Kyrgyzstan is courting Western mining capital with a tightly controlled “reset” that excludes state-backed gold projects like Kumtor, instead offering minority stakes in small-to-medium polymetallic and critical minerals deposits, mainly to UK and European investors. President Sadyr Japarov’s government is retaining 30% free-carried interests, as in Silvercorp Metals’ US$160 million, 70% acquisition of the Tulkubash and Kyzyltash gold projects, to keep ultimate control and domestic support. Legal protections lag, with only an EU 2024 and UK 1994 bilateral treaty in place and no Canadian treaty, meaning early entrants will be specialist, high-risk equity demanding steep discounts.

A temporary injunction from British Columbia’s Court of Appeal is holding up West High Yield Resources’ Record Ridge open-pit magnesium project near the US border until a 5 May judicial review of its environmental permitting, including whether the US-based Sinixt Confederacy must be formally consulted. The 43-million-tonne measured and indicated resource grading 24.6% Mg, with a proposed 172-year mine life and C$250 million capex, had been slated for construction this quarter and first production in Q1 2027. Local and Indigenous opponents are challenging the decision that the sub-threshold project did not require a full provincial environmental assessment, citing asbestos-bearing rock, Columbia River-linked waterways and sensitive ecosystems.

Allied Critical Metals has secured US$40 million – a US$25 million equity placement at C$2.05 per share plus a US$15 million bond or senior loan – to fully fund a pilot tungsten plant at its Vila Verde project in Portugal, licensed for 150,000 tonnes per year of ore throughput over five years. The existing shareholder providing the loan will offtake 50% of pilot tungsten concentrates at a floor price of US$1,000/mtu, rising to 75% if plant capacity doubles. Funds will also advance the Borralha project, scoped for an 11‑year mine producing 1,708 tonnes of WO₃ annually.