Mining Press Roundup: Sibanye-Stillwater Bets on Copper as Two-Continent Build Signals a Capex Turn

Sibanye-Stillwater is putting real capital behind the metals price rally. The Johannesburg-based miner approved two long-planned development projects on Tuesday — a copper-gold restart in Tasmania and a gold mine in Mpumalanga — marking one of the clearest signs yet that major producers are ready to spend again after two years of price-driven caution. It's a fitting anchor for a wire that also included a Turkish miner's first copper concentrate, an Australian junior's antimony production start, and a ten-year lithium supply deal with one of the world's largest battery makers.

Sibanye-Stillwater: Greenlights Copper-Gold Build on Two Continents

Sibanye-Stillwater has approved its Mt Lyell copper-gold project in Tasmania and Burnstone gold project in South Africa, advancing two long-life developments as stronger metals prices boost its finances. The Johannesburg-based miner plans to spend $7.5 million (A$11 million) on Mt Lyell in 2026 as part of a $340-million restart of the historic mine near Queenstown towards first ore in 2029, with the mine expected to produce as much as 26,000 tonnes of copper, 16,000 oz. of gold and 116,000 oz. of silver annually at steady state.

"We are pleased that Burnstone and Mt Lyell have recently received a positive investment decision by the board to proceed, marking a further step in unlocking unrealized value from the Group's organic project portfolio," Sibanye-Stillwater said on Tuesday. The approvals show Sibanye is selectively advancing its project pipeline even as it focuses most of its capital on organic growth, particularly its South African platinum group metals business.

The timing is no accident. Average realized PGM prices increased 67% at Sibanye's southern African operations and 70% in the US, while its realized gold price climbed 35% during the half-year. BMO analyst Raj Ray struck a similarly upbeat tone, noting that "notwithstanding the commodity price tailwinds, the positive takeaway was the steady operational delivery which has been a key focus for management." Mt Lyell becomes just the second offshore greenfields project the company has approved, following its Keliber lithium mine in Finland, and the decision to commit fresh capital to a copper restart underscores how badly major producers want exposure to the metal even at elevated capital costs.

Chile's Storm-Battered Copper Supply Keeps the Market on Edge

Sibanye's bet on copper comes against a backdrop of genuinely tight physical supply. Chile produced 403,424 tonnes of copper in July, down 9.4% from a year earlier and 9.8% below June, the weakest July for the world's biggest producer since 2011. The national statistics agency blamed weather in the north of the country that hindered normal production, along with maintenance at major sites.

The disruption has real economic bite: Chile's Imacec activity index, a proxy for GDP, fell 1.5% in July from a year earlier against expectations for 0.4% growth, with mining down 9.3%. CRU's Robert Edwards has flagged that the supply picture may be worse than official surplus forecasts suggest, telling Reuters that "if imports keep coming in as they have been, then it's going to look like a deficit market in reality." Per Polygon market data, copper miners (COPX) slipped 1.7% to $92.86 on Monday's close even as the broader energy complex ran hot — XLE closed at $63.96, up 2.0% day-over-day with a 14-day RSI of 70.2, deep into overbought territory.

ACG Metals: First Copper Concentrate Flows at Gediktepe

London-listed ACG Metals hit a milestone of its own. ACG Metals produced its first copper concentrate from its Gediktepe mine in Turkey, marking its transition from precious metals and zinc as it targets full production by the end of 2026. The company said the copper concentrate was produced safely and on budget, and ACG is targeting annual production of 40,000 tonnes of copper once the operation reaches steady state.

Chairman and CEO Artem Volynets framed the achievement as a corporate turning point: "Our priority is now a disciplined ramp-up, progressively increasing throughput and recoveries, delivering consistent concentrate quality and advancing towards steady-state production." The mine was once a single-stream gold, silver and zinc mine, and now is moving into copper production as AI, electrification and other technologies are increasing demand for it. Gediktepe's conversion from a gold-silver-zinc operation into a copper producer is emblematic of a broader trend across the mining industry — precious- and base-metals mines being repurposed to chase the copper premium as electrification demand accelerates.

Larvotto Resources: Hillgrove Becomes a Western Antimony Source

In Australia, Larvotto Resources crossed a threshold that Western defense and manufacturing buyers have been waiting for. Larvotto Resources has started antimony and gold production at its Hillgrove mine in Australia, adding a major Western source of a strategic metal whose supply is dominated by China and Russia. With this milestone, Larvotto is set to become Australia's second, and largest, antimony producer, with the mine expected to supply roughly 7% of global antimony demand and more than 50% of supply outside China-controlled sources.

The market reacted immediately: the company's shares climbed on the news, closing at A$1.154, which gives Larvotto a market capitalization of about A$597 million ($427 million). Managing Director Ron Heeks called the moment a milestone for the nation's critical minerals push, noting the mine's significance given "becoming Australia's newest critical mineral producer is a significant achievement, at a time where securing reliable supply of critical minerals, and in particular antimony, has become a strategic priority for governments around the world." Hillgrove is forecast to produce 4,900 tonnes of antimony and 40,500 ounces of gold per annum over an initial eight-year mine life.

Smackover Lithium: LG Energy Solution Locks In a Decade of Arkansas Supply

The lithium side of the wire delivered a marquee offtake. Smackover Lithium, a partnership between Standard Lithium Ltd. and Equinor, announced the signing of its second commercial offtake agreement for the South West Arkansas Project with LG Energy Solution. Under the terms of the binding take-or-pay offtake agreement, the SWA Project will supply LG Energy Solution with 8,000 metric tonnes per year of battery-quality lithium carbonate over a 10-year period following the start of commercial production.

Standard Lithium CEO David Park said the deal builds on momentum from earlier in the year: "The Agreement further anchors our customer offtake portfolio, complementing the contract with Trafigura we announced in March of this year, and is another major milestone in the development of the SWA Project." Between the LG deal and the similar contract with Trafigura, the company has locked in about 90% of its target sales goal, and the South West Arkansas Project could achieve an annual production capacity of 22,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate in its first phase, meaning the LG agreement alone accounts for more than a third of planned output. The deal also carries a supply-chain angle that battery makers increasingly prize: through the contract, LG Energy Solution will secure lithium carbonate that meets non-PFE (non-Prohibited Foreign Entity) requirements. Per Polygon data, the Lithium ETF (LIT) closed Monday at $76.37, up a modest 0.4% on the day — a sign the offtake news hadn't yet fully moved sentiment in a sector still digesting BMI's recent warning that the broader lithium price rally has run ahead of fundamentals.

Defense Metals: High-Grade Rare Earth Hits Bolster Wicheeda

Canadian rare earths developer Defense Metals delivered assay results that should strengthen its resource base ahead of a planned classification upgrade. Resource-conversion drilling at Defense Metals' Wicheeda rare earths project in British Columbia has returned results as strong as 65 metres grading about 3% total rare earth oxides (TREO). That interval, in hole WI26-96, included 20.3 metres at 6.1% TREO, while another highlight, in hole WI26-93, cut across the southern margin of the deposit and returned 184 metres grading 1.7% TREO, including 57 metres at 2.5% TREO.

Vice President of Projects Robin Jones said the results should feed directly into the company's resource model: "We're exceptionally pleased that all eleven drill holes reported in today's news release intersected significant widths of high to moderate grade rare earth element mineralization within the pit confines defined by the 2025 preliminary feasibility study and are expected to contribute positively to a resource classification uplift." The results bolster Wicheeda's potential as one of Canada's more advanced and accessible projects pursuing rare earths, essential for permanent magnets, defence applications and clean energy technologies — unlike several of the country's largest rare earth deposits, which sit in remote northern regions, Wicheeda is road-accessible and near power, rail and gas infrastructure. Discounted at 8%, Wicheeda has an after-tax net present value of C$1 billion and a post-tax internal rate of return of 19%, with initial capital costs of C$1.4 billion, according to a preliminary feasibility study released in February 2025.

Perpetua Resources: Court Clears Path for $1.3B Stibnite Antimony-Gold Mine

Idaho's Stibnite project cleared a critical legal hurdle. On August 18, 2026, the U.S. District Court of Idaho issued a comprehensive ruling affirming the U.S. Forest Service's and other federal agencies' approval of the Stibnite Gold Project, rejecting the plaintiffs' challenges that the agency decisions violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the General Mining Law, and the National Forest Management Act, among other federal laws. The Court further upheld the substance of the federal agencies' decisions under the Endangered Species Act, including that the Project would not jeopardize any endangered species.

National Bank of Canada mining analyst Rabi Nizami called the decision a genuine de-risking event, noting: "We view the merits ruling as a more substantive de-risking event than the May 29 denial of the preliminary injunction and expect the company to continue with early works activities as planned." The ruling wasn't a clean sweep — the court did send one issue back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, directing it to clarify monitoring and reporting requirements in its Incidental Take Statements — and an appeal is pending, but construction can continue. The project carries strategic weight beyond gold: the Trump administration has fast-tracked Stibnite, and in May the U.S. Export-Import Bank approved a $2.9-billion loan for the country's only domestic reserve of antimony, which has also received support from the Department of Defense.

IperionX: Second Army Task Order Deepens Domestic Titanium Push

Rounding out the defense-industrial theme, IperionX secured fresh U.S. government backing for its titanium manufacturing buildout. Task Orders 1 and 2 have an aggregate stated value of approximately US$19.8 million, with US$79.2 million remaining available under the IDIQ contract ceiling. Task Order 2 is firm-fixed-price with a stated base value of US$18.5 million, of which US$11.5 million is currently funded and obligated, with a further US$6.9 million of unexercised options that could push the maximum potential value to US$25.4 million.

CEO Taso Arima tied the award to the company's broader manufacturing ambitions: "This second U.S. Army task order represents an important step in scaling IperionX's titanium powder-to-part manufacturing platform. The SBIR Phase III award aims to advance continuous and industrial-scale HSPT and dehydride capacity and bring titanium fastener finishing fully in-house at our Virginia titanium manufacturing facility." The program targets manufacturing of titanium track pins, bolts and fasteners for defense applications, with inspection and acceptance planned at Detroit Arsenal and Army Research Laboratory's Aberdeen Proving Ground. The latest order also includes options for potential work involving aerospace-grade titanium components, C103 alloy scrap recycling and spherical metal powder development.

What It Means

The through-line across today's wire is capital finally following the price signal. Sibanye-Stillwater's dual project approvals, ACG's first concentrate, and Larvotto's antimony start-up all represent years of construction and permitting work converting into actual tonnes — a sign that the 2024-2026 price cycle in copper, gold and critical minerals has been strong and durable enough to justify greenlighting projects that were shelved or delayed during leaner years. At the same time, Chile's storm-driven output slump is a reminder of how thin the margin for error remains in the world's most important copper-producing jurisdiction, even as COPX and broader mining equities cool off from record highs.

The other clear theme is Washington's growing role as an active participant rather than a passive regulator. Perpetua's court win, IperionX's second Army task order, and the earlier EXIM financing for Stibnite all point to a defense-and-critical-minerals policy apparatus that is now underwriting mine construction directly — a dynamic playing out in parallel with commercial offtake deals like Smackover Lithium's LG Energy Solution contract, where battery makers are locking in decade-long domestic supply chains well ahead of first production.

This roundup covers press releases published on September 1, 2026. Company announcements are sourced from mining industry wire services. For corrections or updates, contact contact@stakeandpaper.com.