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MMG’s board has approved the feasibility study and committed to construction of a major expansion at the Khoemacau Copper Mine in Botswana, targeting annual output of 130,000 t of copper in concentrate. The project will also lift associated silver production above current levels, positioning the operation as a large-scale polymetallic producer in the Kalahari Copper Belt. For mine planners and process engineers, the step-up in concentrate tonnage will drive requirements for upgraded underground development, hoisting, and concentrator throughput, as well as expanded tailings and water management infrastructure.

Deep seabed mining remains legally blocked after legal scholars Aline Jaeckel and Erik van Doorn argued that the International Seabed Authority cannot approve exploitation in areas like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone until separate benefit-sharing regulations, controlled by the ISA Assembly, are adopted. The ISA’s Finance Committee only produced a first draft benefit-sharing framework in 2024, centred on a Common Heritage Fund, while about 40 countries now support a moratorium and African states oppose using shared funds for remediation. Companies including The Metals Company, Impossible Metals and Lockheed Martin are advancing CCZ plans despite this regulatory deadlock.

Nova Andino Litio SpA, the new joint venture between Codelco and SQM to develop lithium production in Chile’s Atacama Salt Flat, has held its first board meeting, signalling a shift from negotiation to implementation. The board comprises Codelco representatives Máximo Pacheco M, Josefina Montenegro A and Alfredo Moreno Ch, alongside SQM’s Ricardo Ramos. For project engineers, this formal governance structure clears the way for detailed planning of brine extraction, evaporation pond layouts and processing capacity expansions in one of the world’s highest-grade lithium salars.

Copper prices briefly surged towards $13,000/t on the LME on Monday, with a 6.6% intraday jump, while CME March futures in New York swung from a $5.92/lb peak to $5.56/lb, a 6% plunge that erased Friday’s gains. The metal is up about 35% in 2025 as US tariff fears on copper under President Trump drive front‑loaded imports, even as Chinese demand softens and mine disruptions at Grasberg, Kamoa‑Kakula and El Teniente constrain supply. BloombergNEF projects energy‑transition demand could triple by 2045, risking market deficits from 2026 and potential shortages of up to 19 Mt by 2050 without major new projects and recycling.

Silver plunged nearly 10% from a record $83.63/oz to the low $70s on Monday, its steepest intraday fall since 2021, after a month-long 40% surge driven by Chinese investment demand and Shanghai spot premiums exceeding $8/oz over London. Despite the pullback, silver is still up 148% in 2025 and briefly reached a market capitalisation above Nvidia’s $4.55 trillion, with its 14-day RSI easing to about 67 after three weeks above the overbought 70 threshold. Gold also retreated more than 4.5% from a record $4,543.51/oz, though it remains up nearly 75% year to date.

Axis International has launched a $28.9 billion arbitration claim at the World Bank’s ICSID after Guinea revoked the Boffa bauxite mining permit, one of more than 50 licences cancelled in May under President Mamadi Doumbouya’s crackdown on non-compliant projects. Axis says its Axis Minerals Resources unit, 85%-owned by Axis with the state holding 15%, exported 18 million tonnes of bauxite in 2024 from Boffa and was targeting 48 million tonnes in 2025, backed by over 800 million tonnes of proven reserves. The government has also seized equipment, frozen bank accounts and cancelled other operators’ permits, including Nomad Bauxite Corporation and a subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium, signalling heightened sovereign and licence security risk in Guinea’s bauxite and iron ore sectors.

HS2 Ltd reports steady 2025 build progress, with major earthworks, tunnelling and viaduct construction advancing on Britain’s largest live infrastructure scheme despite a leadership-led operational reset of the programme. Updated delivery plans are being phased in while maintaining work on key civil assets such as long-section bored tunnels and multi-span high-speed rail viaducts, rather than pausing site activity. For contractors and designers, the message is continuity of core geotechnical and structural work under revised governance and sequencing, not a wholesale slowdown.

Diamond mining was hit hard in 2025 as De Beers reported a steep revenue fall, accumulated about $2 billion in unsold natural stones and moved to cut over 1,000 jobs while Anglo American advanced plans to sell the business and merge with Teck Resources. Russia’s Alrosa saw profits drop nearly 80% and halted operations at key sites, while smaller miners entered administration or closed pits as lab-grown diamonds eroded prices. Botswana’s Debswana will cut output by up to 40% in 2025, and producers under the Luanda Accord pledged 1% of annual revenues to a global marketing push for natural stones.

NioCorp Developments’ Board has approved the Mine Portal Project for the Elk Creek critical minerals project in Nebraska, establishing the main underground mine entrances that will handle all personnel, equipment and materials access. The portal complex will be the primary interface between surface infrastructure and the planned underground operation targeting niobium, scandium and titanium, enabling subsequent development of declines, services and ventilation circuits. Early works on the portal will be critical for scheduling shaft sinking, underground construction and future production ramp-up.

Iamgold COO Bruno Lemelin, named Northern Miner Group’s EY Operator of the Year, has led the Côté open-pit mine in Ontario to commercial production at its 36,000 t/d plant, drawing on 233 Mt at 0.96 g/t for 7.17 Moz over an 18-year life and targeting average output of 365,000 oz/y. Third-quarter production reached 106,000 oz from Côté, Essakane (92,000 oz) and Westwood (23,000 oz), generating US$707 million revenue at an average realised gold price of US$3,492/oz and AISC of US$1,956/oz. Expansion work includes 55 km of drilling at the adjacent Gosselin deposit (4.4 Moz indicated, 3 Moz inferred) to test a “super-pit” concept lifting throughput from 13 Mt/y to up to 20 Mt/y, while Essakane life extension drilling proceeds under Burkina Faso’s tougher 2024 mining code and Côté ramps autonomous haulage and AI-enabled control-room operations.

Copper prices surged again on Friday, with London Metal Exchange contracts hitting a record $12,282/t before the Christmas break and Shanghai Futures Exchange prices briefly touching 100,000 yuan/t (~$14,270/t), creating a sharp premium over New York. Comex March copper climbed more than 5% to $5.903/lb (~$13,000/t), its highest since July’s short squeeze, as 2025 production was hit by accidents at Grasberg, Kamoa-Kakula and Codelco’s El Teniente. BMO now projects an average $12,500/t by Q2 2026, while Goldman Sachs still sees a 160 kt surplus capping prices at $10,000–$11,000/t.

B2Gold is closing 2025 with commercial production at the Goose mine in Nunavut, targeting 4,000 tonnes per day and about 300,000 oz. gold annually, while maintaining Fekola output in Mali at 515,000–550,000 oz. under a split open-pit/underground plan. CEO Clive Johnson is leveraging his Bema Gold experience in remote Russia to manage Goose’s long, seasonal ice-road supply chain and complex permitting under Mali’s 2023 mining code for trucking satellite ore to the Fekola mill. Additional growth options include the Antelope underground discovery at Otjikoto in Namibia (1.75 Mt at 6.91 g/t for ~390,000 oz.) and a 9.9% strategic stake in Snowline Gold’s Valley project in the Yukon.

Gold, silver and platinum hit fresh records on Friday, with spot gold touching $4,540/oz, February Comex futures peaking at $4,584/oz and March silver futures jumping over 9% to $78.30/oz, as palladium surged 13% to above $2,000/oz. Gold is heading for a >70% annual gain, driven by robust central bank buying and ETF inflows, including SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) increasing its holdings by more than 20% and physically backed funds taking in $82 billion (749 tonnes) by 22 December. Silver has rallied 160% in 2025 amid an October short squeeze, ongoing supply dislocations between London and New York vaults, and a pending US Commerce Department probe that could impose tariffs or trade restrictions.

Artificial intelligence–driven power demand from hyperscale data centres is emerging as a structural load on grids, with a Uranium.io survey of 600+ investors showing over 63% expect AI consumption to become a material factor in nuclear planning within a decade. More than 85% of respondents see uranium prices rising into 2026, many citing a US$100–120/lb range and potential spikes to US$135/lb as mined supply is forecast to cover under 75% of future reactor needs. Sprott Asset Management expects a widening supply deficit, with higher long-term contract prices needed to restart idled mines and advance greenfield uranium projects.

PYBAR Mining Services has mobilised to Larvotto Resources’ 100%-owned Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales, with underground development now underway. The contractor is preparing access and development drives to reopen historic workings at Hillgrove, a high-grade antimony-gold system previously mined via narrow-vein underground methods. Early development performance, ground conditions and water management in these initial headings will strongly influence the mine’s restart schedule, stope design and the sequencing of future drilling and production levels.

Western Gold Resources has approved a formal decision to mine at its 100%-owned Gold Duke Project in Western Australia, moving from pure exploration to near-term production. The project already holds mining approvals over the Eagle, Emu, Golden Monarch and Gold King deposits, allowing WGR to advance directly into detailed mine planning and contractor engagement rather than waiting on permitting. For geotechnical and mine planning teams, the pre-approved multi-deposit layout signals a likely staged open-pit schedule and shared infrastructure strategy across the four pits.

Serial wealth creator and Franco-Nevada co-founder Pierre Lassonde is publicly backing a long-term gold price of US$4,000/oz, drawing on his experience as former Newmont president and architect of the royalty/streaming model. He links the bullish outlook to persistent fiscal deficits, central bank buying and constrained new mine supply, arguing that large greenfield projects face decade-long permitting timelines and rising capital intensity. For miners and project financiers, his view reinforces pressure to secure tier-one ounces and royalty exposure rather than chasing marginal, high-cost developments.

First Quantum Minerals is divesting its Las Cruces copper operation in Spain, with subsidiary Cobre Las Cruces S.A.U. signing a binding agreement to sell the mine to Global Panduro, S.L.U., controlled by Resource Capital Funds, for up to US$190 million plus a profitability-linked earn-out. The deal transfers ownership of the existing open-pit and hydrometallurgical SX-EW plant near Seville, which has produced high-grade copper cathode from secondary sulphides. For engineers, the transaction signals potential changes to mine-life planning, processing flowsheet optimisation and permitting strategy under a new private-equity-backed owner.

First Quantum Minerals has agreed to sell the past‑producing Cobre Las Cruces copper mine in southern Spain to Global Panduro, controlled by Resource Capital Funds, for up to $190 million, with $45 million cash on closing, a $65 million loan note and about $80 million in milestone‑linked deferred payments. The asset includes a high‑grade open‑pit mine and hydrometallurgical plant near Seville that produced copper cathode from 2009–2021 and reprocessed tailings until 2023. Resource Capital plans a polymetallic primary sulphide project targeting copper, zinc, lead and silver, while First Quantum redirects liquidity after Cobre Panama’s shift to preservation and safe maintenance.

Copper prices set fresh records above $12,000/t in London and $5.60/lb in Chicago in 2025, amid outages at Grasberg, El Teniente, Kamoa-Kakula, Quebrada Blanca II and Cobre Panamá, and mounting geopolitical friction over US tariffs and Chinese processing dominance (53.1% of global capacity). Analysts are split, with Goldman Sachs seeing a 160 kt surplus capping 2026 prices at $10,000–$11,000/t, while Bank of America and BloombergNEF project spikes to $15,000/t and a 19 Mt structural deficit by 2050. Technically significant stories include Freeport’s 400 kt sulfide leach push at Morenci, the stalled deep-shaft Resolution Copper project in Arizona, and the proposed $53 billion Anglo–Teck merger that could create a copper complex larger than Escondida’s 1.28 Mt/y output.

Gold rose to a record $4,524.68/oz in early Wednesday trading before easing towards $4,450, capping a year-to-date gain above 70% driven by central bank buying, ETF inflows and safe-haven demand linked to Venezuela tensions and expected US rate cuts. Silver hit an all-time high of $72.70/oz, up more than 150% this year after an October short squeeze and ongoing supply dislocations that have left large inventories concentrated in New York pending a US Commerce Department critical-minerals probe. Platinum climbed past $2,300/oz for the first time in the Bloomberg series, extending a 10-session rally on tight supply and high borrowing costs.

Super Copper’s Cordillera Cobre project in Chile’s Atacama copper belt has secured approval for 26 exploitation concessions from Sernageomin, covering about 6,858 hectares and granting full, permanent mining rights once registration in the Copiapó Mining Registry is complete. The company reports 25 concessions already have formal court resolutions and 15 have legal extracts published in the Official Mining Gazette, with title registration now in progress. CEO Zachary Dolesky says this clears the way to submit a drill programme as soon as results from the latest exploration work are finalised.

A catastrophic breach on the Llangollen Canal near New Mills Lift Bridge, Whitchurch has drained a long pound and damaged the embankment, despite recent routine inspections reporting no visible defects. Engineers from the Canal & River Trust are now investigating potential failure mechanisms, including internal erosion, leakage paths and historic construction weaknesses in the canal lining and embankment core. The incident raises immediate questions over current visual inspection regimes for ageing UK canal earthworks and whether more frequent intrusive or remote condition monitoring is needed on high-consequence reaches.

A man-made embankment on the Llangollen Canal near Whitchurch, Shropshire, failed in the early hours of Monday, creating a large breach that rapidly drained a several‑kilometre pound and triggered a major incident response. The failure occurred on a raised canal section over low-lying farmland, with water overtopping and eroding the embankment before a full breach developed, flooding adjacent fields and damaging access tracks. Canal & River Trust engineers have isolated the affected reach with stop planks and are assessing embankment stability, seepage paths and repair options under constrained access conditions.