Critical minerals conference 2025

Rio Tinto to acquire Chilean assets, commits $150m to Centre for Future Materials Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) is set to purchase PanAmerican Silver’s 57.74% stake in Agua de la Falda S.A., a company with exploration tenements in Chile’s Atacama region. The company has also entered a joint venture with Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco) to explore and potentially develop Agua de la Falda’s assets. Rio will acquire PanAmerican’s 57.74% stake in Agua for $45m and the grant of new smelter returns royalties. Rio will also acquire 100% of nearby concessions known as the Meridian Property for $550k and the grant of new smelter returns royalties. Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile holds...

VIKING Ashanti has increased its gold resource by 40 per cent at its wholly-owned Akoase East gold project in southern Ghana. The Perth-based company, which was established in 2007 to develop and mine mineral deposits in West Africa, last month announced an updated JORC classified inferred resource estimate of 18 million tonnes grading 1.2 grams per tonne of gold for 704,000 ounces of contained gold, at a 0.5g/t gold cut-off. This latest resource estimate is based on 10,000m of historical reverse circulation data, plus data from about 8000m of RC drilling and 3000m of diamond drilling completed by Viking during the past 18 months. Viking managing director Peter McMickan said the new resource  estimate gave the company increased confidence that...

MinRes transhipper fleet expands to four-strong Mineral Resources’ (ASX: MIN) transhipping operation at Onslow Iron has welcomed its newest addition, with the MinRes Rosily entering service as the fourth vessel in its growing fleet. The 123m, 20,000t capacity transhipper arrived in Exmouth in February before completing a successful testing and commissioning phase off the coast of Onslow. It now joins MinRes ships Airlie, Coolibah and Bundarra, all working to support the project’s staged ramp-up to its 35mtpa nameplate capacity. MinRes executive marine general manager Jeff Weber says the arrival marked another key step in the project’s delivery. “Our transhipping operation is an integral component of Onslow Iron’s innovative transport solution...

A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of IMX Resources’ Mt Woods magnetite project in South Australia has delivered “highly favourable” results, demonstrating the potential for a viable near-term development at a cost of $295 million. In a statement, IMX Resources managing director Neil Meadows said the company believed Mt Woods was a unique opportunity in the Australian magnetite industry, as the infrastructure required to develop the project was already in place and being used by IMX’s existing Cairn Hill mine. “As a consequence, unlike most pre-development and current Australian magnetite projects, Mt Woods does not require large-scale capital investment and is not reliant on third parties for new infrastructure in order to develop a potentially economically viable project,” Mr Meadows said....