Mining Press Roundup: NioCorp's $4 Billion Nebraska Bet Reshapes the US Critical Minerals Map

The biggest story to land on desks this week wasn't a takeover or a drill hit — it was a spreadsheet. NioCorp Developments unveiled an updated feasibility study for its Elk Creek project in Nebraska that transforms a niobium-scandium-titanium mine into an eight-product critical minerals complex worth more than $4 billion, and it's rippling through everything from Washington's defense-supply-chain planning to a Nebraska rare earth explorer drilling in the same geologic complex. Layer on a fresh Comex copper record, a $2 billion Antofagasta profit clouded by Chilean weather, and Pan American Silver's record buyback quarter, and August 13 shapes up as one of the more consequential days of the summer for the sector.

NioCorp Developments: Elk Creek's Makeover Into an Eight-Metal Powerhouse

NioCorp Developments (NASDAQ: NB) released the results of its updated 2026 feasibility study for the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in southeastern Nebraska, and the numbers are striking. The study outlines the project's evolution into a 40-year, integrated U.S. operation with a net present value exceeding $4 billion that is expected to produce eight critical-mineral products from a single ore body, the company said. The pre-tax NPV at an 8% discount rate comes in at $4.1 billion, with pre-tax IRR of 24%, and after-tax IRR of 22.8%, with an after-tax payback of 2.93 years.

The project's scope has more than doubled from its 2022 predecessor. Over the projected mine life, the Elk Creek project is projected to generate approximately $37.4 billion in life-of-mine revenue, $608 million in average annual EBITDA, and $519 million in average annual operating cash flow, with eight products, all designated by the US Government as critical minerals: ferroniobium, scandium trioxide, titanium tetrachloride, and several rare earth oxide products, including neodymium-praseodymium oxide, dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide, samarium-europium-gadolinium carbonate, and heavy rare earth carbonate. That expansion wasn't free — initial capital costs rise 62% from $1.14 billion to $1.85 billion, reflecting inflation since 2022 and a substantially redesigned mine and processing plant that will produce eight products instead of three.

CEO Mark A. Smith framed the update in strategic terms, saying "Our 2026 Feasibility Study transforms the Elk Creek Project into the kind of critical minerals project the United States needs to have online as soon as possible." The company noted the site has secured its major construction-related permits, and completion of the study satisfies a due diligence requirement for financing discussions with the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Apex Critical Metals: A Neighbor's Assays Reinforce the Nebraska Rare Earth Story

NioCorp's news casts a long shadow over its own backyard. Just a day earlier, Apex Critical Metals (CSE: APXC) reported drill results at its Rift project that sit within the same Elk Creek Carbonatite Complex. Highlights from the latest drilling include 10.2 metres grading 5.27% TREO from 178.6 metres depth in hole RIFT26-14 and 8 metres grading 4.48% REO from 273 metres down hole RIFT26-12, Apex said. Both intervals are hosted within mineralized zones of about 150 metres grading more than 2% TREO.

MINING.COM noted the results reinforce Rift as one of the higher-grade rare earth discoveries currently being drilled in North America, alongside the nearby NioCorp Developments' advanced niobium project in the Elk Creek district. CEO Sean Charland said the consistency of results increases confidence in the shallow west-dipping Trinity Zone and ability to deliver a strong inaugural mineral resource estimate in 2027's first quarter. With NioCorp's feasibility study now putting a $4 billion valuation on the same geologic trend, Apex's timeline toward a maiden resource next year suddenly carries added weight for investors tracking domestic rare earth supply.

Antofagasta: Record Copper Prices Can't Fully Offset a Chilean Weather Hit

Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) delivered a first-half profit surge that would normally dominate headlines on its own, but a mid-year weather shock in Chile took some shine off the results. The Santiago-based miner posted profit before tax climbing 72% to US$2.0 billion and operating cash flow increasing 53% to US$2.77 billion, with record realized copper pricing of $6.19 per pound, up 36% year-over-year, driving the gains.

The company also lifted shareholder returns sharply, with Antofagasta declaring an interim dividend of 30.1 US cents per share, up 81% from 16.6 cents a year earlier. But the Chilean miner lowered its annual production guidance to 625,000-655,000 tonnes from 650,000-700,000 tonnes, a roughly 5% reduction at the midpoint, after heavy rain and snowfall in July forced Los Pelambres to halt operations following a government-declared "state of catastrophe" in the Coquimbo Region. Shares still fell on the news, with the stock down 5.3% in mid-afternoon London trading on Thursday to 3,814 pence, underperforming other resources stocks. CEO Iván Arriagada called out productivity gains and cash discipline as offsets, noting the mine has since restarted and Antofagasta expects quarterly production to increase sequentially through the remainder of 2026.

Pan American Silver: Buybacks Hit a Record as Gold Lags

Pan American Silver (NYSE, TSX: PAAS) posted another blowout capital-returns quarter even as its gold segment disappointed. Pan American returned a record $300 million to shareholders in the second quarter as surging silver production and metal prices lifted revenue, helping offset weaker-than-expected gold output and higher costs that weighed on earnings. Revenue jumped to $1.1 billion, up 38% year-on-year, with adjusted earnings of $308 million, or $0.73 per share — though that missed Street estimates.

On the operating side, silver production reached 6.5 million oz., at the upper end of quarterly guidance, driven by La Colorada and Juanicipio, while gold output of 165,900 oz. fell below expectations, with the company now expecting gold production to be at the low end of the annual 2026 guidance range. Jefferies analysts attributed the gold miss to weaker output at Jacobina and El Peñon. The buyback pace itself is the real headline: repurchases increased nearly ninefold from $25 million in the first quarter, underscoring how flush precious-metals producers have become with silver near multi-year highs.

Copper Markets: A Comex Record Meets a London Physical Squeeze

Away from single-company news, the copper market itself became the story this week, and it directly bears on producers like Antofagasta. Copper set a record on the Comex on Wednesday as a tame US inflation reading eased the threat of higher interest rates and a physical shortage in London pushed the premium on immediate delivery to its widest of the year, with copper for September delivery touching $6.7140 a pound in New York, clearing the $6.7045 record set on August 5.

The London squeeze is arguably the more telling signal. Cash copper on the London Metal Exchange settled at $14,424.50 a tonne, a premium of $207.50 over the three-month contract, with that backwardation the widest of 2026, up from $138 the day before and $34 at the end of July. Inventories are draining fast: LME warehouse stocks have fallen to 214,550 tonnes, a drop of more than 35,000 tonnes, or 14%, since the end of July. Supply-side disruptions are compounding the tightness, as Chile lowered its copper production forecast for a second straight quarter as output weakened at some of its biggest mines, and the Gresik smelter in Indonesia that treats ore from Grasberg is still down after a boiler leak on August 8. Per Polygon.io market data, that tightness hasn't translated into gains for copper equities today — COPX (Copper Miners ETF) traded at $86.22, down 2.3% on the day, even as gold pushed to $4,414/oz, up 1.0%.

Blue Moon Metals: Buying Up America's Tungsten and Antimony History

In the junior space, Blue Moon Metals (TSXV: MOON; Nasdaq: BMM) struck a deal to consolidate a large swath of historic tungsten and antimony ground in the western U.S. The company acquired a set of 33 tungsten and antimony projects in the western U.S., including projects near its Springer complex, one of the very few tungsten processing plants in North America, with the private owner receiving 2.8 million common shares in Blue Moon for about $15.5 million, a 1% net smelter return royalty on each project and around $5 million in cash.

The portfolio carries genuine pedigree. Properties include the Oregon mine in Colorado, which produced 5,000 tons grading 14.51% tungsten trioxide between 1907 and 1929, and the Wildhorse Canyon mine in Idaho that produced about 7,461 tons at 0.62% WO3 in the 1950s. The deal also marks Blue Moon's entry into a second strategic metal, bringing five historical high-grade projects hosting grades of 2-10% stibnite into the fold. That matters because the U.S. has no mined production of antimony and relies on foreign suppliers such as China, and Beijing's export restrictions on both metals have made domestic supply a Pentagon priority. Blue Moon's head of U.S. Special Projects, Jason Dunning, called it "a meaningful step in Blue Moon's strategy to build a leading U.S.-focused critical metals platform."

Savannah Resources: Buying Social License for Europe's Biggest Lithium Deposit

Across the Atlantic, Savannah Resources (LON: SAV) took a step that matters less for tonnage than for permitting risk. Savannah said it has signed three benefit sharing agreements with local communities that hold and manage communal lands (baldios) near the Barroso lithium project in Portugal, a project deemed a 'Strategic Project' under the European Critical Raw Materials Act and Europe's largest spodumene lithium deposit.

The project has not had an easy ride. Despite its strategic significance, the project has been met with opposition from local communities and environmental groups, and the Barroso region, recognized as a World Heritage agricultural site since 2018, has raised concerns over potential impacts on land use, water and biodiversity. The new agreements give affected communities a formal seat at the table: representatives from the baldios will participate in the upcoming Local Consultative and Monitoring Committee, which will approve development projects funded by the Barroso Lithium Foundation and oversee social outcomes. Once operational, the mine is expected to supply enough lithium (contained in c.183,000tpa of spodumene concentrate) for approximately half a million vehicle battery packs per year. Per Polygon data, the LIT lithium ETF traded at $74.81 today, down 0.5% — a reminder that even Europe's flagship lithium project is advancing against a soft pricing backdrop for the metal.

Brazil Potash: Amazon Court Fight Tilts Further in the Company's Favor

Brazil Potash (NYSE-American: GRO) picked up another legal win for its $2.5 billion Autazes project in the Amazon. The company won a key court ruling validating the licensing process for its Autazes potash project in Brazil's Amazonas state, positioning it to become Latin America's largest fertilizer mine, as the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region upheld the authority of the Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute to conduct environmental licensing and recognized the validity of consultations with the Mura Indigenous peoples.

The fight is far from settled, however. The ruling follows challenges by federal prosecutors and Indigenous groups over consultations and the project's proximity to ancestral lands, with legal authorities having sought to halt licensing, arguing consultations were incomplete and that federal environmental agency Ibama, rather than IPAAM, should oversee the process. Company subsidiary president Sergio Leite said "These decisions reinforce the solid legal foundation on which we are advancing the Autazes project." The stakes for Brazilian agriculture are large: Autazes is designed to produce as much as 2.4 million tonnes of potash annually, which management estimates could supply about 20% of Brazil's current demand, helping reduce the country's heavy dependence on imported fertilizer. Opposition groups, including Amazon Watch, have continued to contest the legitimacy of the consultation process, so appeals are likely to keep the legal drama alive even as the company banks procedural wins.

What It Means

Today's news flow makes one thing obvious: critical minerals policy is now a bigger swing factor for junior and mid-tier miners than commodity price alone. NioCorp's feasibility study, Apex's assay results in the same Nebraska carbonatite, and Blue Moon's tungsten-antimony land grab all lean on the same thesis — that Washington's appetite for domestic supply chains, independent of China, is becoming bankable. Savannah's community agreements in Portugal tell a parallel story in Europe, where the Critical Raw Materials Act is forcing developers to trade patience and revenue-sharing for social license before permits can move.

Meanwhile, the base-metals side of the ledger is being driven by physical scarcity rather than policy: the Comex-London copper squeeze and Antofagasta's weather-driven guidance cut both point to a supply system with very little slack left, even as prices hit records. And in precious metals, Pan American's record buyback quarter shows how much cash silver and gold miners are generating right now — capital that increasingly flows back to shareholders rather than into new mines, at least until the next high-conviction project, wherever it may be, gets its own feasibility study.

This roundup covers press releases published on August 13, 2026. Company announcements are sourced from mining industry wire services. For corrections or updates, contact contact@stakeandpaper.com.