MAX Power Mining has secured an additional 155,125 acres (628 sq. km) of permits contiguous with its 1,224 sq. km Lawson natural hydrogen project in south-central Saskatchewan, creating the newly named Aurora project on a basement-controlled structural play along the Paleoproterozoic–Archean contact of the Sask Craton. The company has now accumulated 660,263 acres (2,672 sq. km) of provincial permits across the Genesis Trend while running a multi-well commercial validation drill programme at Lawson targeting large-scale natural hydrogen. An MOU with the City of Moose Jaw links potential hydrogen development to a nearby heavy industrial and major data centre corridor, signalling early focus on local offtake and infrastructure integration.

American Mineral Resources is assembling a seven-jurisdiction portfolio across Quebec, British Columbia, Yukon, Chile, New Zealand, Western Australia and Tanzania, with its Piscau North polymetallic project in Quebec earmarked for a separate Canadian Securities Exchange listing, as it targets a Nasdaq uplist within 12 months via the OTCQB. CEO Ryan Cunningham is prioritising projects with existing permits or modest capex and argues that jurisdictional risk now rivals grade, citing Quebec’s Gaspé oil drilling ban as a warning. He also points to Canada’s flow-through share regime as a key financing advantage over US markets still fixated on AI and tech.

LoopX has signed a three‑year R&D partnership with Vale Base Metals to develop and validate “Physical AI” systems for underground operations, targeting intelligent and autonomous mining fleets. CEO and founder Chao Yu says the work will focus on AI-powered control that can directly interact with physical mining environments, aiming to improve safety and productivity in confined headings and dynamic stopes. For engineers, the deal signals accelerated testing of autonomy algorithms, sensing suites and decision systems in real production drifts rather than only in lab or surface testbeds.