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South Africa's mining industry still faces obstacles from regulatory and operational bottlenecks, requiring long-term sustained investment in exploration and development to fully unlock its potential. South Africa's mining industry and its direct suppliers provide nearly 900,000 jobs and sustain 3.6 million livelihoods. The mining industry has a strong multiplier effect, and developing the mining sector can promote economic growth and create employment opportunities. However, developing the mining industry requires investment, which also demands a globally competitive regulatory and operational environment, said Mthenjane Mzila, Director of the Minerals Council South Africa (MCSA).

Brazil seeks to avoid signing exclusive agreements on critical minerals with other countries, instead maintaining an open stance and pursuing partnerships with various nations. Recently, the U.S. government disclosed details of "Project Vault" (PV), an initiative led by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) aimed at formulating a strategy to secure domestic supplies of critical minerals. The EXIM Board approved up to $10 billion in direct loans for PV, more than double the largest financing amount in the bank's history. PV is designed to shield U.S. domestic manufacturers from supply shocks, expand the production and processing of critical raw materials in the U.S., and fundamentally improve the state of the U.S. critical minerals industry.

[SMM Breaking News: Brazil Not Seeking Exclusive Critical Minerals Agreements] Brazil, in terms of critical minerals cooperation, does not seek to sign exclusive agreements with other countries but adopts an open stance, actively pursuing partnerships with various nations. Recently, the US government disclosed specific details of "Project Vault" (PV). This initiative, led by the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM), aims to formulate a strategy to secure the supply of critical minerals within the US. The EXIM board has approved up to $10 billion in direct loans for PV, an amount more than double the largest financing in the bank's history. Project Vault is dedicated to protecting domestic US manufacturers from supply shocks, promoting the expansion of production and processing scale for critical raw materials in the US, and fundamentally improving the overall condition of the US critical minerals industry.

Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd. has informed investors that its large-scale pilot plant in Johannesburg has recently commenced official operation. The plant is currently operating as expected with the optimized Phalaborwa primary process and has successfully produced approximately 2 kg of high-grade mixed rare earth hydroxides, which possess commercial value. This mixed rare earth product has a grade of about 55% TREO, higher than the industry average of 42-44% TREO specified by the Chinese standard for mixed rare earth carbonate.

US critical minerals processing enterprise Momentum Technologies is actively engaged in building out domestic supply chains for rare earth and battery materials, and is currently commissioning the world's first demonstration plant capable of large-scale processing of both these product categories. In September 2024, Momentum Technologies commenced operations at its demonstration plant near Dallas, Texas. Initially, the plant operated only the battery materials processing line; it has now been retrofitted to simultaneously process rare earth elements, with the rare earth processing circuit expected to be commissioned by mid-February 2026.

"The market has gone absolutely crazy." That's the shared sentiment among many executives at magnetic material and motor plants. As of February 9, 2026, the price of praseodymium-neodymium (Pr-Nd) metal has reached 975,000 - 985,000 yuan per ton, marking a single-day surge of 7%. This represents a 9.4% increase compared to last week​ and a staggering over 88% jump compared to the same period last year​

This week, the overseas rare earth market revolved around three main themes: technological breakthroughs, capacity expansion, and geopolitical strategy. Enterprises in the US and Canada made substantial progress in rare earth recycling technology, while South Korea adopted a two-way strategy in supply chain cooperation. At the same time, the US launched a large-scale strategic stockpiling plan, highlighting the urgency of global efforts to achieve autonomy in rare earth supply chains. Additionally, resource-rich countries such as Russia and India accelerated their exploration layouts, while Japan and the EU enhanced the resilience of the industry chain through corporate restructuring and international cooperation.

The head of the Economic Crime Prosecution Department and a member of the procuratorial committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate stated that procuratorial organs have always performed their duties in accordance with the law, severely punished smuggling crimes, fully safeguarded border security, and actively served the overall situation of higher-level opening up. Currently, smuggling crimes have exhibited new characteristics such as large-scale and organized operations, causing significant losses to national tax revenue.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Pr-Nd Prices Remain High, Downstream Procurement Activities Decrease] This week, the market quotation for Pr-Nd oxide remained high. Suppliers held optimistic expectations for the future market and were unwilling to sell at low prices. However, downstream buyers gradually began holidays and halted procurement, leading to a noticeable decline in the actual trading activity of Pr-Nd oxide. As of today, the price of Pr-Nd oxide fluctuated and rose to 747,000-753,000 yuan/mt.

US technology company Supra Elemental Recovery has successfully raised $2 million and officially launched its proprietary reusable "sponge-like" filter cartridge technology. This technology is capable of recovering gallium and scandium from industrial by-products, mine tailings, and electronic waste. Supra stated that the raised funds will be used to advance the further development of the recovery technology, fully preparing for a commercial pilot project in 2026. Additionally, Supra is currently testing technologies to recover high-purity critical minerals, including cobalt, lithium, and certain rare earth elements, from other materials.

[SMM Flash: US's Supra to Launch Gallium and Scandium Recovery Project] US technology company Supra Elemental Recovery has successfully raised $2 million and officially launched its proprietary reusable "sponge-like" filter cartridge technology. This technology is capable of recovering gallium and scandium from industrial by-products, mine tailings, and electronic waste. Supra stated that the raised funds will be used to advance the further development of the recovery technology, fully preparing for a commercial pilot project in 2026. Additionally, Supra is currently testing technologies to recover high-purity critical minerals from other materials, including cobalt, lithium, and some rare earth elements. Currently, due to export controls implemented by China, Western countries face constraints in terms of supply for gallium, scandium, and other rare earth elements.

The deep-sea drilling vessel "Chikyu" successfully extracted rare earth-containing mud at a depth of 6,000 meters in the waters near Minamitorishima. The project leader indicated that this initiative aims to promote diversification of rare earth sources and reduce external dependence, with commercial mining expected to commence in February 2027. However, Japanese media pointed out that deep-sea mining faces technical and economic challenges: the 6,000-meter deep-sea environment is equivalent to 550 atmospheres of pressure, posing high risks of equipment failure; mining costs are more than 10 times those of land-based rare earths, the commercialization cycle may exceed 10 years, and ecological risks are irreversible.