J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for information (RFI) inviting states to express interest in hosting so-called “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses” to bolster the domestic nuclear value chain.

The initiative, launched on Jan. 28, is part of the Department’s efforts to modernize the nation’s full nuclear fuel cycle and strengthen America’s leadership in advanced nuclear energy.

The RFI marks “the first step towards potentially establishing voluntary federal-state partnerships designed to advance regional economic growth, enhance national energy security, and build a coherent, end-to-end nuclear energy strategy for the country,” DOE said in a statement.

“Unleashing the next American nuclear renaissance will drive innovation, fuel economic growth and create good-paying American jobs while delivering the affordable, reliable and secure energy America needs to power its future,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated in a news release.

“Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses give us the opportunity to work directly with states on regional priorities that support President Trump’s vision to revitalize America’s nuclear base,” he added.

The proposed campuses could support activities across the full nuclear fuel lifecycle, including fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing used nuclear fuel and disposition of waste. Depending on state priorities and regional capabilities, the sites could also host advanced reactor deployment, power generation, advanced manufacturing and co-located data centers.

As part of the RFI submission, states must provide clear statements of interest and constructive feedback on the structure of the Innovation Campuses. The submissions should outline state priorities—such as workforce development, infrastructure investment, economic diversification or technology leadership— and describe the scope of activities the state envisions hosting, DOE said.

States are also encouraged to identify the funding structures, risk-sharing approaches, incentives and federal partnerships required to successfully establish and sustain a full-cycle Innovation Campus, it added.

Responses to the RFI are requested by April 1, 2026. More information is here.

British Columbia will begin processing mineral-exploration permit applications within 40 to 140 days starting April 1, a move aimed at keeping investment flowing after exploration spending hit a record C$751 million ($550 million) in 2025.

The province is backing the change with C$3 million in new funding, including C$1 million to add permitting capacity and $2 million to boost the Mineral Claims Consultation Framework, which the industry has criticized as a bottleneck. Files that miss the new service standard will be escalated to the chief permitting officer for a decision within 14 days, the government said.

“These timelines, backed by new investment, respond to industry feedback,” Mining and Critical Minerals Minister Jagrup Brar told The Northern Miner last week during the AME Roundup in Vancouver. The province is to maintain environmental standards and consultation with First Nations while giving prospectors and investors more certainty, the minister said.

Brar pointed to recent approvals as evidence the province can move projects faster, including Skeena Gold and Silver’s (TSX, NYSE: SKE) $713-million Eskay Creek gold-silver restart under a consent-based Section 7 process with Tahltan Central Government, and permit amendments for Centerra Gold’s (TSX: CG; NYSE: CGAU) Gold’s Mt. Milligan expansion that could extend the mine to 2035 with up to C$400 million in capital spending.

Watch below the full interview with The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby:

Canadian cleantech firm EnviroGold Global (CSE: NVRO) is set to begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on Wednesday, Feb. 4, following exchange approval. Its ticker symbol will remain unchanged.

The TSXV listing is expected to provide increased access for institutional and international investors, improved trading liquidity, and broader market visibility, consistent with the company’s growth strategy, it stated in a press release on Monday.

EnviroGold is currently developing a hybrid acid leaching solution known as NVRO to recover gold and other metals from mine waste and tailings. The technology is designed to operate at low temperatures and atmospheric pressure to break sulphide bonds and recover valuable metals.

According to the company, its NVRO process is able to recover gold and silver at above 95%, with strong performance on copper and other base metals as well. The process is also expected to result in 70% reduction in plant footprint and capital requirements due to pre-concentration integration.

Compared to traditional methods, NVRO could reduce carbon emissions by up to 96%, EnviroGold said.

CEO Grant Freeman said the TSXV listing represents an “important milestone” for the company as it continues to advance its NVRO technology.

“A TSXV listing will provide an opportunity for institutions and international investors to participate in our growth, while supporting our mission to deliver scalable, lower-impact metal recovery solutions that complement traditional mining operations,” he said.

EnviroGold’s shares currently trade at C$0.11 apiece on the CSE with a market capitalization of C$51.5 million ($37.6 million).

BHP (ASX: BHP) has selected its largest intake for the annual Xplor program aimed at supporting companies involved in early stages of mineral exploration.

On Monday, the Australian miner announced that the 2026 cohort will feature 10 companies — the most ever — with a total seed funding of $5 million. These include six early-stage exploration companies and four technology companies, signaling the growing importance of data analytics in the discovery process.

According to BHP, this is a reflection of a “more connected approach to early-stage exploration, where geological insight, data and emerging technologies increasingly intersect, and where collaboration across disciplines is becoming central to how discovery evolves.”

The tech start-ups to receive funding are Australia’s RadiXplore, Canada’s Mineural and Discovery Genomics, and US-based VectOres Science. The first three are developing technologies designed to support the discovery of copper, a mineral that is expected to have an outsize role in the energy transition.

The remaining cohorts include: Canadian uranium miner FrontierX; Australia’s Litchfield Minerals, which is exploring for copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver; South Africa-based copper-zinc miner Orion Minerals; Otrera Resources, which has copper projects in South America; Indonesian copper-gold explorer PT GeoFix; and the Utah Geological Survey (USA), which is the state’s primary geoscience organization.

“The 2026 cohort reflects how broad and dynamic early-stage discovery has become. We’re seeing exciting ideas emerge across exploration, data, and technology, often at the same time and in the same places,” head of BHP Xplor Marley Palin said in a press release.

Launched in 2023, the BHP Xplor program has supported 21 companies across its first three cohorts. Each selected participant is eligible to receive $500,000 in equity-free cash, along with access to mentoring and networking with BHP specialists.

Kazatomprom (LSE: KAP), the world’s top uranium producer forecasts output will rise about 9% to 71.5 to 75.4 million lb. this year compared to last year.

The increase is mostly due to ramp up at the Budenovskoye joint venture in southern Kazakhstan, which Kazatomprom holds with Russia, the company said in a release on Monday.

That uranium oxide (U3O8) production range is 5% lower than its state-granted amount but 6% higher than BMO Capital Market estimates, analyst Alexander Pearce said in a note.  

“The update could see some modest pressure on uranium prices via a slightly reduced supply deficit near-term,” Pearce said.

The Kazakh state-owned miner forecasts sales guidance in 2026 of 50.7 million to 53.3 million lb. U3O8, which is close to BMO’s forecast of 52 million lb. of uranium.

The guidance rise positions Kazatomprom to take advantage of rising spot uranium prices, which grew about 5.5% over the full year to close at $63.50 per lb. U3O8 at the end of December. Sitting at $99.25 per lb. on Monday, the spot price is at its highest level in two years. The price movement last year was in contrast to 2024, when it fell by about 14%.

Increases in the spot price help incent uranium exploration, nuclear energy development and physical holdings of the energy metal, with the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (TSX: U.U for USD; U.UN for CAD) last week buying 500,000 lb. of U3O8. That, along with several other uranium purchases in the quarter marked its highest first-quarter buy in three years.

In last year’s fourth quarter, the miner booked 9.6 million lb. of U3O8 in attributable output, 10% higher than in the previous quarter and 6% higher than BMO estimates, Pearce said. 

However, Kazatomprom’s average realized price of $64.18 per lb. for the quarter was 9% under BMO estimates and came at a 20% discount to the average spot price of about $80 per lb. in the quarter.

“This likely partially reflects timing of shipments and volatility of spot in the quarter,” Pearce said.

Kazatomprom’s shares were down about 4% to $78.60 apiece on Monday afternoon in London, for a market capitalization of $22.7 billion.

JPMorgan is maintaining a bullish outlook on gold prices by setting an end-of-year price target of $6,300 an ounce amid a broader shift towards hard assets.

In a note published late Sunday, the bank’s analysts cited the “ongoing diversification” trend that has driven gold to record highs in recent weeks. Gold has “further to run amid a still well-entrenched regime of real asset outperformance vs paper assets,” they wrote.

The forecast follows gold’s biggest decline in decades last week, with the yellow metal cratering by more than 10% during Friday’s trading session after setting a record of nearly $5,600 an ounce a day earlier.

In the same week, JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said prices could push towards $8,000 an ounce by the end of this decade if private sector investors allocate more funds into gold.

Alongside private sector investment, central banks are also expected to remain major buyers of gold to keep prices elevated, the bank highlighted. In its note, analysts see central bank gold purchases reaching 800 tons again in 2026.

Gold prices continued to decline on Monday, down 4% by midday to around $4,600 per ounce. Still, the metal remains up 12% year to date.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan analysts offered a cautious stance on the more-volatile silver, which skyrocketed to records last week before crashing down from $120 an ounce to $70 an ounce in just two days.

“The drivers of the continued rally have become harder to pinpoint and quantify, making it more cautious,” they wrote.

“Without central banks as structural dip buyers as in gold, there remains the risk for a further move back higher in the gold-to-silver ratio in the coming weeks,” the brokerage added.

For now, analysts see a floor of $75-$80/oz. for silver prices, which is higher than previous expectations, but warned that the metal is “unlikely to fully relinquish its gains.”

Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) (NYSE: EGO) has agreed to buy fellow Canadian miner Foran Mining (TSX:FOM) (OTCQX:FMCXF) in a transaction that values the copper-focused developer at about C$3.8 billion ($2.8 billion).

The acquisition will expand Eldorado’s copper footprint while adding a second near-term growth project as demand for the metal rises alongside electrification and clean energy investment.

The deal brings Eldorado’s Skouries gold-copper project in Greece and Foran’s McIlvenna Bay copper project in Saskatchewan into one portfolio, both targeted for commercial production in mid-2026. Eldorado said the enlarged group could produce about 900,000 gold-equivalent ounces in 2027.

Once combined, the company’s asset base is expected to have roughly 77% exposure to gold and 15% to copper, with operating mines and development projects in Canada, Greece and Turkey.

Eldorado expects the merged business to generate about $2.1 billion in core profit and $1.5 billion in free cash flow in 2027. The miner also plans to increase exploration spending across the portfolio, including at Foran’s Tesla zone in Saskatchewan.

Shares in Eldorado closed 8.9% lower in New York while Foran Mining was down 5.2% at the Toronto close.

Under the terms of the agreement, Foran shareholders will receive 0.1128 Eldorado shares plus $0.01 per share, giving them about 24% of the combined company. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.

“This transaction gives McIlvenna Bay the scale and financial strength to fully realize its potential, including the ability to accelerate phased expansion opportunities over time,” Foran chief executive Dan Myerson said in the statement.

The combined company will remain headquartered in Vancouver under the Eldorado Gold name. 

McIlvenna Bay is expected to become a cornerstone Canadian asset alongside Eldorado’s Lamaque Complex in Quebec, supporting long-term employment and economic activity in Saskatchewan and across Canada, the company said. 

The project has been recognized by the federal government as a critical minerals development and referred to the new Major Projects Office as a project of national interest.

Both boards have unanimously approved the transaction, and shareholder votes are scheduled by April 14, the companies said.

US President Donald Trump is preparing to launch a strategic stockpile of critical minerals backed by $12 billion, aiming to protect manufacturers from supply disruptions as the US accelerates efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese metals.

The White House confirmed on Monday the start of “Project Vault,” which would combine $1.67 billion in private capital with a $10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank to buy and store minerals for automakers, technology companies and other industrial users. 

The model mirrors the country’s emergency oil reserve but focuses instead on materials such as gallium and cobalt used in products ranging from smartphones to jet engines.

The project spans the automotive, aerospace and energy sectors and underscores Trump’s broader push to rewire US supply chains away from China, the world’s dominant producer and processor of critical minerals.

More than a dozen companies have reportedly signed on, including General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Boeing Co., Corning Inc., GE Vernova Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Commodities traders Hartree Partners LP, Traxys North America LLC and Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. will handle purchases to fill the stockpile.

“Project Vault is a clear signal that US critical‑mineral policy has moved to deployment,” US Critical Materials chairman, Harvey Kaye, told MINING.COM. “It says unequivocally that secure supplies of rare earths and heavy minerals like gallium are now treated as strategic infrastructure for our economy and defense industrial base, to establish US sovereignty.”

Kaye noted that for companies like US Critical Materials, it confirms that high-grade domestic supply is no longer optional.

“The project is exactly the kind of serious, industrial-strength action America needs right now,” Adam Muellerweiss, President of the Responsible Battery Coalition, said in an emailed statement. “Even two years ago, this idea would have been unthinkable. The Trump Administration has made this a national security priority.”

Analyst Dmitry Silversteyn at Water Tower Research said that while the announcement is a step in the right direction, is not a quick solution to China’s control of critical materials. “[I see] continuing to encourage development of domestic and friendly nations’ critical elements resources and metal processing capabilities and infrastructure, as the ultimate and required goal to end, or at least significantly reduce, dependence on China’s goodwill,” he wrote.

Baker Botts lawyer Rebecca Seidl said that for mining and minerals companies, the move is not simply a one-time stockpile but rather a broader shift in federal posture. 

“The federal government is preparing to behave like a repeat buyer, market stabilizer, and strategic counterparty, particularly where China’s dominance in mining and processing creates price and availability risk,” Seidl wrote. “As such, projects able to demonstrate reliable production, domestic or allied processing, and credible clean supply-chains will have an easier path to financing and offtake.”

Trump is scheduled to meet Monday with GM chief executive officer Mary Barra and mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland, representing both consumers and producers of critical minerals. 

While the US already maintains a national stockpile for defence purposes, it lacks a comparable reserve for civilian industry. That gap has taken on urgency as the Pentagon ramps up its own accelerated stockpiling campaign, targeting up to $1 billion in mineral acquisitions in the near term.

The drive is supported by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocates $7.5 billion for critical minerals, including $2 billion to expand the national stockpile by 2027, $5 billion for supply-chain investments and $500 million for a Pentagon credit program to encourage private projects.

The administration has also taken the unusual step of investing directly in domestic mining companies to boost US rare earths production and processing.

Last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill to create a $2.5 billion stockpile of critical minerals, a move aimed at stabilizing market prices and encouraging domestic mining and refining.

Senior administration officials told Bloomberg News Project Vault was oversubscribed, citing investor confidence in the credit quality of participating manufacturers, their long-term purchase commitments and the backing of the US export-credit agency. Under the plan, companies can draw down their allotted materials as long as they replenish them, with full access permitted during major supply disruptions.

Manufacturers that commit to buying set quantities at fixed prices will also agree to repurchase the same amounts at the same cost in the future, a structure the administration says will help stabilize prices and dampen market volatility.

Bloomberg News was the first to report the creation of the critical minerals strategic reserve.

Bravo Mining (TSXV: BRVO) closed an C$86 million ($63.5 million) public offering this month for ongoing preliminary work at its Luanga nickel-platinum project in Brazil as it prepares to bring on private equity firm Orion Mine Finance Management as a major partner.

The explorer issued 19.6 million common shares at C$4.40 each for its over-subscribed offering under a previously filed C$300 million shelf prospectus. The total included a C$34.5 million non-brokered private placement with Orion, under which it expects to enter a participation agreement and to provide up to $300 million in funding.

“The financing allows Bravo to continue advancing exploration and development of its Luanga project,” BMO Capital Markets analysts Dominic Bolton and Raj Ray said in a Jan. 20 note. “With platinum group metals (PGM) and nickel prices rallying, Bravo is well positioned to capture the upside in future technical studies and financing discussions.”

Bravo said it will use the proceeds to fund a preliminary feasibility study and subsequent feasibility study. The company’s preliminary economic assessment (PEA), updated in November, included a base-case net present value (NVP) of $1.25 billion. Testing results indicate potentially significant improvements in flotation.

Shares in Bravo Mining gained 6.8% to C$5.34 apiece Jan. 23 after the capital raising before falling 22% to C$4.16 in Toronto by Friday, valuing the company at C$543 million.

Analysts Bolton and Ray said in a separate note on the testing that “greater selectivity and lower mass pull implies the potential for higher concentrate grades and materially lower concentrate tonnage for the same payable metal, therefore, driving improved payabilities and reduced flotation plant capex/opex.”

The study was completed as a laboratory-scale rougher flotation and found 5-10% higher PGM and 5-30% higher nickel recoveries, relative to conventional baseline flotation, while reducing mass pull by 50%.

“The preliminary Jameson Cell results are highly encouraging and reinforce the technical optionality available to Bravo as we advance our metallurgical studies,” chairman and CEO Luis Azevedo said  in a statement. He added that Bravo has confidence in the technology as it was installed at Valterra’s Mogalakwena PGM mine in South Africa and the Australian Mount Isa copper mine, which co-developed the technology with Jameson.

“Management believes that further investment in an expanded metallurgical development program to include larger scale (pilot plant) testing is justified,” the company said in a release.

The fundraising will also support ongoing work on a vertical integration option also considered in Bravo’s November PEA. The alternative case would include downstream processing and refining activities at a smelter to be located nearby in Pará state. The company anticipated this could support a project NPV of $1.86 billion.

These alternative case economics got a boost last week when Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a presidential decree creating the Barcarena Export Processing Zone in Pará. The zones offer favourable regulatory, tax and customs regime for companies producing export goods and services.

The proposed smelter is to benefit from the regime for 20 years. Azevedo said in a statement the creation of the zone “is a significant milestone for Bravo and materially advances regulatory certainty around our development scenario.”