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Charles Pitts is the publisher of Skillings Mining Review, the trade journal that has covered mining since 1912. He writes on the macro forces behind metal prices: commodity cycles, sovereign capital and the shifting sources of demand. His current work argues that hyperscale AI, and the gigawatt-scale power its data centres need, is becoming a buyer of lithium and copper in its own right, competing with the automotive supply chain for tier-one reserves.
The global mining industry has crossed a decisive operational Rubicon. For decades, autonomous haulage systems (AHS) were viewed as capital-intensive experiments restricted to select tier-one iron…
Tailings storage facility with environmental monitoring infrastructure at a modern mine. For mining companies, ESG compliance is moving from a separate sustainability exercise into the core…
Nevada Gold Mines complex in northern Nevada. Barrick Mining and Newmont have settled their long-running dispute over Nevada Gold Mines in an agreement that requires Newmont…
Australian mining operations viewed from above. Mineral Resources said its financial and operating performance reached the strongest level in its 20-year history as record volumes across…
Illustrative image: critical-minerals processing infrastructure in Queensland. Queensland Parliament has passed legislation giving the state government expanded powers to accelerate major projects, including critical-minerals mines, processing…
Heli-portable diamond drilling expands the Danvers copper system across remote Nunavut terrain. White Cliff Minerals has expanded the drilled copper-bearing trend at the Danvers 1 prospect,…
Drilling at a copper-gold exploration project in the Western Australian Goldfields. Solstice Minerals’ latest Nanadie result changes the scale of the exploration question. Hole NANRCD005 returned…
Diamond drilling at a remote Arctic copper exploration site. White Cliff Minerals has expanded the known copper-mineralized trend at the Danvers 1 system in Nunavut, Canada,…
China’s lithium market has entered a more volatile phase as a prolonged shutdown at CATL’s Jianxiawo mine collides with stronger battery-storage demand and a supply response…
A working copper mine in Chile illustrates the scale and infrastructure required to add new supply. Copper has crossed a critical market milestone in 2026: prices…
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