Ivanhoe Mines has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qatar Investment Authority under which Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund will back Ivanhoe’s management in pursuing existing and new critical minerals projects in Africa. The collaboration targets large-scale copper, nickel and other battery-metal deposits across Ivanhoe’s pipeline, building on assets such as Kamoa-Kakula in the DRC. For engineers and project developers, the deal signals potential acceleration of feasibility studies, project financing and infrastructure build-out on African critical minerals hubs.

High-grade tungsten mineralisation has been intersected at Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove project in New South Wales, adding a second critical metal to a site already known for antimony. Managing director Ron Heeks describes antimony as caught in a “perfect storm” of falling global mine output and rapidly rising demand from defence and energy-storage sectors, positioning Hillgrove’s combined antimony–tungsten potential as strategically significant. For mine planners and metallurgists, the find raises questions on future polymetallic flowsheet design and prioritisation of drilling to define tungsten resources alongside existing antimony targets.

Aris Mining will pay US$80 million to acquire full ownership of the Soto Norte gold project in Colombia, positioning the company to target production of around 1 million oz of gold per year. The deal consolidates Aris’s interest in one of the country’s largest undeveloped underground gold assets, located in Santander department near the historic California-Vetas mining district. For mine planners and investors, the transaction signals intent to advance a large-scale, long-life operation in a jurisdiction already hosting significant high-grade underground gold mining.