Critical Minerals

Forecast: BHP and unions ended their latest bargaining round without agreement, keeping Port Hedland on a Tuesday return clock.

Satellite analysis in a new OHCHR release says Kachin added 302 rare-earth mining sites since 2021, while Shan rose from 12 pre-coup sites to 85 post-coup. Trade flows peaked at USD 1.4 billion in 2023 amid toxic runoff and transboundary pollution.

A talud collapse at an informal open-pit gold mine in vereda Puerto Rico, Policarpa, Nariño, killed 13 people and injured seven. Rescue ended about 02:00 local on 20 August. Local disaster officials ruled out an explosion.

BOEM proposed five mineral lease areas totaling 67,197,032 acres around the Northern Marianas. A 16 December auction could open surveys and sampling; commercial extraction still needs another plan and review.

Los Pelambres lost roughly five days to weather and intermittent power, then returned gradually. Copper guidance fell even as stronger pricing and cost control pushed the earnings ledger the other way.

The Cristo Redentor and San Francisco crossings remained closed on Monday. Trucks, mining shifts and mountain communities now carry the cost of a winter storm measured in waiting time.

The G7’s Évian texts did not create a new institution. They made club access to strategic flows sound administratively normal: ships without tolls, minerals outside pure spot markets, and, by diplomatic reporting rather than communiqué text, advanced AI for trusted partners.

The US critical-minerals plan is less a market fix than a managed-pricing system for strategic commodities. The near-term shape is likely bilateral US deals, selective coordination and tariff tools, not a clean G7 institution.

Some materials are starting to price like oil tankers in a war zone — gallium, rare earths, a chip substrate — all spiking because one country controls the supply and can turn off the tap. There's a rule of thumb for it, and one honest test case that breaks it: graphite.