CMJ Daily Tape
PROJECT FINANCE | COPPER
Meridian Mining said on November 9 that its Cabaçal copper-gold-silver project in Mato Grosso, Brazil, has entered pre-construction. It appointed AFRY as EPCM contractor and committed USD 30.9 million to pre-construction contracts, including power transformers, bridge and road upgrades, a SAG mill, Jameson Cells and an IsaMill. It holds the Declaration of Public Utility and Installation Licence for a 24.3 km, 138 kV power line from the Araputanga substation. Of more than 20 indicative finance proposals, several offered fully financed packages of USD 400 million covering debt, overrun funding, equity and offtake. The feasibility study puts pre-production capex at USD 322 million, after-tax NPV5 at USD 2.1 billion and IRR at 108%. Meridian gave no FID date.
More than 20 indicative finance offers for a USD 322 million build say more about a USD 5.03/lb copper and USD 3,570/oz gold price deck than about Cabaçal's schedule. The binding constraint sits elsewhere: the 24.3 km, 138 kV line still has no EPC contractor, and Meridian names no buyer for its concentrate. Until the line contract is awarded and an offtaker signs, the 108% IRR is a price-deck number, not a construction date.
OFFTAKE | RARE EARTHS
USA Rare Earth reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of USD 3.0 million, an operating loss of USD 141.4 million and USD 1.16 billion in cash and restricted cash at September 30. Serra Verde, acquired in September, began commercial-scale shipments of heavy mixed rare earth carbonate in October to US SIIE, LLC under a 15-year, 100% take-or-pay offtake priced on non-China prices. The company guides fourth-quarter Serra Verde sales of at least 325 tonnes TREO and a Stage 1 run rate of 4,000 tpa in the second quarter of 2027.
With a 100% take-or-pay, Serra Verde's risk is no longer price; it is tonnes. Fourth-quarter guidance of 325 t TREO annualises to about 1,300 tpa, a third of the 4,000 tpa Stage 1 rate the company targets for Q2 2027. The carbonate is an intermediate, and the basket values are quoted after contracted separation costs. The number to track is the separation counterparty's throughput, not the floor price.
PERMITTING | GRAPHITE
Graphite One said on November 9 that its Ohio Environmental Protection Agency air permit clears the main environmental hurdle for Phase 1 in Conneaut, Ohio. Phase 1 is a 10,000 tonnes-per-year plant coating synthetic graphite anode material, using purchased synthetic graphite, not Alaskan ore, at an estimated initial capex of USD 80 million. It targets an investment decision in April 2027 and first sales in Q4 2028. The Export-Import Bank of the United States issued a non-binding USD 1.4 billion letter of interest for expansion to 100,000 tpa.
Phase 1 makes Graphite One a coater of someone else's synthetic graphite, not a miner. That puts the schedule on two things the air permit does not touch: who sells it the feedstock, and how long battery makers take to qualify its anode. Samples are out, and the only named buyer, Lucid, holds non-binding agreements. With an investment decision in April 2027 and first sales in Q4 2028, qualification has to close inside that window or the plant starts without an order book.
COMMISSIONING | RARE EARTHS
Ucore Rare Metals said on November 9 that it received more than 50 tonnes of bastnaesite-derived mixed rare earth carbonate from a North American source to commission RapidSX Machine A at its Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex in Alexandria. Machine A has 600 tonnes per year of TREO capacity across 125 solvent extraction stages. Ucore produced 99.5% NdPr oxide from the same feed at its Kingston, Ontario demonstration facility in August 2026. Installation, testing and commissioning of Enhanced Machine A is set for the first half of 2027.
Fifty tonnes of carbonate is a commissioning lot, not a supply line: at 600 tpa TREO it covers less than a month of nameplate, and carbonate carries less oxide than its own weight. The feed supplier is unnamed, the planned samarium-europium-gadolinium feed has no named source, and the release names no offtaker. Machine A's test is whether a second, repeatable feed contract exists before commissioning ends in the first half of 2027.
M&A | TUNGSTEN
Japan's Sojitz Corp has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire a 5% stake in Vietnamese tungsten producer Masan High-Tech Materials, Masan Group said on November 9, according to Mining Weekly. The stake will be bought from Masan Horizon, a wholly owned Masan Group subsidiary, at a price no lower than the one paid by Pentagon-backed Elmet in its investment in Masan High-Tech Materials, the parent company said.
A 5% stake bought at Elmet's price floor is a seat, not a supply contract. What matters to a Japanese trading house is tonnage: whether the MoU carries an offtake right on Masan High-Tech Materials' tungsten, in which product form, and for how long. Until a definitive agreement states volumes, the stake changes who sits at the table, not where the concentrate goes.
