The big winners from the Australia-US critical minerals deal
Congo’s cobalt producers still waiting for export approvals
Trump strikes deals on trade, critical minerals in Southeast Asia
Eldorado Gold’s $1B Skouries mine in Greece nears finish line
Denmark’s export fund backs Greenland graphite mine with $6M loan
Sagittarius seeks partner for Philippines’ largest copper-gold mine
The big winners from the Australia-US critical minerals deal
The Australian mining sector was buzzing this week off the back of the critical minerals deal announced by US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Washington DC on Monday.
Cue region in Western Australia
News of the deal filtered through on Tuesday morning local time, just hours ahead of the opening of Australia’s largest mining event, the International Mining and Resources Convention (IMARC) in Sydney, and it dominated discussions during the conference.
Association of Mining and Exploration Companies CEO Warren Pearce told the conference the deal was much better than expected.
“We’d hoped for a high-level agreement which would enable negotiations and hopefully lead to commercial contracts between American companies and Australian producers,” he said. “What we got was that, plus commitments of investment.”
While the deal boosted sentiment in the Australian critical minerals space, there were two big winners in Albanese’s announcement, Arafura Rare Earths (ASX: ARU) and a joint venture between Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and Sojitz Corp (TYO: 2768).
It was a double win for Gina Rinehart-backed Arafura, which also received a letter of interest (LoI) from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for up to $300 million of funding for its $1.2 billion Nolans project in the Northern Territory.
Congo’s cobalt producers still waiting for export approvals
Cobalt producers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are still waiting for government approval to resume exports under a quota system introduced on October 16 that was expected to restart shipments immediately, four industry sources told Reuters.
Processing facilities at Tenke Fungurume mine in 2016 before the CMOC acquisition
The system replaced a months-long export suspension that disrupted global supply chains and rattled electric vehicle manufacturers, particularly in top consumer China.
Congo accounts for over 70% of global cobalt output and temporarily froze exports to curb supply and drive up prices.
Under the new regime, companies must apply for monthly export quotas from state regulator, the Strategic Mineral Substances Market Regulation and Control Authority (ARECOMS), and prepay royalties based on assigned volumes and prevailing cobalt prices before shipping.
To export, companies must validate quotas and product quality, obtain traceability and compliance certificates, and allow ARECOMS oversight during sampling. For October and November, prepayments are combined to activate both months’ quotas, the regulator said.
Quotas have been allocated, and firms are hoping for approvals by the end of October, although delays are possible, the sources at mining and trading firms said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump strikes deals on trade, critical minerals in Southeast Asia
The United States signed a flurry of deals on trade and critical minerals with four Southeast Asian partners on Sunday, looking to address trade imbalances and diversify supply chains amid tighter export curbs on rare earths by China.
US President Donald Trump, who is in Kuala Lumpur to attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, signed reciprocal trade deals with his Malaysian and Cambodian counterparts, as well as a framework trade pact with Thailand that will see the countries work to address tariff and non-tariff barriers.
The United States would maintain a tariff rate of 19% on exports from all three countries under the deals, with the levy to be reduced to zero for some goods, according to joint statements released by the White House.
Washington also announced a similar framework deal with Vietnam, which has been levied with a tariff rate of 20% on its exports to the United States.
Vietnam, which recorded a trade surplus of $123 billion with the United States last year, has pledged to vastly boost its purchases of US products to reduce the trade gap between the two countries.
Malaysia not banning rare earth exports
Trump on Sunday inked two separate US deals with Thailand and Malaysia seeking cooperation to diversify critical minerals supply chains, amid competing efforts from Beijing in the rapidly growing sector.
Reuters reported exclusively this month that China was in talks with Kuala Lumpur on rare earths processing, with Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional expected to partner with a Chinese firm to build a refinery in Malaysia.
China, the world’s top miner and processor of rare earths, has imposed increasingly stringent export controls on its refining technology, sending global manufacturers scrambling to secure alternative supplies for critical minerals used widely in semiconductor chips, electric vehicles and military equipment.
Malaysia agreed on Sunday to refrain from banning or imposing quotas on exports to the US of critical minerals or rare earth elements, the countries said in a statement.
Eldorado Gold’s $1B Skouries mine in Greece nears finish line
Canada’s Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD)(NYSE: EGO) is getting close to opening its Skouries copper-gold mine in northern Greece, with first output expected in early 2026 and commercial production by mid-year.
Canaccord Genuity upgraded the miner’s shares to Buy from Hold, citing reduced project risk as Skouries approaches completion, along with Eldorado’s solid balance sheet and attractive valuation.
Skouries is a high-grade gold-copper porphyry project
The investment bank projects Eldorado’s annual production will climb from 483,000 ounces of gold in 2025 to 665,000 ounces by 2027. Free cash flow is expected to surge from $194 million to $1.3 billion over the same period. Shares currently trade at 0.52 times price-to-NAV and 3.3 times estimated 2026 EBITDA, which is below the intermediate peer averages of 0.81 and 4.4, respectively.
After years of setbacks and a four-year suspension between 2017 and 2021 due to permit delays and local opposition, Eldorado reached a new agreement with the Greek government in 2021 and restarted construction in late 2022.
Part of the Kassandra Mines Complex, Skouries hosts proven and probable reserves of 3.7 million ounces of gold and 1.7 billion pounds of copper. The mine is designed for a 20-year life, producing about 140,000 ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of copper annually through a combination of open-pit and underground mining.
Denmark’s export fund backs Greenland graphite mine with $6M loan
Amitsoq-Island in southern Greenland with a drill rig visible centre left, and a GreenRoc-chartered ship centre right.
EIFO, Denmark’s official export credit agency, is providing a €5.2-million ($6 million) loan to UK-based junior GreenRoc Strategic Materials (LON: GROC) to support its development of a past-producing graphite mine located in southern Greenland.
In a statement released on Wednesday, EIFO said the loan to GreenRoc builds on its broader commitments in Greenland, which include loans, guarantees and investments of nearly €52 million across 25 different companies in a range of industries.
“EIFO is pleased to support GreenRoc as the company takes its next crucial steps towards contributing to the supply of indispensable raw materials for Europe’s green transition and defence industry,” EIFO chief commercial officer Peter Boeskov said in a news release.
“With GreenRoc, we are backing a company with the potential to play a pivotal role in securing graphite supply chains and creating jobs in Greenland,” EIFO CEO Peder Lundquist added.
Graphite is designated as a critical raw material by NATO and the EU for its importance in the battery, energy storage and defence technology supply chains. Currently, China dominates the world’s graphite supply chain, controlling approximately 80% of natural graphite extraction and nearly 100% of the downstream processing.
Sagittarius seeks partner for Philippines’ largest copper-gold mine
Sagittarius Mines, developer of what could become the Philippines’ largest mine, is seeking a strategic partner to move the long-delayed Tampakan copper-gold project toward production.
Chief executive officer Roy Deveraturda told Bloomberg News on Wednesday the company is looking for a partner that can bring “modern technology” to the project, located in South Cotabato on the southern island of Mindanao.
The Tampakan mine, expected to produce about 375,000 tonnes of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold in concentrate annually over 17 years, had originally targeted commercial operations for late 2026. The company now expects production to begin in 2028.
Discovered more than 30 years ago, the project has faced repeated setbacks. Glencore (LON: GLEN) exited in 2015 amid regulatory uncertainty and a nationwide ban on open-pit mining, which was lifted in 2021.
Interest from Chinese companies, including state-owned Aluminum Corp. of China (Chinalco), has surfaced over the past year, though talks have been complicated by rising tensions between China and the Philippines over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Chinalco, China’s largest aluminium producer, has been investing in mines from Guinea to Peru to secure raw materials for the world’s biggest commodities markets. Other Chinese groups, such as Zijin Mining, have also been expanding globally in search of copper and other industrial metals.
The Philippines and Indonesia are the world’s top nickel suppliers to China, where the metal is used in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries. While Indonesia has grown its nickel exports from $3 billion to $30 billion in four years by building local smelters, the Philippines continues to export mostly raw ore due to a lack of processing capacity.
