Twitter

Top 50 mining companies take $264 billion hit as gold trade unwinds, lithium stocks exit – by Frik Els (Mining.com – October 4, 2026)

https://www.mining.com/

The world’s 50 most valuable mining stocks were worth $2.26 trillion at the close of September – the second-largest monthly decline in the history of the ranking. September took back three quarters of August’s record $357 billion advance, and it did so for the same reason the gain arrived: gold. Bullion futures in New York slid from $4,441 an ounce at the end of August to $4,158 at the end of September, a 6.4% retreat that leaves the metal below where it started the year.

The macro picture all worked against gold, which relies solely on price appreciation to create investor returns. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time since 2023 on September 16, a global bond selloff pushed yields to their highest since 2008 and the dollar firmed.

Read more

Old Mines, New Ambitions: Niger’s Bid to Return Among Top Uranium Producers – by Aurel Sèdjro Houenou (Ecofin Agency – October 5, 2026)

https://www.ecofinagency.com/

Canadian mining company Global Atomic said Thursday, October 1, it had closed a C56.97 million(39.9 million) public offering to advance its Dasa uranium project in Niger and provide general working capital. The financing comes amid broader efforts to rebuild Niger’s uranium industry as global market conditions become more favorable.

A More Favorable Uranium Market

Following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, uranium demand weakened as reactors were shut down and new construction slowed. Niger’s uranium production also fell sharply over the following decade, from 4,116 tons in 2015 to 962 tons in 2024. In 2015, Niger was Africa’s largest producer and ranked fourth globally; by 2024, it ranked eighth.

Read more

America’s Defense Industrial Base Begins at the Mine – by George Meneshian (Small Wars Journal – October 6, 2026)

Home

The U.S. defense industrial base depends not only on the factories that produce weapons, but also on the mines, refineries, supply chains, and corporate structures that provide their critical inputs. This article examines how China’s position in critical minerals creates strategic dependencies for the United States, focusing on cobalt, copper, rare earth elements, and other materials essential to defense production.

It argues that supply-chain security cannot be assessed solely by the geographic location of mines or refineries. Ownership, financing, governance rights, offtake agreements, and the potential for future changes in corporate control can also shape who ultimately influences strategically important assets. Drawing on several recent cases, the article illustrates how these vulnerabilities can affect U.S. supply-chain security, and outlines a strategy combining domestic production with allied supply chains and government-backed financing.

Read more

Polish coal mining giant JSW to shed 4,200 jobs – 21% of its workforce – this year (Notes From Poland – October 2, 2026)

Notes from Poland

Polish state-owned mining firm Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW), which is the EU’s largest producer of coking coal and one of Poland’s biggest employers, has announced that it will cut over 4,000 jobs, 21% of its workforce, by the end of this year.

The plans come as JSW seeks to turn around its finances after years of large losses, as well as a broader shift in Poland away from reliance on coal. On Wednesday, JSW’s management board announced that it expected the size of its workforce to decline by 4,248 by the end of this year, bringing it below 16,000, down from 20,135 at the end of March.

Read more

Critical minerals face a funding ‘valley of death.’ Miners hope tax breaks will change that – by Anita Balakrishnan (The Logic – October 5, 2026)

Home

About one in a thousand exploration projects becomes a mine, and Canada needs to lure new investors to fix that, miners say

Mining companies hope recent changes to Canada’s tax regime will help them cross the “valley of death” that often kills efforts to extract promising mineral deposits from Canadian soil.

The federal government introduced the new productivity “mega” deduction at the Canada Investment Summit last month to attract more global capital to Canada. The measure would help get major projects off the ground, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, including the mining projects that dominated the summit’s deal book.

Read more

Canada’s uranium fuels the world. Cameco is cashing in – by David Olive (Toronto Star – October 3, 2026)

https://www.thestar.com/

Tim Gitzel is CEO of Saskatoonbased Cameco, the largest uranium miner in Canada and a leader among global uranium suppliers. But Gitzel believes Cameco’s growth story is just beginning. Cameco is poised to expand alongside a civilian nuclear power sector that is booming worldwide.

There are about 80 nuclear reactors under construction around the world, and another 120 reactors are planned. There are about 440 existing nuclear power plants. And they are all fuelled by uranium. For U.S. reactors, much of that fuel comes from Canada, the largest supplier of uranium to the U.S.

Read more

The Mineral Footprint of Copper – by Amanda van Dyke (Substack – October 6, 2026)

https://amandavandyke.substack.com/

What it really takes, in rock, energy, water, steel and acid, to supply the metal of the electrical age

About a month ago I built a system for calculating what I call The Mineral Footprint. We have become very good at adding up how much metal is in any given technology, what that technology will cost to build and what the carbon footprint of it is. We know the exact of kg of metal in almost every technology we use, but increasingly that misses the point.

A solar panel might only have say a little a little bit of copper wiring in it, but it needs mounting structures, foundations, cabling, transformers and grid connections. And every tonne of copper required by those systems has its own physical footprint: ore mined, waste rock moved, energy consumed, chemicals used and infrastructure built before a tonne of refined copper ever reaches a factory.

That is the mineral footprint.

Read more

De Beers bets on consumers’ taste for the real to restore natural diamonds’ sparkle – by Camilla Hodgson and David Pilling (Financial Times – September 27, 2026)

https://www.ft.com/

Chief executive believes cultural shift back to ‘natural’ products can help it battle lab-grown rivals 

A backlash against the artificial has given the struggling natural diamond industry fresh hope of regaining its sparkle, according to the boss of gemstones company De Beers.

Al Cook, chief executive of the Anglo American-owned business up for sale since 2024, said consumers were increasingly looking to prioritise the real over the synthetic, for example by choosing physical over digital art, human connections over “AI companions” and food with origins they understood rather than lab-grown meat.

Read more

Where the North’s mining ghosts linger – by A.J. Roan (North of 60 Mining News – October 1, 2026)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Five eerie places where fact, folklore, and mining history meet.

Across the Far North, mines that once drew thousands into the wilderness have fallen silent, leaving behind abandoned workings, empty buildings, and tales of unexplained voices, violent deaths, shadowy figures, and places that may not be quite as empty as they seem. As the long days of summer surrender to the darkness of October, the remnants of the North’s mining past can take on a different character.

For more than a century, fortunes across Alaska and northern Canada have risen and fallen alongside the metals pulled from the ground. Camps became towns, towns grew into communities, and entire lives took shape around operations whose futures depended on what lay beneath them.

Read more

China demands copper supply commitments for Anglo Teck merger approval, sources say – by Clara Denina and Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – October 2, 2026)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON/TORONTO – China’s antitrust regulator has asked Anglo American to commit ​to supply the country with a steady flow of copper concentrate as a condition for approving its proposed $54 billion ‌merger with Canada’s Teck Resources, three people aware of the development said.

The demand reflects China’s struggle to feed its vast copper smelting industry, which refines up to 60% of the world’s copper cathodes but faces its worst feedstock shortage in decades. Chinese refined copper output is expected to grow at its slowest pace since ​at least 2000 this year as smelters compete for raw material, while falling prices for byproduct sulphuric acid squeeze profitability, ​analysts said.

Read more

Africa’s largest uranium producer could soon hand Russia a major foothold in its nuclear ambitions – by Chinedu Okafor (Africa Business Insider – October 6, 2026)

https://africa.businessinsider.com/

Africa’s largest uranium producer, Namibia, could be nearing the completion of a major deal with Russia, as Moscow expects a positive response from the Southern African country.

According to the Director General of the state-controlled energy company, Rosatom, Aleksey Likhachev, who spoke to Rosatom’s gazette on the subject, Russia has been in talks with Namibia since the start of the year concerning the production of uranium in the country’s Omakeke region.

At the time, Namibia also began discussing advancing the timeline for an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Read more

Canadian Mining Hall of Fame announces 2027 inductees – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – October 1, 2026)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

he Canadian Mining Hall of Fame is pleased to welcome five new members who will be celebrated at the annual Gala Dinner and Induction Ceremony on Jan. 14 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The Northern Miner is a proud co-founding member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, along with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, The Mining Association of Canada, and The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. Details about the event, along with tables and tickets available for purchase, can be found at: www.mininghalloffame.ca.

Lukas Henrik Lundin (1958–2022)

Lukas Henrik Lundin was a visionary Canadian mining entrepreneur defined by a willingness to pursue opportunities others considered too risky, too remote or too difficult. For almost four decades, he helped build numerous highly successful resource companies, creating discoveries, mines and exceptional value for shareholders around the world.

Read more

Redpath on building the capability for Africa’s mining future beyond the orebody (International Mining – October 1, 2026)

Home

Africa’s mineral wealth gives the continent an enormous opportunity, yet, realising that potential will require more than simply accessing the orebody, according to Pieter Oosthuysen, Operations Executive at Redpath Africa Limited. The industry’s future will depend on how effectively mining companies and their partners combine technology, productivity, safety and human capability, Oosthuysen says.

“Africa has some of the world’s most significant mineral resources, but the future of mining on the continent will be determined by more than just the orebody,” he explains. “It will be shaped by how effectively we develop local skills, embrace technology, improve productivity, and create sustainable operations.”

Read more

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO questions logic of Ottawa potentially suing over Stelco layoffs – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 2, 2026)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CEO Lourenco Goncalves says Ottawa’s potential lawsuit against the American steelmaker for allegedly violating employment commitments in Canada makes no business sense, promising that laid-off workers will be called back if the trade war ends soon.

On Monday, the Cleveland-based steelmaker said it plans to lay off a total of up to 500 workers at Stelco’s Hamilton plant and its Lake Erie Works operation in Nanticoke, Ont. The company said the layoffs were necessary to ensure its survival during the conflict.

Read more

DiCaprio joins opposition to Belo Sun’s $300M Brazil mine – by Marina Meireles (Mining.com – September 30, 2026)

https://www.mining.com/

Leonardo DiCaprio has thrown his support behind opponents of Belo Sun Mining’s (TSX: BSX) proposed $300-million Volta Grande gold project in Brazil, adding a high-profile voice to a permitting dispute surrounding what the Canadian company aims to develop as the country’s largest open-pit gold mine.

The actor and environmental activist criticized the project on his official social media accounts, focusing attention on the planned mine in Pará state and concerns about its potential effects on the surrounding region. His intervention comes as Brazilian prosecutors and the country’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) seek to overturn a recent court ruling that was favourable to Belo Sun in its efforts to advance the project’s permitting process.

Read more