Surge Battery Metals’ updated prefeasibility study for Nevada North lifted the project’s after-tax NPV to US$9.81 billion at 8 percent with a 24 percent IRR and 4.2-year payback at $24,000 per tonne LCE, versus $9.21 billion, 23 percent and 4.7 years in the June 2025 PEA. Stage-one capex fell to $2.77 billion from $2.97 billion, operating costs dropped about 10 percent from $5,243 to $4,719 per tonne, and recovery rose to 84.9 percent. The 42-year claystone open-pit mine, held 67.5/32.5 with Evolution Mining, targets first production in the second half of 2031 at about 92,250 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate. (Company release October 2; Northern Miner and Canadian Mining Journal, October 6.)
EQ Resources (ASX: EQR) is converting tungsten’s price run into cash. The September quarter produced a record A$158.8 million in revenue, up 101 percent quarter-on-quarter, with cash on hand up 192 percent to A$82.3 million. Consolidated production rose 81 percent to 51,233 metric tonne units, the second-highest quarterly result on record, at an average realized price of US$2,248 per mtu, up 20 percent. Barruecopardo in Spain delivered record output, up 123 percent to 34,088 mtu; Mt Carbine in Queensland added 17,145 mtu. Ammonium paratungstate has roughly quadrupled since January to about $340/kg, and the US has a January 2027 deadline to stop procuring defense tungsten from China. (Company ASX release, October 6.)
Nuvau Minerals (TSXV: NMC) will release an updated PEA for the Matagami base-metal camp in Quebec by November that cuts pre-production capex to around $100 million from the $172 million in the 2024 PEA. The restart profile adds a fourth mine for about 13.5 years of production versus 9.5, with the mothballed Bracemac mine — shut by Glencore in June 2022 — going first because it is ready to operate, deferring the capital. Initial production is targeted for early 2029 after a new tailings facility is built; the company holds a 24-month right to buy the shuttered mill Glencore excluded from the March sale. (Northern Miner interview, October 6; single-sourced.)
ABB commissioned a 50 MW grid-forming power conversion system for Fortescue’s North Star Junction energy hub in the Pilbara, and the battery proved itself immediately: an unplanned 95 MW power station outage hit right after startup, and the storage kept the mining operations running. The hub pairs a 100 MW solar farm with a 250 MWh/50 MW battery, feeds Fortescue’s Pilbara Energy Connect network near Iron Bridge, and is part of a planned 4-5 GWh large-scale battery rollout. (International Mining, October 7.)
EORA Energy formed a joint venture with Kevin Maloney’s Tulla Group to develop integrated energy infrastructure for mining and remote projects, starting with Western Australia’s Norseman gold mine where battery storage, solar, diesel and grid supply will be coordinated by an energy-management system with a projected payback under five years. The JV is also building Energy-as-a-Service capabilities and a data-center pipeline of 6-15 MW opportunities in Queensland. (International Mining, October 7.)
Millennial Potash is targeting 2029 production from its US-backed Gabon project (Mining.com, October 5). KGL Resources banked its second Wheaton precious-metals streaming payment toward the Jervois copper project in the Northern Territory (Australian Mining, October 7). DevEx Resources hit uranium at Nabarlek in the Northern Territory (Australian Mining, October 7). Note: Mining.com and Australian Mining blocked direct fetching this run, so those four items rest on the outlets’ own reporting.