Vale, Caterpillar and dealer Sotreq have agreed to expand Vale’s autonomous haulage fleet in the Northern System in Pará from 14 Cat MineStar Command trucks today to about 90 units by 2028, including models rated up to 400 tonnes. Deployment will roll out across the Serra Norte and Serra Sul iron ore units over five years, building on autonomous operations that started in 2019. Vale reports up to 15% gains in operational performance, up to 7.5% fuel savings and more than 260 staff already retrained for digital and supervisory roles.

Sunrise Energy Metals has raised a further A$32.5 million via a 5 million-share placement at A$6.50 to fund pre-construction at its Syerston scandium project in New South Wales, taking total recent equity financing to about A$105 million, with A$59 million still subject to shareholder approval and a potential US EXIM loan of $67 million pending. The Syerston deposit hosts nearly 46 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 414 ppm scandium and is designed to produce about 60 tonnes of scandium per year over a 32-year mine life. Lockheed Martin has already signalled offtake interest for roughly 25% of annual output under the Australia–US critical minerals pact, providing early demand visibility for project development decisions.

Seabridge Gold will spin out its 100%-owned Courageous Lake project in Canada’s Northwest Territories into a new listed vehicle, Valor Gold, distributing shares to existing Seabridge investors. Courageous Lake hosts 11 million oz measured and indicated (145.2 Mt at 2.36 g/t) plus 3.3 million oz inferred (40.6 Mt at 2.52 g/t), including 2.8 million oz of open-pittable proven and probable reserves at 2.6 g/t, with a February 2024 PFS outlining 201,000 oz/year over 12.6 years. At US$1,850/oz gold the PFS gives an after-tax NPV5 of US$523 million and 20.6% IRR, with further upside from a PEA-stage pit expansion and the high-grade Walsh Lake satellite (4.13 Mt at 4.18 g/t) on a largely unexplored ~500 km² land package.