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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.
Critical-minerals operators are increasingly expected to prove where material was extracted, processed, handled and sold before buyers, lenders or customs authorities will accept it. For years,…
The Boundary Waters region’s interconnected lakes and forest define the environmental stakes in the Twin Metals permitting dispute. Congress reopened the federal path for mining near…
Copper concentrate handling systems at a large-scale smelting complex. Copper’s record price is being accompanied by an unusual split in the supply chain: miners are gaining…
Brazil’s new policy improves the financing toolkit for domestic processing, but project bankability will depend on qualification rules, infrastructure and credible offtake structures. Brazil’s new critical-minerals…
Nickel’s 2026 outlook is being shaped by two opposing signals: Indonesia is imposing greater discipline on mine supply, while LME warehouses hold almost 279,000 tonnes of…
Engineered tailings storage infrastructure in a dry mountainous mining region. For mining companies, tailings compliance is moving into a more demanding phase. The question is no…
Gold is holding near $4,360 an ounce after the Federal Reserve lifted its policy rate to 3.75%-4.00% on Sept. 16, a resilience that is challenging one…
The next milestone in autonomous mining is not another driverless truck demonstration. It is the disappearance of the boundary between fleet classes. Epiroc’s extension of autonomous…
Lithium brine evaporation ponds and processing infrastructure in an arid Chilean landscape. Chile’s tightening of water extraction permits in the Atacama is changing the timetable for…
Ewoyaa is being advanced as Ghana’s first commercial lithium-producing mine. Huayou Cobalt has cleared a major Australian regulatory hurdle in its proposed US$210 million acquisition of…
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