July 9th, 2025 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

🇺🇸 On Tuesday, President Trump said he planned to impose a 50% tariff on copper, sending futures for the metal up as traders bank on a premium to lure more copper to the United States.

🇦🇺 The Royal Bank of Australia (RBA) surprised economists and the financial market this week when it decided to hold interest rates at 3.85%. The RBA said it needs more information to confirm that inflation is on a sustainable downward path.

^{**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.}

KEEPING AN EYE ON GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

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

• 🇺🇸 President Trump fired off 14 letters to various countries to warn them of increased reciprocal tariffs starting August 1st. The countries and their new tariff rate are: Japan (25%), Korea (25%), South Africa (30%), Kazakhstan (25%), Laos (40%), Malaysia (25%), Myanmar (40%), Tunisia (25%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (30%), Indonesia (32%), Bangladesh (35%), Serbia (35%), Cambodia (36%) and Thailand (36%). What do they have in common? Some commentators have pointed out that these countries have deeper economic ties with China and therefore, the United States may be looking to alter their behavior through these tariffs. (The White House)

• 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 🇯🇵 🇮🇳 The Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India, and Japan met last week for the 10th Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. They launched the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative which will strengthen cooperation on a number of priorities including: securing and diversifying reliable supply chains as well as improving electronic waste critical minerals recovery and re-processing. (U.S. Department of State)

• 🇨🇦 Alberta & Ontario’s Premiers signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance the safe transportation and export of: Critical minerals, mined and processed in Canada; and Western Canadian oil and natural gas via pipelines to refineries, seaports, and storage facilities, including but not limited to sites in James Bay and southern Ontario. They also look to collaborate on promoting nuclear energy development among other things. (Ontario Government)

• 🇨🇦 The Ontario government is investing up to $10 million and launching the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) for 2025 to support early-stage mineral exploration. Applications for the sixth intake of OJEP will be accepted online through the Transfer Payment Ontario (TPON), beginning on July 3, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. EST and closing on July 31, 2025, at 4 p.m. EST. Funding through the program will be provided to approved projects on a first-come, first-served basis. So if you have a project in Ontario, DO NOT sit on this one. (Ontario Government)

• 🇨🇦 The Alberta government has settled with at least two of the five companies suing the province over their flip-flop on coal policy. Evolve Power Ltd. and Atrum Coal Ltd. both issued releases in the middle of June saying that they have reached agreements and will share more information with their investors once finalized. (Globe & Mail)

• 🇪🇺 The Financial Times reported that the European Union plans to stockpile critical minerals due to geopolitical risks. While the information is based on a draft document that could change, more information is expected in the coming week.

• 🇯🇵 Japan will start test mining rare-earth mud from the seabed off Minamitori Island in early 2026. Shoichi Ishii, program director of the Cabinet Office's national platform for innovative ocean developments told Reuters, "The goal is to secure a domestic supply to enhance national security, rather than to enable private companies to profit from selling rare earths." Surveys have shown rich rare-earth mud about 5,000 to 6,000 meters below the surface near the island. (Reuters)

• 🇮🇩 Indonesia announced that it will cut mining quota terms from 3 years to 1 year so that it can better control the price of key commodities like nickel and coal.

• 🇵🇪 Peru has a new Deputy Minister of Mines - Ronald Isidoro Ibarra Gonzales. The country continues to fight against illegal mining and just removed 50,500 informal miners off its permit scheme. This leaves 31,560 miners on the permit scheme as the government looks to formalize all operations.

• 🇧🇴 Bolivia’s congress erupted into chaos as the Energy Minister had water and garbage thrown at him while others scuffled on the floor. At the center of the debate were Russian and Chinese contracts for lithium extraction. The opposition believes these projects will bring harm to the environment with little benefit for the people. (Reuters)

• 🇿🇦 South Africa’s Minerals Council is calling out an export tax on chrome that it says will hurt the industry and lead to layoffs. South Africa is the world’s largest producer of chrome and used to be the largest producer of ferrochrome, a combination of chrome and iron. The top position now belongs to China, as South African smelters have been forced to close due to high electricity costs. In response, South Africa has agreed to lower power tariffs on smelters, but is putting a tax on chrome exports to help make up the difference. Is this a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul or good public policy? (Reuters)

THE MINE WIRE EXECUTIVE BRIEFING POWERED BY DELPHIC RESEARCH - Get Customized Intelligence Every Morning

Are You Responsible For Media Monitoring, Government, Regulatory Affairs or Mining Intelligence?

Traditional methods of staying on top of developments can take hours each day, visiting multiple websites, newsletters, and other sources of information – and yet, it can still be a challenge to stay on top of it all. The Mine Wire has partnered with Delphic Research to develop the Executive Daily Briefing. This is a customizable intelligence and media monitoring product that arrives each morning with coverage that focuses on the issues, the minerals, the geographies and people that matter most to you.

Consider the following statistics:

• 60% of government affairs professionals report that the volume of issues they need to track has increased.

• 70% say they have six or more issues to track at any given time.

• 75% of respondents say that daily updates are vital.

• 80% of professionals fear missing an important legislative or policy update.

• 75% spend over 6 hours a week monitoring and curating news and legislative developments, with one in five spending more than 10 hours weekly.

It’s the “four minutes to start your day” – easy to read, comprehensive, and yet concise, pulling all that information into a single, customized publication to keep you fully informed each morning. With 80% of professionals fearing they might miss an important legislative or policy update, our service ensures you are always up-to-date and never miss a critical piece of information.‍

If you’d like to continue the conversation, please select this link to book a time for a discovery call about how the Mine Wire’s Executive Daily Briefing can impact your work.

MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) entered into agreements to acquire each of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (TSX: SSL; NYSE: SAND) and Horizon Copper Corp. (TSXV: HCU; OTCQB: HNCUF). Sandstorm shareholders will get shares in Royal Gold with a 21% premium paid on the 20 day VWAP which values the company at $3.5bn. Horizon shareholders will receive a cash payment of $2 which is a 85% premium to the 20-day VWAP that values the company at $196m. Royal Gold is down 11.46% since the news broke. Despite that, the friendly takeover is generally viewed as strategically sound, offering a host of benefits for the companies involved. (Royal Gold)

• 🇺🇸 Deep-sea miner Impossible Metals plans to start raising over $1bn later this year as it moves into growth mode. With The White House showing support for the industry, it is certainly a perfect time to be raising capital. Impossible Metal’s Ontario robotics team, led by Canadian co-founder and chief technology officer Jason Gillham, is also a key selling point for investors, as the technology minimizes disturbances to sea life. (The Logic)

• 🇦🇺 Also on deep-sea mining, a science consortium led by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has developed the first environmental management and monitoring frameworks to protect deep sea ecosystems, should the International Seabed Authority permit deep-sea mining. The project was commissioned by The Metals Company Australia and proposes an eight step process that includes continued monitoring. (CSIRO)

• 🇨🇦 Wheaton Precious Metals announced the return of the $1 Million Future of Mining Challenge. For the 2025/26 challenge, Wheaton will award US$1 million to a cleantech venture with innovative technology that seeks to advance sustainable water management in the mining industry. Definitely check out the challenge if you are in this space or send this to someone who would be interested. (CISION)

• 🇦🇺 In a Reuters exclusive, sources say that Rio Tinto may have a new CEO by the end of July and that the Chair has several priorities for the new executive. These include being open to transformative merger and acquisition deals while also reducing costs. The mining giant saw its costs rise 46.5% from 2020 to 2024, faster than any other peers. There is a feeling that some costs, like staffing, are currently excessive. Have your eye on that Rio Tinto superstar? Might be time to reach out with an offer they can’t refuse. (Reuters)

MINING BITS

• 🇨🇦 Outdoor Life magazine shares an article from 1976 that details a harrowing polar bear attack in The Northwest Territories on a group conducting a geological survey. Polar bears are one of a handful of animals that are known to hunt and kill humans. If you ever see one in the wild, we recommend getting far far away and fast. (Outdoor Life)

• 🇦🇺 Human Resources Director takes a look at an unfair dismissal case involving a pit technician who was terminated following an incident that resulted in significant gold ore loss at a Western Australian mine site. Roughly $200,000 in gold was lost during one shift due to the error, but was the pit technician to blame? The Fair Work Commission ruled that the person was not responsible. Further, it wasn’t fair to expect them to catch the error given all of the circumstances. The dismissed person was awarded 16 weeks’ compensation. (HRD) 

• 🇺🇸 The FBI issued a warning about pump-and-dump clubs on social media. The scheme, known as a "ramp-and-dump" stock manipulation, targets US investors through online engagement, often via social media advertisements or messages promoting an "investment club" of fellow investors, some of which may be bots or fake accounts. These promotions typically direct victims to secure messaging apps where the group operates. To appear credible, perpetrators may impersonate legitimate brokerage firms or well-known stock analysts. They secretly control a large volume of a low-priced stock and coordinate efforts to inflate its price ("ramp up") by encouraging investment club members to purchase shares over a period of several weeks or months. Once the price is artificially inflated, they pull the rug out and “dump” their shares leaving the investors with the proverbial bag. So for all of our individual investors reading The Mine Wire, be cautious of these types of clubs. For small-caps, also pay attention to unexplained activity on your stock, as it may be the target of one of these schemes. (FBI)

• 🌍 The BBC takes a look at ‘Blood Gold’ in the Sahel region of Africa and how it is fueling armed conflict. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are all accused of using gold revenue to fund their militaries, mercenary groups like The Wagner and Africa Groups and lastly, funding their fight with several Jihadist groups. Call us skeptical of these regimes and their message of being for the people. No doubt some of the $15bn in revenue per year is making its way to some shady overseas bank. (BBC)

Not Signed Up to The Mine Wire Yet? 

We do the hard work and curate news from around the globe related to mining and bring it to you once a week in a free and easy to read format. Whether you’re a seasoned industry professional or a curious enthusiast, our newsletter delivers the latest updates, cutting-edge trends, and expert analysis straight to your inbox in an exciting format once a week. Subscribe below!