The US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has issued an expression of interest to US companies for potential transfer and recovery of surplus critical minerals and rare earth-related materials at five nuclear cleanup sites: Paducah (Kentucky), Portsmouth (Ohio), Oak Ridge (Tennessee), Nevada National Security Site and Moab (Utah). Targeted materials include aluminium, copper, lead, silver, platinum, tungsten, vanadium, fluorine, lithium hydride, chloride, selenium and cesium-137. Interested parties must supply their own extraction, processing and handling equipment, with DOE evaluating responses on technical capability and proposed end-use plans.

Aura Minerals has secured a US$200 million, five-year syndicated loan priced at SOFR (3.62% on Friday) plus 2.7%, with a two-year grace period, arranged by Citi and Itaú BBA, to support working capital as it ramps up an Americas growth phase. The funding coincides with construction of the Era Dorada gold project in Guatemala, a US$382 million build on a two-year schedule targeting about 111,000 gold-equivalent oz. per year in its first four years. Aura aims to lift group output to more than 600,000 gold-equivalent oz. annually from 313,000 oz. currently, while keeping net debt at 0.21× trailing EBITDA.

Thirty-seven detainees arrested in a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps sweep on suspected illegal mining sites near Minna, Niger State, were found dead in custody, prompting a state-wide mining suspension and 24-hour curfew. Niger State, which reported 880 registered mining companies and cooperatives in 2024 but only 261 profiled, sits over 578 mineral titles including 369 for gold, with widespread unlicensed activity. Federal Mining Marshals, expanded to 2,570 officers, have flagged 374 suspected illegal sites since March 2024, yet prosecutions have yielded only five convictions from 165 cases involving 430 defendants.