A Blog for Browsing Mining, Mineral Processing, and Metals Info

In an era where Africa seeks to unlock its full potential, few relationships better illustrate the power of regional cooperation than that between Tanzania and Burundi. Once defined primarily by shared history and border proximity, our partnership has evolved into a strategic alliance driving industrial growth, trade integration, and inclusive development.

A landmark example is the $2.15 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project signed earlier this year. Once completed, the 282-kilometre line connecting Uvinza in Tanzania to Musongati in Burundi will open a critical trade gateway to the Indian Ocean. It is expected to lower transport costs, expand market access, and boost industrialisation in both countries and beyond.

Despite abundant minerals, timber, and agricultural resources on the DRC side, trade flows remain imbalanced, with imports far exceeding exports. Addressing this mismatch ensures that regional integration is inclusive and equitable.

Read more at: https://dailynews.co.tz/burundi-and-tanzania-building-africas-future-through-partnership/

Yes, and the U.S. has abundant quantities of them also, but keeps them untapped subject to environmental opposition to mining them resulting in a regulatory minefield of local, state, and federal rules that has turned permitting into a costly decadeslong process.

In addition, many of the rare earths mined in the U.S. continue to be processed in China because it’s cheaper than having to pay American regulatory environmental and workplace safety costs.

One of the U.S. casualties was Molycorp, a. company that owned a Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California’s Mojave Desert that filed for bankruptcy in June 2015 after the surge in Chinese rare earth exports tanked prices.

Meanwhile, MP Materials is now gearing up to go toe-to-toe with China on commercial scale magnet production.

Make America Mine Again – #MAMA – Nationally or Internationally

Why #Greenland? not #Mountainpass, #California for #RareEarth elements?

Biden must embrace domestic mining. #MAMA

#MAMA: #Trump to fast-track permitting for 10 mining projects across #US

Why #Greenland? not #Mountainpass, #California for #RareEarth elements?

Read more at: https://www.newsmax.com/larrybell/nickel-lithium-cobalt/2025/07/25/id/1220148/

Apple’s plan to make AirPods in India has hit a speed bump, and it has to do with a key material that’s mostly controlled by China. According to a report by Moneycontrol, the issue lies in the supply of dysprosium, a rare earth metal used in tiny magnets that help AirPods work the way they do. Foxconn, the company making these AirPods in India at its Telangana factory, has been struggling to get enough of this material. And it’s not because of internal mismanagement. The problem is bigger, and it’s political. China recently tightened export rules on dysprosium and other rare earth materials, and that’s made things difficult for companies operating outside the country.

Read more at: https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-airpods-india-production-faces-setback-as-china-tightens-rare-earth-material-supply-2759579-2025-07-22

In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order expediting U.S. licensing of seabed mining, departing from international law to unleash what the administration called a “gold rush” to “counter China’s growing influence.” The country is set to conduct ISA-sanctioned tests of two seabed mining machines in the Pacific over the next year.

Within days of Trump’s order, Canadian-registered TMC’s U.S. subsidiary filed the world’s first application to mine the seabed in international waters, including an area it licenses from the ISA. An $85 million investment from a leading Korean metals processor soon followed. 

Read more at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/22/world/politics/trump-minerals-deep-sea-mining/

The Defense Department on Thursday became the largest shareholder in MP Materials, which owns the only rare earth mine in the U.S., amid a surge in demand for rare earths mined in the U.S. as China has curbed its rare earth exports amid a trade war with the U.S.

Shares of MP Materials’ stock was up 52% as markets opened Thursday following the news that the Pentagon would make investments worth about 15% stake in the company.

The Department of Defense will buy $400 million in MP Materials’ preferred stock, along with a warrant to purchase common stock—investments the mining company will use to build a new rare earth magnet plant, in addition to its Mountain Pass facility in California’s Mojave Desert.

A location for the new “10X Facility” geared toward defense and commercial customers and slated to begin production in 2028 has yet to be decided.

The investment comes as MP Materials has seen a sharp increase in domestic demand after China restricted exports of rare earth minerals crucial to operations in industries from defense to auto.

Why #Greenland? not #Mountainpass, #California for #RareEarth elements?

Why #Greenland? not #Mountainpass, #California for #RareEarth elements?

Read more at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/07/10/us-becomes-largest-shareholder-in-mp-materials-rare-earth-miner-to-counter-china/

A new iPhone factory in an out-of-the-way corner of India looks like a spaceship from another planet. Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles most of the world’s iPhones for Apple, has landed amid the boulders and millet fields of Devanahalli.

In India, Apple is doubling down on a bet it placed after the Covid-19 pandemic began and before Mr. Trump’s re-election. Many countries, starting with the United States, were eager to reduce their reliance on factories in China. Apple, profoundly dependent on Chinese production, was quick to act.

Analysts at Counterpoint Research calculated that India had succeeded in satisfying 18 percent of the global demand for iPhones by early this year, two years after Foxconn started making iPhones in India. By the end of 2025, with the Devanahalli plant fully online, Foxconn is expected to be assembling between 25 and 30 percent of iPhones in India.

Indo-MIM, an Indian company with an American-born boss, is the kind that contributes to the neighborhood forming around Apple’s production and also benefits from it. At a plant near Devanahalli, in southern Karnataka State, Indo-MIM’s engineers perform metal-injection molding for hundreds of companies around the world. It makes parts for airplanes, luxury goods, medical devices and more.

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/business/apple-foxconn-india.html#