Rare Earths Americas is expanding its Shiloh heavy rare earths project in Georgia into the Foothills Rare Earths District after drilling at the Liberty Peak target, over 50 km away, intersected monazite-bearing sands similar to Shiloh. The new district covers an area about 17.5 times larger than the original >22,000-acre Shiloh target and includes Liberty Peak plus three additional high-priority targets, with Liberty Peak intercepts up to 10 m wide and several holes ending in mineralisation. REA, newly listed on NYSE American, is also advancing the Alpha project in Bahia, Brazil towards an SK-1300 initial assessment.

Titan Mining’s Empire State Mines subsidiary has signed a non-binding supply agreement with an unnamed US aerospace and defence manufacturer for natural graphite from its planned commercial facility in New York, backed by product qualification tests already under way on samples from its Kilbourne demonstration plant. The Kilbourne facility, located at the Empire State Mine infrastructure in St. Lawrence County, began producing graphite concentrate in January, marking the first US output in decades and offering a traceable domestic source in a market dominated by Chinese processing. Titan targets commissioning of the full-scale graphite plant in 2028, signalling future US-based supply options for high-spec defence and energy-storage applications.

Gold rebounded from an intraday low of $3,993.80/oz to $4,080.80 on the Comex August contract after the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.5%–3.75% in a split 9–3 decision, despite swaps pricing a roughly 38% chance of a hike. Silver outperformed, with the September contract up 2.2% to $58.78/oz, though both metals remain far below their late-January peaks, pressuring margins and project economics for high-cost producers. Precious metals equities edged higher on the hold, but Allied Gold slumped 19% in Toronto after its C$5.5 billion takeover by Zijin Gold collapsed.