Base Metals to See Downward Technical Pressures, SMM Says

[SMM Flash] Greenland Mines has completed a 104.8-tonne bulk-sampling programme across seven sites at its Skaergaard palladium-platinum-gold project in East Greenland. The samples are being prepared for large-scale and pilot-scale metallurgical testwork at GTK Mintec in Finland, while the company continues engineering, processing, infrastructure and waste-management studies aimed at advancing the project's technical evaluation. Skaergaard's S-K 1300 resource currently comprises approximately 15.0 million oz PdEq Indicated and 17.49 million oz PdEq Inferred, according to Greenland Mines. The bulk-testing programme represents an important step in evaluating processing and recovery options for one of the larger undeveloped palladium-platinum-gold systems outside the major South African, Zimbabwean and Russian supply regions. However, the reported Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and the latest programme does not constitute a development or commercial production decision.

[SMM Flash] Two Rivers, the South African PGM joint venture between African Rainbow Minerals and Impala Platinum, is advancing technical validation work for its Merensky project on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex. Early-works capital was approved during FY2026 to complete studies required to determine the project's way forward. The Merensky concentrator was commissioned during the six months to December 2024 but was subsequently placed on care and maintenance amid challenging PGM market conditions. The project has a stated capital cost of approximately R7.3 billion and is designed to produce around 182,000 6E PGM oz/year at steady state, alongside approximately 1,600 tonnes/year of nickel and 1,300 tonnes/year of copper. A restart could therefore provide meaningful incremental PGM supply from an existing South African operation. However, the project remains under technical validation and no restart date or final decision to resume production has been announced.