Gold’s drop from near $5,589/oz in January to below $4,000/oz by late June erased most of mining’s 2026 equity gains, with the MINING.COM TOP 50’s combined value falling $228 billion in Q2 to $2.19 trillion and gold majors such as Agnico Eagle, Gold Fields and Shandong Gold losing 26%–40%. Diversified giants bucked the trend: BHP added $28 billion to reach $209 billion, Rio Tinto reclaimed second at $162 billion, and Anglo American advanced on its Teck merger, which would create an ~$82 billion copper-heavy group. Uranium producers Cameco and Kazatomprom strengthened their positions despite spot price softness, while lithium equities (SQM, Ganfeng, Albemarle) decoupled from a one‑third rise in carbonate prices to around $22,400/t.

Guardian Metal Resources has formed a tungsten mining and recovery pilot alliance with the Montana Mining Association, Montana Technological University and the US Army Research Laboratory, using 250–400 tonnes of legacy ore from its Tempiute project in Nevada as initial feedstock. Ore will be trucked to a milling and processing facility in Philipsburg, Montana, to test upscaling of tungsten-rich tailings and stockpiles into tungsten metal powder for defence-grade penetrators and other US DoD applications. Guardian recently staked 193 additional claims at Tempiute, expanding its tailings footprint by over 375%, with first ore shipments targeted for late summer 2026 pending metallurgical and pilot-scale test work.

Ferreyros and Caterpillar are deploying Peru’s first underground autonomous loader fleet, introducing CAT R1600H low-profile LHDs with 10.5 t payload capacity at Volcan Compañía Minera operations. The autonomous R1600H units, designed for narrow-vein and low-back mining, will transition from commissioning to full production, integrating with existing underground traffic and manual fleets. For mine planners and engineers, the move signals growing readiness to automate load–haul cycles in constrained headings, with implications for traffic management, communications infrastructure and maintenance strategies.