January 28th, 2026 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

^{**For our chart above we are taking prices from Tuesday 4pm EST to Tuesday 4pm EST, so not the typical week of Monday through Friday. This week however, we have done December 16th 4pm EST to January 13th 4pm EST.}

KEEPING AN EYE ON GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

Here are some of the notable government policy moves this week:

🇨🇱 A lesson for communications teams out of Chile this past week. Never pre-empt an official government announcement, especially something as important as cabinet appointments. On January 20th, 2026, Canadian mining company Los Andes Copper issued a press release announcing that its CEO, Santiago Montt, was resigning to become the Minister of Mining in the incoming government of Chilean President-elect José Antonio Kast. The problem? This announcement occurred hours before the official cabinet announcement by the president-elect, creating an "awkward" situation for the incoming administration by pre-empting their official, staged announcement. The result? Santiago Montt was reportedly dropped from the list of cabinet appointees while Kast decided to merge the mining and economy portfolios, appointing Daniel Mas, vice president of the Confederation of Production and Commerce, to lead both. The National Mining Society has expressed disagreement with the merger citing the need for a dedicated leader. Given the importance of the sector to Chile, we have to agree. We wouldn’t be surprised if this is temporary until a more permanent Mining Minister can be vetted.

🇺🇸 The Trump administration through a newly finalized rule from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will accelerate permitting for deep-sea mining of critical minerals in international waters. The Metals Company applauded the move and said they would be submitting a consolidated application soon. The company is up over 417% in the past year. (Reuters)

🇺🇸 Last Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to lift a 20-year federal ban on mining in northern Minnesota. The resolution will now proceed to the Republican controlled Senate where it is expected to pass.

🇦🇺 Last week, the Western Australian government approved a five-year subsidy extension to keep the insolvent Griffin Coal operational until 2031. This funding is designed to prevent a 10-20% spike in electricity prices and secure the supply for the Bluewaters Power Station. Since 2022, the government has provided $308M in subsidies, although the Premier said these will be significantly decreased moving forward.

🇨🇦 The Government of Québec launched the 2025-2031 Québec Strategy for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals and its action plan. The government is supporting this ambition with a budget of $88.1M and an action plan structured around four priorities: Improve the business environment and accelerate projects; Develop the entire CSM value chain; Deploy strategic infrastructure and logistics corridors; and Engage partners. (Quebec)

🇨🇦 Over in the West, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut have jointly agreed to work together to accelerate development, enhance supply-chain resilience, diversify export markets and strengthen the position of Canada’s west as a preferred global supplier of responsibly sourced critical minerals. (British Columbia)

🇨🇦 The Province of British Columbia has issued an environmental assessment certificate to Eskay Creek Mining Ltd., a subsidiary of Skeena Gold+Silver, to restart gold and silver mining at the site of the former Eskay Creek mine in Tahltan territory. The Environmental Assessment Office carried out a collaborative assessment process with the Tahltan Central Government, the first to be guided by a consent agreement, representing a major milestone in government-to-government decision-making for major projects.

🇨🇳 China will open up futures markets for 14 commodities, including lithium carbonate and nickel, to foreign investors. The move is largely seen as a way for China to play a greater role in global price setting of key commodity imports.

MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

🇨🇦 Allied Gold Corporation received a friendly all-cash offer of $5.5bn by Zijin Gold International. While the offer price represents a premium of approximately 27% over Allied Gold’s 30-day volume-weighted average price, gold is up nearly 20% over the same period. Some may question whether the 5.4% premium to the stock’s last close is enough considering gold’s parabolic rise. Allied Gold’s Chairman & CEO Peter Marrone said the all-cash offer “crystallizes significant and certain value for its shareholders” while the stock is at an all time high. Allied Gold is up over 263% in the past year. (Allied Gold)

🇨🇦 Orezone Gold Corporation has locked down a deal to acquire Hecla Quebec Inc., which includes 100% ownership of the operating Casa Berardi gold mine and a portfolio of exploration properties, all located in Quebec. Consideration for the acquisition consists of upfront and deferred consideration of $352M and contingent consideration of up to $241M. The deal is supported by Franco-Nevada Corporation which is providing $100M in financing as part of a gold stream agreement. (Orezone)

🇨🇦 Congratulations are in order for Cyclic Materials which closed an over-subscribed $75M USD Series C equity round, its largest to date. The company will use the funding to scale up operations across the US and Europe and accelerate its Canada-based research and development footprint. (Cyclic Materials)

🇺🇸 USA Rare Earth Inc. got a major nod of approval from the U.S. government with a letter letter of intent outlining $277M in proposed federal funding and $1.3Bn in a proposed senior secured loan under the CHIPS Act. The deal would give the government a 10% stake while providing USA Rare Earth’s with much of the funding it needs to advance its mine in Sierra Blanca, Texas, in partnership with with Texas Mineral Resources. The company also has a magnet manufacturing plant in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which ​is expected to launch later this year. The company will still need to raise about $600M to complete both the mine and manufacturing facility.

🇺🇸 Standard Nuclear, a reactor-agnostic producer of TRISO nuclear fuel, has secured $140M in Series A funding from investors. Rather then explain, we like this quote from an investor which sums up the importance of these types of investments: “The United States is entering a new nuclear era — driven by the clarity and focus of the Administration, a renewed industrial policy, the AI data center boom, and the recognition that clean, reliable and dispatchable power is essential to national security,” said Thomas Hendrix, General Partner at Decisive Point and Executive Chairman of Standard Nuclear. “Standard Nuclear was founded with a focused mandate to secure and scale a domestic advanced nuclear fuel supply chain that the U.S. can rely on. With this financing, we are rapidly advancing to build the infrastructure needed to scale American nuclear.” (Businesswire)

MINING BITS

🇩🇪 According to Reuters, “prosecutors in Germany are investigating 16 suspects for possible embezzlement and fraud at Heraeus, the German metal trading and recycling group that has reserved $540M to cover risks for "irregularities" exposed by a whistleblower.” It sounds like Heraeus took materials from customers that were obtained illegally - embargoes, theft, etc., we have no idea, but definitely sounds juicy. (Reuters)

🇨🇦 Congratulations to Pejman Salehi who has been announced as the new CEO of NORCAT, starting March 2nd, 2026. Salehi most recently held the role of Vice-President, Academic at Conestoga College in Kitchener, where he oversaw key schools including Computer Science & Information Technology, Engineering Technology, Trades, and Creative Industries.

🥳 OK we are a little light on the mining bits this week so check out this fun link with a host of mining puns, one-liners and jokes. All family friendly and could be great for that next Linkedin or social media post! (Puntrail)

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