CMJ Daily Tape
OFFTAKE | RARE EARTHS
Arafura Rare Earths, listed on the ASX, has signed a binding five-year offtake agreement to supply 850 t/y of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide to a global raw materials trading company it did not name, Mining Weekly reported on 12 October. The binding term sheet the two signed in May envisaged 500 t/y. Arafura said the trader was selected under the United States government's Project Vault initiative to build supply chains for American manufacturing. Pricing is linked to an independent global seaborne index. The term can be extended twice, by two years each, by mutual agreement. Arafura's Nolans project in Australia's Northern Territory is designed to produce 4,440 t/y of NdPr oxide, with first production targeted for early-to-mid 2029.
850 t/y is 19% of Nolans' design output, and it goes to a trader, not to a magnet maker. Before any of it reaches a motor, the trader has to place the oxide with a metal-and-alloy converter outside China, and the magnet customer has to qualify that chain. If qualification starts only with first oxide in 2029, the five-year term covers the ramp-up years, when impurity specs move most. The index link settles price. The open question is which converter takes the oxide.
PERMITTING | COPPER
Eldorado Gold's Skouries copper-gold mine in Greece has been designated a strategic project under the European Union's Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), Mining Weekly reported. The mine produced its first gold and copper concentrate in September. Eldorado expects a 20-year life at about 140,000 oz of gold and 67 million pounds of copper a year. Strategic status brings accelerated administrative support and easier access to financing. CEO Christian Milau called Skouries one of the largest new copper-gold mines in Europe.
67 million pounds is about 30,000 t of copper a year, and it leaves the mine as concentrate. The designation speeds permits and finance for a mine that is already running, so the faster permit matters less than where the concentrate goes. The CRMA sets a 40% target for processing inside the EU. If Skouries' concentrate is smelted outside the EU, the strategic label adds mined tonnes to the scorecard and no processed ones. The smelter contract tells you which.
OFFTAKE | LITHIUM
EnergyX signed a binding, take-or-pay offtake agreement with Trafigura for 100,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium products over 10 years, the company said on 12 October. EnergyX values the deal at over $2.0 billion at current prices of about $20,000 per tonne, and calls the figure illustrative. Product will be lithium carbonate from Project Black Giant in Chile and lithium hydroxide from Project Lonestar in Texas. Trafigura takes 66% of Black Giant's Phase 1 offtake and 30% of Lonestar's. Deliveries depend on product qualification and facility commissioning.
100,000 t over ten years averages 10,000 t a year, against 52,500 t/y of stated capacity at Black Giant alone. The contract is a financing instrument first: EnergyX ties the $690 million EXIM letter of intent to offtake. The delivery risk sits in the two conditions the release names, commissioning and qualification. Carbonate and hydroxide from direct lithium extraction still have to qualify with Trafigura's automotive and storage customers, and that clock starts only after commissioning, with commercial scale targeted for 2028.
RESOURCE ESTIMATE | RARE EARTHS
Critica, listed on the ASX, released an updated mineral resource estimate for its Jupiter clay-hosted rare earths project in Western Australia, Mining Weekly reported. The estimate includes the project's first indicated resource: 160 million tonnes grading 1,700 ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO), about 10% of Jupiter's total resource tonnage. Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium make up about 25% of TREO in the indicated resource. CEO Jacob Deysel attributed the upgrade to infill drilling over the past year. A scoping study is in progress.
160 Mt at 1,700 ppm holds about 272,000 t of contained TREO, a quarter of it magnet oxides. In a clay deposit, head grade is the smaller question: leach recovery and the reagent bill decide the economics, and the estimate gives neither. The indicated tonnage is what a scoping study can lean on, and about 90% of the resource still sits in the inferred category. The number to watch in the scoping study is leach recovery for dysprosium and terbium.
