Bannerman Energy and CNNC Overseas have approved full-scale construction of the Etango open-pit, heap-leach uranium mine in Namibia’s Erongo region, a US$353 million development designed to process 8 million tonnes of ore per year and produce about 3.5 million lb U₃O₈ annually from 2028. The project is fully funded without project debt, with CNNC investing US$320.4 million and securing offtake for 60% of lifetime production on market-based terms, while Bannerman markets the remaining 40%. Bulk earthworks are 99% complete, early works have already consumed US$64 million, and the first stage of the permanent water pipeline is about 90% finished, signalling limited geotechnical and infrastructure risk heading into main construction.

Moon River Moly’s updated PEA lifts the Davidson underground molybdenum-copper-tungsten project’s after-tax NPV to C$1.23 billion at an 8% discount rate and cuts payback to 1.5 years, driven by a switch from gravity separation to tungsten flotation and revised capex/opex. The 10,000 t/d, 20-year operation now targets average annual output of 13.27 million lb molybdenum, 1.5 million lb copper and 1.51 million lb WO₃, with all-in sustaining costs of $4.36/lb Mo net of by-products. Tungsten resources are upgraded to 80.8 million tonnes measured and indicated, and the mine plan includes battery-electric equipment, paste backfill and dry-stack tailings.

Chinese state-aligned miners have secured concessions over more than one million hectares in Nicaragua—around 8.5% of national territory—targeting high-grade epithermal gold systems such as the 50 km La India district, valued at an estimated $1.4 billion NPV. The gold endowment, with co-metals including antimony, tellurium and silver for infrared sensors and munition fuses, provides Managua with sanctions-resistant “war liquidity” while deepening Beijing’s resource portfolio. With Ortega’s removal of competitive elections, 30-year, state-backed concessions near the Panama Canal and 1,000 miles from the US border raise explicit anti-access/area-denial concerns for Western defence supply chains.