CMJ Daily Tape
INVESTMENT | COPPER
Resolution Copper, the Arizona joint venture in which Rio Tinto holds 55% alongside BHP, approved $144 million (C$201 million) in additional spending on November 5, The Northern Miner reported, citing a Rio Tinto release. Rio Tinto's share is $79 million. The money funds feasibility studies, engineering for material-handling equipment in both shafts, exploration drilling, underground mining and electrical equipment, and water treatment work, and adds about 50 jobs. It comes on top of about $500 million announced after the March 16 land exchange, which transferred more than 2,400 acres near Superior to the venture. State and local permitting is still pending, and Resolution Copper says no decision has been made to begin mining.
The $144 million buys shaft material-handling engineering and underground equipment for a mine Resolution Copper says it has not decided to build. The ore sits 1,500 to 2,100 metres down, so hoisting capacity through two shafts, not capital, sets the eventual tonnage. Ordering equipment before state and local permits clear cuts both ways: early orders protect lead times, but a permit delay leaves hoists and electrical gear idle against a deposit no smelter can yet contract.
SPAC LISTING | RARE EARTHS
Mkango said the US Securities and Exchange Commission declared effective on November 4 the Form F-4 for the business combination of its subsidiary Mkango Rare Earths with Crown PropTech Acquisitions, a SPAC. Crown PropTech shareholders vote on November 25, with redemption requests due November 23. Closing requires shareholder approval, Nasdaq approval of the listing, not yet granted, and a minimum cash condition. The assets are the Songwe Hill project in Malawi and the proposed Pulawy separation plant in Poland.
The release cites a minimum cash condition and a PIPE without giving either amount, and redemptions on November 23 decide how much cash is left. Pulawy is still a proposed separation plant, and Songwe's US$4.6 million from the DFC pays for front-end engineering, not construction. For a magnet maker the date that matters is when Pulawy oxide passes qualification, and a Nasdaq ticker does not move it.
CAPACITY | URANIUM
Ur-Energy's Lost Creek and Shirley Basin operations in Wyoming hold combined licensed capacity of 4.2 million lb of U3O8 a year, against about 2.2 million lb built, The Northern Miner reported. Chief executive Matthew Gili said the gap could be filled with company material, toll milling for other producers, organic growth or acquisitions. Shirley Basin began recovery in April, its first since 1992, and sent its first loaded resin to Lost Creek in August. Lost Creek packaged 236,472 lb in the first half of 2026.
A licence is a ceiling, not pounds. Ur-Energy packaged 236,472 lb in the first half against 4.2 million lb of licensed capacity, and Gili names the constraint himself: the industry lost a decade of well drillers and plant operators. Toll milling for other producers needs loaded resin from wellfields that are not yet drilled. Utilities signing term contracts with US ISR producers should count wellfield crews, not licence ceilings.
SUPPLY DISRUPTION | RARE EARTHS
Lynas's Malaysia plant underwent a maintenance shutdown of about one month and its Kalgoorlie plant in Western Australia halted for about two weeks for power grid upgrades, Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) reported in its ex-China rare earth weekly review. SMM said December-quarter production is expected to decline and that the Kalgoorlie feedstock interruption flows through to refining. The same review said US-controlled DTEC plans about $600 million for two Malaysian refineries of 5,000 mt a year each, still in site selection.
Kalgoorlie makes the carbonate that Malaysia refines, so a two-week halt there is a feedstock gap on top of a month of lost refining. The restart runs on whatever intermediate inventory sits between the two sites. Magnet makers buying ex-China NdPr on monthly call-offs see this as late shipments, and DTEC's 10,000 mt, still choosing sites, is no substitute this quarter.
EXPLORATION | COPPER
Mundoro Capital said BHP gave notice of termination for its Central Timok and Borsko options in Serbia, returning eight licences over 458.5 km² to Mundoro at 100%. BHP spent about US$5.7 million on those programs. BHP has met spending requirements on the Trstenik and South Timok options, in good standing through June 30, 2027, and may exercise them at any time for 100%, subject to a 2% NSR royalty to Mundoro. Mundoro said none of its 2026 drill intervals met its significance threshold.
BHP dropped Central Timok and Borsko in a year when 4,438 metres of drilling returned no interval above Mundoro's own 0.2% copper threshold; the best hole, at Skorusa East, cut 22.3 metres at 0.12% copper from 689 metres. At that grade and depth a porphyry needs block-cave tonnage before any smelter counts it as feed. Mundoro now has to sell a partner on licences a major has drilled and handed back.
