Part 1 tested the two demand headwinds raised in the financial press. This part examines the side of the market they blow against: mine supply that keeps missing its own guidance, an industry now smelting concentrate for nothing, and the question of what copper price it actually takes to bring a new mine into the world. It closes with a live Australian case study: the restart of Nifty, where the answer is being tested in public, this year.

Almasar Minerals IPO is bringing five newly granted Saudi gold-copper exploration licences to the ASX.

Kaiser Reef Limited (ASX: KAU) has identified 77,427 tonnes of historical A1 tailings grading 1.25g/t gold, creating another potential feed source for its existing Porcupine Flat processing operation as the company continues extracting value from its Victorian asset base.

In Part 2, fluorite was the villain — the calcium look-alike that makes a tungsten concentrate so hard to clean. But fluorite (fluorspar) is itself a critical mineral. So the question writes itself: if you can separate it, is the troublemaker actually a second product? The literature says yes — with conditions. Here is the evidence, sourced.

Aureka Limited (ASX: AKA) has reported two occurrences of visible gold in diamond hole NED035 at the St Arnaud-Comstock Gold Project in Victoria.

The first new underground development at Maldon in almost eight years moves Kaiser Reef beyond refurbishment and gives the company a platform to test several of the historic goldfield’s largely untested reef positions.

Before the challenge of processing, comes the reward. Tungsten stands out in metallurgy due to its exceptional properties: it has the highest melting point of any metal and a density close to that of gold. This makes it a preferred choice for cutting tools, armor, and aerospace applications. Additionally, tungsten is rare, difficult to recycle, hard to replace, and approximately 80% of it is sourced from China. This is why the EU considers it a critical raw material.

Roughly half the world's tungsten lives in skarn: a hard, ugly, calc-silicate rock that forms where a hot granite leans against limestone. Strip away the market noise and this is a story about chemistry at a contact. Here is how it works — in pictures.

Discover how Tusker Minerals is shifting focus to rutile and heavy mineral sands while divesting the Machinga Rare Earth Project. Explore Tusker Minerals' strategic moves now!

OD6 Metals (ASX: OD6) Completes Acquisition of District-Scale High-Grade Quinn Fluorspar Project in Nevada

Washington has set a hard deadline of 1 January 2027. Australian producers are on the right side of it, but only if they can prove where every gram came from. Australian critical minerals producers have been handed their clearest opening yet into the United States defence supply chain, after President Trump signed an executive order closing the loophole that let American contractors keep buying Chinese magnets, tungsten and tantalum. Executive Order 14415, signed on 20 July 2

Iron Bear Resources has released its first Pre-Feasibility Study for its namesake magnetite project in Canada's Labrador Trough, together with a maiden Ore Reserve of 3.3 billion tonnes.

Explore the Gwardar Resources IPO as they aim to raise $6M for gold and copper exploration in WA's historic fields. Discover Gwardar Resources IPO details.

The iron ore market is splitting in two. The product that pays today's dividends, 62% Fe fines (62% iron content) into Chinese blast furnaces, carries a softening price outlook on every published forecast. The product with the strongest structural story, high-purity magnetite feed for direct-reduction steelmaking, sits mostly in projects that are the hardest to finance. That is the dilemma.

Discover the Alurion Resources IPO, a unique ASX float backed by a 568 Mt Brazilian bauxite-gallium project. Learn about Alurion Resources IPO now!