Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank has shifted 86 tonnes of gold from New York and Ottawa to London between March and August 2026, raising London’s share of its 612.4-tonne reserve from 18.1% to 32.1% while New York and Ottawa each drop to 18.5% and Zeist stays at 30.8%. The move combined selling 59 tonnes in New York and repurchasing in London with physically transporting 27 tonnes under armoured, GPS-tracked security to Zeist, then swapping equivalent London-good-delivery bars to the Bank of England’s vaults. This reallocation prioritises immediate tradability in crisis scenarios and mirrors similar recent relocations by the Banque de France.

Dutch private equity firm Kenzoll Capital and Namibian partner MSF Commercials plan a $50 million restart of the Elizabeth Bay diamond mine in the Sperrgebiet, targeting 10.5 million carats of combined onshore and offshore resources and funding exploration for additional minerals. The move follows a 67% collapse in Namibia’s diamond export value from NAD 5.1 billion ($306.9 million) in 2022 to NAD 1.7 billion ($102.3 million) in 2025, which the Bank of Namibia flags as a major drag on growth. For engineers and contractors, the project signals renewed capital for coastal brownfield mine infrastructure and marine-linked resource development in a previously uneconomic De Beers asset.

Canada’s mining sector has secured rare cross-government backing, with outgoing Mining Association of Canada CEO Pierre Gratton urging companies to convert faster federal-provincial impact assessments and Ottawa’s proposed Productivity Mega Deduction—allowing full expensing of eligible mine development capital on entry into service—into built projects. He pointed to a 23% fall in Canadian copper output and 44% drop in nickel over the past decade, contrasted with a 31% rise in gold production and Eldorado Gold’s McIlvenna Bay, described as the first new Canadian copper-zinc mine in more than a decade. Gratton warned that developers still risk losing political support if they mishandle Indigenous relationships, and pressed for “one project, one review” and exclusions for expansions and fully electric underground mines from federal impact assessment triggers.