Latest Critical Minerals News

Tivan has secured the regulatory and cultural heritage clearances needed to advance an 8,000-metre drilling campaign at its Molyhil tungsten project in the Northern Territory. The company will also issue 3.84 million shares as part-payment for the project acquisition, while its feasibility and proposed funding plans remain unfinished.

Neometals has cleared a key regulatory hurdle for an A$2 million standby loan from a company controlled by former chairman David Reed. The facility provides near-term funding, but carries 10% interest, security over Barrambie-related assets and potential conversion into equity.

Lode Resources has identified a new polymetallic lode at its Montezuma project in Tasmania, with a narrow interval returning exceptional tin, copper, silver, antimony, gold and lead grades. Three further mineralised zones from the same hole remain awaiting assays, while follow-up drilling is already underway.

QEM has ranked the Vaught-Peck prospect as the leading target at its newly acquired Garden Valley project in Idaho after reviewing historical records of columbite, samarskite and other rare-metal minerals. The opportunity remains prospective rather than proven, with no modern drilling, assays or resource estimate yet reported.

Australian Rare Earths has moved its Koppamurra pilot plant beyond heap leaching, recovering rare earths from about 5,000 litres of leach solution into a Mixed Rare Earth Hydroxide intermediate product. The result provides an early test of the downstream flowsheet, although commercial economics and final product quality remain unproven.

Gold Mountain has identified clustered niobium, magnet rare earth and phosphate anomalies across four Araxá prospects after expanding its stream sediment dataset to 515 samples. The results sharpen exploration targets, but the project remains well short of drilling, resource definition or economic assessment.

Latitude 66’s KSB project has returned a striking preliminary economic case, with a post-tax NPV8 of US$485 million and an 85% IRR at a US$3,500 per ounce gold price. The opportunity remains unbuilt, unfunded and subject to further study, permitting and a production target containing 10% Inferred Resources.

Viridis Mining and Minerals has selected Sedgman and Blossom as the preferred EPCM partner for its Colossus rare earths project, with up to US$3 million approved for work before a final investment decision. The full contract remains conditional, but engineering and procurement activity will begin immediately.

Tungsten Mining has secured the primary approvals needed to take its Watershed tungsten project in Far North Queensland through to mining and production, while early site works are already under way. The project remains pre-FID, with financing and the October DFS still critical to the H1 2027 production target.

VHM has taken Goschen from a permitted project to a more financeable development, with Iluka committing to buy all planned rare earth concentrate and providing A$40 million in convertible note funding. The company remains pre-revenue, has not made a Final Investment Decision and will need further funding before construction can begin.

Oceana Metals has begun its first rare earths-focused drilling campaign at Serra Negra in Brazil, targeting a high-grade central corridor ahead of a maiden JORC resource estimate. The program starts with two rigs and is backed by A$8.16 million in cash plus a further $12.6 million from a July placement tranche.

EV Resources has moved its Tecomatlán plant from integration into live proof-of-concept processing, with 200 metric tons of antimony ore delivered and crushing underway. The company is now targeting its first marketable antimony concentrate, although plant-scale performance remains unproven.