Sohrab Darabshaw

Recent movements in aluminum prices show the metal holding strong despite global economic shifts and region-specific challenges in extraction and refining operations.

Australia may well emerge as one of the few non-China sources for the supply of gallium metal, a valuable mineral used in electronics, LEDs and semiconductors.

Canada has joined the growing list of countries imposing tariffs on steel imports from China.

In the end, China exceeded market expectations, posting a 5.2% year-on-year growth on July 14 compared to the market forecast of 5%. According to

Despite a few hiccups and occasional worries of oversupply, the global bauxite market has been growing steadily. Much of this expansion has been fueled by rising demand in the aluminum market, especially from automotive, aerospace and renewable energy sectors.

Global iron ore markets are under renewed pressure as futures prices continue to fall, driven by mounting concerns over China’s faltering economy and weakening demand from its steel and property sectors. Meanwhile, current iron ore prices continue to fluctuate.

Iron ore prices rose this week, despite the overall weakness in the steel industry. Analysts are puzzled by this contradiction, particularly as China’s steel production and local consumption are still not recovering at the rate they should be. According to sector experts, the recent surge hints at a gap between actual raw material demand and steel output.

Resource security when it comes to rare earth magnets is something the modern-day world has been desperately trying to get right. This is primarily due to rare earths’ increasing importance in electronics, defense, vehicles, and much more.

The global copper market has had quite the year. On September 8, approximately 800,000 tons of wet material flooded multiple levels of the Grasberg Block Cave mine in Papua, Indonesia, leading to the suspension of all underground operations. It was just one more event to add to the list of copper mining and supply disruptions for 2025.

While geopolitical tensions continue and rare earths supply chain vulnerabilities deepen, the United States is quietly redrawing the global map of critical mineral sourcing, and Australia seems to be emerging as a cornerstone. The latest development on this front is the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) issuing a letter of interest to fund up to US $200 million for VHM’s Goschen Rare Earths and Mineral Sands Project in Victoria.