Perseus Mining produced 92,551 ounces of gold in the September quarter at an all in sustaining cost of $2,035 an ounce, exceeding its first quarter plan and holding full year FY27 guidance of 420,000 to 480,000 ounces at $1,835 to $2,070 an ounce. Cash and bullion reached $900 million, plus liquid listed securities of $338 million. The development story is Nyanzaga in Tanzania, now 88.4 percent complete against a $483 million budget with $407.6 million spent, still targeting first gold in January 2027, while the Yaoure CMA underground mine in Ivory Coast achieved commercial production.
Bannerman Energy and its partner CNNC Overseas have taken a positive final investment decision on the Etango uranium project in Namibia and moved into full scale construction, targeting first production in 2028. Forecast pre-production capital is about $353 million, of which about $64 million was spent on early works by September 30, with the remaining amount funded from joint venture cash of about $295 million and no project debt. The Etango-8 design is expected to produce an average of about 3.5 million pounds of uranium oxide a year, with Bannerman holding 55 percent of the joint venture and CNNC Overseas 45 percent, and CNNC taking 60 percent of life of mine output on market terms.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mines Minister Louis Watum suspended Jean-Paul Kapongo Kadiobo, director general of the artisanal mining supervision agency SAEMAPE, by decree on October 21, saying he failed to prevent illicit artisanal mining within permits assigned to other firms, and the agency’s Lualaba provincial head was also suspended. The move follows the reported detention of about 300 Chinese nationals around Kolwezi in a crackdown on illegal mining. More than 200,000 people make a living digging cobalt and copper in the southeast Katanga region, and industrial producers including CMOC, Glencore and Zijin operate the concessions artisanal miners enter, which is why enforcement at SAEMAPE is a live operating issue for the copper belt, not only a governance story.
The US Department of Energy has added helium to its critical minerals list, the Northern Miner reported, a designation that supports federal attention for a gas with no substitute in several medical, semiconductor and space applications. In Australia, a record number of projects feature in the government’s critical minerals prospectus released for the IMARC conference, and New South Wales has launched a critical minerals skills plan as ministers promote the state’s mineral wealth to investors. In Zambia, a domestic gold refinery has been launched to boost mineral earnings, part of the same value capture pattern visible in Brazil and Australia in today’s full stories, though no capacity or throughput figures were reported in the coverage available.
Sandvik will supply 25 underground mining units to Northern Star Resources, Australian Mining reported, a fleet order that signals continued underground capital spending by one of Australia’s largest gold producers. The London Metal Exchange has debuted its first contract from its collaboration with the Shanghai Futures Exchange, Mining Weekly reported, extending the LME’s China linked product set, though contract specifications were not detailed in the report available.
Two items are pointers rather than new coverage. The strike at Teck’s Highland Valley Copper mine, which began on October 24, was reported again by the Northern Miner on October 26 as curbing output at Canada’s largest copper mine; the running story remains the existing file updated in place, and no new production figure was published. EQT’s acquisition of Range Resources remains covered under commodities and infrastructure reporting from October 26 and is not duplicated here.