U.S. Critical Minerals Moves to Acquire Historic McAllister Tantalum Mine and Mill

[Aluminum Scrap and Secondary Aluminum Weekly Review: ADC12 Consolidates on a Strong Note amid Rising Costs and Marginal Order Improvement] In terms of price spreads, on September 10, the price difference between A00 aluminum and mixed aluminum extrusion scrap free of paint in Foshan was about 2,436 yuan/mt, and the price difference between A00 aluminum and shredded aluminum tense scrap was about 1,415 yuan/mt, both widening slightly again WoW. On the supply side, the tight raw material supply pattern remained unchanged, and the scarcity of compliant, invoiced aluminum scrap continued to rise, constraining scrap utilization enterprises' operations and procurement. Against this backdrop, some aluminum scrap yards...

[SMM Flash] Kenya is intensifying efforts to move from raw-mineral exports towards domestic processing and value addition, with the United States pledging support for development of the country's critical-minerals processing industry. President William Ruto has recently called for greater domestic beneficiation of resources including coltan, while US officials said Washington wants to support a transparent mining sector with greater local processing and community benefits. The immediate US focus includes Kenya's Mrima Hill deposit, which is primarily associated with rare earths and niobium rather than tantalum. However, the wider beneficiation policy is relevant to Kenya's emerging coltan sector because implementation could alter how locally produced tantalum-bearing material enters regional and international supply chains. No blanket legally effective coltan export ban or specific new tantalum-processing facility was confirmed in the latest US-Kenya announcement, so the development should currently be treated as policy direction rather than established new tantalum capacity.

Vedanta Group has invested more than ₹21,000 crore through FY2025-26 in ongoing projects to expand metal production and capacity across aluminium, zinc, value-added alloys, copper, steel, nickel and ferrochrome, as part of a broader push to strengthen India's domestic metals base for electric vehicle and critical minerals supply chains. Separately, as part of a critical minerals strategy under which Vedanta has secured 10 critical mineral blocks spanning copper, nickel-chromium-PGE, tungsten, graphite, vanadium, rare earth elements and potash, with exploration activities currently underway across five of the ten blocks, though the company did not specify which blocks are among those five. Vedanta did not disclose a ferrochrome-specific investment figure, production capacity, or plant location within the announcement, leaving the scale of its ferrochrome ambitions, relative to its far more detailed aluminium, zinc, copper and nickel plans, still to be clarified.