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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.
Copper hit a fresh record high overnight, extending a rally driven by tariff-driven hoarding in the United States and shrinking mine supply. COMEX copper recently traded…
An aerial view of a Mexican open-pit gold operation. Gold miners are reporting into a market that has become both more profitable and more demanding. Bullion…
Lithium prices are entering the second half of 2026 with the market focused on a critical question: can new supply arrive quickly enough to keep pace…
Control-room data is becoming part of the evidence base for mining ESG disclosures. Mining ESG compliance 2026 is moving beyond policy statements and sustainability narratives. Financial…
The Antino district lies in Suriname’s Guiana Shield near the Lawa River. Gold mining news 2026 is taking another turn toward strategic exploration deals, with Gold…
Fortuna Mining is paying US$200 million to acquire the Bambadji gold project in southeastern Senegal, consolidating exploration ground adjacent to its Diamba Sud project. Fortuna Mining…
An industrial electric smelting facility at Fortescue’s Christmas Creek operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Fortescue has produced its first hot metal at the Green Metal…
Zijin Gold’s planned takeover of Allied Gold has collapsed after the companies failed to secure required Chinese regulatory approval, ending a proposed transaction valued at about…
Autonomous mining technology 2026 is entering a more demanding phase: proving that safety systems can be standardized across large, mixed equipment fleets. The immediate milestone is…
An open-pit copper-cobalt operation and processing complex in the DRC’s Copperbelt. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has prohibited the export of copper and cobalt concentrates…
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