Tungsten West has signed an eight-year binding offtake agreement with US-based Elmet Technologies for 1,000 tonnes per annum of contained WO₃ from the Hemerdon tungsten-tin mine in Devon, valued at over £1.4 billion at current prices. The contract secures a long-term mine-to-market route into US and UK tungsten processing and manufacturing supply chains, alongside the UK National Wealth Fund’s investment of up to £71 million and its exclusive talks to procure up to 50% of Hemerdon’s annual tungsten output. For operators and project financiers, this combination of state backing and locked-in offtake materially de-risks Hemerdon’s restart and expansion plans.

High-grade rare earth intercepts at Rare Earths Americas’ 100%-owned Homer project in Brazil’s Goiás Alkaline province include multiple near-surface intervals above 2,000 ppm TREO over >10 m within clay-hosted soil and saprolite profiles. A fully funded US$5 million, 15,000 m reverse circulation and diamond drilling programme, now running four rigs, has already drilled 6,500 m and confirmed mineralisation across ~2.15 km², less than 7% of the 35 km² ring-shaped magnetic anomaly. Assays show heavy rare earth enrichment with HREO >30% of TREO, NdPr >25%, Dy+Tb >2%, plus niobium, tantalum and notable scandium requiring metallurgical evaluation.

Glencore has halted rail operations at its Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia after explosives hit its 150 km railway near Uribia, La Guajira, damaging a train in the sixth attack on the corridor this year. The mine itself, one of the world’s largest open pits with 2025 output of 16.8 million tonnes, continues operating while the National Army secures the line and engineers await access for damage assessment. Prolonged repairs could again choke inbound supplies and coal exports via Puerto Bolívar, exposing the operation’s heavy reliance on a single transport corridor.