CMJ Daily Tape
OFFTAKE | LITHIUM
EnergyX has signed a binding 10-year offtake with Trafigura valued at about $2 billion, Mining Weekly reported, citing Reuters. Trafigura will buy 100,000 metric tons of lithium on a take-or-pay basis: 5,000 t a year each of lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate. The hydroxide comes from a planned Texas plant of 15,000 t/y starting in 2029, of which Trafigura takes 33%; the carbonate from a planned Chile plant of 7,500 t/y starting in 2028, of which it takes 66%. The value assumes lithium near $20,000/t. EnergyX, backed by General Motors and Eni, still needs funding for both plants and is seeking a $690 million US Export-Import Bank loan. Trafigura plans to sell first to Chinese customers.
The binding part sits on Trafigura's side; the supply side is two plants that do not exist yet. Chile starts in 2028, Texas in 2029, and both still need financing, including a $690 million EXIM loan that has only been requested. Take-or-pay protects the seller once tonnes flow; before that, the contract is a bankability document. The real test is qualification: hydroxide and carbonate from a new DLE flowsheet need cathode-maker approval, and Trafigura says its first buyers are in China, not the United States.
JOINT VENTURE | HEAVY RARE EARTHS
Namibia Critical Metals said JOGMEC and Toyota Tsusho have met the C$23 million expenditure requirement that earns them a 50% interest in the Lofdal heavy rare earth project. NMI is finalising arrangements to issue that interest to TJNREC and expects shareholder and regulatory consents to take up to another 30 days. JOGMEC holds a first right of refusal to fund the project through commercial production and to buy all production at market prices. NMI's interest cannot be diluted below 21%, provided it pays JOGMEC $5 million for dilution protection.
The headline is the 50% earn-in; the operating clause is the offtake. JOGMEC can fund Lofdal through commercial production and buy all of its output at market prices, so the separation route, product specification and qualifying customers will be decided in Japan. For a heavy rare earth project, that weighs more than the equity split: the bottleneck is a separator able and willing to take this feed, and this contract assigns that choice before a single tonne is mined.
PRICING | LITHIUM
SMM's cobalt-lithium morning summary said the average spot price of lithium carbonate fell 6,950 yuan/mt on October 12 to 115,400 yuan/mt. The 2701 futures contract touched 105,320 yuan/mt intraday, with open interest up about 17,000 lots to roughly 440,000. Social inventory stood at 139,517 mt on October 8, down 9,260 mt from before the holiday. SMM put October schedules at about 500,000 mt of LFP cathode, up about 4% month on month. It cited the Jianxiawo mine in Yichun re-entering public notice and resumed Zimbabwe concentrate shipments as supply signals.
The price fell while the warehouse emptied. Social inventory dropped 9,260 mt over the holiday on cathode-plant consumption, and LFP cathode schedules are up about 4% for October. What moved price was paper: open interest rose about 17,000 lots into the fall. The supply signals SMM cites, the Jianxiawo notice and Zimbabwe shipments, add tonnes months out, not this week. Converters buying spot now are buying a futures-driven discount in a market that is still destocking.
INVESTMENT | MULTI-MINERAL
Appian Capital Advisory has set up a base in Washington DC for its critical minerals portfolio and appointed Brian Greeley, previously senior VP and chief banking officer at the US Export-Import Bank, as CFO of critical minerals, Mining Weekly reported. Christopher Smith, formerly chief government affairs officer at Ford Motor Company, and retired US Navy Rear Admiral John Meier join as senior advisers. Appian plans $2.5 billion in development capital for the portfolio over the next five years, across cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, mineral sands, nickel and rare earths.
Read the hires as a financing map. A former EXIM chief banking officer, a former Ford government-affairs head and a retired admiral cover three routes to US offtake: state debt, an automaker buyer and defence procurement. The $2.5 billion is development capital, so the constraint is construction, not money. The asset to watch is Atlantic Strategic Minerals' rare earths processing build in Virginia: separation capacity, not mine supply, sets how fast this portfolio can sell into US supply chains.
MINERAL RIGHTS | POLYMETALLIC TAILINGS
Cerro de Pasco Resources won a public auction for the rights to the tailings in the Quiulacocha storage facility in Peru, Mining Weekly reported. The sale committee of Activos Mineros (AMSAC), the Peruvian state entity for legacy mining liabilities, awarded the mineral and surface rights to the company's Peruvian subsidiary. Once definitively executed, the award lets the company consolidate the tailings with its 100%-owned El Metalurgista concession. The company is running a technical programme at Quiulacocha aimed at a maiden mineral resource estimate and feasibility-level studies.
The award transfers title, not a deposit. There is no resource estimate yet, so nobody, the company included, can say what the tailings hold and at what grade. The sequence that matters is operational: definitive execution with AMSAC, then sampling, then metallurgy, then a flowsheet. Reprocessed tailings also carry a second contract beside the mineral one: the environmental liability. Who holds that liability after execution decides whether the economics work.
