The US Defense Logistics Agency has reopened a $500 million tender to buy up to 7,500 tonnes of cobalt after benchmark prices more than tripled since mid-August. The agency first sought offers in August but is now reissuing the procurement as spot market volatility and tight supply complicate long-term contracting. For miners and refiners, the move signals sustained US strategic demand for cobalt metal and intermediates, with potential upside for projects able to deliver secure, traceable supply into government stockpiles.

Ivanhoe Mines has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qatar Investment Authority under which Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund will back Ivanhoe’s management in pursuing existing and new critical minerals projects in Africa. The collaboration targets large-scale copper, nickel and other battery-metal deposits across Ivanhoe’s pipeline, building on assets such as Kamoa-Kakula in the DRC. For engineers and project developers, the deal signals potential acceleration of feasibility studies, project financing and infrastructure build-out on African critical minerals hubs.

High-grade tungsten mineralisation has been intersected at Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove project in New South Wales, adding a second critical metal to a site already known for antimony. Managing director Ron Heeks describes antimony as caught in a “perfect storm” of falling global mine output and rapidly rising demand from defence and energy-storage sectors, positioning Hillgrove’s combined antimony–tungsten potential as strategically significant. For mine planners and metallurgists, the find raises questions on future polymetallic flowsheet design and prioritisation of drilling to define tungsten resources alongside existing antimony targets.