Perpetua Resources has partnered with Idaho National Laboratory, under Battelle Energy Alliance, to host, commission and operate a flexible, modular pilot plant to process Stibnite project ore into military‑specification antimony trisulphide concentrate for munitions and advanced defence systems. The pilot forms part of a US Army Defence Ordnance Technology Consortium agreement, with Perpetua now holding up to US$22.4 million in DOTC funding to advance domestic critical mineral processing. It runs alongside early works on the US$1.3 billion Stibnite gold‑antimony mine in central Idaho, aimed at a fully domestic “ground‑to‑round” supply chain.

Argentina’s Mendoza province has approved the PSJ Cobre Mendocino project, a $559 million joint venture between Zonda Metals and Alberdi Energy, marking its first large-scale mine in over 20 years after Senate endorsement of the environmental impact statement. The Uspallata operation is planned for 40,000 tonnes per year of copper concentrate over a 16-year mine life, using conventional flotation, with construction scheduled for 18–24 months and an estimated 3,900 construction and 2,400 operating jobs. The project now moves into detailed engineering, feasibility, cost and financing analysis before a construction decision.

USA Rare Earth will accelerate commercial production at its Round Top heavy rare earths deposit in Texas to late 2028, two years earlier than planned, after solvent-extraction pilot work enabled its Hydromet demonstration plant in Colorado to start five SX circuits running 2,000–4,000 hours from early 2026. The circuits will focus on dysprosium and terbium while also extracting hafnium and zirconium, feeding into a mine-to-magnet chain that includes a 310,000-square-foot Stillwater, Oklahoma plant targeting nearly 5,000 tonnes of magnets per year from 2026. Shares fell up to 4.3% to $16.56 despite the accelerated schedule.