The nickel associations of Indonesia and the Philippines on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding on nickel cooperation, Indonesia’s coordinating ministry of economics said.
The agreement includes the exchange of information, joint development of nickel downstream processing technology, and human resource development to support a sustainable nickel industry ecosystem, the ministry said.
The signing was witnessed by Indonesia’s chief economics minister and the Philippines’ trade and industry minister.
“The Philippines will no longer be only an exporter of raw nickel ore as it will be integrated into a higher-value regional supply chain, while Indonesia will secure a reliable supply for its battery and stainless industries,” Philippines’ trade and industry minister said.
Indonesia exported $9.73 billion of nickel products last year, Airlangga said, adding that smelters in Indonesia required supplies with the proper silicon-to-magnesium ratio which can be supplied by the Philippines.
Japan’s government is taking on the challenge of mining critical minerals, including rare earths, from the seabed around Minamitorishima, a remote Japanese island in the Pacific, with an eye to realizing domestic rare earth production in the future.
Securing such minerals is a matter of vital importance for Japan, which is poor in natural resources. In February of this year, the country succeeded in a test collection of rare earth-bearing mud at a depth of 6,000 meters below sea level near the island, which is in the Tokyo village of Ogasawara.
While commercialization is being targeted for 2028 at the earliest, the government faces the challenge of striking a balance between the importance of the mining for economic security and its economic viability.
Rich mineral resources are believed to lie in the ocean floor around Minamitorishima. Cobalt-rich crusts and manganese nodules have been found there. Cobalt and manganese are used for electric vehicle batteries.
Furthermore, the presence of mud containing scarce and expensive heavy rare earth elements, such as neodymium and dysprosium, has also been confirmed, and development is being promoted under government leadership. Neodymium and dysprosium are needed for high-performance motors used in EVs and wind power generators.
“We have promoted technical development over the years to make the world’s first attempt” at deep-sea rare earth mining, said Shoichi Ishii, an official at the Cabinet Office who is leading the rare earth-rich mud development project.
The two Governments have already identified the following key projects that have the potential to materially diversify the supply chains for critical minerals:
Lynas Rare Earths Project A flagship initiative symbolising collaboration between Japanese and Australian industry on critical minerals. In 2011, a joint venture (JARE) between Sojitz Corporation and JOGMEC provided equity and loan financing to Lynas Rare Earths to commence light rare earth production. In 2025, the project reached a further milestone with the commencement of heavy rare earth production.
Alcoa Gallium Recovery Project This project involves Alcoa working with Japan Australia Gallium Associates (JAGA)—a joint venture between Sojitz and JOGMEC—to develop gallium recovery at one of Alcoa’s operating alumina refineries in Western Australia, for use in semiconductors, LEDs, and solar cells. The project is planning to be supported by equity investment from the Governments of Japan, Australia, and the United States.
Magnium Magnesium Project Magnium Australia is planning the commercial production of high‑purity magnesium, widely used in lightweight applications including the automotive and aerospace sectors, in Western Australia using a low‑carbon process with reduced environmental impact. Hanwa Co. Ltd., a Japanese trading company, as well as the Government of Japan, has also expressed interest in this initiative.
Tivan Fluorite Project The Speewah Fluorite Project, located in Western Australia, is a Japanese Government‑supported initiative involving a joint venture between Sumitomo Corporation and JOGMEC, in collaboration with Tivan Limited, to produce acid‑grade fluorite, a key raw material for hydrofluoric acid used in semiconductors, EVs, and other advanced applications. It has also received a non-binding and conditional Letter of Support from EFA.
RZ Resources Critical Minerals Project The Copi Critical Minerals Project in New South Wales is a mineral sands project, looking to develop supply of critical minerals and rare earth elements, owned by RZ Resources, with participation from JX Metals Corporation and Marubeni Corporation. It has also received non-binding indications of support as a critical minerals project from EFA and the U.S. Export Import Bank.
Ardea Resources Kalgoorlie Nickel Project The Kalgoorlie Nickel Project – Goongarrie Hub is one of the largest nickel cobalt resources in Australia. The project is being developed as a joint venture with Ardea Resources, Sumitomo Metal Mining, and Mitsubishi Corporation. The Government of Japan has provided funding support under its economic security grant towards building a resilient and secure critical minerals supply chain. The project has received non-binding and conditional indications of support from EFA and the U.S. Export Import Bank. The Australian Government has selected Ardea to participate in its investor front door pilot, which aims to streamline project engagement with government.
China’s dominance of rare earths supply chains gives President Xi Jinping economic leverage worth $1.2 trillion in his planned summit meeting with US President Donald Trump in Beijing next month.
Fresh analysis from Bloomberg Economics finds that around 4% of US GDP — totaling some $1.2 trillion — is derived from industries that use rare earths. While some US industries may be able to work around any supply disruption, most don’t have good substitutes and some would need to shut down in the event of any cut-off.
China leveraged its dominance of rare earths supply chains to retaliate against Trump’s tariff salvos last year by restricting their exports. Following a meeting between Trump and Xi in late October, China agreed to a one-year suspension of its tighter controls.
Trump is set to travel to Beijing May 14-15 for a summit with Xi that’s widely expected to include a variety of business deals and purchasing commitments. It was delayed from late March because of the Iran war and the need for Trump to stay in Washington.
The DRC, one of Africa’s most resource-rich jurisdictions, has positioned AI at the centre of its exploration strategy. Speaking at last year’s AMW the country’s Minister of Mines said AI-enabled exploration has the potential to reduce resource-discovery timelines to under three years, and that the government is working to unlock 90 per cent of DRC’s geology and more than US$24 trillion in untapped mineral value.
Recent deployments back the rhetoric. In February 2026, the DRC partnered with Xcalibur Smart Mapping to use advanced geospatial solutions for mapping critical minerals and lowering exploration risk. The country is also working with US-based startup KoBold Metals to apply AI-driven techniques at the Mingomba Lithium Mine.
Zambia, Ghana, Botswana, and Burundi
The trend extends beyond DRC. KoBold Metals is also applying AI at Zambia’s Mingomba Copper Project to identify high-grade deposits, backing the government’s push to lift annual copper output to three million tonnes by 2031. Burundi has partnered with KoBold and Lifezone Metals to digitise its geological database and assess the 140-million-tonne Musongati Nickel Project.
In Ghana, the Ghana Gold Board and the Ghana Geological Survey Authority are using AI-assisted mineral prospectivity modelling across the Funsi, Atuna, and Bensere East concessions, aligning with a national drive to expand gold reserves and production.
Botswana is using the same tool-set to diversify away from diamonds. Botswana Minerals has identified eight new copper deposits through AI-powered exploration, accelerating the country’s move into critical minerals.
The capital pitch
The underlying economic pitch is large. Organisers estimate Africa sits on $8.5 trillion in untapped mineral resources, and point to the continent’s 30 per cent share of global critical minerals at a moment when demand is projected to triple by 2030. AI’s role, AMW’s 2026 programming suggests, is to compress exploration cycles, reduce the cost of de-risking ground, and tighten operational efficiency once mines are producing.
The Democratic Republic of Congo will create a paramilitary unit to police its mines with funding from the US and United Arab Emirates, the country’s General Inspectorate of Mines said.
The agency will invest $100 million and deploy as many of 3,000 armed recruits by December, with a goal of 20,000 “mining guards” around the country by 2028, it said in an emailed statement on Monday.
The force will secure production, ensure traceable transport of minerals, and replace “defense forces currently deployed in mining zones,” according to the statement.
Police currently patrol most operations, but military and presidential guard personnel are occasionally found at sites, often in breach of the country’s mining code. The new unit will eventually replace the police, the IGM told Bloomberg in a separate message.
Congo is the world’s second-biggest source of copper and largest producer of key battery mineral cobalt. While those two metals are largely mined at massive industrial projects, most of Congo’s mines are dug by hand by millions of artisanal miners.
Brazil is positioning itself as a green-energy hub for the AI boom, but a massive new data center project tied to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is facing fierce backlash.
A R$50bn ($9.5bn) facility in Caucaia would be ByteDance’s first Latin American data centre and one of the continent’s largest, powered by new wind farms. Supporters say it could bring jobs, foreign investment, and help absorb Brazil’s surplus renewable electricity.
But local Indigenous Anacé people communities and environmental groups argue the project was rushed through licensing and threatens scarce water and electricity resources in a drought-prone region. Critics also question whether such projects create enough lasting economic benefits.
The controversy has become a test case for Brazil: can it attract huge AI infrastructure investments while protecting local communities and natural resources?
OSLO, April 22 (Reuters) – Norway will take over planning for the Fen rare earth deposit – Europe’s largest – to speed up development after a resource upgrade nearly doubled its estimated size, the government said on Wednesday.
Fen was estimated last month to hold 15.9 million metric tons of rare earth oxide in indicated and inferred resources, 81% more than a 2024 estimate, the project’s developer said at the time.
Europe has no operating rare earth mines, and development of the southern Norway project would support the region’s push to reduce reliance on dominant producer China.
“The Fen field could be of major significance for Telemark, Norway and Europe’s supply security and competitiveness,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement. Telemark is the region where Fen is located.
“To ensure future access to critical minerals, it is important to increase production both in Norway and in other countries with which we cooperate in terms of security.”
About 19% of the oxides are neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), key materials used in permanent magnets for electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and defence applications.
The government said it had stepped in at the request of the local authority, citing the risk of land-use disputes and the need to balance competing national interests.
As elsewhere in Europe, infrastructure projects in Norway – including onshore wind farms – have faced opposition from environmental and agricultural interests, delaying development.
Rare Earths Norway, which is developing the project, has said it expects production to start in late 2031, with output of 800 tons of NdPr by 2032, equivalent to about 5% of European Union demand.
The U.S. hopes through the minerals partnership to convert peace and investment deals with Congo into influence over the country’s critical-minerals supply chain.
The U.S. has stepped up efforts to secure critical mineral supplies globally for a strategic metals stockpile as it seeks to reduce reliance on China and counter China’s dominance in Africa.
The U.S. is in the process of soliciting private sector feedback on the list of assets, the official told Reuters on Friday.
“We have significant interest, yes,” the official said, but declined to name the companies, saying “the conversations are still forming.”
Two enormous sandlike dunes at an old chemical processing plant in South Africa are at the center of an exploratory U.S.-backed project to extract highly sought-after rare earth elements from industrial mining waste.
The Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project has U.S. support through a $50 million equity investment by the government’s International Development Finance Corporation and is part of accelerated U.S. efforts to reduce reliance on economic rival China for the minerals crucial for making electronic devices, robotics, defense systems, electric vehicles and other high-tech products.
Countries have identified dozens of minerals, including copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel, as critical because they are essential for new technologies. The 17 rare earth elements are a subset of them.
Project continues despite a diplomatic rift
The DFC was created during the first Trump administration and committed its investment in the Phalaborwa project in 2023 under former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The current Trump administration has moved forward with the project despite a major diplomatic rift with South Africa, which began when Trump returned to office and issued an executive order last February to halt all financial assistance to the country.
But the administration has shown that certain economic concerns come first. The DFC has promoted its involvement in the Phalaborwa project as part of a push to unlock Africa’s mineral potential “while advancing U.S. strategic interests.”
The Phalaborwa project is being developed by Rainbow Rare Earths. The DFC’s investment is through partner TechMet, a company that says it is focused on securing critical mineral supplies for the West. South Africa’s government does not have a direct stake in the project.
Rainbow Rare Earths CEO George Bennett told The Associated Press they hope to supply predominantly the U.S., saying its interest in the project was largely related to defense systems.
The company says it aims to supply the rare earth elements neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium and others from its South African project. They are used in high-performance magnets in wind turbines, electric vehicles, defense and emerging applications, including robotics.
The Phalaborwa project aims to start extracting rare earths from the two huge dunes in 2028. The dunes are 35 million tons of phosphogypsum, a byproduct of mining waste and the processing of phosphate rock for acid and fertilizer production.
The project is expected to operate for 16 years, Rainbow Rare Earths said. The $50 million injection from the DFC will be used only once Rainbow Rare Earths starts construction of its processing factory in Phalaborwa, anticipated in early 2027.
Rare earths are relatively common but usually occur at low concentrations and are difficult to separate, making their mining costly.
Neha Mukherjee, research manager at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said that while the Phalaborwa project was unique, with its experimental above-ground mineral extraction process, its potential remains unknown.
“It looks like a fairly low-cost asset in terms of operational cost,” she said. “Even the capital requirement is not very high … which is a good sign.”
Mukherjee added that the project is important because “we do not have enough projects to meet the entire demand outside of China.”
US is ‘trying to catch up’
Rainbow Rare Earths says mineral extraction from the dunes will use up to 90% renewable energy and be significantly less expensive than typical rare earth mining.
Bennett said Phalaborwa would be a low-cost producer comparable to Chinese producers.
“(Former owners) crushed it, they milled it, they put energy into it, put heat into it, all that to make the phosphogypsum, which is what’s needed to make rare earths,” said Rainbow Rare Earths project director Alberto Bruttomesso, referring to the processes the waste previously underwent. “Heating is the most expensive part of the process. It’s what costs the most money.”
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