 are new mining projects and six are extensions to existing mines.

BC mineral producers have among the lowest carbon footprints globally and are world leading suppliers of responsibly-produced materials, according to the report, essential for technologies like EV batteries, smartphones, MRI scanners, wind turbines and jet engines.

The study concludes the near-term economic impact of project construction represents over C$41 billion in near-term investment, thousands of jobs that will generate C$27 billion in labour income, and more than C$12 billion in tax revenues.

Mine construction would result in C$20 billion worth of goods and services being purchased from mine suppliers across the province, MABC said.

The study estimates the operation of these mines over several decades could reach C$984 billion in economic activity.

“BC has the minerals, precious metals and steelmaking coal the world needs. Mining has the potential to drive a new wave of economic growth – creating jobs, strengthening local and First Nations communities, and generating revenues for government services,” MABC CEO Michael Goehring said in a news release.

But British Columbia’s mining projects face challenging permitting backlogs. Last year, the province’s exploration sector had over 60 critical mineral projects waiting for permits in a C$38 billion ($27 billion) pileup of economic opportunities.

“BC and Canada must take urgent and bold action to assert our economic sovereignty amidst global trade disruptions and the potential for escalating trade wars. Persistent permitting delays must be addressed to accelerate the development of mining,” Goehring said.

Last year, Canada and British Columbia announced an investment of C$195 million ($142 million) into critical minerals infrastructure in northwest BC, aimed at bolstering development and safety within the region.

“The responsible development of BC’s critical minerals, precious metals, and steelmaking coal resources can secure BC’s economic future, resiliency and long-term prosperity. It’s time to get more mines built,” said Goehring.

The full report is here.

Launched in late 2023 by the US Department of Defense, the Open Price Exploration for National Security AI metals program is an attempt to counter China’s sweeping control of the critical minerals sector, as Reuters reported last year.

Now, more than 30 mining companies, manufacturers and investors – including auto giant Volkswagen – have joined the Critical Minerals Forum non-profit and will be its first users, according to Rob Strayer, a former US diplomat and the organization’s president.

“Everyone in the critical minerals sector is looking for more price transparency,” said Seth Goldstein, a lithium industry analyst with Morningstar. “Any tool like the CMF that could help would be welcome.”

Other members include copper miner South32, rare earths producer MP Materials and defense contractor RTX. The CMF held its first meeting with members in November. The privatization and CMF’s membership have not previously been reported.

Armed with the AI model, the CMF aims to help manufacturers curb their reliance on China by signing more metal supply deals with Western mines, according to more than two dozen industry consultants, purchasing agents, analysts, regulators and investors who told Reuters the program reflects one of the boldest efforts to date to transform the ways certain metals are bought and sold.

The goal is for the AI model to calculate what a metal should cost when labor, processing and other costs are factored in – and Chinese market manipulation is factored out – and thus give buyer and seller confidence in a deal’s economics.

Some deals with the CMF are beginning to take shape. Nevada officials this week said they would work with the CMF and its AI model to help attract copper smelting to the state. The US has only two copper smelters and as such imports nearly half of its demand for the red metal.

The program has already faced skepticism over whether it can achieve the goal of transforming the long-established ways metals are bought and sold.

Yet it is aimed less at heavily traded metals – such as aluminum – and toward lightly traded metals or metals that see heavy overproduction from some in an attempt to sway market pricing.

For example, the CMF model could help manufacturers forecast available nickel supplies in 2028 if the US were to impose a 100% tariff on that metal from Indonesia, the top global producer.

That data that could help a manufacturer determine whether to invest in a US nickel mine or agree to buy its future production, a step that would help obtain financing for a mine’s construction.

In such a scenario, the nickel buyer would use the AI model’s data to negotiate a long-term deal for guaranteed supply, regardless of whether Chinese miners boost production and drive down market prices, as they have done in recent years.

The CMF’s aim with the AI model does assume that a buyer would be comfortable paying more than the market price for a metal if supply were guaranteed.

China squeeze

The CMF’s entrance into the complex metals markets comes as Beijing restricts critical minerals exports, the very kind of market interference that the CMF officials said underscores the need to build more US mines and processing facilities to power the energy transition.

Prices on the London Metal Exchange and other futures exchanges for nickel, cobalt and some other battery metals have been dominated in recent years by overproduction from Chinese miners operating at a loss in Indonesia and Congo to boost market share.

Many niche-but-essential battery minerals on which Beijing has imposed export controls are not traded or lightly traded, including rare earths – a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion – as well as germanium and gallium.

In response to a request for comment about the CMF, the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, said that China manages its exports of rare earths in accordance with rules from the World Trade Organization.

“China will continue to work with other countries to jointly undertake the responsibility of global rare earths supply,” said embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu.

Volkswagen and some other CMF members said they see the CMF as helping boost visibility into what can be an opaque critical minerals supply chain. MP Materials and RTX did not respond to requests for comment.

US President Donald Trump has already ordered his administration to work with private developers to boost US crucial minerals production, a step that could be aided by the data CMF aims to provide markets, program officials said. The president has also launched a study into potential tariffs on all US minerals imports.

Drawing on its government connections, the CMF aims to connect mining projects with potential investors and manufacturers needing more-secure metals supply, said Strayer.

Massachusetts-based rare earths processing startup Phoenix Tailings hopes the CMF can help create US-based prices for minerals tied to actual production costs, said CEO Nick Myers.

Phoenix aims to use data from the CMF as negotiating leverage with potential customers, including manufacturers that are themselves CMF members, Myers said. “In a sector that is opaque, it is one of the tools to get more information,” Myers said.

Not all market observers are convinced that the CMF’s AI model is revolutionary.

“I’ve tried to politely say I think this is worthless,” said Ian Lange, who teaches mining economics at the Colorado School of Mines. Lange contrasted the goals of the Pentagon’s AI model with the much-larger and more-complex global oil market.

“Can we predict the price of oil better now than five years ago? The answer is no. Machine learning doesn’t help,” Lange said.

‘Encourage more visibility’

The Pentagon’s AI model is being trained using more than 70 mining-related data sets and aims to guide investment decisions out for at least 15 years based on how unexpected market shocks – export restrictions, for example – could affect the production or price of a metal.

FactSet, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and other pricing providers are supplying data, as is the US Commerce Department, officials said.

It is access to analysis of that data – some of which is not public – that the CMF says it believes sets the Pentagon’s AI program apart from ChatGPT or other AI programs.

And that data is the CMF’s biggest cost, part of the reason why the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will fund it for the next few years while the CMF determines whether to charge all members or create a tiered structure with basic members getting free access and others paying for more granular data, officials said.

S&P Global, AI developer Charles River Analytics, and software firm Exiger with price reporting agency partner Metal Miner have developed the model, according to the Pentagon.

S&P Global declined to comment. Charles River Analytics did not respond to a request for comment. Exiger said it believes its data can help forecast a material’s cost and availability and boost supply chain visibility.

The CMF has been organized as a nonprofit trade association with a board of directors comprised of its members. Its staffing is small – fewer than 10 employees – and its annual budget is not disclosed.

DARPA does not have a representative on the CMF board, but is funding the program through at least 2029 and plans to transfer the AI model’s intellectual property to the CMF by the beginning of 2027, officials said.

There are no plans to make the CMF a for-profit entity, although there may be charges in the future for access to more detailed data sets, officials said.

The CMF is launching a campaign to attract more members – especially from the semiconductor, aviation and defense industries – and offering free membership for the next 14 months while the Pentagon funds data collection, Strayer said.

Foreign governments are also studying whether to join the CMF and use its data, including copper-rich Zambia and cobalt-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, CMF officials said, adding they aim to make the program international in scope to boost metals market transparency.

The Zambian and DRC embassies in Washington, DC, did not respond to requests for comment.

As Western miners begin to demand green premiums for their metals, those new agreements increasingly require the very market intelligence the CMF model aims to provide.

“Any mechanism that can give you better modeling of markets is obviously enormously valuable,” said Brian Menell, CEO of TechMet, a mining investor and CMF member.

The AI model introduces another variable for the LME to contend with, especially as the exchange is struggling as rivals in Chicago and Shanghai try to take market share for some niche battery metals.

The LME declined to comment.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown and Claudia Parsons)

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) surged to its highest in a month Thursday after the Canadian miner posted strong results for the first quarter of 2025.

For the three-month period, Ivanhoe recognized a record revenue of $973 million, operating profit of $471 million and EBITDA of $585 million, equivalent to a margin of 60%. Its adjusted EBITDA also set a record of $226 million.

These figures drove the company’s profit to $122 million, or $0.10 per share, beating the market forecast of $0.07 a share.

Shares of Ivanhoe jumped as much as 12% to a one-month high of C$13.74 apiece on the positive Q1 results. By 1:20 p.m. in Toronto, the stock traded at C$13.32 for an intraday gain of 8.8%, giving the company a market capitalization of nearly C$18 billion.

Kamoa performance

The first quarter results, said Ivanhoe founder Robert Friedland, reflect the company’s “strong efforts” at the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

From January to March, the copper mine, in which Ivanhoe holds a 39.6% stake, produced a near-record 133,120 tonnes, compared to 86,117 tonnes the same period last year. From March 18, the copper production rate increased to 614,000 tonnes on an annualized basis, setting up a higher monthly output starting in April.

“Kamoa-Kakula is set for record production in the shorter month of April, achieving approximately 50,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate, equivalent to an annualized rate of over 600,000 tonnes – a remarkable achievement,” Friedland said in a press release.

During the quarter, the Phase 1, 2 and 3 concentrators at Kamoa-Kakula achieved a combined milling record of approximately 3.7 million tonnes at an average record recovery rate of 87.4%. This was underpinned by the Phase 3 concentrator operating 20% above its design capacity, Ivanhoe said.

Given these results, the company is maintaining its 2025 production guidance at 520,000 to 580,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate. In 2026, Ivanhoe is targeting approximately 600,000 tonnes of production as the Phase 1 and 2 recoveries improve and the Phase 3 throughput increases.

It also noted that Kamoa-Kakula’s 500,000-tonne-per-annum on-site, direct-to-blister copper smelter, the largest in Africa, is now complete, with the facility undergoing commissioning. Start-up of the smelter is expected in May, with first copper anode production expected in July.

Kipushi progress

Ivanhoe has also maintained its outlook for the Kipushi zinc mine, also in the DRC, on record production in the first quarter.

During Q1, the Kipushi concentrator milled a record 151,403 tonnes of ore at a record average grade of 32.5% zinc, producing 42,736 tonnes of zinc in concentrate at a contained grade of over 53%.

For the year, Ivanhoe expects Kipushi’s zinc output to range between 180,000 and 240,000 tonnes, as the mine continues its ramp up to steady state. The production rate is expected to rise to 250,000 tonnes in 2026 following the completion of ramp-up and debottlenecking activities at Kipushi.

The debottlenecking program, which is targeting a 20% increase in the concentrator’s processing capacity to up to 960,000 tonnes per annum, is about two-thirds complete, Ivanhoe said.

On the COMEX, copper for July delivery climbed 1.6% to $4.683 per pound ($10,302 per tonne) after tumbling 5% on Wednesday. In London, three-month copper futures rose above $9,200 per tonne, recovering part of Wednesday’s 3% loss.

The rebound came after US President Donald Trump said there was a “very good chance” of reaching an agreement with China, although he emphasized it would need to be on US terms. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer added that the US was close to announcing an initial batch of trade deals.

Copper fell 6% in April — its worst monthly performance since mid-2022 — amid growing concerns of a global trade war. Washington is also reviewing whether to impose tariffs on US copper imports.

Adding to the volatility, supply concerns resurfaced in Peru — the world’s third-largest copper producer — as community protests disrupted operations at two major mines. While protests at Antamina (owned by BHP and Glencore) were quickly resolved, logistics at Las Bambas (operated by China’s MMG.) are still being restored.

Meanwhile, the International Copper Study Group now forecasts a larger global surplus of the metal. After meeting with industry leaders in Lisbon, the group revised its 2025 forecast to a surplus of 289,000 tonnes — more than double the 138,000 tonnes from last year and significantly above its previous 2025 estimate of 194,000 tonnes.

The surplus is projected to remain elevated in 2026 at 209,000 tonnes, marking three consecutive years of oversupply.

(With files from Bloomberg)

Following the company’s annual general meeting in Perth on Thursday, chief executive Jakob Stausholm said the board had discussed rare earths this week and would take a “serious look” at their potential role in Rio Tinto’s portfolio.

Stausholm said that as the company continues to optimize its iron ore operations in the Pilbara and advances developments like the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, it’s also reshaping its aluminum, copper, and lithium businesses to support the energy transition.

“So you could say, the next thing is to look a little bit deeper on critical minerals, and you have to think about that, not necessarily as separate mines,” Stausholm told reporters. He noted critical minerals are often present in Rio’s existing operations as a by-product, so “it’s a question of whether we should process them more deliberately.”

Rio Tinto already produces scandium as a by-product of titanium dioxide in Quebec and is weighing the production of gallium from its aluminum operations. Stausholm noted that the absence of a robust spot market for many critical minerals means Rio must ensure demand before scaling up production.

Chairman Dominic Barton echoed the cautious approach, pointing to the limited scale of the sector. “That’s why you don’t typically see the top five [largest miners] in this space,” he said. But with global supply chain diversification becoming a priority, Barton said they are asking themselves whether they should revisit what they already have and assess the economics.

Barton also said critical minerals could help strengthen Rio’s social licence to operate. “It’s interesting how often those with fewer resources are the most vocal,” he added.

Tariffs, Canada and the aluminum market

On tariffs, Barton said Rio could compete under the current global framework, though the company isn’t enthusiastic about trade barriers. “We’re not excited about tariffs, but we’ve got to live with what governments are doing,” he said, adding that if they’re applied uniformly, the company “would manage” because of its position on the cost curve.

Barton welcomed the recent Canadian election results, suggesting they provided a mandate for continued negotiations. He praised the country’s recognition of aluminum’s economic importance, especially given Rio’s workforce in Canada.

As a former Canadian ambassador to China, Barton said China’s economy could absorb short-term tariff impacts.

“Urbanisation, GDP consumption rates, and green infrastructure investment all support long-term steel demand,” he said. “We expect a new equilibrium despite near-term discomfort.”

Working in the US

Stausholm highlighted Rio’s significant presence in the US, including the Kennecott copper mine and smelter in Utah, a boron mine in California, and the Resolution copper project in Arizona.

“The US government is very, very keen on seeing us getting the most out of those assets, so it provides opportunities to serve the US government,” Stausholm said.

He added that tariff policies wouldn’t necessarily affect Rio’s long-term investment decisions. Last month, the US government fast-tracked permitting for the Resolution project, and Stausholm said the joint venture with BHP (ASX: BHP) is moving forward.

“Unlike Australia, the US has seen limited mining development in recent decades—this represents a shift”, he said.

Activist campaign fails

A proposal from UK-based hedge fund Palliser Capital to force a review of Rio’s dual-listed company (DLC) structure failed to gain traction. The company rejected the motion, with Barton stating the board had already reviewed the structure in detail last year with advice from five external consultants.

“All of this work showed that a unification of the DLC would be value destructive for the group and its shareholders,” Barton said.

Only 19.35% of shareholders supported the motion. Under UK law, a 75% majority is required to mandate a review, while 20% support would have have required the company to engage further with shareholders.

On the COMEX, copper for July delivery dropped 5.4% to $4.609 per lb. ($10,139 a tonne) in morning trading. The selloff was driven in part by Chinese investors unwinding arbitrage trades across New York, London, and Shanghai. Wednesday marked the last trading day in China before the May holiday.

Adding to bearish sentiment was a key Chinese manufacturing index that came in significantly below expectations, suggesting factory activity is contracting amid growing trade tensions with the US. The data undercut recent optimism fueled by plunging stockpiles and rising import premiums in China.

Surplus set to double

The downturn also follows a revised forecast from the International Copper Study Group (ICSG), which now expects the global copper surplus to more than double in 2025.

After wrapping up its biannual meeting with industry leaders in Lisbon, the ICSG said it expects the global surplus to reach 289,000 tonnes next year, up from 138,000 tonnes in 2024 and significantly higher than its prior projection of 194,000 tonnes for 2025.

The surplus is forecast to remain elevated in 2026 at 209,000 tonnes, marking a third consecutive year of oversupply following a balanced market in 2023.

According to the group, the growing surplus reflects a mix of rising production and softening demand, with US tariffs and global trade uncertainties weighing on industrial consumption.

The company’s over the counter units trading on US markets (OTCPK:GLNCY) was down by 8.6% in mid-afternoon dealings, recovering from a double digit fall at the open.

Glencore stock is down more than 26% so far this year, affording the company a market capitalization of just under $40 billion. Its market value peaked at the end of Q1 2022 at more than $90 billion.

The Swiss-headquartered miner and commodities trader reported a 30% drop in first-quarter copper production to 167,900 tonnes, but maintained its full-year forecast for 2025 at 850,000-910,000 tonnes, expecting higher output in coming months.

The top of that range would still be down from the company’s 2024 annual production of 952,000 tonnes. The Q1 production miss was primarily due to lower ore mining rates, head grades and overall recoveries at Collahuasi (29,400 tonnes), Antapaccay (20,800 tonnes) and KCC (16,700 tonnes) Glencore said.

First-quarter production of cobalt rose 44% on higher grades and volumes at its Mutanda mine, while nickel production fell 21%, it said. The company kept 2025 production guidance unchanged for both.

Glencore forecasts full-year trading and marketing earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in the middle of its long-term guidance of $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion this year, compared to $3.2 billion in 2024.

“Since quarter-end, financial markets, including commodities, have been highly volatile and unpredictable, responding rapidly to US tariff newsflow and uncertainty.

“In such an unpredictable environment, risk management has been a primary focus, noting the many complex supply chains we are exposed to, including the US, China, Europe and Canada. Despite the ‘noise’, primary commodity trade routes to date have not been meaningfully disrupted.

“However, owing to the various proposed and currently being implemented tariffs across commodity supply chains, it is likely that some physical trade flow re-orientation and dislocation will manifest over the coming months, which may present opportunities for our marketing business,” Glencore said in a statement.

The trading division, whose profit hit a record $6.4 billion in 2022, includes coal, oil, liquefied natural gas and related products, as well as metals.

“Disappointing that in these volatile times with significant regional arbitrage in copper that marketing guidance was not at the top end of the range,” RBC Capital Markets analysts told Reuters.

Glencore’s first-quarter thermal coal production fell 7% to 23.4 million tonnes from 25.2 million tonnes a year before on lower output from its Australian mines.

The company is one of the largest producers and exporters of thermal coal, mining 99.6 million tonnes in 2024.

Glencore said in March it would begin reducing production at its Colombia mine Cerrejon by between 5 million and 10 million tonnes annually.

(With files from Reuters)

The Group, which recently concluded its biannual meeting with key industry players in Lisbon, forecasts global copper surplus to reach 289,000 tonnes in 2025, more than double the 138,000 tonnes from last year. This forecast also represents a larger surplus than its earlier projection of 194,000 tonnes.

In 2026, the surplus is expected to remain high at 209,000 tonnes, extending the surplus for a third straight year after a largely balanced market in 2023.

The widening surplus over the 2025-26 period, according to ICSG, can be largely attributed to higher mine supply and rising smelting capacity.

Mine supply growth

For 2025, the Group expects global mine production to increase by 2.3% to 23.5 million tonnes, benefiting mainly from the ramp-up of the Kamoa-Kakula mine in the DRC and Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia and the commissioning of the new Malmyz mine in Russia.

In 2026, a higher growth of 2.5% is anticipated, supported by the continued ramp-up of new/expanded capacity (including China), an expected improvement in Chilean and Zambian output, and a recovery in Indonesia from expected declines in 2025.

In both years, ICSG said a series of smaller expansions and the start-up of a number of small and medium-sized mines will also contribute to the increase in global production notably in the DRC, Brazil, Iran, Uzbekistan, Ecuador, Eritrea, Greece, Angola and Morocco.

Higher refining capacity

The ICSG also sees expanded Chinese smelting capacity, as well as the start-up of new refineries in India, Indonesia and DRC, to contribute to a 2.9% increase in refined copper output this year.

In 2026, however, total refined production is expected to decline by 1.5%, due to constrained availability of copper concentrates leading to a slowdown in primary refined production. This will be offset partially continued growth in the secondary processing sector, which generates refined copper from scrap.

Demand impact

According to the ICSG, uncertainty surrounding international trade policy is likely to weaken the global economic outlook and negatively impact copper demand, dragging this year’s refined copper usage down to 2.4% compared to its previous forecast of 2.7% and the 2.8% recorded in 2024.

Copper usage growth is expected to slow further to 1.8% in 2026, largely reflecting an anticipated loss of momentum in China, where copper usage is expected to shrink from 2% this year to just 0.8% next year.

Demand in other key copper regions such as Europe, Japan and the US is also expected to remain “subdued”, leaving the Asia region as the lone key driver of demand.

However, ICSG also acknowledged that demand drivers such as energy transition technology and data centers will continue to support copper usage, helping to offset some of the broader manufacturing hit from a prolonged trade war.

The full ICSG report is here.

Industry sources said the turnaround came after members told the LME that the plan would be expensive for them and that other exchanges such as COMEX do not have this requirement.

The exchange’s plans to oblige members to transact private deals, known as over-the-counter (OTC) trades, on its electronic trading system Select were intially mooted in a white paper last year.

There will be a consultation period until June 13 on the revised plans, which include hedging LME contracts on Select.

The LME will progress with the original proposal if market monitoring indicates that on-exchange controls are encouraging more trading to take place OTC.

“Given this, the LME intends to increase the fee for OTC (trades) to be twice that of exchange business,” the exchange said in a release on Wednesday.

Fees for using LME prices in OTC contracts are $2.36 per lot. For copper where one lot is 25 metric tons, that would amount to nearly 10 US cents a ton.

Since the paper was published the LME, owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, has talked to its members and the wider metals market about its plans to boost transparency and liquidity.

“We have listened carefully to these views and they have enabled us to refine different elements to better meet the needs of different sections of the market,” said LME chief executive Matthew Chamberlain.

Earlier this year Reuters reported that the Futures Industry Association (FIA) and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) sent a joint letter to the LME laying out members’ concerns about these proposals.

The LME, the world’s largest and oldest forum for trading metals, has also tried to address members’ concerns about hedging LME contracts or block trades of up to 10 lots for the most liquid contracts, which include the three-month benchmarks.

“The feedback received suggested that there should be differentiation across different metals,” it said.

The LME has analyzed factors such as bid/ask spreads, size of the book, average trade size and notional size. It is proposing 15 lots or 375 tons for aluminum, 10 lots or 250 tons for copper, zinc and lead and 5 lots or 30 tons for nickel.

The plans also include expanding the definition of lower-cost short-dated carry trades to 60 days from 15 days, so long as the contracts to buy and sell are within 15 days of each other.

This will cut costs for physical market buyers and sellers who may want to switch delivery dates.

(By Pratima Desai and Eric Onstad; Editing by Jan Harvey and Freya Whitworth)

China’s copper smelting industry is in a deep funk as an ever-growing number of furnaces jostle for limited concentrate supplies. Smelting capacity is up a quarter since 2021 and is set to rise around 10% this year, even as mine closures overseas keep supplies of the crucial raw material tight.

The fees smelters receive for refining ore, called concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), are already negative and set to fall further, according to six traders and analysts. Negative TC/RCs mean smelters must pay miners or traders to process concentrate into metal, in effect paying their customers.

However, smelters are unlikely to cut significant production despite dire TC/RCs because high prices for smelting byproducts like gold and sulfur are partially offsetting losses, they said.

Record prices for gold are offsetting some of the losses for processing concentrate rich in gold, according to one trader, who said he had heard of one TC/RC deal at minus $80 per metric ton or minus 8.0 cents per pound.

Smaller, older smelters without the advanced technology to extract gold and other byproducts are likely to struggle, however, because they only account for a small part of production, according to three sources. Cuts and closures at these facilities are unlikely to drag down Chinese copper output, they said.

The copper concentrates TC/RC index hit a record low of -$34.71 per metric ton and minus 3.47 cents per pound on April 18, according to Shanghai Metals Market.

But in a sign of how the industry is powering on despite months of negative TC/RCs, analysts at Mysteel consultancy expect refined copper output to grow 10% this year.

The steady growth in refined copper output is underpinned by China’s massive expansion of copper smelting capacity, estimated by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) at 12.78 million tons this year, up 8% from last year and 25% since 2021.

China’s refined copper output declined only 0.5% year-on-year to 3.35 million metric tons in the first quarter, according to official data.

(By Violet Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

Read More: Global copper surplus to more than double in 2025 – ICSG

The spin-off includes mines across South America, Central Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Among them is the Buriticá gold mine in Colombia, the country’s largest, which has been the target of attacks by illegal miners.

Zijin, China’s largest gold and copper producer, said the move aims to accelerate its global expansion, improve asset valuation and attract international investors. Despite being in the early stages and subject to regulatory approvals, the company believes the spin-off will strengthen its market position and increase shareholder value amid rising gold prices.

Zijin Gold International will remain a subsidiary after the listing, with its financial results still included in the parent company’s consolidated statements. 

The timing of the planned spin-off aligns with a surge in global gold prices, which have hit record highs in April amid mounting uncertainty around US-China trade tensions. Rising prices could further drive the revaluation of its gold assets and reduce risks tied to overseas operations.

The proposed listing still requires approval from Chinese regulators, shareholders, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, among others.

The world’s largest copper producer slightly recovered last year from a quarter-century production low, and is aiming to increase its output once more this year.

Pacheco told an annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday that demand is strong for the red metal, even as he acknowledged geopolitical tensions associated with access to critical minerals.

“The market looks good, it looks very strong in Asia, in China, in the United States, in Brazil,” he said.

Codelco previously said uncertainty around US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration had prompted more copper shipments to the United States. He also noted that he was seeing more demand from China in the second quarter.

Pacheco said he has been working to promote the construction of a new copper smelter in Chile, and that Codelco has offered to supply 1.2 million tons of copper annually in a 20-30 year contract as an incentive to investors.

Pacheco also discussed Codelco’s efforts to enter the lithium business in Chile, which is the world’s second biggest producer of the battery metal.

Pacheco said he is optimistic about securing the approval of China regulators for a joint venture with lithium producer SQM at the Atacama salt flat, although he said the timeline is unclear.

China is the last country whose regulatory approval is needed for the partnership, which will mark the Chilean state’s entry into lithium production.

Codelco has already done its part to provide China with all required materials about the planned operation, Pacheco said.

Codelco also aims to enter the lithium business with a new project in Chile’s Maricunga salt flat. Pacheco said a partner will be named within the coming weeks or months, after Codelco received binding offers from global companies in March.

(By Fabian Cambero and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Alexander Villegas and Daniel Wallis)

McEwen Copper Inc. is planning an IPO in New York or Toronto to help fund construction of its Los Azules project in San Juan province. As part of that process, the company is thinking about a listing in Buenos Aires, he said.

“It’d be good to have a marker in the country,” McEwen said in an interview Tuesday. “It’d give Argentina an opportunity to invest in one of the first new copper mines.”

Once a pariah for foreign investors because of capital controls and state intervention, Argentina is regaining the confidence of mining companies as President Javier Milei offers a way to bulletproof their capital commitments. His government’s RIGI program of tax, currency and trade benefits will help add an estimated $900 million to the value of Los Azules, McEwen said.

To be sure, RIGI approval is taking longer than expected, meaning the timing of the IPO — which was penciled in for mid-2025 — is uncertain, although it could still happen by the end of the year, McEwen said.

The company wants to include RIGI’s benefits in a feasibility study, which should be ready by early July, he said. In the meantime, the copper unit is looking to raise more money privately to help cover another $25 million for the feasibility study and some exploration and as much as $100 million-plus for engineering work.

If all goes to plan, construction will begin late next year and the mine will start producing by the end of the decade, when the wiring metal market is forecast to be in short supply. Los Azules is one of a cluster of copper deposits in San Juan that has attracted global heavyweights including BHP Group Ltd. and Glencore Plc.

“Today, Argentina is a totally different country in terms of restrictions on capital,” McEwen said. “Time will tell on how long that lasts. But at the moment it’s very welcoming.”

(By James Attwood)

Fast-tracking approvals

Carney’s administration plans to establish a “Major Federal Project Office” with a “one project, one review” mandate. This initiative aims to streamline environmental assessments by eliminating duplication between federal and provincial processes, thereby accelerating the approval of mining projects. Such a move is poised to benefit companies involved in critical mineral extraction, including lithium, nickel, and cobalt, by reducing bureaucratic delays.

Carney has not provided clarity on how the consent process would be expedited to meet the timeline pressures of energy and infrastructure development. This ambiguity is notable, particularly as his promise to avoid forcing projects through appears to contradict his assurances that major projects will proceed swiftly. Past provincial experiences, such as B.C.’s attempts to expedite development under similar consent commitments, suggest that balancing these priorities is fraught with legal and political difficulty.

Carney’s approach implies an acknowledgment of a de facto Indigenous veto over resource projects—but rather than confronting this head-on, he proposes to “buy in” Indigenous participation through public financing mechanisms. This creates a practical route around a hard veto by offering Indigenous communities ownership stakes that align their interests with project success.

Reconciling the urgency of certain projects with the potentially time-consuming process of obtaining consent from multiple Indigenous nations will prove tricky. It begs the question of whether or not this model serves the public interest.

On one hand, it represents a constructive shift from conflict to partnership, promoting reconciliation and potentially leading to more stable and inclusive development. It avoids the legal and ethical risks associated with imposing projects on unwilling nations. On the other hand, it raises questions about the use of taxpayer-backed funds as a means of securing project approval. There is a risk that such financing becomes a permanent cost of doing business, even for projects that may not deliver strong returns to the public.

Whether this is sustainable or fair depends on how transparent and equitable the resulting arrangements are — and whether public funds are being used to create true partnerships or merely to neutralize opposition.

Investment in critical minerals

The Carney-led government plans to invest in the development of critical minerals by: 

• Connecting critical mineral projects to supply chains via the new First and Last Mile Fund (FLMF), enhancing integration within the Canadian economy;
• Supporting clean energy and critical minerals projects through the FLMF to reduce reliance on other countries and protect Canadian jobs;
• Accelerating exploration and extraction, including from recycling, by investing in prospecting activities and 
• Attracting and de-risking investment in critical mineral exploration and extraction through additional investments and expanded tax credits. 

US tariffs

In response to US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian imports, Carney has pledged a firm stance. His administration plans to invest billions to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on the southern neighbour, including a $2 billion strategic response fund to protect Canadian workers and fortify the auto supply chain.

This shift towards trade diversification and economic resilience is likely to open new markets for Canadian mining exports, particularly in Asia and Europe, thereby reducing vulnerability to US trade policies.

Energy superpower

Mark Carney’s campaign message on energy, echoing Stephen Harper’s “energy superpower” mantra, signals a sweeping ambition — but with a broader, more climate-conscious twist. In his election night speech, Carney declared it was “time to build Canada into an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy” and pushed for an industrial strategy that boosts competitiveness while addressing climate change.

Now leading a Liberal government, Carney faces the challenge of balancing economic growth with environmental responsibility. His platform includes plans for national “energy corridors” designed to fast-track approvals for infrastructure such as pipelines and transmission lines. He has also pledged to streamline regulatory processes to reduce delays that have long hindered energy and resource development.

Carney supports carbon capture and storage technology, a key strategy for the oil and gas sector to reduce emissions. His promise of federal backing extends to major infrastructure and extraction efforts, notably the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario. The region is rich in critical minerals essential for electric vehicles, batteries and other technologies vital to a low-carbon economy.

Some First Nations groups with claims in the area oppose development, which could take a decade to implement judging by other projects. Environmentalists say it will release the same global warming gases from the region’s muskeg that the electric-battery vehicle metals it would produce are supposed to limit.

Canada’s elected Prime Minister has also committed to advancing transportation and energy projects in the Arctic, paired with a planned expansion of the country’s military presence in the region.

Environmental commitments

While promoting mining development, Carney’s administration also maintains environmental commitments, such as upholding the industrial carbon tax and imposing caps on oil and gas emissions. This approach aims to ensure that mining growth aligns with Canada’s climate goals. 

Despite facing challenges such as taxation, immigration and political influences, including Trump’s rhetoric, Canada’s natural resource development was a common topic brought up by the two main political parties.

Carney’s recent victory signals a proactive approach to strengthening Canada’s mining industry, a significant contributor to the country’s economy. The sector accounted for nearly 20% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2022, alongside C$422 billion ($305 billion) in exports.

PM and Liberal Party head Mark Carney, who’s leading in the polls, has pledged to approve resource projects within two years and broaden exploration tax credits as part of a plan to make Canada both an “energy superpower” and “the global supplier of choice for critical minerals.”

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, has vowed to open a resource-focused project office with an even shorter time limit – one year – to get “shovels in the ground” as fast as possible.  He also says he’ll build long-discussed infrastructure for Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, a set of three new roads and power lines linking future mines with the southern road network. Even so, his platform is thin on details about mining.

“Both parties would unlock stronger growth via major infrastructure and resource development, but each differs in approach,” Scotiabank Economics Vice President Rebekah Young said in a report issued Friday. “A complicated jurisdictional landscape, compounded now by global uncertainties, means either party would have its work cut out to spur greater investment.”

Critical minerals and industrial metals have emerged as essential economic building blocks in recent years as the world gears up for the coming energy transition. In the United States, President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to increase American critical mineral production to dent China’s dominance after launching a Section 232 probe on all critical mineral imports – a process that typically results in tariffs.

‘Energy superpower’ goal

“Making Canada an energy superpower starts with critical metals and minerals, vital components to build everything from solar panels to electric vehicles,” Carney said last week during a campaign stop in Vancouver. “The market for these minerals is currently dominated by China and Russia. That must change.”

In his first election campaign, Carney has pledged to “kick-start” the “clean energy supply chain” by investing in critical minerals, spurring private investment and supporting early-stage mining companies.

If elected, Carney is proposing to adopt “Buy Canada” standards for products such as steel and aluminum while putting an increased focus on feedstock for battery supply chain buildouts.

First and Last Mile

A key measure included in the 67-page Liberal platform is the creation of the First and Last Mile Fund, an investment vehicle that Carney says will connect critical mineral projects to supply chains by supporting on-site development, processing and refining capacity.

Carney also wants to broaden the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit by including critical minerals necessary for defence, semiconductors, energy and clean technologies to the list of qualifying minerals.

A Liberal government would also expand eligible activities under Canadian exploration expenses to include the costs of engineering, economic and feasibility studies for critical minerals projects.

“All of these measures taken together will make Canada the global supplier of choice for critical metals and minerals,” Carney said.

Repealing obstructive laws

Poilievre, Carney’s main rival for the top job, has vowed to repeal various policies passed under former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau – including the Impact Assessment Act known as Bill C-69.

He calls Bill C-69 the “No More Development” law, saying it “makes it impossible to build the mines, pipelines and other major energy infrastructure Canada needs.” Removing it would trigger a boom in the country’s resource sector, he says.

“We will get big projects built again by repealing the Liberal anti-development laws and regulations that have cost us half a trillion dollars in lost investment over the last decade,” Poilievre said in a campaign document posted on his party’s website. “We’ll also work with Indigenous partners to process and sell our clean natural resources to get foreign countries off burning higher-emission fuels and fight climate change.”

Although the 30-page Conservative platform has a section on Canadian energy and resources, “mining” and “minerals” don’t appear at all in the document. The word “mines” is mentioned once.

If he becomes PM, Poilievre has vowed to accelerate priority resource projects and usher in “One and Done” approvals. He would create a single Rapid Resource Project Office to streamline all regulatory approvals into one application and environmental review, in cooperation with the provinces, with a target of six-month decisions and a one-year maximum timeline.

Fast-tracking projects

A key pledge for miners involves building the infrastructure project to Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, which is known for its vast potential but slow progress towards getting any mines built. A Conservative government would approve federal permits to harvest chromite, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum in the area, Poilievre says.

In the Conservative leader’s view, these measures would give the Canadian economy a boost of several billion dollars, “allowing us to become less dependent on the Americans, while our allies overseas would no longer have to rely on hostile regimes for these metals, turning dollars for dictators into paycheques for our people.”

The Yangshan premium — named after a key Shanghai trade terminal — jumped from a low of $35 a ton in late February to $94 on Tuesday, according to data from researcher Shanghai Metals Market.

The premium is paid by buyers on top of exchange prices for imported copper, and the sharp rebound reflects tightness in the market as trade tensions persist. Traders in China have reported a burst of strong domestic demand, and stockpiles in Chinese warehouses have plunged in recent weeks.

“The continuous destocking in the Shanghai region has kept Shanghai spot copper premiums firm,” ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. wrote in a note.

The threat of copper-specific tariffs has encouraged a large flow of metal to the US ahead of any duties, tightening markets elsewhere and spurring more competition for the industrial metal.

On the London Metal Exchange, copper has rebounded since its collapse during the wider market turmoil that followed US President Donald Trump’s unveiling of sweeping tariffs at the start of the month. The metal sank to its lowest in a year, triggering a wave of buying from China that helped lift prices.

LME copper rose 0.7% to settle at $9,440 a ton at 5:50 p.m. in London. Other LME metals were mixed, with aluminum rising 1.3% and nickel falling 0.4%.

Read More: Global copper processing controlled by a familiar few

The vast Central African nation is home to large reserves of copper, cobalt, lithium and uranium among other minerals, but chronic instability has long been an obstacle to the foreign investment needed to fully develop them.

Kinshasa is currently on a push to attract new players to the sector and talks are already under way with Washington after a Congolese senator pitching a minerals-for-security deal contacted US officials.

Asked by Reuters on Monday about possible interest in Congolese minerals, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prevot said Belgium had firms with the know-how to ramp up its role in the sector.

“We have globally recognized expertise with players like Umicore and John Cockerill, who have the capacity to process all these rare critical materials,” he said.

“If one day the opportunity arises to also be an investment partner, we will not pull back,” he added.

Despite China’s dominance, Belgian firms have been involved in mining, processing and trading Congolese cobalt, copper and diamonds for decades.

Belgium-based global materials technology group Umicore signed a deal with state miner Gecamines last year to ship germanium concentrates to Europe.

Prevot said Belgium’s approach to working with Congo was good for both countries, contrasting it with how some other partners operated.

“We observe the motivations of other international actors that can sometimes have a more transactional approach,” he said.

Prevot was due to visit the city of Beni on Tuesday as part of a trip intended to draw attention to serious human rights issues, particularly in Congo’s eastern provinces where the army is facing an offensive by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.

(By Ange Kasongo, Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Sofia Christensen; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Joe Bavier)

The company’s US subsidiary, TMC USA, filed the applications under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (DSHMRA) and regulations set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which collectively form the US seabed mining code. 

The move comes just days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to fast-track offshore mining, aiming to boost access to critical minerals despite strong opposition from environmental groups.

TMC’s two exploration licence applications cover a combined 199,895 square kilometres, while the commercial recovery permit covers 25,160 square kilometres within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a resource-rich swath of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico. These areas include the company’s indicated and measured polymetallic nodule resources.

The zones hold 1.63 billion wet metric tonnes of SEC SK 1300-compliant nodules, with an estimated exploration upside of 500 million tonnes, according to the company.

The resource is projected to contain 15.5 million tonnes of nickel, 12.8 million tonnes of copper, 2 million tonnes of cobalt, and 345 million tonnes of manganese — metals critical for batteries, clean energy, infrastructure and defence applications.

“This marks a major step forward — not just for TMC USA, but for America’s mineral independence and industrial resurgence,” CEO Gerard Barron said in a statement. “We’re offering the US a shovel-ready path to new and abundant supplies of critical metals.”

The Trump administration views deep-sea mining as a strategic route to reduce dependence on foreign mineral supply chains. A White House official suggested the industry could generate up to 100,000 jobs and add hundreds of billions to the economy over the next decade.

Hurdles remain

The company’s ambitions are not without controversy. Environmentalists have long warned that the impacts of deep-sea mining are poorly understood. Critics argue more scientific research is needed before any commercial extraction begins, citing risks to fragile ecosystems and ocean biodiversity.

Supporters counter that deep-sea mining is essential to meet rising global demand for minerals. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts the need for copper and rare earth elements will grow by 40% in the coming years, driven by clean technology and electrification.

TMC has pledged to mitigate environmental damage by leaving at least 30% of its contract areas untouched. The company also claims its modern nodule collector disturbs only the top three centimetres of seabed sediment, far less than earlier technologies.

Still, TMC’s application could reignite tensions at the international level. The company has been operating in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone for years under exploration contracts backed by the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA), which governs mining in international waters. But the US is not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and TMC’s move to seek approval under US law may be seen as sidestepping international consensus.

Critics warn such actions could undermine more than a decade of negotiations aimed at finalizing global regulations for seabed mining, potentially setting a precedent for other countries or companies to bypass multilateral frameworks.

The company also intends to change its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from GOLD to B, effective at the start of trading on May 9, 2025. Barrick’s shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange will continue to trade under the ABX ticker.

The move reflects Barrick’s ongoing expansion into copper, complementing its gold business. The miner is investing $6 billion to develop the massive Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan, expected to begin operations in 2028 and last for at least four decades. It is also expanding its Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, aiming to position it among the world’s largest copper operations.

Chief executive Mark Bristow said the change underscores Barrick’s vision of becoming “the world’s most valued gold and copper exploration, development and mining company.”

“Along with our world-class portfolio of six tier one gold mines, we are building a substantial copper business which will be a meaningful contributor to growing our production volumes in the coming years and beyond,” Bristow said in a statement.

“Gold remains core to our foundation,” he added, citing projects such as the Pueblo Viejo expansion in the Dominican Republic and the Fourmile gold project in Nevada.

Mali dispute

Meanwhile in Mali, Barrick faces mounting challenges as an ongoing dispute with the African nation continues to impact operations at its flagship Loulo-Gounkoto complex.

At least four Barrick subcontractors employing hundreds of workers have begun laying off staff, Reuters reported on Monday, adding that some have stopped receiving payments for months.

According to Reuters, the following subcontractors have either suspended activities or started liquidation procedures:

• BLY Mali, a subsidiary of drilling services firm Boart Longyear, said it is liquidating after its contract suspension left it “irremediably compromised.”
• ETASI, a heavy equipment rental company, announced a full suspension of its workforce.
• ATC, a metal construction company, issued layoff notices after a temporary work stoppage expired.
• MAXAM, a civil explosives contractor, is planning a temporary work stoppage affecting about 120 employees.
• SGS, a Swiss-based contractor, was granted a three-month suspension beginning February 1.

Last week, Malian authorities escalated the dispute with the Canadian miner, which began in 2023 after the current regime took power and introduced a new mining code, by closing Barrick’s office in Bamako, citing alleged tax arrears.

Operations at Loulo-Gounkoto, Barrick’s largest African asset, have been suspended since January after Mali seized around three tonnes of gold over alleged unpaid taxes. Authorities had already been blocking the company’s gold exports since November.

Despite these developments, Barrick’s employees in Mali have continued receiving salaries, a Reuters source said. Around 40 Malian employees from Loulo-Gounkoto are being temporarily transferred to Barrick’s Kibali mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a total of 100 staff identified for relocation.

In February, Barrick signed a draft agreement to resolve the dispute, but Mali’s government has yet to ratify or implement the deal.

(With files from Reuters)

The copper-and-cobalt giant’s chairman Yuan Honglin and vice chair Li Chaochun both resigned for personal reasons and had no disagreement with the board, CMOC said in an exchange filing on Sunday. Two new executive directors were nominated to the board, and a new vice president appointed, while Ives, already head of CMOC’s trading unit IXM, will become chief commercial officer.

The changes mark a significant shift at the top of CMOC, which has emerged from relative obscurity to become the world’s biggest cobalt miner and a major copper producer, largely thanks to acquisitions in Africa. The new structure will help CMOC meet its ambitions for more growth, the company said.

“CMOC will focus on mining industry M&A, including copper, gold, and other minor metals mines,” CMOC said in comments via WeChat to Bloomberg News. The new management has “rich experience in mine operation” and is able to acquire, develop and operate large greenfield projects, it said.

The company’s Hong Kong shares rose as much as 4.6% after the announcement, and following a near-doubling of first-quarter net income.

New team

The two board nominees are Que Chaoyang, who was appointed as chief operating officer, and Liu Jianfeng, appointed as chief investment officer. Que is a former executive at Zijin Mining Group Co., while Liu has held multiple roles in the energy sector.

Tan Xiao, a former senior manager at Huawei Technologies Co., will be a vice president.

But it’s the promotion of Ives, who spent 23 years at Glencore and wanted to be its boss, will attract attention globally. He’s been chief executive officer of CMOC’s trading arm since 2022, overhauling the unit as CMOC aims to challenge the dominance of firms like Glencore and Trafigura Group in global metals trading.

CMOC is already a major player in commodities linked to the energy transition after its expansion in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It passed Glencore as top cobalt supplier in 2023, but also has significant clout in copper and ambitions in lithium and nickel. Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. has a 25% stake.

The exit of Yuan Honglin, chairman and non-executive director, will become effective once CMOC gets approval to appoint additional directors at an upcoming shareholder meeting. The resignation of vice chairman and chief investment officer Li Chaochun has already taken effect, it said.

CMOC reported 3.95 billion yuan ($542 million) of first-quarter net income on Friday, building on a record year of earnings in 2024. The company recently agreed to buy Canada’s Lumina Gold Corp., allowing it to tap the largest primary gold deposit in Ecuador.

Read More: CMOC to double copper output at Congo mines to 1 million tonnes by 2028

Benjamin Katabuka, the country’s newly appointed director general, told the British newspaper that KoBold is looking to “go big” in the DRC, currently the world’s biggest producer of cobalt and the leading copper producer on the continent.

He added the company plans to apply for licences to explore for these two critical minerals as well as lithium, of which the DRC holds significant deposits but has yet to fully unlock.

These investments could potentially be “in the billions”, Katabuka said, as cited by the Financial Times on Saturday.

The report comes amid heightened trade tensions between the US and China, which saw the latter flex its dominant position in the critical minerals supply chain by placing export restrictions on rare earths.

In the Congo, many of its biggest mines are run by Chinese groups, while American companies have had little presence since Freeport-McMoRan sold its stake in the Tenke Fungurume copper mine to China’s CMOC in 2016.

Katabuka said the Congolese government is “interested in having some Western investors coming into the country” to balance China’s presence in the nation.

Congo minerals

KoBold’s push into Congo comes at a time when the African nation is negotiating with the US on a potential minerals pact. Earlier this year, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi offered a minerals-for-security deal to Washington in an effort to end the ongoing armed conflict with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

On the jurisdictional risk, DRC’s Katabuka acknowledged that it has been “difficult” to do business in the country, but added that KoBold has assured that the company will demand “high standards” for its operations.

KoBold — which specializes in using artificial intelligence to identify untapped critical minerals deposits — has around 60 active projects across four continents. In Africa, its focal point has been Zambia, where last year it made what was the country’s largest copper discovery in a century.

A move into Congo means the company would have a presence in Africa’s two largest copper producers. Earlier this year, it also expanded into Namibia, focusing on its deposits of lithium and nickel.

To support its critical minerals exploration, KoBold raised $537 million during its latest round from investors including Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Earthshot Ventures, Equinor, July Fund, Mitsubishi Corporation and Standard Investments.

To date, the California-based company has raised $1 billion.

A recent look at 2021 survey data from APEX Geoscience found five samples with bonanza silver grades. It also identified six samples with high copper content from the 38-claim site in the southern Lemhi Range.

“The Great Western property hasn’t seen any modern-day exploration since the industry’s understanding of carbonate replacement deposits has vastly improved,” president and CEO Dean Besserer said in a Friday release.

Management wants to explore the potential for an unrecognized igneous source at depth, Besserer said.

Zeus’ project is one of several in the western state where various metals, especially silver have been mined for decades. Idaho’s west hosts the Silver Valley, where Idaho Strategic Resources’ (NYSE: IDR), Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) Bunker Hill Mining (CSE: BNKR), and Americas Gold and Silver (TSX: USA; NYSE-AM: USAS) all have producing operations.

Zeus shares opened the day up 8% at C$0.205 per share before dropping back to the prior-day close at C$0.195 in early afternoon trading Friday. It has a market capitalization of C$13.2 million.

Fresh samples

Eleven grab samples collected by Zeus this season returned six grading higher than 97 grams silver and four above 0.17% copper, including values of 1,155 grams silver and 0.52% copper.

The company plans a ground geophysical program this year to test for an igneous or porphyry source at depth. Zeus is to launch a 12,000-metre drill campaign with a C$6.6 million budget and fixed drilling rates to limit budget risk, it said.

The program aims to expand the central Leviathan porphyry. It will use fences spaced 200 meters apart to reach the Grade Creek and Southern Flats zones. Also, it will test ideas for new porphyry centres in the Eastern Block and Western Deeps. Drilling will be oriented northwest for the first time to improve consistency and hit rate in southeast-dipping mineralization, the company said.

A joint induced polarization and magnetotellurics survey starts on May 1 to expand deep geophysical coverage across the expanded land package.

Flagship asset

Zeus is looking for permits to drill at its main Cuddy Mountain project. Here, surveys of soil, rock and geophysics show an area of 9 sq km copper-molybdenum anomaly next to Hercules Metals’ (TSXV: BIG) Leviathan discovery in western Idaho.

Speaking at the Future of Energy Security summit held in London this week, IEA executive director Fatih Birol highlighted the strong expansion of clean energy technologies in recent years — while remarkable — also creates a new problem: the urgent need for raw materials.

“To manufacture this new clean energy technologies, you need critical minerals,” Birol said during the two-day event co-hosted by the British government. “We look at where the critical minerals are produced, where they are refined and where they are manufactured, that is a huge concentration, and this is something that we think is risky.”

According to the IEA, the world’s supply of critical minerals — such as copper, cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements — are currently dominated by China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia, Chile, Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, the US.

This concentration of raw materials, said Birol, represents a “new emerging energy security challenge”, and the reason why the Agency launched its critical minerals program.

“Currently, we are A) not able to keep up with the demand, and B) the ability of manufacturing these critical minerals is concentrated in one single country or two,” Birol said in a speech last year when announcing the program.

In response to this challenge, the IEA urged nations to focus on policies that promote the diversification of mineral sources and move away from “critical mineral monopolies.”

“Most of these critical minerals are currently controlled by just one or two countries and it is important to ensure diversity in clean energy,” Birol told reporters from Turkish state-owned news agency Anadolu on Friday.

“This is not about whether a country is good or bad. If there is a technical problem or a geopolitical development in that country, entire energy supply chains could be jeopardized,” he said.

On the sidelines of the summit, Birol noted China’s dominance in the critical minerals sector and its contribution to low-cost clean energy technologies. The Asian nation is the main producer for 30 out of 50 minerals deemed critical by the US, and is the world’s top miner and processor of rare earths.

Codelco posted a 53% drop in pre-tax profit compared to a year ago, slipping to $213 million for the first three months of the year.

The state-owned miner said its own output ticked up 0.3% totaled to 296,000 metric tons, with total production including its stakes in Freeport’s El Abra, Anglo American Sur and Teck’s Quebrada Blanca rising 1.6% to 324,000 metric tons.

The miner is targeting copper production between 1.37 million tons and 1.4 million tons this year, as it aims to boost output for the second year in a row after slipping to a quarter-century low in 2023.

Output in the quarter was dragged down by rains and a nationwide blackout in February, which reduced refined copper production by 10,000 tons, Codelco said.

Core earnings, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), fell nearly 12% to $1.35 billion as the local peso currency lost ground, Codelco said.

The Chilean peso appreciated by 2.76% from the end of March 2024 to the end of March this year.

Codelco added that it had faced rising costs due to planned mine and plant maintenance, as well as higher operating costs for equipment leasing, which where partially offset by lower input prices, including for power and fuel.

The miner said that at its El Teniente mine, the Andesita section is expected to kick off production in the second quarter with Andes Norte following in the third.

Ramp-up of the concentrator at Rajo Inca, in Codelco’s Salvador Division, is expected to be completed in the third quarter.

(By Fabian Cambero and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Kylie Madry and Alistair Bell)

Read More: Codelco inks energy deals for 100% clean matrix by 2030

Inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange shrank by 54,858 tons, the most in data going back to 2003, to 116,753 tons, according to weekly figures released on Friday.

The sharp drawdown adds to evidence that China’s physical copper market is tightening up, with buyers also paying more to import cargoes and spot prices trading at steep premiums. Shanghai-tracked inventories more than halved in the past month amid an opportunistic buying spree that followed a pullback in prices.

“Demand from fabricators has been very good,” Wanqiu Xu, an analyst with Cofco Futures Co., said by phone. “There is no impact seen from the tariffs yet.”

The global copper market has been rocked this year by the evolving trade war — which may see Washington place tariffs on copper imports — as well as China’s efforts to sustain growth.

On Friday, China vowed to “fully prepare” emergency plans to ward against increasing external shocks, taking a patient approach in defending growth as deepening tensions with the Trump administration in the US pile pressure on the world’s No. 2 economy.

Copper prices have snapped back strongly from an initial selloff as President Donald Trump rolled out tariffs on China and other nations. London Metal Exchange contracts are up more than 15% from lows seen in early April.

The metal was trading 0.4% down at about $9,358 a ton on the LME as of 10:50 a.m. local time on Friday. Most other metals also drifted lower.

Read More: China’s surprise resilience aids copper as global risks mount

Net profit rose to $1.09 billion, well above the $816 million estimate from analysts polled by LSEG, as copper and silver prices surged and the miner trimmed production costs.

Shares climbed around 2% in afternoon trading.

Copper production and sales were nearly flat from the year-ago quarter, with output from US unit Asarco slipping.

Prices for the red metal, however, rose 18% from a year ago while silver leaped some 38%.

That brought revenue for Grupo Mexico, which also operates sprawling freight railroads and an infrastructure division, up 10% to $4.20 billion in the quarter.

The company also touted trimmed production costs for copper and byproducts as adding an earnings boost.

Grupo Mexico, controlled by billionaire German Larrea, is one of the world’s largest copper producers with mines in Peru, the United States, Spain and its home base of Mexico.

The company could be at risk from the trade war breaking out between the United States and China, with copper prices slumping since the end of the first quarter.

“Although we maintain a very positive long-term outlook for copper, we believe an intense commercial war between the US and China will affect economic growth worldwide, consequently impacting copper demand,” mining head Leonardo Contreras said in the firm’s results call.

Beijing imposed 125% duties on US shipments earlier this month in response to US President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs on Chinese imports.

Copper was exempted from Trump’s sweeping tariffs in March, though analysts say import taxes on the metal could be coming as well.

Contreras declined to say how Grupo Mexico was planning to offset the impact of potential tariffs on copper shipped into the United States.

(By Kylie Madry, Natalia Siniawski and Rafael Escalera Montoto; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Chizu Nomiyama)

The order, which Trump signed in private, seeks to jumpstart the mining of both US and international waters as part of a push to offset China’s sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.

Reuters first reported last month that the order was under deliberation.

Parts of the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere are estimated to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.

More than 1 billion metric tons of those nodules are estimated to be in US waters and filled with manganese, nickel, copper and other critical minerals, according to an administration official.

Extracting them could boost US GDP by $300 billion over 10 years and create 100,000 jobs, the official added.

“The United States has a core national security and economic interest in maintaining leadership in deep-sea science and technology and seabed mineral resources,” Trump said in the order.

The order directs the administration to expedite mining permits under the Deep Seabed Hard Minerals Resource Act of 1980 and to establish a process for issuing permits along the US Outer Continental Shelf.

It also orders the expedited review of seabed mining permits “in areas beyond the national jurisdiction,” a move likely to spark friction with the international community.

The International Seabed Authority – created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the US has not ratified – has for years been considering standards for deep-sea mining in international waters, although it has yet to formalize them due to unresolved differences over acceptable levels of dust, noise and other factors from the practice.

Supporters of deep-sea mining say it would lessen the need for large mining operations on land, which are often unpopular with host communities. Environmental groups are calling for all activities to be banned, warning that industrial operations on the ocean floor could cause irreversible biodiversity loss.

“The deep ocean belongs to everyone and protecting it is humanity’s global duty. The sea floor environment is not a platform for ‘America First’ extraction,” said Emily Jeffers of the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group that opposes the practice.

Any country can allow deep-sea mining in its own territorial waters, roughly up to 200 nautical miles from shore, and companies are already lining up to mine US waters.

Impossible Metals earlier this month asked the administration to launch a commercial auction for access to deposits of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals off the coast of American Samoa.

Shares of The Metals Company – among the most prominent of deep-sea mining companies – rose on Thursday by roughly 40% to hit a 52-week high of $3.39 per share after the Reuters report earlier in the day on the executive order.

“With a stable, transparent, and enforceable regulatory pathway available under existing US law, we look forward to delivering the world’s first commercial nodule project, responsibly and economically,” said Gerard Barron, CEO of the company, which aims to extract nodules from a vast plain of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

Beyond The Metals Company, others eyeing deep-sea mining include California-based Impossible Metals, Russia’s JSC Yuzhmorgeologiya, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals, and Kiribati’s Marawa Research and Exploration.

Other mining steps

US access to critical minerals – especially those produced by Chinese companies – has dwindled in recent months as Beijing has limited exports of several types. That, in turn, has ratcheted up pressure on Washington to support efforts to boost domestic mining.

Last week, Trump officials fast-tracked permitting on 10 mining projects across the United States and implemented an abbreviated approval process for mining projects on federal lands.

The administration also said it would approve one of the country’s largest copper mines.

Trump’s Thursday order uses the term “rare earths” to broadly refer to all critical minerals and is not meant to imply the administration believes the nodules contain neodymium and the 16 other rare earths, the administration official said.

(By Jarrett Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Daniel Wallis)

A surge in supply from the Congo, responsible for 80% of the world’s cobalt output, coupled with tepid demand from the electric vehicle market, saw cobalt sulphate entering the EV battery supply chain in China fall to an average of just $3,556 per tonne in January.  That compares to a peak of nearly $19,000 a tonne in 2022.

Copper production in the DRC, with a big chunk owned by Chinese companies, was rising fast – leading to a near 40% jump in the country’s co-product cobalt output in 2024, but in February the country announced a four month ban on exports to ease the glut. 

Cobalt sulphate prices duly responded, jumping more than 60% in March to average $5,767 a tonne, and holding onto most of those gains in April.   

Cobalt byproduct output is also increasing in Indonesia as its nickel shipments ballooned and the DRC is now in talks with the Asian nation to collaborate on managing supply of cobalt including the use of quotas. 

Cobalt consumption in EV batteries overtook other sources of demand like aerospace several years ago and the impact of the DRC strategy has been swift.  

The latest data from Adamas Intelligence tracking EV battery metal deployment in over 120 countries paired with monthly prices shows the cobalt market springing back into life. 

The estimated size of the battery cobalt market shot up in March to an overall $152.4 million, up 120% over February and the highest since December 2022, lifting the value of sales weighted average cobalt contained in tandem. 

While March was a good month across the board for the EV industry and by extension battery metal deployment, and January and February are generally quiet months for passenger vehicle sales, cobalt vastly outperformed other battery metals. 

Nickel rose by a more subdued 41%, also amid rising prices, while the value of battery lithium deployment increased by 28% month over month, relying on rising EV sales in Asia more than prices, which are still bobbing along near the bottom of the cycle.  

And while price can make all the difference for suppliers to the EV battery market, longer term trends for cobalt (and its ternary cathode cousins) in the EV market are less encouraging. 

Lithium iron phosphate or LFP batteries continue to rapidly take market share from NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) and NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) cathode chemistries. 

The China-fueled rise of LFP has fostered a large divergence in global consumption growth rates of key battery metals, according to Adamas Intelligence data.

For example, in calendar 2024 iron and phosphorous deployment were up by 54% and 49%, respectively, for a combined 399.1 kilotonnes contained in the batteries of sold EVs over the course of the year.

In contrast, global nickel deployment into EV batteries increased 11% to 322.7 kt while that of manganese rose 10% to 73.6 kt and cobalt 7% to 59.6 kt as the industry continues to thrift the metal.  Keeping in mind that the installed tonnage does not take into account any losses during processing, chemical conversion or battery production scrap (often well into double digit percentages) so required tonnes are meaningfully higher at the mine mouth. 

In total, installed tonnage of nickel, cobalt and manganese last year represented 21% of the battery metal basket.  

That’s down from a 24% share in 2023 and 36% in 2020 when top EV maker BYD shifted to an all-LFP line-up, and LFP-powered Tesla Model 3s re-ignited uptake of the Ni-Co-Mn-free battery chemistry. 

The world’s largest EV battery maker CATL, responsible for 30% of total battery capacity deployed globally in GWh terms, in April announced that commercial production of sodium-ion packs will begin before the end of 2025. Due to its inherent limitations, sodium-ion is more likely to eat into LFP’s market than NCM’s.

At least there’s that.    

For a fuller analysis of the EV battery metals market check out the May issue of The Northern Miner print and digital editions.

* Frik Els is Editor at Large for MINING.COM and Head of Adamas Inside, providing news and analysis based on Adamas Intelligence data.

Antamina, controlled by Glencore, BHP, Teck and Mitsubishi, is one of Peru’s largest copper mines. It had paused operations on Tuesday after an incident at its Yanacancha camp, in the Ancash region.

Antamina said at the time it was investigating the cause of the incident, which killed an operations manager and injured another senior employee.

(By Marco Aquino; Editing by Natalia Siniawski)

Result highlights from drillhole DDH-LC25-006 include 114 metres of 0.7% copper, 0.07 gram per tonne gold and 81 parts per million (ppm) molybdenum from 410 metres downhole, which has been interpreted as a secondary enrichment zone, AbraSilver said Thursday in a statement. A higher-grade interval of 20 metres at 1.03% copper, 0.08 gram per tonne gold and 71 ppm molybdenum from 412 metres depth was also reported.

Combined, the intercepts comprised 621 metres grading 0.38% copper, 0.07 gram gold and 62 ppm molybdenum, which AbraSilver said demonstrates the scale of the mineralized system.

“Wide intercept with moderate copper and modest gold piques interest and puts the project back in focus, and while still early, this hints at potential material upside in a copper belt,” National Bank Financial analyst Don DeMarco said in a note. He has an “outperform” rating on the stock.

AbraSilver shares fell 0.7% to C$2.92 apiece in afternoon trading in Toronto Thursday, giving the company a market capitalization of C$448 million. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of C$1.93 to C$3.64.

Teck earn-in

The drill program at La Coipita is fully funded and operated by a subsidiary of Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) as part of an earn-in and joint venture agreement. Teck is planning to spend $20 million in exploration at La Coipita over five years.

“These results confirm the presence of a well-developed porphyry system with large-scale potential,” AbraSilver CEO John Miniotis said in a statement. “With drilling fully funded and operated by Teck, we believe this discovery represents a major step forward in unlocking the value of this underexplored district, which is located in a major copper belt.”

AbraSilver is waiting for assay results for two more holes.

Hole DDH-LC25-007, which is located about 500 metres east of DDH-LC25-006, was completed to a depth of 846.1 metres. It has intercepted two separate secondary enrichment zones between 40-275 metres and 422–593 metres, AbraSilver said.

Hole DDH-LC25-008, located about 500 metres north of DDH-LC25-006, was completed to a depth of 915 metres. It intersected low-grade high-sulphidation copper mineralization.

Second year

Last year, Teck completed 2,476 metres of diamond drilling in five holes, along with geophysical surveys and target mapping. The 2025 drill campaign marks the second year of the earn-in program.

La Coipita is a district-scale property covering over 700 sq. km in western San Juan province near the Chilean border. Elevation across the property ranges between 3,500 and 4,500 metres above sea level.

The property lies within the Miocene porphyry-epithermal belt of Argentina and Chile, which is host to deposits such as the Filo del Sol equal partnership between BHP (NYSE, LSE, ASX: BHP) and Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN), McEwen Mining’s (TSX, NYSE: MUX) Los Azules, and Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) El Indio, Veladero and Pascua Lama.

AbraSilver is also advancing the Diablillos project in northwest Argentina. It hosts proven and probable reserves of about 42.3 million tonnes grading 91 grams silver and 0.81 gram gold for 123.5 million contained oz. silver and 1.1 million oz. contained gold.

Nations within the Chinese sphere process 53.1% of the world’s copper, far surpassing the American-aligned bloc at 15.6% and the “Coalition of the Willing” at 19%.

Russia, grouped separately, accounts for 5.6% of global capacity, while 6.8% of copper processing remains in “Undrafted” countries not formally aligned with any major power bloc, such as Iran and India.

Analysts warn that while access to raw materials is crucial, the ability to process them may ultimately determine strategic advantage in the race for technological and industrial dominance.

Explore the full infographic:

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