Water licence renewal and a land use permit for Fortune Minerals’ NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories have been approved, setting binding conditions for mine construction, operation, and closure security. The development combines an open pit and underground mine plus concentrator linked by an approved access road to the territorial highway, with concentrates shipped to a dedicated hydrometallurgical plant in Alberta. NICO hosts about 12% of known global bismuth reserves and 1.1 million in-situ ounces of gold, targeting domestic output of cobalt sulphate, bismuth ingots and copper cement.

Continental has opened an In-Company Store inside Vale’s S11D iron ore complex at Canaã dos Carajás, Pará, to supply conveyor belting and related technology directly on site. The facility is intended to shorten response times for high-wear components on S11D’s extensive overland conveyor network, reducing downtime risk on one of the world’s largest truckless mining operations. Embedded support staff will handle belt selection, splicing materials, and condition-based service, tightening integration between Continental’s maintenance expertise and Vale’s production teams.

Copper climbed 3.3% intraday to $6.8410/lb on Comex and $14,710.50/t on the LME as visible stocks tightened, with LME on-warrant inventory down to 133,725 t and cash copper flipping from an $86/t discount to a $26/t backwardation in a week. Comex warehouses now hold 696,204 t, about 69% of exchange-monitored copper, but storage at the Port of New Orleans is near capacity even as another 100,000 t from Africa and South America is due by October. Supply disruptions at Grasberg and Kamoa-Kakula have removed roughly 600,000 t from 2026 mine output, supporting prices less than 2% below record highs.