NICICO Puts Iran’s Copper Ore Resources at 24.5bn Tonnes; Exploration Drilling Nears 200,000 Metres

The Autonomous Bougainville Government said the Lloyds Panguna Metals & Energy Limited camp at the Panguna copper-gold mine was attacked on September 13. Personnel were assaulted and machinery was damaged in an arson attack. Authorities have not disclosed the extent of injuries or equipment losses. President Ishmael Toroama condemned the incident and said the government would continue pursuing the mine’s redevelopment.

Raptor Metals (ASX:RAP, formerly Eastern Metals) said borehole electromagnetic surveys across 12 drill holes at its Chester copper project in New Brunswick’s Bathurst Mining Camp have identified multiple conductors closely associated with known copper mineralisation. The BHEM results also show strong off-hole responses, providing clearer targets for follow-up drilling. The company said the conductors correlate well with previous VTEM and magnetic anomalies, supporting the interpretation that the Chester mineralised trend continues to the west. The 2026 drilling has validated Chester as a stacked copper-rich VMS system, with intercepts including 3.16m at 3.03% Cu in CDH001 and 10m at 0.98% Cu, 4.88% Zn, 1.64% Pb and 24.4g/t Ag in CDH004. Chester currently hosts a JORC 2012 resource of 6.685Mt at 1.07% Cu, containing around 158.6Mlb of copper, with mineralisation open along strike and at depth. The project remains at the exploration and resource-growth stage, with no direct near-term impact on copper supply.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on 14 Sep , 2026