The US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has issued an expression of interest to US companies for potential transfer and recovery of surplus critical minerals and rare earth-related materials at five nuclear cleanup sites: Paducah (Kentucky), Portsmouth (Ohio), Oak Ridge (Tennessee), Nevada National Security Site and Moab (Utah). Targeted materials include aluminium, copper, lead, silver, platinum, tungsten, vanadium, fluorine, lithium hydride, chloride, selenium and cesium-137. Interested parties must supply their own extraction, processing and handling equipment, with DOE evaluating responses on technical capability and proposed end-use plans.

Aura Minerals has secured a US$200 million, five-year syndicated loan priced at SOFR (3.62% on Friday) plus 2.7%, with a two-year grace period, arranged by Citi and Itaú BBA, to support working capital as it ramps up an Americas growth phase. The funding coincides with construction of the Era Dorada gold project in Guatemala, a US$382 million build on a two-year schedule targeting about 111,000 gold-equivalent oz. per year in its first four years. Aura aims to lift group output to more than 600,000 gold-equivalent oz. annually from 313,000 oz. currently, while keeping net debt at 0.21× trailing EBITDA.

Global mined copper output is on track for its first annual decline since 2017, with a 1.1% year-on-year drop in H1 2026 and about 600,000 tonnes of expected 2026 production lost from Grasberg and Kamoa-Kakula, equal to roughly 2.5% of global mine supply, Sprott reports. Chilean production, 23% of world mine output, fell 6.6% in H1 and 9.4% in July, with Cochilco now forecasting 5.27 Mt for 2026 and BHP’s Escondida guiding down to 1.0–1.1 Mt in FY 2027 despite record throughput. While refined copper still shows a modest surplus, US cathode imports hit a record 223,000 tonnes in July and COMEX inventories jumped 712% since February 2025 on tariff uncertainty, tightening freely available metal outside the US and boosting miners’ margins via lower treatment and refining charges.