Florence Copper in Arizona has produced its first copper cathodes from Taseko Mines’ new commercial in-situ copper recovery (ICSR) operation coupled with a solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) plant, following electrowinning start-up in late February. The project uses in-situ leaching of a deep porphyry deposit and on-site SX/EW to generate LME-grade cathode without a concentrator, tailings storage facility or smelter. For geotechnical and hydrogeological teams, the move to full commercial ICSR-SX/EW operation sharpens focus on leach-wellfield design, solution containment and long-term groundwater management.

Rio Tinto is proceeding with construction of a pilot plant in Quebec to extract primary gallium from its alumina refining process, backed by a conditionally approved contribution from Natural Resources Canada under the Global Partnerships Initiative. The project, developed with Indium Corporation, follows successful first gallium extraction in May 2025 using process streams from Rio Tinto’s alumina refineries. If scaled, the technology could turn refinery residue and intermediate liquors into a new critical metal stream without major changes to existing Bayer process infrastructure.

First Phosphate has secured conditional approval for a non-repayable contribution of up to C$16.7 million from Natural Resources Canada’s Global Partnerships Initiative to advance engineering and processing circuit studies for LFP-grade phosphate concentrate at its integrated Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean project in Quebec. The work will focus on validating flowsheets and equipment to convert ore from the Bégin-Lamarche deposit, which hosts 41.5 million indicated tonnes at 6.49% P2O5 plus 214 million inferred tonnes at 6.01% P2O5, into high-purity phosphoric acid (PPA) and iron phosphate. First Phosphate also plans a 10,000 t/y iron phosphate plant 20 km from the deep-sea port of Saguenay, targeting a vertically integrated LFP cathode materials supply chain.