Toronto, Ontario — April 5, 2026 — The Critical Minerals Institute (CMI), a global think tank focused on the critical minerals economy, today released its updated 2026 Critical Minerals Watchlist, reinforcing its position as a leading independent authority on mineral supply chains, capital markets, and geopolitics.

This year’s update reflects a meaningful evolution in both composition and prioritization, including the addition of Rhenium (Re) and Indium (In), and a notable shift within the most strategic tier of materials: Tungsten (W) has been elevated into the Top 5, while Cobalt (Co) has been downgraded from that group.

At the core of this year’s update is a refined definition of what constitutes a “critical mineral,” articulated by CMI Watchlist Editor and CMI Director Alastair Neill:

“A mineral becomes critical when its production is dominated by one or two countries—particularly where those jurisdictions present reliability risks to ongoing global supply.”

This definition reflects a growing global consensus: critical minerals are those essential to economic and national security, whose supply chains are vulnerable to disruption due to concentration, geopolitics, or lack of viable substitutes.

From Definition to Reality: Concentration Equals Risk

The 2026 Watchlist underscores a central thesis: supply concentration—not geological scarcity—is the defining risk factor in modern mineral markets.

Cobalt (Co) remains a clear example. Despite widespread global demand, approximately 70% of global cobalt production is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a jurisdiction where political instability, regulatory intervention, and export controls can materially disrupt supply chains.

This reality has not removed cobalt from the Watchlist—but it has informed its downgrade from the Top 5, reflecting both evolving supply dynamics and shifting strategic priorities.

Conversely, tungsten (W) has been elevated into the Top 5, reflecting its critical role in defense applications, industrial tooling, and advanced manufacturing, combined with highly concentrated global supply and limited Western production capacity.

Across the board, the Watchlist reinforces a consistent pattern: criticality is increasingly defined by geopolitical exposure and processing dominance, not simply resource abundance.

Key Changes to the 2026 CMI Watchlist

• Rhenium (Re) and Indium (In) added, reflecting their strategic importance in aerospace, semiconductors, and advanced electronics, as well as their byproduct-dependent and highly concentrated supply chains.
• Tungsten (W) elevated to Top 5, underscoring its growing importance in defense and industrial applications.
• Cobalt (Co) downgraded from Top 5, while remaining a critical mineral due to continued geopolitical concentration.
• Beryllium (Be) removed, following updated assessments of supply dynamics and relative geopolitical risk.
• Continued emphasis on Top 5 strategic minerals:

  • Copper (Cu)
  • Gallium (Ga)
  • Tungsten (W)
  • Uranium (U)
  • Rare Earth Elements (REEs)

These materials are foundational to electrification, defense systems, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing.

The 2026 CMI Watchlist

The updated Watchlist includes 24 minerals critical to the functioning of modern economies and the energy transition:

1. Aluminum (Al) – Bauxite & HPA
2. Antimony (Sb)
3. Cobalt (Co)
4. Copper (Cu) — Top 5
5. Gallium (Ga) — Top 5
6. Germanium (Ge)
7. Graphite / Carbon (C)
8. Indium (In)
9. Lithium (Li)
10. Magnesium (Mg)
11. Manganese (Mn)
12. Molybdenum (Mo)
13. Nickel (Ni)
14. Niobium (Nb)
15. Platinum-Group Metals (PGMs)
16. Rare Earth Elements (REEs) — Top 5
17. Rhenium (Re)
18. Silicon (Si)
19. Steel (Fe)
20. Tantalum (Ta)
21. Titanium (Ti)
22. Tungsten (W) — Top 5
23. Uranium (U) — Top 5
24. Vanadium (V)

Supply Chains, Not Resources, Define Criticality

The CMI Watchlist is a dynamic global framework for assessing risk, directing capital, and informing industrial strategy in an increasingly fragmented world. As competition intensifies, critical minerals are no longer valued on cost curves alone—they are repriced based on jurisdiction, processing control, and alignment with allied supply chains. In this environment, materials without viable substitutes and with concentrated production profiles command strategic premiums. The conclusion is clear: control of supply chains—not just access to resources—will define the next phase of the global economy.

About the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI)
The Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) is a global brain trust for the critical minerals’ economy, serving as a hub that connects companies, capital markets, and policymakers. Through CMI Masterclasses, the weekly Critical Minerals Report (CMR), bespoke research, and board-level advisory services, CMI delivers actionable intelligence spanning exploration finance, supply chains, and geopolitics.

CMI also convenes the flagship Annual Critical Minerals Institute Summit. The next event, CMI Summit 5 — “The New Critical Minerals Economy”, will take place May 13–14, 2026, at the historic National Club in Toronto, Canada.

For more information, visit CriticalMineralsInstitute.com or contact CMI Membership Director Chrissy Hessam at [email protected].

The modern commodities market is no longer being driven solely by steel mills in China or jewelry demand in India. It is increasingly being shaped by financial flows—quiet, persistent, and now enormous. Exchange-traded funds, once a niche vehicle, have become one of the most powerful forces in metals markets, and the latest data suggests that their influence is approaching a structural inflection point.

According to Christopher Berlet’s MineralFunds.com data, global metal and mining ETFs now represent 249 funds controlling approximately $826.3 billion in assets, up 15.4% year-to-date . What stands out is not just the scale, but the concentration: 84% of that capital sits in metal-backed ETFs, overwhelmingly dominated by gold at nearly $577 billion, followed by silver at $84 billion. By contrast, ETFs focused on mining companies—the very businesses responsible for discovering and producing future supply—account for just 12.1% of total assets.

This imbalance is not accidental. It reflects a two-decade evolution in how investors access commodities. ETFs have made it possible to gain exposure to gold, silver, copper, or rare earths without the operational risks of mining equities or the complexities of futures markets. In doing so, they have democratized access—but also reshaped capital allocation.

The consequences, as Berlet’s work highlights, are paradoxical. ETF demand itself is inflationary, adding incremental pressure to underlying metal prices while simultaneously diverting capital away from exploration and development. The result is a structural mismatch: rising financial demand layered on top of a supply pipeline that has been systematically underfunded since the early 2000s.

Recent market behavior suggests that this imbalance is no longer theoretical. Metals prices have surged across the board—copper up roughly 25%, aluminum 21%, and precious metals even more dramatically—driven by a combination of supply constraints and new demand vectors tied to electrification and geopolitics. At the same time, ETF inflows into metals have accelerated, reinforcing price momentum. Silver ETFs alone have seen explosive inflows in early 2026, while gold-backed funds continue to benefit from safe-haven demand amid geopolitical uncertainty.

And yet, beneath the surface, the composition of ETF exposure reveals a deeper inefficiency. Critical mineral ETFs—those tied to lithium, rare earths, uranium, and other transition metals—remain strikingly small at just $10.9 billion, or 1.3% of total ETF assets. This is occurring at a moment when the International Energy Agency estimates that the energy transition will require $800 billion in new metal investment by 2040. In other words, the metals most essential to the future economy are still underrepresented in the dominant investment vehicle of the present.

There are early signs that investors are beginning to adjust. Mining equity ETFs—particularly those focused on critical minerals—are outperforming many of their physical metal counterparts, with year-to-date gains approaching 14%. Leveraged mining ETFs, often dismissed as speculative instruments, have surged even more dramatically, reflecting a renewed appetite for operational leverage to rising metal prices.

Still, the broader allocation gap remains. The overwhelming majority of capital continues to flow into passive exposure to existing metals rather than into the companies responsible for expanding supply. This dynamic echoes past cycles, but with a critical distinction: today’s demand is structural, not cyclical—driven by electrification, defense priorities, and an expanding set of “critical minerals” now defined by more than 40 national governments and supranational bodies, entities that operate beyond individual countries to coordinate policy and strategy across borders.

Markets, in time, tend to correct such imbalances. The question is not whether capital will rotate, but when—and how abruptly. If the past two decades were defined by the financialization of commodities through ETFs, the next phase may well be defined by a reallocation back toward the physical reality of supply.

For investors, the implication is both simple and uncomfortable: the most crowded trade in metals today may not be the one that ultimately delivers the greatest returns.

[Special Note: The founder of MineralFunds.com, Christopher Berlet, will be speaking at the upcoming CMI Summit 5 in Toronto, Ontario on May 13th and 14th.]

As conflict flares with Iran, the global race for critical minerals has shifted into overdrive. In Washington, the urgency is palpable: just one day before U.S. forces launched strikes on Iran this month, the Pentagon quietly urged mining companies to boost output of 13 strategic minerals – from nickel and graphite to tungsten and yttrium – vital for semiconductors, batteries and weapons. It was a telling prelude. The war’s shockwaves are underscoring how quickly supply lines can be choked off, spurring capitals and corporations into accelerating deals that once inched along at peacetime speed.

In the past week, from Accra to Tokyo, governments have moved to cement new footholds in these supply chains. Ghana’s parliament ratified a mining lease for Atlantic Lithium Ltd. to develop the Ewoyaa lithium deposit – set to be Africa’s only lithium mine oriented toward U.S. supply chains, whereas nearly all other African lithium projects feed China [Source]. The Ewoyaa project will ship its spodumene concentrate to North America, a strategic win for Washington’s drive to secure battery minerals outside Beijing’s orbit. Ghana negotiated a sliding royalty up to 12% at high prices and a 13% state equity stake, leveraging resource nationalism even as it welcomes Western investors [Source]. For a country known more for gold, this “watershed” lithium deal signals a broader shift to critical minerals tied to the U.S. – a clear counterpoint to China’s long-running dominance in Africa.

Allied coordination is likewise ramping up in Asia. The United States and Japan unveiled a new action plan on critical minerals cooperation during Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to Washington [Source]. Ostensibly, the pact avoids naming China, but its intent is obvious: to blunt Beijing’s leverage by establishing price floors and joint supply arrangements for key minerals [Source]. The plan calls for coordinated trade measures – a border-adjusted price floor mechanism – “focusing in the first instance on a select group of critical minerals” [Source]. In practice, that means the two allies will try to prevent China’s state-subsidized producers from undercutting prices. The action plan also encourages joint investment in mining and processing projects that adhere to higher standards [Source]. For example, U.S. officials highlighted potential Japanese backing for Albemarle Corp.’s (NYSE: ALB) new lithium processing plant in North Carolina, while Tokyo’s Mitsubishi Materials (TYO: 5711) is in talks to take a stake in an Indiana rare earth recycling venture [Source]. By coordinating supply chain financing and even stockpiling policy, Washington and Tokyo are effectively building a critical minerals NATO – a defense against what they diplomatically describe as “pervasive non-market practices” [Source].

Beijing, for its part, is hardly standing down. New customs data from China illustrate both its strength and its strategic selectivity: Chinese exports of rare earth magnets – essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines and missiles – surged 8.2% year-on-year in the first two months of 2026 [Source]. Yet shipments to the United States plunged by 22.5% over the same period [Source]. In other words, China is selling more rare earths to global markets, just not to America. This drop in U.S.-bound supply follows Beijing’s imposition of export permits on certain rare earth products last year, a retaliatory move that has made high-tech industries in the West acutely aware of their vulnerability [Source]. Chinese officials insist normal exports continue to “friends,” but the message to Washington is pointed. Meanwhile, Chinese companies are pouring capital into overseas mines to solidify long-term supply. Chinese outbound investment hit a seven-year high in 2025, with firms announcing $124 billion in new projects – much of it targeting energy and raw materials in emerging economies [Source]. In lithium alone, Chinese enterprises have dramatically expanded their global footprint in recent years. Beijing’s strategy is two-pronged: ensure domestic industries have the minerals they need (even if that means squeezing U.S. consumers), and keep buying up resources from Africa, Latin America and anywhere else willing to sell.

Nowhere is this great-power contest more apparent than in Africa’s mineral belt. The Democratic Republic of Congo, source of 70% of the world’s cobalt, this week approved the sale of one of its largest cobalt and copper companies – Chemaf SA – to U.S.-backed Virtus Minerals Inc. [Source]. Virtus, reportedly led by former U.S. security officials, will pay a token $30 million for equity but has pledged a further $750 million to finish developing Chemaf’s projects [Source]. This marks a significant win for Washington’s new critical minerals pact with Kinshasa [Source]. Chemaf’s prize asset is the Mutoshi project, among the world’s richest cobalt deposits, which had stalled amid Chemaf’s financial woes and even drew a failed bid from a Chinese firm in 2024. Congo’s government, after signing a strategic minerals partnership with the U.S. late last year, pointedly blocked that Chinese takeover [Source]. The Virtus deal thus not only secures a non-Chinese source of cobalt for U.S. supply chains; it also cements growing U.S.-Congo ties in an era when even security alliances are linked to mineral access. Kinshasa gets an infusion of capital and, implicitly, Washington’s goodwill at a time of internal security concerns [Source]. For cobalt markets, tighter U.S. alignment with the DRC could be a game-changer – though it is sure to rankle Beijing, which has long invested heavily in Congolese mining.

Just south of Congo, Zambia is drawing Western investment of a different kind. Silicon Valley-backed KoBold Metals – a startup funded by billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates – has begun developing the Mingomba copper deposit, touting the use of AI to pinpoint riches [Source]. KoBold’s CEO in Africa confirmed that mine development is “in full swing,” with shaft-sinking set for 2027 and first copper output targeted in the early 2030s [Source]. The Mingomba project will require an estimated $2.3–2.5 billion in capital and aims to produce a hefty 300,000 tonnes of copper annually when in operation [Source]. That would make it one of the continent’s largest copper mines. Zambia is counting on such ventures to help triple its copper output by 2031 [Source] – an ambitious goal in line with soaring demand for electric vehicle metals. For the U.S. and allies, KoBold’s presence is a welcome development: a Western-aligned company securing future copper supply without Chinese finance. Indeed, the project’s timing dovetails with Washington’s broader push to loosen China’s grip on critical minerals [Source]. Notably, KoBold is also hunting for lithium and nickel in neighboring countries [Source], effectively staking out a sphere of influence in southern Africa’s mineral heartlands before Chinese firms can claim everything.

In the Americas, shifts are afoot both north and south. In Chile – the world’s top copper producer – U.S. miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) has filed for a massive $7.5 billion expansion of its El Abra copper mine [Source]. The plan, submitted to regulators this week, would include a new concentrator and desalination plant and could quadruple El Abra’s output, adding over 300,000 tonnes of copper per year by the 2030s [Source]. It’s the largest mining investment application Chile has seen in over three decades [Source]. The backdrop is a new, more mining-friendly administration in Santiago that is urging investors to “go on the offensive” after years of regulatory delays [Source]. Freeport’s project – 51% owned alongside Chile’s state copper company Codelco – would catapult El Abra from a mid-sized operation to one of Chile’s top three copper mines [Source]. That expansion underscores how critical copper is to the energy transition – and how countries like Chile, with pragmatic policies, stand to gain from the West’s hunger for reliable supplies.

Brazil, by contrast, offered a reminder that not all U.S. outreach is warmly received. At a U.S.-sponsored Critical Minerals Forum in São Paulo, conspicuous by its absence was any official representative of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government [Source]. The forum – intended to connect American investors with Brazilian mining projects – went ahead with participation from industry (even the state of Goiás signed a cooperation deal with the U.S. embassy) [Source], but Brasília’s no-show spoke volumes. A Lula spokesperson claimed a scheduling conflict [Source], yet insiders noted rising diplomatic frictions between Brazil and the U.S. – including a spat over a visiting U.S. envoy – that have put the brakes on a federal-level critical minerals MOU [Source]. Brazil holds rich caches of nickel, rare earths, niobium and other strategic minerals, and Washington sees it as a linchpin of non-Chinese supply in the Western Hemisphere [Source]. Still, Lula’s priorities lean toward asserting Brazil’s autonomy over its resources (he has warned against “surrendering” critical minerals to foreign control). The U.S. may ultimately secure a partnership – a potential Lula visit to Washington is rumored – but the episode highlights the geopolitical tug-of-war over Latin America’s resources. Even close partners are calibrating how to benefit from the critical minerals boom without being seen as aligning too closely with one side or the other.

Meanwhile, global corporations are grappling with immediate supply crunches. In the cobalt market, commodities giant Glencore plc (LSE: GLEN) had to tap an unusual source to honor its contracts: cobalt stockpiles held on a Chinese exchange [Source]. Glencore drained a large portion of the cobalt inventories from the Wuxi exchange in China this quarter to supply its Chinese battery-making clients [Source]. The company simply couldn’t ship enough cobalt out of the Congo due to that country’s export curbs – Kinshasa suspended exports last year to prop up prices and now rations exports under quotas [Source]. Glencore had already redirected some of its cobalt stockpiled offshore into China, but it still fell short of its delivery obligations. By mid-March, available cobalt tonnage on the Wuxi exchange had halved compared to January, largely from Glencore’s drawdown [Source]. Cobalt prices have since skyrocketed – up 160% from a year ago to around $57,000 per tonne [Source] – as electric vehicle demand stays robust but supply is constrained by both geology and geopolitics. Glencore’s scramble hints at the frailty of seemingly solid supply deals when governments (even friendly ones like the DRC) suddenly change the rules. It’s a vivid example of how resource nationalism and great-power rivalry can collide in commodity markets, leaving Western firms to scrounge material from wherever they can – even if that means begging from Chinese warehouses.

Another niche metal is experiencing an even more dramatic squeeze: tungsten, a dense element used in armor-piercing munitions and specialized electronics, often called the “war metal.” Tungsten prices have exploded, rising over 500% in the past year to record highs [Source]. According to the European benchmark, ammonium paratungstate (APT) now sits above $2,250 per metric ton unit – more than double its level just since January [Source]. The immediate trigger is China’s implementation of export restrictions. China is by far the world’s top tungsten producer (responsible for roughly 79% of global supply [Source]), and since late last year it has tightened controls on exports of certain high-purity tungsten products, citing national security. Chinese shipments of those restricted forms have plunged 40% [Source]. At the same time, military demand for tungsten alloys is climbing – expected to jump about 12% this year amid global rearmament trends [Source]. The result is a rush by manufacturers to find alternate sources. In South Korea, Almonty Industries Inc. (TSX: AII | ASX: AII | NASDAQ: ALM | OTCQX: ALMTF | Frankfurt: ALI1) just opened a major new tungsten mine to serve non-Chinese buyers, and the company is pushing to develop a long-awaited tungsten project in Utah as well [Source] [Note: Almonty CEO Lewis Black will be speaking at the CMI Summit V on May 13-14 in Toronto.]. The U.S. Defense Department’s call for new tungsten supply (as reflected in that Pentagon list before the Iran strikes [Source]) has junior miners in Nevada dusting off old projects. Still, bringing significant non-Chinese tungsten capacity online will take years. For now, this obscure market – worth only $15–20 billion globally – has suddenly become a front line in the broader economic war. Each uptick in tungsten’s price is a reminder that even the smallest cogs in the supply chain can seize up under geopolitical pressure.

Finally, nuclear energy – often left out of the critical minerals conversation – is reasserting itself as a strategic factor. With oil markets rattled by Middle East turmoil, nuclear power’s allure as a stable domestic energy source is rising, and so is the importance of uranium supply. The United States, which astonishingly imports about 95% of its uranium fuel, is taking steps to change course [Source]. In January, the White House issued a rare Section 232 proclamation deeming uranium a national security priority [Source]. This designation paves the way for potential import quotas or tariffs, price supports, and direct federal backing for domestic uranium mining and enrichment [Source]. It’s a clear response to the risks of reliance on Russia (still a major uranium enricher for the world) and other geopolitical rivals. Already, we’ve seen a $900 million award to Centrus Energy to expand a U.S. enrichment facility – part of a broader effort to rebuild the full nuclear fuel cycle on U.S. soil [Source]. Parallel to this, the U.S. Department of Energy just launched an initiative to boost the output of the nation’s nuclear reactor fleet for the first time in decades. The new UPRISE program will fund reactor uprates, life extensions, and even restarts of dormant nuclear plants [Source]. The goal is to add 5 GW of nuclear capacity by 2029 (roughly five new reactors’ worth) and set the stage for much larger expansion by mid-century [Source]. After years of decline, America’s nuclear generating capacity actually ticked up in 2026 – a notable milestone driven by reactor restarts and power upgrades. This nuclear mini-renaissance, modest as it is so far, feeds directly into the critical minerals saga: more reactors mean more uranium demand, more enrichment infrastructure, and heightened strategic attention on fuel supply security. Washington’s message is that energy security now hinges as much on obscure metals and isotopes as on oil and gas.

The complex developments of this week all share a common theme. Whether it’s lithium in Ghana, cobalt in Congo, rare earths in Asia, or uranium at home, the world’s major powers are maneuvering faster and further to secure the critical minerals of the future. A hot war in the Middle East has only sharpened the edges of this contest. The stakes – industrial primacy, military readiness, clean-energy goals – are undeniably high. And as the scramble for critical minerals intensifies, every new deal or policy is suffused with geopolitical calculation. In this arena, neutrality is a luxury few can afford. Each nation and company must play the game, or risk being left at the mercy of those who do. The coming months will test just how far this strategic decoupling can go – and whether the lofty talk of “resilient supply chains” truly translates into secure access when the next crisis hits. In the meantime, investors and strategists would do well to watch not just the price of oil, but the price of cobalt, tungsten, and uranium. They are fast becoming the real barometers of global turbulence.

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InvestorNews Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Directorial Headline Picks for the Past Week:

• March 20, 2026 – Ghana Approves Lithium Project That Will Ship Ore to the US (Source)
• March 19, 2026 – US, Japan to focus rare earths cooperation on select group of minerals at first (Source)
• March 19, 2026 – China’s rare earth exports rise, shipments to US fall (Source)
• March 19, 2026 – Freeport seeks permit for $7.5 billion mine expansion (Source)
• March 18, 2026 – China’s multibillion-dollar minerals investment lifts foreign economies: report (Source)
• March 18, 2026 – US Snubbed by Lula Government at Critical Minerals Summit (Source)
• March 18, 2026 – KoBold Metals targets early-2030s copper output at Zambia project (Source)
• March 17, 2026 – Congo OKs US Firm’s Deal for Cobalt Miner in Minerals Pact Boost (Source)
• March 16, 2026 – Resolution Copper completes historic land exchange (Source)
• March 16, 2026 – Copper Dips as LME Stockpiles Rise to Highest in Over Six Years (Source)
• March 16, 2026 – Glencore turns to China exchange stocks to meet cobalt commitments, sources say (Source)
• March 15, 2026 – Munitions Metal Tungsten Eclipses Gold, Copper in 557% Rally (Source)
• March 12, 2026 – The Nation’s Nuclear Reactor Fleet Is on the Rise (Source)

InvestorNews.com Media Updates:

• March 20, 2026 – Losing Out on Jurisdictional Roulette https://bit.ly/4lDf0SQ
• March 18, 2026 – Strait of Hormuz is chokepoint for sulphuric acid and critical metal processing https://bit.ly/4bEMYlA

InvestorNews (YouTube) Interview Updates:

• March 19, 2026 – Marcy Kiesman Highlights Quantum Critical Metals’ Babine South Silver and Mica-Based Gallium Extraction at PDAC 2026 https://youtu.be/MH_uepwPEIk
• March 18, 2026 – John Slaven of MineSense on Turning Every Shovel into a Data Engine https://youtu.be/JQMYjvPZ2Jg
• March 17, 2026 – Christopher Berlet on Stakeholder Gold and the Infrastructure-Driven Revival of Yukon’s White Gold District https://youtu.be/4ramGFlAN48
• March 17, 2026 – Grid Metals’ Robin Dunbar on the Rare Critical Mineral Called Cesium https://youtu.be/RulZXwyK1J0
• March 17, 2026 – Darren Hazelwood Discusses Panther Metals’ Ontario Projects and Winston Tailings Opportunity at PDAC 2026 https://youtu.be/X8RhyR40DpM
• March 16, 2026 – Silver Bullet Mines Announces Five-Year Offtake Deal with Ocean Partners at PDAC 2026 https://youtu.be/rrbaup-yFQ0
• March 16, 2026 – David Stein on Kuya Silver’s Production Growth and the Opportunity in Peru’s Silver Sector https://youtu.be/XhjYEOvuIJw
• March 16, 2026 – Spartan Metals’ Brett Marsh on Reviving Nevada’s Tungsten District https://youtu.be/4CD-8iNeSf4
• March 16, 2026 – Fox Tungsten’s Stephen Gray on the World’s Highest-Grade Tungsten Resource in British Columbia https://youtu.be/QJ9ZOVq0rMY
• March 16, 2026 – ABx Group’s Mark Cooksey on Dysprosium, Terbium and the Race for Heavy Rare Earths https://youtu.be/sWaPsbSBQsc
• March 16, 2026 – At PDAC 2026, Power Metallic’s Terry Lynch Discusses Lion’s High-Grade Copper Results https://youtu.be/GWvKE6ThuGk

InvestorNews.com News Release Updates:

• March 20, 2026 – Quantum Critical Metals Secures U.S. Defense Consortium Membership https://bit.ly/4s2RNvb
• March 20, 2026 – Deep Sea Minerals Corp. Submits Response to U.S. Defense Industrial Base Consortium Solicitation for Critical Minerals https://bit.ly/40IvY8U
• March 19, 2026 – Stakeholder Gold Closes Two Tranches of Flow-Through Financing https://bit.ly/4blCfgR
• March 19, 2026 – Trinity One Metals Appoints Jaime Delgado as Director https://bit.ly/4sm5are
• March 19, 2026 – Neo Performance Materials Reports Fourth Quarter 2025 Results https://bit.ly/4slYDwL
• March 19, 2026 – Resouro Strategic Metals Inc. (ASX:RAU) Board Changes and Corporate Update https://bit.ly/4dtqBlk
• March 18, 2026 – American Tungsten Completes C$40 Million Bought Deal Financing https://bit.ly/4biaRjL
• March 18, 2026 – Renforth Retains Specialist Geochemical Consultant for Victoria Ni Sulphide Polymetallic Deposit in Quebec https://bit.ly/4by8XKE
• March 18, 2026 – Resolution to Commence Major 45-Diamond Hole Drilling Program to Test Scale of Golden Gate System https://bit.ly/4sB152B
• March 17, 2026 – American Tungsten Completes Strategic Investment in Viking Mines https://bit.ly/4bshdvF
• March 17, 2026 – Deep Sea Minerals Corp. Clarifies Disclosure at the Request of the BCSC https://bit.ly/4dsOREc
• March 17, 2026 – Scandium Canada Announces Closing of $17.3 Million Bought Deal Life Offering, Including Full Exercise of Over-Allotment Option https://bit.ly/3PdOq6K
• March 17, 2026 – Spartan Metals Acquires the Largest(1) Tungsten Resource in the United States https://bit.ly/3P9Vlhn
• March 17, 2026 – Oreterra Confirms Two Broad Zones of Epithermal Gold Mineralization with Assays to 50.5 g/t Au Overlying Porphyry Targets at the Kinkaid Project, Nevada https://bit.ly/4bwhCxk
• March 17, 2026 – Antimony Resources Corp. (ATMY) (ATMYF) (K8J0) Announces Work on Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate – Hires SRK Consultants https://bit.ly/4dnuV5B
• March 17, 2026 – Nano One Advances Candiac LFP Production Capacity Expansion Project, Detailed Engineering & Equipment Procurement https://bit.ly/4sNH0Wj
• March 16, 2026 – Critical Minerals Americas Inc. Announces a Service Agreement with NRCan Research Agency CanmetENERGY to Review Critical Mineral and Rare Earths Data and Research for the SBH Project in Northern Alberta https://bit.ly/4bdMns2
• March 16, 2026 – Silver Bullet Mines Corp. Reports Antimony Results from Its Washington Mine in Idaho https://bit.ly/4ux309u
• March 16, 2026 – Halleck Creek Ore Selected for Feedstock for the DoE METALLIC Research Consortium https://bit.ly/4bAectA
• March 16, 2026 – Voyageur Announces Advancements on its Barium & Iodine Contrast Media Projects https://bit.ly/4dpsOyd

About the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI):
The Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) is a global brain trust for the critical minerals economy, serving as a hub that connects companies, capital markets, and policymakers. Through CMI Masterclasses, the weekly Critical Minerals Report (CMR), bespoke research, and board-level advisory services, CMI delivers actionable intelligence spanning exploration finance, supply chains, and geopolitics.

CMI also convenes the flagship Annual Critical Minerals Institute Summit, a global gathering of government leaders, institutional investors, and industry executives. The next event, CMI Summit V, themed “The New Critical Minerals Economy,” will take place May 13–14, 2026, in Toronto, Canada.

For more information, visit CriticalMineralsInstitute.com contact CMI Membership Director Chrissy Hessam at [email protected].

From earlier this month through early this morning, the center of gravity in critical minerals shifted from “find more supply” to “design a market that can finance it.” A proposed plurilateral trade architecture led by the Office of the United States Trade Representative [Source] is now explicitly asking the industry how minimum prices, reference prices, and border measures could be engineered to stabilize investment returns, with a public consultation closing March 19th [Click Here to Find Out More]. At the same time, commercial contracting began to mirror policy: Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC; OTCQX: LYSDY) revised its Japan supply agreement to include a $110/kg NdPr floor and a capped upside-sharing mechanism, making “price-floor” language tangible in a private offtake [Source].

Across the value chain, capital formation remained robust but more conditional. Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO) secured a $1.175 billion lender package for its Rincón lithium build in Argentina even as lithium pricing stayed volatile [Source]. On the demand side, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE: HMC; TSE: 7267) signaled a first annual loss since listing, tied to up to $15.7 billion in EV restructuring and impairment [Source].

Geopolitically, the week reinforced the premise that the critical minerals policy is now inseparable from defense and energy security. The United States Department of Defense moved to solicit supply proposals for 13 critical minerals, while China’s new five‑year plan emphasized rare earths and export-control capacity—an agenda that appeared directly on the table in Paris [Source] today as U.S.–China economic talks again discussed rare earth supply constraints.

It is telling that on March 3rd, InvestorNews.com published a pair of essays by Jack Lifton that read like a conceptual roadmap for the week that followed. One essay borrows a lyric from Cole Porter to argue that “monopsony” and “monopoly” are, in practice, two faces of the same procurement coin: one dominant buyer can create one dominant supplier, and price is set administratively even when the rhetoric is “market” [Source]. The other argues that heavy rare earth separation is approaching a non‑Chinese turning point and that the operational bottleneck is not ore scarcity but the slow build-out of separation capacity and industrial competence [Source]. In combination, the essays framed the week’s most consequential development: critical minerals policy is increasingly being written as market structure, not merely as subsidy.

That is precisely the direction of travel now visible in U.S. trade policy. The Federal Register notice underpinning the current consultation—issued late February but governing March’s cadence—does not hedge: it asks industry how a plurilateral agreement could set minimum prices or reference prices for critical minerals and enforce them through border measures such as tariffs, quotas, or tariff‑rate quotas; it also asks how to segment value chains so price mechanisms apply at the right node, and how to restrict imports from non‑parties to create a “market‑based supply” among signatories [Source]. The European Union and Japan have been the most frequently named partners in reporting on the emerging framework, with Bloomberg‑sourced accounts suggesting an announcement of “plans” in the coming weeks and an anticipated move toward negotiations beginning in April, shortly after comments close on March 19^th [Source]. For investors, the novelty is not that governments want resilient supply chains; it is that trade architecture is now being asked—explicitly—to do what project finance normally demands: reduce the probability that low prices render strategic projects unbankable.

The most concrete proof point this week came from private contracting, not public drafting. On March 10th, Lynas revised its long-standing Japan marketing and supply arrangements through Japan Australia Rare Earths, including a fixed floor price of $110/kg for neodymium‑praseodymium and an upside‑sharing mechanism above $150/kg, capped annually. The same reporting notes annual supply of 5,000 tonnes of NdPr and preferential allocation of heavy rare earth oxide output to Japanese industry through 2038 [Source]. This is the price‑floor concept leaving the policy whiteboard and entering the covenant logic of an offtake. It is also, in its quiet way, an admission by downstream buyers that the cheapest supply is not necessarily the most reliable.

The heavy rare earth dimension matters because “rare earths” are not a single market, and policy discussions can flatten distinctions that financiers cannot. InvestorNews’ March 3rd heavy rare earth essay is, at its core, a reminder that most hard‑rock deposits are dominated by light rare earths, while heavy rare earths remain concentrated in Chinese‑linked supply chains; it argues that integrated separation capacity is what will determine which companies can offer heavy rare earth products at scale later this decade [Source]. Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Co-Chair Jack Lifton states in this essay that Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU; TSX: EFR) is best positioned to become a large U.S. producer of dysprosium and terbium through planned separation expansion [Source].

On the lithium side, the week offered a different but related lesson: capital is still available for tier‑one sponsors, even when near‑term price signals remain unstable. Rio Tinto’s $1.175 billion financing for its Rincón lithium project drew on a consortium that effectively maps the “trusted capital” coalition—multilateral finance, export finance, and allied development lenders—supporting a $2.5 billion build targeting roughly 60,000 tonnes per year of battery‑grade lithium carbonate, with first production expected in 2028 and a three‑year ramp [Source]. That financing arrived in the same month China’s lithium futures hitting a daily‑limit drop (nearly 13%) to around 150,860 yuan per tonne amid demand concerns, a reminder that even strategic commodities can remain mercilessly cyclical. By March 13^th, Trading Economics data still showed lithium around 159,000 CNY/tonne. The finance takeaway is not that lithium has “turned”; it is that the sector is bifurcating—projects with scale, credible sponsors, and policy‑aligned lenders can still close packages, while the rest of the curve remains hostage to spot volatility and funding discipline.

Demand uncertainty is why the automotive story mattered this week, even in a column focused on geopolitics and supply chains. Honda’s announcement of an expected annual loss—its first since listing in 1957—while taking up to $15.7 billion in EV‑related restructuring and impairments is not merely corporate drama; it is a stress test for the upstream assumption that electrification demand will be smooth enough to finance every marginal project [Source]. The company’s decision to scrap planned EV models in North America and re‑emphasize hybrids, combined with the announced scale of charges, underscores how quickly boardrooms will rewrite capital allocation when policy incentives change and consumer uptake softens. For critical minerals investors, this matters less as a referendum on electrification than as a reminder that demand “certainty” often arrives in spurts—creating vulnerability for projects that need steady volume ramps to meet debt covenants.

Against that demand noise, multilateral institutions and national governments are increasingly framing minerals as a cross‑sector security issue, not a clean‑tech subset. At the United Nations on March 5, an AP report quotes senior UN political leadership warning that demand for the minerals underpinning technology could triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040 [Source]. That framing is consistent with the week’s defense‑industrial posture in the United States, where the Department of Defense sought proposals for domestic supply expansion across 13 minerals, with potential funding discussed at $100 million to $500 million and a proposal deadline of March 20th [Source]. S&P Global’s March 4th analysis sharpened the point: shortages of specific inputs such as tungsten and antimony can constrain weapons output, and U.S. import dependence is high across several materials—an uncomfortable baseline when export controls and conflict risk are rising variables [Source].

Canada used a different instrument panel but the same diagnosis. On March 2nd, Natural Resources Canada announced a second round of partnerships and investments under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance, framing it as a mechanism to mobilize capital, coordinate policy, and advance priority projects with “trusted allies” [Source]. The government’s headline number—30 new partnerships unlocking $12.1 billion, and $18.5 billion mobilized when combined with the October 2025 round— means that Canada isn’t just picking a single ‘winner’—it’s spreading funding across many players and stages to strategically shape an entire sector [Source]. Meanwhile, Reuters reporting on March 3rd emphasized Canada’s preference for a buyers’ alliance and production partnerships rather than pure price floors, and it put a number on Ottawa’s deal‑making scale in this arena [Source]. In practice, those positions are not contradictory. A buyers’ club aggregates demand; a price floor stabilizes supply economics. The emerging reality is that the West may end up using both—depending on the mineral, the processing bottleneck, and the political feasibility of administering price.

Uranium sits at the intersection of these market‑design debates because nuclear policy is increasingly being pulled into the same strategic frame as rare earths. On March 2nd, Cameco signed a long‑term deal to supply nearly 22 million pounds of uranium ore concentrate to India’s Department of Atomic Energy from 2027 through 2035, under market‑related pricing terms, with an estimated contract value of about C$2.6 billion (roughly US$1.9 billion) [Source]. In parallel, spot‑market indicators remained elevated by historical standards; Trading Economics shows uranium at about $85.65/lb on March 13th [Source]. On March 10, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called Europe’s reduction in nuclear generation a strategic mistake, noting the region’s exposure to imported fossil fuels and announcing a €200 million EU guarantee aimed at nuclear innovation and small modular reactors [Source].

The United States’ advanced nuclear approvals made that link even more explicit. On March 4th, Reuters reported that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved construction of TerraPower’s Natrium reactor in Wyoming—345 megawatts with an energy‑storage system designed to boost output to 500 megawatts—and emphasized that it is the first commercial reactor construction approval in nearly a decade and a first-of-its-kind permit for an advanced design in decades [Source]. The fuel story is inseparable from the reactor story: HALEU supply constraints are one of the central execution risks for advanced reactors, which is why earlier DOE awards for enrichment capacity—most notably to Centrus—remain part of the financing calculus even when the award dates precede this window [Source]. And on March 14th, Reuters reported that U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed in principle on their respective roles in a potential nuclear project involving Westinghouse, a signal that nuclear supply chains are being written into broader strategic investment packages rather than treated as national silo projects [Source].

China’s posture is the shadow that makes these architectures politically possible. Reuters’ March 5th analysis of China’s new five‑year plan notes that Beijing singled out its competitive edge in rare earths for the first time in such a plan and pledged to improve its export‑control system [Source]. U.S. and Chinese economic chiefs are planning on meeting in Paris today, with rare earth supplies and high‑tech export controls on the agenda as both sides work to clear a path toward a planned Trump‑Xi summit later this month [Source]. In that context, USTR’s exploration of price floors and trade clubs looks less like protectionism for its own sake and more like a bid to reduce vulnerability to supply coercion—an industrial insurance premium that will be debated, modeled, and, increasingly, contracted.

The Western Hemisphere featured prominently in the same security framing. On March 12th, Chile and the United States signed a joint statement to begin discussions on rare earths and other critical minerals, with early focus areas including public‑private project finance, recycling, and exploration; a first meeting was expected within weeks [Source]. Meanwhile, the Caracas angle illustrates the reach—and risk—of minerals diplomacy: Reuters reported Venezuela’s effort to reform mining law to attract investment following a visit by U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, with disputes and arbitration provisions designed to address investor skepticism after prior expropriation cycles [Source].

Two additional threads rounded out the week by illustrating where the value chain is moving. First is “urban mining,” which is increasingly less metaphor and more industrial plan. Korea Zinc is in talks with major U.S. tech firms to extract rare earths from data center waste, alongside development of a $7.4 billion U.S. smelter project in Tennessee intended to process multiple critical non‑ferrous metals [Source]. Second is the digitalization of mining itself with Microsoft and Chile’s state copper producer Codelco signing an 18‑month memorandum of understanding to pursue AI, automation, analytics, and cybersecurity initiatives within mining operations—another sign that competitive advantage is migrating toward data competence as much as geology [Source].

Finally, the week’s most disturbing reminder: the critical minerals supply chain still contains zones where governance failure is not a theoretical risk but a mass‑casualty headline. Reuters reported that a landslide at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo killed more than 200 people [Source]. Undoubtedly a reminder of why new sourcing, recycling, and industrial policy must be pursued with urgency.

If there is a single through‑line, it is that the critical minerals market is being redesigned to make resilience financeable. Lifton’s monopsony‑versus‑monopoly framing captures the underlying reality: whether through formally administered floors, pooled buyers, or state‑linked finance, price is becoming a policy variable in strategic minerals [Source]. The question for the next quarter is not whether this framework expands, but how it is operationalized—mineral by mineral, contract by contract—without simply exporting volatility downstream or creating unintended arbitrage across borders.

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InvestorNews Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Directorial Headline Picks for the Past Two Week:

• March 12, 2026 – US Critical Minerals Talks Advance With EU, Japan on Price Floor (Source)
• March 12, 2026 – Honda flags first annual loss, hit by $15.7 billion EV charge  (Source)
• March 12, 2026 – Chile, US eye collaboration on rare earths and other critical minerals (Source)
• March 10, 2026 – Lynas Rare Earths Secures Floor Price in Revised Japan Supply Deal (Source)
• March 10, 2026 – Rio Tinto secures $1.18 billion financing for Argentina lithium project (Source)
• March 10, 2026 – Reducing Europe’s nuclear energy sector was ‘strategic mistake’, EU chief says (Source)
• March 9, 2026 – The Bank Trump Is Relying On for Rare-Earth Minerals (Source)
• March 6, 2026 – Japan, France, Canada work on alternatives to US-led trade bloc for rare earth supplies (Source)
• March 5, 2026 – ‘World is changing’: Albanese joins Carney’s call for new global order (Source)
• March 5, 2026 – China Prioritizes Rare Earths, Robotics in Manufacturing Agenda (Source)
• March 5, 2026 – Demand for minerals to power technology could triple by 2030, UN political chief says (Source)
• March 5, 2026 – Codelco, Microsoft sign AI deal for mining operations (Source)
• March 5, 2026 – DR Congo government says 200 killed after landslide at rebel-held mine (Source)
• March 4, 2026 – Critical minerals shortage threatens US military production capacity (Source)
• March 4, 2026 – Pentagon sought fresh supply of 13 critical minerals day before Iran attack (Source)
• March 4, 2026 – Japan, US aim to add nuclear power project to $550 billion investment package, sources say (Source)
• March 4, 2026 – US approves construction of Bill Gates-backed nuclear reactor in Wyoming (Source)
• March 4, 2026 – Australia, Canada sign new deals on critical minerals (Source)
• March 4, 2026 – US interior secretary is in Venezuela to discuss critical minerals (Source)
• March 3, 2026 – Japan in talks with India to explore for rare earths, sources say (Source)
• March 3, 2026 – Jack Lifton Predicts Heavy Rare Earths Breakthrough (Source)
• March 3, 2026 – Monopsony, monopoly, let’s call the whole thing off. (Source)
• March 3, 2026 – Canada advocates buyers’ alliance to tackle critical minerals supply concentration (Source)
• March 3, 2026 – Canada unlocks $12B in critical mineral deals as minister calls supply chains ‘national security’ (Source)
• March 2, 2026 – Canada, India Strike $1.9 Billion Uranium Supply Agreement as They Firm Ties (Source)
• March 2, 2026 – Canada secures 30 new critical minerals partnerships and unlocks $12.1 billion in mining project capital (Source)

InvestorNews.com Media Updates:

• March 13, 2026 – Managing the War Economy https://bit.ly/47KGj7Z
• March 9, 2026 – The Bonfire of the Capital https://bit.ly/4aXVmgO
• March 03, 2026 – Jack Lifton Predicts Heavy Rare Earths Breakthrough https://bit.ly/47nFBxh
• March 03, 2026 – Monopsony, monopoly, let’s call the whole thing off. https://bit.ly/4r5nZgN

InvestorNews (YouTube) Interview Updates:

• March 12, 2026 – Simon Stilwell Takes the Chair at Resouro Strategic Metals as Its Brazilian Titanium and Rare Earths Project Advances https://youtu.be/q4XrHDZZslo
• March 12, 2026 – John Carter on Silver Bullet Mines’ Deal with Ocean Partners for Silver, Gold and Copper https://youtu.be/FhKgQQletO8
• March 12, 2026 – Ali Haji Says American Tungsten Upsized Bought Deal to $35 Million as Company Targets Production https://youtu.be/lkthz2wGwtE
• March 12, 2026 – Tom Wood Highlights Trinity One Metals’ Historic Silver-1 Mine in Ecuador at PDAC 2026 https://youtu.be/PuVCHJ4FP3g
• March 12, 2026 – Scandium Canada’s Guy Bourassa on How Canada Is Betting on This Critical Mineral https://youtu.be/f0uzIc5wRQ4
• March 11, 2026 – EY’s Theo Yameogo on Gold, Silver and the Global Critical Minerals Market https://youtu.be/wQhV3gcQ_Dc
• March 11, 2026 – Rowena Smith and Mark Chalmers Discuss the ASM and Energy Fuels Partnership at PDAC 2026 https://youtu.be/nhYF75lPt_8
• March 11, 2026 – Jason Bagg Highlights Appia Rare Earths & Uranium’s Brazil Drill Results and Multi-Project Portfolio at PDAC 2026 https://youtu.be/VCz03OESBuU
• March 11, 2026 – Kevin Keough Rebrands Romios Gold into Oreterra Metals and Targets a BC Gold Discovery at Trek South https://youtu.be/8wFzYDOyQW4
• March 11, 2026 – CMAI’s Denis Clement Says Alberta Black Shales Could Supply Critical Minerals for the West https://youtu.be/GHtY25W6UtU
• March 11, 2026 – Bobby Stewart Says Geophysx Could Make Jamaica a Source of Copper, Gold and Rare Earths https://youtu.be/I19y6dgwBlo
• March 10, 2026 – Jim Atkinson Says Bald Hill Could Be Among the Highest-Grade Antimony Deposits in North America https://youtu.be/le1QkBJfltI
• March 9, 2026 – Roy Bonnell Says Allied Critical Metals’ Borralha Tungsten Project Shows Billion-Dollar Potential as Western Supply Tightens https://youtu.be/t9FrCDZSorw
• March 9, 2026 – Homerun Resources Advances Antimony-Free Solar Glass Strategy in Brazil https://youtu.be/M91SRbKGofY
• March 9, 2026 – West High Yield Targets 2026 Magnesium Production at Record Ridge https://youtu.be/rjPzp8hkU-k
• March 9, 2026 – Carla Devlin Cites Sio Silica’s 15-Billion-Tonne Deposit for Defense Technologies While Encouraging Support for Public Petition https://youtu.be/UKLV5QcP1pI
• March 9, 2026 – Craig Lindsay Says Resolution Minerals’ Idaho Project Targets Antimony, Gold and Tungsten as U.S. Seeks Domestic Critical Metals Supply https://youtu.be/fl66D7wePH0
• March 9, 2026 – Mark Tory Says Defense Metals’ Wicheeda Rare Earth Project Delivers a 50% Concentrate Grade https://youtu.be/TW0M4QYYppE
• March 9, 2026 – How Nusa Nickel Corp Has Successfully Gained Access to Indonesia’s World-Leading Nickel District https://youtu.be/428w9H7l-UE
• March 06, 2026 – Volta Metals’ Springer Deposit Surges into North America’s Rare Earth Top Tier After Tenfold Resource Expansion https://youtu.be/KODH196NT9k
• March 03, 2026 – Jack Lifton Interviews James Deckelman on Deep Sea Minerals and the Strategic Push Into Seabed Critical Minerals https://youtu.be/nTyZTkfcvwQ

InvestorNews.com News Release Updates:

• March 12, 2026 – West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd. Provides Update Regarding Record Ridge Project Court Decision https://bit.ly/46UUDdY
• March 12, 2026 – West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd. Signs Definitive Forward Sales Agreement to Sell Magnesium Ore from Its Record Ridge Project https://bit.ly/4bCcGYS
• March 11, 2026 – Deep Sea Minerals Corp. Joins the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) https://bit.ly/4ltsVeo
• March 11, 2026 – Renforth Resources Reports Systematic Platinum and Palladium Sampling Results at Victoria Deposit, Confirms Deposit-Wide Presence of PGMs in Ultramafic Horizon https://bit.ly/4bfqNlt
• March 11, 2026 – American Tungsten Initiates Drilling in Historical Tailings and Strengthens Its Geological Team https://bit.ly/3P65LOU
• March 11, 2026 – West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd. Announces Exercise of Warrants https://bit.ly/3N9W9Cf
• March 10, 2026 – Deep Sea Minerals Corp. Provides Corporate Update https://bit.ly/4b3jbnr
• March 10, 2026 – Power Metallic Intercepts 16.55 Meters of 15.11% CuEqRec¹ in Hole 25-049, and 7.60 Meters of 7.20% CuEqRec¹ in Hole 25-043 at Lion https://bit.ly/46NUIQv
• March 10, 2026 – CORRECTION FROM SOURCE: Allied Critical Metals Further Highlights Rapid Payback, Capital Efficiency and Infrastructure from Borralha PEA https://bit.ly/4cKFu2B
• March 10, 2026 – Homerun Resources Inc. and UC Davis Produce Fused Silica Glass from SME Silica Sand Using Fast Joule Heating and File Patent Application for Femtosecond Silica Purification Process https://bit.ly/4rr8fFd
• March 9, 2026 – Allied Critical Metals Further Highlights Rapid Payback, Capital Efficiency and Infrastructure from Borralha PEA https://bit.ly/4rth4OF
• March 9, 2026 – West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd. Receives Draft Highway Access Permit for Record Ridge Project, Marking Another Key Development Milestone https://bit.ly/46OFBGs
• March 9, 2026 – Oreterra Announces Stock Option Grant https://bit.ly/3NsxOHM
• March 6, 2026 – Genesis Acquisition Corp. Announces Closing Of $300,000 Private Placement https://bit.ly/4rvvVby
• March 6, 2026 – Trinity One Metals Announces Closing of $5.34 Million Financing Including LIFE Offering and Concurrent Private Placement https://bit.ly/47Ayku6
• March 6, 2026 – Ucore Accelerates Commercial Planning for Samarium and Gadolinium Oxides as Defense Supply Chains Face Urgent Shortages https://bit.ly/4st0a3u
• March 5, 2026 – Oreterra Announces Closing of Final Tranche of $9.7 Million Oversubscribed and Upsized Non-Brokered Private Placement https://bit.ly/3Na0Yey
• March 5, 2026 – Media Advisory – Neo Performance Materials Inc. Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Release & Conference Call https://bit.ly/4cZW3r9
• March 4, 2026 – Cove Capital and AHQ Sign Strategic MOU to Advance U.S.-Saudi Critical Minerals Cooperation https://bit.ly/40cKWUo
• March 4, 2026 – PDAC 2026 Reflects Growing Global Momentum for Mineral Exploration and Development https://bit.ly/4sLAqQj
• March 4, 2026 – Scandium Canada Announces Upsize of Bought Deal LIFE Offering of Units to $15 Million https://bit.ly/4u8T45S
• March 4, 2026 – Allied Critical Metals Announces Appointment of Hon. Marco Mendicino as Strategic Advisor https://bit.ly/406x3aj
• March 4, 2026 – Defense Metals Receives Conditional Approval for up to C$1.88 Million in Funding for Wicheeda Rare Earth Elements Clean Energy and Transportation Infrastructure Project https://bit.ly/46HM4mC
• March 4, 2026 – Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Confirms Pharmaceutical-Grade Purity of Barite from Frances Creek and Progresses to Health Canada Human Trial with Alberta Innovates Grant; Announces Stock Option and DSU grants, and Proposed Issuance of Securities for Debt https://bit.ly/4097pBG
• March 3, 2026 – NRCan Awards Nano One $3M To Support LFP Cathode Material Supply Chain Initiative https://bit.ly/40Hk27b
• March 3, 2026 – Scandium Canada Announces $10 Million Bought Deal Life Offering of Units https://bit.ly/40Npfdz
• March 3, 2026 – Power Metallic Intercepts Lion Style Sulphides (Lion East and Lion West) Following Recently Recognized High Grade Structural Trends https://bit.ly/4aWh6IE
• March 3, 2026 – Deep Sea Minerals Corp. Signals Intent to Proceed with License Application in Accordance with U.S. NOAA Process https://bit.ly/40BMVlc
• March 3, 2026 – Homerun Resources Inc. Signs Commercial Letter of Intent with Jundu Ltda. for the Supply, Extraction and Primary Processing of High-Purity Silica Sand https://bit.ly/40KcPDe
• March 3, 2026 – American Tungsten Reports Positive Initial Metallurgical Test Work Results From IMA Tungsten Project https://bit.ly/4rQeP98
• March 3, 2026 – Antimony Resources Corp. (ATMY) (ATMYF) (K8J0) Continues to Drill More Massive Antimony-Bearing Stibnite Mineralization On The Main Zone https://bit.ly/4udvYeD
• March 2, 2026 – Antimony Resources Corp. (ATMY) (ATMYF) (K8J0) Wishes to Clarify Some Recent Reporting in Press Releases and in the November 7, 2025 Technical Report https://bit.ly/40rfFxb
• March 2, 2026 – Nord Precious Metals Closes Non-Brokered Critical Mineral Flow-Through Unit Private Placement https://bit.ly/4b2w4wG
• March 2, 2026 – Scandium Canada Secures Federal Government Support of up to $6.9m for its Crater Lake Project https://bit.ly/4cGAvjt
• March 2, 2026 – Silver Bullet Mines Enters Long Term Supply Agreement with Ocean Partners US Inc. https://bit.ly/4aLueSa
• March 2, 2026 – American Tungsten Announces Upsize of Bought Deal Financing to $35 Million https://bit.ly/4u5fQvk
• March 2, 2026 – American Rare Earths announces consolidation of president and CEO Roles https://bit.ly/4chGOJX
• March 2, 2026 – Neo Performance Materials and Cyclic Materials Sign Non-Binding MOU to Advance Trans-Atlantic Circular Rare Earth Supply Chain https://bit.ly/4l46prX
• March 2, 2026 – Oreterra Announces Closing of $9.3 Million First Tranche of Oversubscribed and Upsized $9.7 Million Non-Brokered Private Placement, Second Tranche to Close March 4 https://bit.ly/3OHCGJr
• March 2, 2026 – American Tungsten Announces C$20 Million Bought Deal Private Placement https://bit.ly/4snFEkY
• March 2, 2026 – Defense Metals Provides Update on Wicheeda Project Development https://bit.ly/405HIBW
• March 2, 2026 – Resouro Strategic Metals Inc. Metallurgical Testwork and PEA Update – Tiros Project https://bit.ly/4cn3IQc
• March 2, 2026 – Resolution Completes Acquisition of Processing Mill and Tungsten Stockpiles to Advance Potential U.S. Antimony & Tungsten Production https://bit.ly/4l0D5Tg 
• March 2, 2026 – Allied Critical Metals Delivers Robust Initial PEA at the Borralha Project https://bit.ly/477JYfP

About the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI):
The Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) is a global brain trust for the critical minerals economy, serving as a hub that connects companies, capital markets, and policymakers. Through CMI Masterclasses, the weekly Critical Minerals Report (CMR), bespoke research, and board-level advisory services, CMI delivers actionable intelligence spanning exploration finance, supply chains, and geopolitics.

CMI also convenes the flagship Annual Critical Minerals Institute Summit, a global gathering of government leaders, institutional investors, and industry executives. The next event, CMI Summit V, themed “The New Critical Minerals Economy,” will take place May 13–14, 2026, in Toronto, Canada.

For more information, visit CriticalMineralsInstitute.com contact CMI Membership Director Chrissy Hessam at [email protected].

On the third day of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada Convention in Toronto, InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes spoke with Rowena Smith, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd. (ASX: ASM), and Mark Chalmers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR), about the companies’ proposed partnership and the momentum building across the critical minerals sector.

“PDAC, how’s it going for you?” Hughes asked.

“Oh, it’s been vibrant this year,” Ms. Smith said. “I’m amazed at how many people are here, but also there’s just such terrific energy.”

Mr. Chalmers agreed. “There’s a unique buzz this year at PDAC,” he said. “With the metals prices across the board, there’s a lot of excitement and a lot of optimism for the future.”

Hughes noted the strong interest in the companies’ collaboration. “Our interview with you had over 20,000 views,” she said. “Everybody wants to know about the ASM–Energy Fuels partnership.”

“I’ll let Rowena start it off,” Mr. Chalmers said. “We’ve been talking for a few years, haven’t we?”

“We have,” Ms. Smith said. She explained that Australian Strategic Materials Ltd. has pursued a strategy “to go from mine all the way through to alloys,” emphasizing that building supply chains requires partnerships. “The only way to do that rapidly is to work with partners who already have established capability.”

She said conditions across the sector shifted over the past year. “The pennies just dropped that there’s an urgency to get into a fully vertically integrated solution,” Ms. Smith said. “When we came together with Energy Fuels, we could see there are amazing synergies between the two businesses.”

Mr. Chalmers said the partnership fills a key gap for Energy Fuels Inc.. “We were interested in moving further down the supply chain through alloys,” he said. “The biggest gap we had as a company was in the metals and alloys. ASM fits perfectly into that gap.”

Ms. Smith said the companies are currently progressing regulatory approvals in Australia. “We’re going through a government approval process called FIRB,” she said. “Once that’s completed, we’ll issue a scheme booklet for shareholders.”

She said the process will lead to a shareholder vote, with the companies aiming to complete the transaction around June.

Ms. Smith added that the two teams have already begun working closely together. “As we’ve had more interaction, we can really see we share DNA,” she said. “We’ve got a very similar way of going about doing what we do.”

Mr. Chalmers noted that Energy Fuels already maintains a presence in Australia. “We have an office in Perth,” he said, adding that the companies’ global operations create complementary regional strengths.

“There’s really the Northern Hemisphere, which is the hydrometallurgy and uranium,” he said. “And then the Southern Hemisphere is the heavy mineral sands, the rare earth supply, and also the metallization and alloys.”

Asked about priorities for the combined platform, Mr. Chalmers emphasized execution. “The key focus right now for the company is getting this transaction finalized, integration, and execution,” he said.

Ms. Smith said development work at ASM continues alongside the transaction process. “For ASM, that’s the expansion of the Korean Metals Facility,” she said. “We got funding for that late last year and we are progressing that at pace.”

She said equipment orders have been placed and construction has begun. “Civil work has started there in Korea,” Ms. Smith said, adding that the company expects commissioning early next year while continuing development work at the Dubbo Project in New South Wales.

“It’s just an exciting time,” Mr. Chalmers said. “When you look at increases in metals prices, particularly uranium and the rare earths, and the focus on reshoring capabilities outside China, we’re in a great spot.”

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Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API | OTCQB: APAAF) is advancing rare earth and uranium assets in Brazil and Canada, including the Alces Lake rare earth project in Saskatchewan and uranium and rare earth resources at Elliot Lake in Ontario.

Speaking with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes at PDAC 2026, Jason Bagg, Vice President of Corporate Development, described the company’s Brazilian project, where Appia holds a 25% interest alongside Ultra Rare Earth.

Ultra is the operator and has been drilling the property’s ionic clay and carbonatite rare earth mineralization. “We’ve got 13 holes that just came back, and from surface to 300 meters we’re showing over 2.55% of total rare earth oxides, and with zones of over 14%. So that is incredible,” Mr. Bagg said.

Beyond Brazil, Appia continues to advance several Canadian projects. The Alces Lake project in Saskatchewan is wholly owned by the company and hosts high-grade rare earth mineralization in monazite.

“Right now, that’s a 100% owned Appia project. It has a 35-person permanent camp, and we are finding some high-grade rare earths in monazite,” Mr. Bagg said. “We actually have another drill program coming up for 3,000 meters in June.”

The company also holds the Elliot Lake project in Ontario, a historic uranium district that contains both uranium and rare earth resources.

“We have 43-101 pounds in the ground — 55 million pounds of uranium and 180 million pounds of rare earth elements,” Mr. Bagg said. “It’s something that we are looking to perhaps maybe find a partner with, or we’re trying to figure out a strategy for that particular project.”

Appia is also advancing the Otherside uranium exploration project in the Athabasca Basin.

“We have taken a look at it, we’ve done some surveys, and we’re finding that it has very similar geology to NexGen’s Arrow project,” Mr. Bagg said. “So what we’re trying to do with that is we are doing an MT survey and we’re going to refine the drill targets and get out there drilling come this spring.” “We’re definitely going to have some more drill results come from Brazil,” he said. “We’re going to be announcing our drilling campaigns in Alces Lake and with the Otherside.”

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At PDAC 2026 in Toronto, Denis Clement, President, CEO and Director of Critical Minerals Americas Inc., discussed the company’s critical minerals project in northern Alberta.

Clement said the company is relaunching a large critical minerals project in northern Alberta. “We had this project many years ago, back in 2010 to ’15, in another company. We did a lot of work on it. We got a preliminary economic assessment on it that said it was worth $4 billion,” he said. “Everybody laughed at us and said, ‘Oh, we buy critical minerals from the Chinese. We don’t need it domestically.’”

“About five years ago, of course, with critical minerals being as wanted and as necessary as they are now in the Western world, we reacquired all the assets and we’re relaunching Critical Minerals Americas as we speak this week,” Clement said.

Critical Minerals Americas Inc. holds a 100% interest in the SBH Project, a 466.66 sq km critical minerals and rare earth elements project located approximately 120 km northwest of Fort McMurray in Alberta’s Athabasca region. According to the company’s National Instrument 43-101 technical report, the project contains approximately 34.5 to 52.2 billion tonnes of mineralized black shale.

“In scale, yes,” Clement said when asked if the project could be described as “the tar sands for critical minerals.” He added, “We have a 43-101 that was just issued that put somewhere between 35 and 50 billion tons of recoverable critical mineral black shales on the deposit.”

Clement said the deposit spans a large area. “We have 250 square km of black shale, and there’s about 200 million tons per square kilometer. So they’re very, very broad-based and very consistent over that area.”

The company plans to process the material using bioleaching. “The processing is called bioleaching, and bioleaching is fairly common, is very well known in the industry,” he said. “Back in ’14, when the National Research Council did the bioleaching studies for us, they took our material and they cultured these bacteria… What they do is they basically consume the impurities and leave behind what’s called a leachate.”

“That leachate contains all those minerals,” Clement said.

The SBH Project contains multiple critical minerals and rare earth elements, including molybdenum, nickel, uranium, vanadium, zinc, copper, cobalt, lithium, scandium and rare earth elements.

Clement said Alberta’s government has expressed interest in the sector. “Alberta has a plan to diversify their economy,” he said. “Critical minerals is a big highlight for them.”

He added that the company has assembled a team with government and industry experience. “On the board, we’ve just retained two new additions. One is Sonya Savage. Sonya Savage was Minister of Natural Resources for Alberta and she was also Minister of the Environment,” he said. “And secondly… Greg Turnbull, who was Chairman of McCarthy Tétrault.”

Looking ahead, Clement said the company plans to raise capital and advance development work. “We’re probably going to do a public financing in the next month,” he said. “We’re actually going to announce next week that we’ve signed up the National Research Council of Canada in Devon, Alberta, to start upgrading all of our technology.” “We’re going to delineate two areas on this massive property… one will be 5 billion tons and the other one will be 4 billion tons of recoverable critical minerals,” Clement said. “And we’re going to do preliminary economic assessments on those probably in the next 12 to 18 months.”

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“Are you a gold company or are you a tungsten company?” Peter Clausi asked Craig Lindsay, CEO of U.S. Operations for Resolution Minerals Ltd. (ASX: RML) (OTCQB: RLMLF), during an interview at PDAC 2026.

“You are very confused,” Lindsay replied. “Because we are not just a gold company or a tungsten company. We’re actually an antimony company as well. That’s really the big pitch: critical metals with an antimony focus.”

Resolution Minerals Ltd. is a mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of metals including antimony, gold, copper and uranium. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2017, the company holds a portfolio of assets including the Drake East Antimony-Gold Project in New South Wales and the George Project, prospective for silica sand and uranium.

Lindsay said the company’s current focus is its 100%-owned Horse Heaven Project in Idaho. “Locationally, we’re immediately adjacent to Perpetua’s Stibnite Mine,” he said, referring to Perpetua Resources Corp. (NYSE: PPTA). “Perpetua is a $4.5 billion company. We’re an $80 million company. We’re a direct geologic analogue to them in that we have a very large gold endowment, but there’s also a big critical metals play here with antimony and tungsten.”

Clausi noted the strategic role of the metals. “Antimony and tungsten are war metals. The more conflicted the world becomes, the more we need them.”

“Sadly, that’s true,” Lindsay said. “But it’s not just the military side of things. It’s also the China story. China processes 80% of the world’s antimony. They mine 60%. They’ve cut off supplies to the U.S. The current administration has a very large push on to develop domestic supplies of these critical metals. Antimony and tungsten are very high on that list.”

Lindsay said historic stockpiles from the project show unusually high grades. “The average grades we’ve pulled out of historic stockpiles average 40% antimony,” he said. “When you look at the Perpetua story next door, the average grade is less than half a percent.”

The project covers roughly 15,000 acres and includes multiple mineralized targets. “We have something called Antimony Ridge, which is antimony-focused, but it also has silver and gold,” Lindsay said. “Gold is associated with the antimony at Horse Heaven. You get anywhere from 1 to 4 grams per tonne gold, and we’ve had hits of up to 1,420 grams per tonne silver within these high-grade veins.”

A second exploration area, called Golden Gate, targets gold and tungsten. “The first hole I drilled last fall was 253 metres of 1.5 grams per tonne gold starting at surface and ending in open mineralization,” Lindsay said. “So this year we’re going back. We’re going to drill 30,000 feet. We’re going to triple the drilling.”

The strategic case for the project, he said, includes the United States’ dependence on imported antimony. “They consume about 25,000 tonnes of antimony a year, and they’re producing nothing,” Lindsay said. “So we can play a critical role in addressing that—not just addressing it three or four years out when the Stibnite Mine goes into production, but potentially much sooner if we get a permit to start stripping out some of this high-grade material.”

Resolution Minerals has begun metallurgical testing and processing studies. “We’ve shipped material to two labs: ANSTO in Australia and Kingston Process Metallurgy associated with Queen’s University to develop a process flowsheet,” Lindsay said. “I’ve also hired a PhD metallurgist, Dr. Adam Roper, who is working with us full-time.”

“If I can pull this 40% material off, I can ship it to U.S. Antimony, which is looking for ore,” he said. “They need feedstock. Everyone is looking for feedstock.”

Lindsay said the company recently acquired 25 acres of private land next to the project and is also evaluating modular processing options. “We’re also talking to CPC Engineering about some modular processing facilities that we could bring on site.”

Permitting remains the main challenge. “We’re working with the National Permitting Council. We filed for FAST-41 coverage,” Lindsay said. “But to me it still remains the biggest challenge we have.”

Resolution Minerals currently trades on the ASX and the OTCQB and is pursuing broader U.S. market access. “We’ve got an ADR program in place. We trade on the OTCQB right now, and we’ve filed an application for NASDAQ,” Lindsay said. “One of the takeaways—which I haven’t seen in a long time—is that generalist funds are getting into critical metals. They want exposure to this stuff.”

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“Drill hole number 15: we hit from surface 300 m, 2.55% rare earths,” Tom Drivas said, describing what he called “very exciting results” from diamond drilling at the Ultra Hard Rock carbonatite target in Goiás, Brazil.

Drivas, CEO and Director of Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API | OTCQB: APAAF), said the company drilled 26 holes totaling 7,347.1 metres, with results announced from 12 of them and additional assays pending. “That’s very exciting — very unusual that you drill a hole for 300 m. The hole ended up in mineralization,” he said.

He detailed the intercepts: “The last 16 m of the hole has 5.2% total rare earth oxides. From 2 m to 99 m we get 4.42% total rare earth oxide. From 93 m to 99 m, about 6 meters, 13.30%.” The highlight interval, he added, was “about 1.7 m at around 95–97 meters depth for 14.27% total rare earth oxides.” He translated the figure for context: “That basically translates, for people who are not familiar with percentages, 142,700 ppm — parts per million — total rare earth oxides.”

Drivas also cited magnet rare earth content within the interval. “In terms of magnet rare earths like neodymium praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, we’ve got 23,235 parts per million, which is basically 2.3%. So very exciting.”

According to the company’s February 24, 2026 news release, preliminary assay results identified significant intervals of Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) and Magnet Rare Earth Oxide (MREO), with 13 drill holes still pending. The release states that mineralization is open at depth and reappears to the northeast, and that average uranium and thorium values are 7.46 ppm and 66.48 ppm, respectively.

Drivas said the latest program builds on earlier drilling. “We drilled about a year, year and a half ago — we drilled three holes from zero to 150 m depth and all three holes were mineralized. Now with this drilling program, we went down to 300 meters and the system is still open.”

He described two styles of mineralization at the project. “We’ve got ionic clay on surface — like the first 10–20 meters — high-grade ionic clay type mineralization. But underneath that is carbonatite rocks — hard rock — and that’s also rich in rare earths.”

He emphasized the relevance of carbonatite-hosted rare earth deposits. “Two of the biggest mines outside of China that produce rare earths — Lynas and MP Materials — are rare earth extractable from carbonatite. So it’s basically a similar situation that we have there.”

Appia holds a 25% interest in the Ultra Hard Rock and Ultra IAC Projects, totaling 42,932.24 hectares in Goiás. Under a previously announced agreement, Ultra is obligated to acquire Appia’s 25% interest in exchange for a 25% equity interest in Ultra once a prefeasibility study has been prepared for the Ultra IAC project and a mineral resource estimate has been prepared for the Ultra Hard Rock project.

“We now drilled 29 holes,” Drivas said. “I think after this the plan would be to put a 43-101 resource on the carbonatite mineralization, and obviously we want to put a resource on the ionic clay, and also do a PFS — a pre-feasibility — on the ionic clay. Our plan is to do all this this year.”

Drilling at the ionic clay target is ongoing. “We’ve got two drills. We’re going to bring another two drills in the next couple of weeks and we’re planning to drill between now and June this year,” he said. The plan calls for approximately 952 reverse circulation holes of 15 to 20 metres each, in addition to 300 to 500 auger and exploration holes over the coming months.

“In terms of valuation, we feel that Appia is trading at a fraction — maybe 10% — of what comparable other companies in the space are trading,” Drivas said. “Appia is probably the only company that I know that has three unique rare earth projects in Saskatchewan, in Ontario, in Brazil. And in addition to that we have uranium projects in Ontario and Saskatchewan.”

Beyond Brazil, the company is advancing its Alces Lake property in Saskatchewan, where Drivas said there are “nine drill target areas that we want to test for rare earth mineralization at depth,” with a summer drill program starting in June. “We’ve got a drill in place. We’ve got the camp — everything going. We’re funded for that.”

On the uranium side, he said, “any day now, Quantec Geoscience will be starting an MT survey on our uranium property, the Otherside property. It’s a very exciting property. It has similar geophysics to major deposits in the Athabasca basin.” He added, “We know we have drill targets — we just need to refine them better with this survey.”

Appia also holds a 100% interest in 13,008 hectares in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario, covering five mineralized zones with rare earth elements and uranium, and surface exploration rights over 94,982.39 hectares in Saskatchewan across its Otherside, Loranger, North Wollaston and Eastside properties. With the new Brazilian results in hand, Drivas said the company will be presenting at PDAC 2026. “Yes, we do have a booth. We’re at booth 2715,” he said. “Investors are invited to come by the booth so we can discuss it more and ask questions. Obviously we can show them some pictures, some maps, to see exactly where we are and what we’re doing.”

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Before turning to policy, prices, and projects, a reminder of what the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) is doing this week in real time: on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, CMI will host a live virtual Masterclass, “The Critical Mineral that Literally Defines Time – Cesium,” hosted and moderated by Christopher Ecclestone (Hallgarten + Company), featuring Austin Devaney (Founder and CEO of Li7Charged and Advisor to Grid Metals), Robin Dunbar (President, CEO and Director of Grid Metals Corp. (TSXV: GRDM) (OTCQB: MSMGF)), and Brandon Smith (Chief Development Officer of Grid Metals Corp. (TSXV: GRDM) (OTCQB: MSMGF)). Cesium-133 defines the SI second—9,192,631,770 oscillations between two hyperfine energy levels—and that precision underpins everything from GPS timing and telecom synchronization to high-frequency trading and military navigation. In a sector that too often equates “critical” with bulk tonnage, cesium is a useful corrective: strategic importance is frequently a function of irreplaceable performance, not volume (For more information on the CMI Masterclass, click here).

That distinction is exactly why CMI maintains the 2026 CMI Critical Minerals Watchlist, a practical reference for investors, policymakers, and industry participants assessing supply-chain resilience, and it contains 24 minerals. The list is alphabetical: Aluminum (Al); Antimony (Sb); Beryllium (Be); Cobalt (Co); Copper (Cu); Gallium (Ga); Germanium (Ge); Graphite/Carbon (C); Indium (In); Lithium (Li); Magnesium (Mg); Manganese (Mn); Molybdenum (Mo); Nickel (Ni); Niobium (Nb); Platinum-Group Metals (PGMs); Rare Earth Elements (REEs, including Yttrium & Scandium); Silicon (Si); Steel (Fe); Tantalum (Ta); Titanium (Ti); Tungsten (W); Uranium (U); and Vanadium (V). CMI’s Top 5—reaffirmed in 2025—remain Copper, Uranium, Gallium, Rare Earth Elements, and Cobalt, but CMI has also been transparent that both the Top 5 and CMI Watchlist is not static. In a recent InvestorNews interview with CMI Director Alastair Neill, he confirmed that no edits have been made to the 2026 CMI Watchlist at this time, while noting that cobalt is the only one of the current Top 5 he is actively questioning: “The reason it’s on there is dominance by the DRC. If non-conflict deposits are developed or technology shifts, cobalt could slide off.” If that happens, Neill added, “my first choice would be tungsten,” pointing to tungsten’s concentrated supply profile—“China produces over 80%, Vietnam second, Russia third”—and the downstream reality that “tungsten carbide is widely used and China dominates that production. The last U.S. tungsten mine stopped over ten years ago, so alternatives are very small.”

Those wobbles matter. Jack Lifton’s February 17 InvestorNews column, No EV Boom, No Rare Earth Magnet Boom, is a timely reminder that U.S.-specific demand assumptions can be the weakest link in an otherwise coherent industrial policy narrative. The magnet story does not disappear—defense, robotics, wind, and industrial electrification still pull heavily—but the U.S. EV trajectory sets the tone for how quickly Western policymakers can justify extraordinary interventions, including price supports, trade actions, and strategic stockpiles.

Against that backdrop, the most consequential development across the past two weeks has been Washington’s explicit move toward “market design” as a tool of national security. Rare earth prices surged above the U.S. government’s price support threshold tied to MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP). Reuters reported NdPr reaching roughly $123/kg, above the $110/kg floor, which means the U.S. is not paying support under the mechanism while prices remain elevated. That is the point of the structure: reduce downside risk to keep non-China production investable during the inevitable cyclical reset. Reuters also noted analyst expectations that this spike may be temporary, with a potential correction by March—precisely the sort of moment these mechanisms are designed to absorb.

The price floor concept is no longer confined to one company or one mineral. Bloomberg-linked reporting indicated multiple U.S. agencies have developed a broader “critical minerals price floor system” and are now discussing it with allies. Whether this evolves into contracts-for-differences, structured offtakes, strategic purchasing, or hybrid instruments, the direction is unmistakable: the U.S. is trying to neutralize the classic China playbook of price compression and downstream dominance by making long-cycle projects financeable in the West (Source).

Policy, however, is only as effective as the industrial reality it can summon. The copper debate remains the cleanest case study, even if one strips away the consultancy branding and focuses on the core conclusion: the U.S. constraint is not “copper in the ground,” but the ability to turn raw material into the refined forms manufacturers actually consume. The Financial Times summarized the argument bluntly: without domestic conversion capacity—smelting, refining, and intermediate products—stockpiles and upstream access do not translate into true supply security. The copper lesson generalizes across critical minerals: the midstream is where dependence hardens into vulnerability, and it is also where the capital intensity, permitting friction, and community impact questions become hardest to solve (Source).

China’s copper smelting economics offered a second, more unnerving reminder of midstream complexity. Sulphuric acid—a byproduct—has been doing the financial heavy lifting for Chinese smelters as treatment and refining charges have fallen. When a byproduct becomes the profit center, capacity decisions can decouple from primary metal fundamentals, distorting global signals and complicating Western efforts to build “rational” midstream in a market already shaped by structural overcapacity and state-backed industrial objectives.

If the price-floor conversation is the “carrot,” the trade remedy conversation is the “stick,” and this week’s graphite development sits squarely in that category. On February 17, Westwater Resources, Inc. (NYSE American: WWR) highlighted the U.S. Department of Commerce’s final determination in the Chinese graphite anti-dumping investigation and argued that layered U.S. trade measures could lift total duties on certain Chinese battery-grade graphite inputs to approximately 220%, pending the U.S. International Trade Commission’s injury decision expected in March 2026. Investors should focus less on the headline number—which is contested in how it is aggregated—and more on the policy intent: to raise the cost of dependency faster than domestic capacity can be built, forcing supply chain decisions now rather than “someday” (Source).

Diplomacy and finance are being routed through the same thesis. On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, the United States and Uzbekistan signed a critical minerals pact framed around investment and value-chain cooperation. Central Asia has moved from “interesting” to “strategic” as the U.S. seeks diversified supply nodes that are not simply alternate sources of ore, but potential partners in processing and project infrastructure.

Separately, the U.S.–Japan announcements reinforced how critical minerals are now bundled with energy security and industrial inputs. Reuters described a $36 billion slate of Japan-backed U.S. projects—an Ohio gas plant, a Texas crude export facility, and a Georgia synthetic industrial diamond site—presented as part of a broader strategic-economic alignment and explicitly framed as reducing reliance on China for key manufacturing materials. This is the emerging pattern: critical minerals policy is no longer a discrete mining agenda; it is being packaged with electricity, fuels, and strategic manufacturing as a single competitiveness platform. (Source)

Corporate execution continues in parallel. Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO) (LSE: RIO) (ASX: RIO) took majority control of Nemaska Lithium, lifting its interest to 53.9% while the Government of Québec retains 46.1%. The significance is not merely ownership; it is the integrated premise—mine plus conversion plant—that aligns with the midstream-first logic now driving Western industrial policy.

Uranium, meanwhile, is moving from commodity narrative to capital-formation narrative—particularly as data centers search for long-duration baseload solutions. Reuters reported NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE: NXE) (TSX: NXE) describing preliminary discussions with data center providers about potential backing for uranium projects, a conceptual echo of automakers financing battery supply chains. In the same week, Reuters reported U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the U.S. will restart uranium enrichment domestically, partly with partners in France, citing a $900 million U.S. Department of Energy award to Orano to support a Tennessee enrichment facility. Uranium’s “criticality” now sits on three pillars at once: supply, fuel-cycle capability, and the politics of energy reliability (Source).

The Mozambique rare earths story fits neatly into the same matrix. Altona Rare Earths plc (LSE: REE) disclosed U.S. backing via the U.S. Trade and Development Agency to help define technical and financial pathways for its Monte Muambe project. While early-stage support is not the same as a full capital stack, it is increasingly how the U.S. signals strategic preference—de-risking feasibility and bankability work to accelerate the projects it wants the market to finance next.

Finally, the European Court of Auditors brought Europe back down to Earth with a blunt assessment: the EU’s efforts to diversify critical raw material imports have not produced measurable results, and the 2030 targets embedded in the 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act appear increasingly out of reach without faster domestic development and meaningful processing and recycling scale. The contrast with the U.S. approach is instructive. Europe is articulating targets; the U.S. is increasingly building enforcement and pricing mechanisms intended to bend markets toward those targets. Both face the same industrial constraint: permitting timelines, energy costs, and community acceptance are now as determinative as geology (Source).

This is where the catalogue matters. InvestorNews’ February 11 Follow the Money: The U.S. Government Funding Hit List for Critical Minerals Companies (2023–2026) was created as a sector-wide reference point—an attempt to track where different branches of the U.S. federal government are placing capital, and through which instruments, as the U.S. tries to rebuild domestic and allied supply chains. In a market increasingly shaped by public finance—loans, guarantees, grants, offtakes, and now explicit price floors—investors need a map of the policymaker balance sheet as much as they need a map of ore bodies….or so we contend.

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InvestorNews Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Directorial Headline Picks for the Past Two Week:

• February 18, 2026 – Critical Minerals Institute Announces New Masterclass: The Critical Mineral that Literally Defines Time – Cesium (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – US copper problem is processing, not supply, study finds (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – Rare earths surge above price floor given to MP Materials (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – US and Uzbekistan sign critical minerals pact (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – US and Japan unveil $36bn of oil, gas and critical minerals projects in challenge to China (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – US Agencies Have Developed Critical Minerals Price Floor System (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – Rio Tinto takes majority control of Canada’s Nemaska Lithium (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – Data centres consider backing uranium projects, NexGen CEO says (Source)
• February 18, 2026 – Rising Demand for Nuclear Power Pressures Uranium Supply (Source)
• February 17, 2026 – No EV Boom, No Rare Earth Magnet Boom: The Demand Reality Facing Critical Minerals for the U.S. Market (Source)
• February 17, 2026 – U.S. to restart uranium enrichment, partly with partners in France, says U.S. Energy Secretary (Source)
• February 17, 2026 – US copper problem is processing, not supply, study finds (Source)
• February 17, 2026 – U.S. Department of Commerce Issues Final Determination in Chinese Graphite Anti-Dumping Investigation (Source)
• February 15, 2026 – Could the US unlock China’s rare earths grip with AI and quantum computing? (Source)
• February 12, 2026 – US Eyes Up to $700 Million for Kazakhstan Tungsten Project to Bolster Supply Chains (Source)
• February 12, 2026 – Acid, not copper, is paying China’s smelters but will it last? (Source)
• February 11, 2026 – Follow the Money: The U.S. Government Funding Hit List for Critical Minerals Companies (2023–2026) (Source)
• February 10, 2026 – U.S. backs major rare earths project in Mozambique, one of southeastern Africa’s largest (Source)
• February 3, 2026 – Critical raw materials: Court of Auditors brings EU back down to Earth: “2030 targets appear out of reach” (Source)

InvestorNews.com Market Commentary:

• February 18, 2026 – Critical Minerals Institute Announces New Masterclass: The Critical Mineral that Literally Defines Time – Cesium https://bit.ly/4qIKPdM
• February 17, 2026 – No EV Boom, No Rare Earth Magnet Boom: The Demand Reality Facing Critical Minerals for the U.S. Market https://bit.ly/4bZYgCx
• February 13, 2026 – Hallgarten + Company Initiates Coverage on Military Metals, Calling Antimony “A Prime Military Element” in a Shifting Global Supply Chain https://bit.ly/4aAT2Ln
• February 11, 2026 – Follow the Money: The U.S. Government Funding Hit List for Critical Minerals Companies (2023–2026) https://bit.ly/4cfe9Fb
• February 10, 2026 – Economic Insecurity: The Real Reason Why Trump is disrupting the global order https://bit.ly/4qvtZzb

InvestorNews (YouTube) Interview Updates:

• February 20, 2026 – Tungsten Breaks Into CMI Top 5 Consideration as Supply Risks Reshape the Critical Minerals Watchlist https://youtu.be/stjg1n1nJnc
• February 20, 2026 – Kerem Usenmez on Volta Metals’ Rare Earths, Gallium, Lithium, Cesium and Tantalum Project Ontario https://youtu.be/iuSWXHFfsoM
• February 18, 2026 – Critical Minerals Americas’ Denis Clement on Reviving a Multi-Billion-Tonne Black Shale Project in Alberta https://youtu.be/Xm0i7Csny0M
• February 18, 2026 – Antimony Price Spike Puts Critical Mineral in Spotlight as Jim Atkinson Advances Antimony Resources’ Bald Hill Project https://youtu.be/840_1CQ8Ivc
• February 18, 2026 – American Tungsten’s Ali Haji Says “It’s a Moly Porphyry with Tungsten-Silver-Rich Veins” as He Targets First Product Sales of Tungsten in 2026 https://youtu.be/Zc8sNa9pJxs
• February 16, 2026 – Frank Basa on Nord Precious Metals’ 2.9 Million Ounce Silver Tailings Deal https://youtu.be/PkroMM8Yiys
• February 11, 2026 – John Carter’s Hub-and-Spoke Bet at Silver Bullet Mines https://youtu.be/23rntP1Duao
• February 10, 2026 – Oreterra Metals’ Kevin Keough Discusses Trek South as a Potentially Major New Copper-Gold Discovery in 2026 https://youtu.be/mdYwLnvXvtw
• February 10, 2026 – Jack Lifton with Grid Metals’ Robin Dunbar on Canada’s position in the Global Cesium Market https://youtu.be/yq-cXQIPiCU
• February 10, 2026 – Allied Critical Metals’ Roy Bonnell on Tungsten and the Race to Redevelop Portugal’s Borralha Mine https://youtu.be/DMVdbtAC6R8

InvestorNews.com News Release Updates:

• February 19, 2026 – Oreterra Announces Further Over-Subscription and Upsizing of Non-Brokered Private Placement to $9.5 Million https://bit.ly/4c5y7Cs
• February 19, 2026 – Chilean Metals Inc. Commences Trading on the TSX Venture Exchange https://bit.ly/4kOnMNu
• February 18, 2026 – Power Metallic Intercepts 20.40 Meters of 4.11% CuEqRec in Hole 25-046, and 8.60 Meters of 6.84% CuEqRec in Hole 25-045 at Lion https://bit.ly/4kF4ry6
• February 18, 2026 – Silver Bullet Mines Corp. Reports Silver Assay Values Averaging 33.9 ounces per ton on its Washington Mine in Idaho https://bit.ly/4l1v4hb
• February 18, 2026 – American Tungsten Initiates Drilling on Zero Level of IMA Mine, Second Drill Rig Now in Operation https://bit.ly/3OuaqK7
• February 18, 2026 – Oreterra Announces Further Over-Subscription and Upsizing of Non-Brokered Private Placement to $9 Million https://bit.ly/4kNjKoK
• February 18, 2026 – Nano One Provides Corporate Update https://bit.ly/4kKXJ9Y
• February 17, 2026 – Nord Precious Metals Announces Investor Awareness Agreement https://bit.ly/4aFa76T
• February 17, 2026 – Ucore Continues to Advance Rare Earth Processing Supported by U.S. DoW with Final Phase 1 Report Submitted for RapidSX(TM) Project https://bit.ly/4rUbQMo
• February 17, 2026 – Defense Metals Announces Pilot-Scale Flotation Test Program for Wicheeda Rare Earth Project https://bit.ly/4aUVT2Q
• February 17, 2026 – Volta Initiates Gallium Recovery Study with Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada https://bit.ly/3OxLgKF
• February 17, 2026 – Resouro Announces the Proposed Appointment of Simon Stilwell as Non-Executive Chairman https://bit.ly/4kC3hn4
• February 17, 2026 – Nano One Announces Executive Leadership Appointments https://bit.ly/4cz9uhz
• February 17, 2026 – Antimony Resources Corp. (ATMY) (ATMYF) (K8J0) Continues to Expose New Massive Antimony-Bearing Stibnite Mineralization in the Marcus Zone https://bit.ly/3OLocIl
• February 12, 2026 – Energy Fuels Announces Details for 2025 Earnings Call and Webcast https://bit.ly/3OkAmIb
• February 12, 2026 – Trinity One Metals Announces Upsize of Private Placement to C$5.3 Million https://bit.ly/3ZEL5Q5
• February 12, 2026 – Trinity One Metals Announces Non-Brokered LIFE Private Placement of up to C$3.3 Million https://bit.ly/4rQB66d
• February 12, 2026 – Oreterra Announces Over-Subscription and Upsizing of Non-Brokered Private Placement to $8 Million https://bit.ly/4aSivkx
• February 11, 2026 – Scandium Canada provides update on Scandium+ activities and development of its Al-Sc alloys https://bit.ly/4quqhWw
• February 11, 2026 – Volta Reports Additional High-Grade Gallium Mineralization at Springer REE Project https://bit.ly/4ttAl4N
• February 10, 2026 – Stakeholder Announces New QP Geologist for Ballarat, 2026 https://bit.ly/4bM5cmO
• February 10, 2026 – Trinity One Metals Announces Non-Brokered LIFE Private Placement of up to C$3.3 Million https://bit.ly/3O61GK5
• February 10, 2026 – Antimony Resources Corp. (ATMY) (ATMYF) (K8J0) Investors Exercise $1,212,704 in Warrants https://bit.ly/3ZsBFXS
• February 10, 2026 – Oreterra Announces $6,000,000 Private Placement to Support First-Ever Drilling of the Trek South Porphyry Copper-Gold Prospect, Golden Triangle, BC https://bit.ly/4a7lKo2
• February 10, 2026 – American Tungsten Reports Initial Drilling Results from IMA Tungsten Project, Significant Tungsten-Silver Intercepts in All Drillholes https://bit.ly/4kvex4E
• February 9, 2026 – Fieldwork Resumes at Renforth’s Parbec Gold Deposit in Malartic, Quebec https://bit.ly/4rwl29u
• February 9, 2026 – American Rare Earths’ Shareholder Letter https://bit.ly/4tvu1tI
• February 9, 2026 – ReeXploration Commences Exploration Drilling at Eureka Uranium Target https://bit.ly/4a6FSGN

About the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI):
The Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) is a global brain trust for the critical minerals economy, serving as a hub that connects companies, capital markets, and policymakers. Through CMI Masterclasses, the weekly Critical Minerals Report (CMR), bespoke research, and board-level advisory services, CMI delivers actionable intelligence spanning exploration finance, supply chains, and geopolitics.

CMI also convenes the flagship Annual Critical Minerals Institute Summit, a global gathering of government leaders, institutional investors, and industry executives. The next event, CMI Summit V, themed “The New Critical Minerals Economy,” will take place May 13–14, 2026, in Toronto, Canada.

For more information, visit CriticalMineralsInstitute.com contact CMI Membership Director Chrissy Hessam at [email protected].