CMJ Daily Tape
FINAL INVESTMENT DECISION | URANIUM
The Etango joint venture, owned 55% by Bannerman Energy and 45% by CNNC Overseas Limited (CNOL), has taken a final investment decision to move the Etango uranium project in Namibia's Erongo Region into full-scale construction, World Nuclear News reported. Commissioning and production are targeted for 2028. The FID rests on the Etango-8 design at 3.5 million lb U3O8 a year; a 2024 scoping study showed potential for 6.7 million lb. Pre-production capex is forecast at about USD353 million, of which about USD64 million has already been spent on early works, with the remainder funded from existing JV cash. At end-September, bulk earthworks were 99% complete and the first phase of the permanent water pipeline was about 90% complete.
About 18% of Etango's pre-production budget was spent before the FID, so the 2028 date now depends less on money than on water and heap-leach ramp-up. The first phase of the NamWater pipeline was about 90% complete at end-September, and heap leach at a 100 ppm cut-off moves large tonnages per pound. With CNOL holding 45% of the JV and the offtake framework undisclosed, utilities pricing 2028 term supply should ask how many of the 3.5 million lb are already spoken for before counting Etango as open-market supply.
DEBT FINANCING | LITHIUM
Sigma Lithium extended the maturity of its US$100 million senior secured debt with Synergy Capital by six months, from December 2026 to June 2027. The rate stays at SOFR + 6.95% a year. About 93% of Sigma's debt now falls due in June 2027, and total debt stood at US$125 million on October 21. Sigma said it produced 7,090 tonnes of lithium oxide concentrate between its October 5 restart, after Brazil's Federal Superior Court reinstated its environmental licenses, and October 21. Nameplate capacity is 330,000 tonnes a year.
At 7,090 tonnes in 17 days, Sigma is running at roughly 46% of nameplate in its first weeks back, before converters have run acceptance on restart cargoes from a plant that now includes recycling and reprocessing circuits. Each tonne produced before June 2027 has to be shipped, accepted and paid inside about eight months to service a single maturity holding 93% of the debt. The extension buys time; qualification and payment calendars at the buyer end decide whether it is enough.
EXPORT CONTROL | RARE EARTHS
China exported 18 mt of yttrium oxide to Japan in January-September, down 98% from 888 mt a year earlier, according to Reuters' reading of Chinese customs data cited in SMM's ex-China weekly review. The Financial Times reported on October 20 that Japan's yttrium inventory may last only a few months. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on October 21 that China applies export controls on Japan according to law. Phoenix Tailings will build a US$375 million, 18,000 mt-a-year rare earth plant in Rochester, New York, with full production in 2028.
Yttrium goes into thermal-barrier coatings and semiconductor process parts, where users buy specific oxide purities from qualified refiners. Eighteen tonnes in nine months is a trickle, not a supply line. Phoenix Tailings' 2028 start in New York does nothing for a deficit the FT dates to end-2026, and any new yttrium source still has to pass coating and fab qualification. Watch which Japanese buyers announce re-qualification of non-Chinese oxide, not which governments announce plants.
M&A REVIEW | NICKEL
The European Commission issued a Statement of Objections in mid-September on a Chinese company's purchase of a Brazilian ferronickel business, with a decision due by November 30, SMM reported. In January-September, Goiás shipments to the EU fell from 48.6 kt to 34.1 kt while Pará's rose from 19.2 kt to 33.4 kt, leaving Brazil at 74.8 kt against 78.8 kt. SMM put Europe's 2026 ferronickel shortfall at 15.2 kt, 12.7 kt of it from Colombia, where gas cuts hit Cerro Matoso.
The review targets the asset that is not causing Europe's shortage. Brazil's EU-bound tonnage fell 4 kt, while Cerro Matoso was receiving less than one-fifth of its contracted gas by mid-October. EU stainless mills replacing Colombian units cannot fall back on Indonesian NPI, which has shipped nothing to Europe since December 2025 ahead of CBAM certificate sales in February 2027. A remedy on Goiás protects tonnage that Pará is already replacing.
TRADE REMEDY | NICKEL
On October 21 the European Commission sent interested parties its general disclosure in the expiry review of anti-dumping duties on hot-rolled coil from Indonesia, China and Taiwan, proposing to keep the current duties, SMM reported. If confirmed, the measures would run another five years; the decision is not final. In the same week, rumoured Indonesian output cuts of 20% for NPI and 50% for MHP and matte lifted SHFE nickel 3.05%, while Indonesian 304/2B FOB offers held at an average of $2,112.50/mt.
The cut rumour moved SHFE, not steel. SMM says the NPI baseline for any cut is still being negotiated and a real reduction is unlikely before November, and Indonesian mills have already absorbed a 10.6% fall in NPI since July 1 with only 1.6% off 304/2B FOB. With EU duties likely extended five years, Indonesian hot-rolled stays out of Europe, so an actual NPI cut lands first on Asian mill margins, not on European contract prices.
PERMITTING | COPPER
Aim-listed Halo Minerals and its subsidiary Minera Playa Verde were granted a mining permit for the Playa Verde copper and gold tailings processing project in Chile, Mining Weekly reported. The permit authorises dredging of mineral-bearing material at Chañaral beach. The project would process about 5 million tonnes a year through a metallurgical plant, producing about 8,600 t a year of payable copper as cathodes and concentrates. Halo CEO Andrew Dennan said the focus is on completing the remaining workstreams to take Playa Verde to an FID.
A payable yield near 0.17% means Playa Verde lives on throughput and recovery, not grade. Dredged beach tailings arrive wet, salty and fine, and those properties set leach and flotation performance before any copper is counted. The permit covers extraction; the binding constraint is now holding recovery at 5 million tonnes a year on Chile's Atacama coast. Cathode buyers will want pilot-scale recovery data before they sign offtake.
