News

The front-month contract closed at 101,100 yuan/mt in the afternoon session today, up 1,140 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Secondary copper rod in Hubei was offered at 100,200-100,300 yuan/mt, at a discount of 800-900 yuan/mt (average discount of 850 yuan/mt) against the front-month contract. Affected by wild swings in copper prices and persistently sluggish downstream consumption of secondary copper rod, the actual market trading atmosphere was sluggish, with low activity.

On February 3, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 31,939 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 31,700-32,800 yuan/mt, and the average price decreased compared to the previous day.

[SMM Tin Midday Review: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Erases Half-Month's Gains in Two Days, Spot Market Trading Recovers]

For NEVs, the core impact of Project Vault does not lie in how much it drives up mineral prices in the short term, but in the following: improved certainty of subsidy compliance, reduced supply disruption risks at key nodes, and the formation of a more stable structural price spread between the compliant and non-compliant supply chains.

As silver and gold fell in tandem, it was silver that outperformed to the downside—just as it had to the upside.

SMM News, February 3: According to an official announcement from Jinguan Copper, a subsidiary of Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd., the company will begin public sales of 32 tons of crude selenium starting today. The base price has not been disclosed. The deadline for submitting quotation letters is before 11:30 a.m. on February 3, 2026.

SMM Analysis: In January 2026, blister copper RCs in south China were quoted at 1,900–2,200 yuan/mt, with an average of 2,050 yuan/mt, up 550 yuan/mt MoM...

Gold was clearly significantly over-extended to the upside and had fallen victim to a self-fuelling speculative frenzy with momentum feeding upon itself.

India’s Union Budget 2026-27 emphasizes domestic manufacturing competitiveness and long-term energy resilience, allocating INR 22,000 crore for the PM Surya Ghar rooftop scheme and INR 5,000 crore for PM-KUSUM. The budget bolsters the supply chain by extending customs duty exemptions on capital goods for lithium-ion battery production and critical mineral processing, while removing the 7.5% duty on sodium antimonate for solar glass. Additionally, it earmarks INR 20,000 crore over five years for Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) technologies and proposes dedicated "rare earth corridors" in four states to secure input materials. However, duty exemptions for silicon used in wafers and cells are set to lapse in April 2026, signaling a push for deeper domestic value addition.

[SMM Aluminum Express - Alumina February 2, 2026 Night Session Review] Overnight, the most-traded alumina 2605 futures contract opened at 2,796 yuan/mt, hit a high of 2,843 yuan/mt, touched a low of 2,783 yuan/mt, and finally closed at 2,821 yuan/mt, up 49 yuan/mt from the previous day. Open interest increased by 270 lots to 376,000 lots, with overall market trading relatively cautious. Maintenance and shutdown signals from alumina refineries provided some support to the bulls. Technically, the closing price was above the MA5 (2,797.60), MA10 (2,756.70), and MA30 (2,762.23), lending some upward momentum. Meanwhile, the MACD indicator's DIF (3.87) crossed above the DEA (-3.49), continuing a low-level golden cross, with the histogram at 14.73. It is expected that alumina futures will continue to be in the doldrums in the short term.

BHP has selected its largest-ever group for the annual Xplor program, which supports early-stage mineral exploration.On Monday, the Australian miner announced that the 2026 cohort will include 10 companies—a record number—with total seed funding of US$5 million. The group consists of six early-stage exploration companies and four technology firms, highlighting the growing role of data analytics in mineral discovery.BHP stated that the selection reflects a more integrated approach to early-stage exploration, where geological insight, data, and emerging technologies increasingly come together, and cross-disciplinary collaboration is becoming central to the evolution of discovery.