Eagle Nuclear Energy has completed key environmental and site-readiness work at its Aurora uranium project on the Oregon–Nevada border, including installation of a meteorological station, a wetland delineation study, and a full cultural and archaeological survey to support permitting. Aurora hosts an indicated resource of 32.75 million lb and nearly 5 million lb inferred, making it the largest conventional measured and indicated uranium deposit in the US and central to Eagle’s planned 27,000-foot pre-feasibility study. The project underpins a strategy to pair domestic uranium supply with advanced SMR technology, in a market where US reactors consume about 32 million lb of uranium annually but domestic production was only 677,000 lb in 2024.

Undersea critical minerals explorer The Metals Company has had its USA B seabed exploration licence application formally certified by NOAA, covering about 122,000 km² of eastern Clarion Clipperton Zone seafloor with an estimated 1.02 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules containing cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese. TMC USA’s separate consolidated application for an exploration licence and commercial recovery permit in the USA A area was ruled fully compliant on 28 April, and NOAA is now expected to issue a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and draft Terms, Conditions and Restrictions. Environmental NGOs continue to push for a blanket ban on deep-sea mining, warning of irreversible biodiversity loss from industrial-scale nodule recovery.

Galan Lithium has produced its first lithium chloride at the Hombre Muerto West brine project in Catamarca, Argentina, after wet commissioning a nanofiltration plant fed with 0.5% lithium brine and discharging product to final evaporation ponds. The three‑month evaporation stage is expected to yield 6% lithium chloride concentrate, underpinning Phase 1 nameplate output of 4,000 tpa LCE, backed by a 10,000‑tonne LCE brine inventory and a 45,000‑tonne offtake with US-based Authium. Pond construction to lift capacity to 5,200 tpa LCE by H1 2027 is planned, with permits in place for a staged expansion to 60,000 tpa.