First Phosphate has secured letters of interest for up to C$275 million in guarantees from Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund and additional LOIs from Italy’s CDP, SIMEST and MAIRE to advance the Bégin-Lamarche mine and a Ballestra-technology phosphoric acid plant at Port Saguenay under the G7 Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance. Bégin-Lamarche hosts 41.5 million indicated pit-constrained tonnes at 6.49% P2O5 and 214 million inferred tonnes at 6.01% P2O5 in igneous ore targeted for LFP battery-grade phosphoric acid. The company has also locked in offtake for at least 200,000 t/y of phosphate concentrate and 60,000 t/y of phosphoric acid, de-risking project financing and downstream integration.

Hudbay Minerals has broken ground on the New Ingerbelle expansion at the Copper Mountain mine in British Columbia, a pushback of the historic Ingerbelle pit walls designed to access higher-grade ore with a stripping ratio about three times lower than current mining areas. Using existing Copper Mountain mill and fleet infrastructure, the project is forecast to produce about 750,000 tonnes of copper, 900,000 oz of gold and 5.5 million oz of silver, extending mine life beyond 2040. New Ingerbelle, now a B.C. priority resource project, preserves over 800 direct jobs and has refreshed participation agreements with the Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands.

Guardian Metal Resources has acquired Lincoln Estates Group LLC in Nevada, adding 841 acres of land and 2,540 acre-feet per year of water rights across three permits in the Lincoln County Water District to support its Tempiute and Pilot Mountain tungsten projects. Lincoln Estates lies less than 10 miles from the historic Tempiute (ex-Emerson) mine, a past Union Carbide producer last operated in the 1980s, and complements a US Department of War US$6.2 million award to advance Pilot Mountain. The deal materially de-risks water supply for mine redevelopment in a state where groundwater allocation is a critical permitting constraint.