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• Botswana Diamonds enters H2 with a stronger asset base, roadmap for value creation

  This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Although it had been a difficult year for the diamond industry in the 12 months ended June 30 and beyond, Aim-listed diamonds developer Botswana Diamonds says it made significant progress on its strategic expansion efforts. Reflecting on its performance for the financial year ended June 30 and the first six months of its 2026 financial year, the company says it has strengthened its asset base for both diamond and critical minerals exploration, as well as adopted advanced technologies as it continues exploration and development on the Thorny River and Marsfontein projects, in South Africa, and the the KX36, Sekaka and Maibwe projects, in Botswana. "We enter the next phase of our development with renewed confidence, a broader portfolio and a roadmap for value creation," says chairperson John Teeling. Globally, the diamond industry experienced muted consumer spending and persistent uncertainty in several major markets this year. Teeling explains that demand for diamonds in China remained soft while there were lower jewellery sales in the US - the largest consumer market for diamond jewellery - owing to inflationary pressures and broader economic caution. Indian diamond polishing activity slowed in the year owing to elevated inventories and the softer US demand while several major producers introduced temporary production cuts and sales pauses, which helped to reduce surplus stock and stabilise prices. The situation was exacerbated by growing supplies of lab-grown diamonds, which Teeling says compresses prices in the lower-to-mid-value segments of the natural diamond market. However, the negative effects of lab-grown diamonds were most pronounced in categories where volume outweighs rarity. To this end, Botswana Diamonds' exploration portfolio is aimed at high-value diamonds, where natural diamonds retain strong consumer preference and pricing resilience. Teeling confirms that manufacturing activity of diamonds has since picked up as inventory levels normalised; however, global diamond demand remains uneven. He expresses confidence that the longer-term supply fundamentals for diamonds remain favourable. Additionally, many alluvial and small-scale diamond mining operations globally are uneconomic, which reduces natural supply. Teeling says major producers of diamonds are approaching peak output from existing mines, with few new large-scale kimberlite mines being developed. These dynamics underpin the company's strategy of focusing on value over volume and investing in geologically robust, high-potential assets in stable mining jurisdictions. NEW METHODS Teeling points out that a defining initiative this year year had been Botswana Diamonds' strategic collaboration with Planetary AI, which uses advanced semantic AI to evaluate vast, disparate mining-related data collected over decades. This technology helps to identify previously overlooked mineralisation potential across Botswana. The results of the work done with Planetary AI include the identification of seven entirely new kimberlite targets in areas that had not previously been considered prospective; the identification of 11 high-quality critical metal targets, including copper, nickel, zinc, silver, gold and platinum group metals (PGM); and the integration of more than 375 000 km of airborne geophysics surveys, 228 000 soil samples and 32 000 drill logs. The exercise had been one of the most advanced applications of AI in mineral exploration undertaken in Botswana, and positions Botswana Diamonds among the industry's early adopters of data-driven exploration at scale. "The initiative has opened new frontiers, accelerated our targeting pipeline and derisked the early stages of exploration," Teeling affirms. DIVERSIFYING FROM DIAMONDS Following the AI explora...

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• US has lost three-quarters of its aluminium smelters, Bank of America reports

  This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Bank of America Global Research yesterday reported that the US has lost three-quarters of its aluminium smelters, China has capped its aluminium production, US consumers are now having to pay the full 50% tariff, there's a lot of uncertainty about what is happening with the South32 smelter in Mozambique, and the biggest aluminium production increases are coming through Indonesia. In South Africa, the electricity pricing agreement for South32's Hillside Aluminium in KwaZulu-Natal struck in May reflects the South African government's policy to support strategic industries that create value for the nation. The Hillside smelter's international competitiveness is enabling it to continue to deliver significant benefits to South Africa. Meanwhile, in the US, it has been a one-way road in terms of aluminium smelters and in China, with a 45-million-ton capacity cap, more smelters are unlikely, Bank of America metals research head Michael Widmer reported during a report on the bank's 2026 metals market outlook. While the US administration is trying to build new aluminium smelters, Widmer displayed a chart indicating that there is no silver bullet. Widmer also highlighted the demand from data centres and pointed out that these were reportedly prepared to pay considerably more for the electricity that the aluminium smelters need. 'With all the discussion on tariffs and who is going to invest, it often comes down to just one metric, which is the power cost and the unfortunate reality is that, anecdotally, I think data centres and AI can pay more than three times as much for power than a smelter would want to pay, so there's a lot of competition, and that really puts the aluminium industry in a very difficult position," Widmer noted, while another slide displayed showed that the US was now down to only five aluminium smelters from the more than 20 it had in 1998. Provided by Bank of America Global Research was an outlook for metals, particularly copper and aluminium, in relation to global economic trends and defence spending, and those participating in the webinar heard that the Chinese government has repeatedly been called on by the Chinese aluminium industry in the past decade to effectively bail the smelters out. "What happened is that every time there was a positive margin, the Chinese smelters came in, built a lot of capacity, increased production, competed away those positive margins, and ultimately came under pressure of the government. "But it reached the stage where government said no more of this, we want to have a capacity cap and a 45-million-ton capacity cap was instituted, and that's where we are now. "A little bit of supply growth is now coming through in Indonesia. Again, in many instances, it's the Chinese operators who can no longer invest in China, and now it's spilling over into the international market. "But I think that the aluminium market should be able to absorb those. A lot of it potentially goes to China in the end as well," Widmer reported during the webinar covered by Mining Weekly. "In Europe in July, we saw the first months where every single sector made a positive contribution to aluminium demand in Europe for the first time in almost three years. "There is a risk that premia in Europe go higher, and force US consumers to also pay up, because some of the Canadian units could, for instance, then end up in Europe. "I think this competition is why we are starting to see aluminium prices also pushing higher. An additional issue that you have in Europe at the moment is there's a lot of uncertainty about what is happening with the South32 smelter in Mozambique. That's 500 000 t, about 10% of the European use. It doesn't have a power drive, so there's still a risk of losing that supply. "The othe...

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• Martin Creamer talks about: Hydrogen economy, underground gold mine, platinum metals

  Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks the hydrogen economy insight Valterra Platinum came away with after the Seoul Summit; the opening of South Africa’s first underground gold mine, since 2009; and platinum metals could end up in both battery electric and hydrogen fuel cel

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• South Africa’s low-cost high-value rare earths heading for 2026 global market entry

  This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Mining Weekly has just visited the laboratories that Rainbow Rare Earths has established very innovatively on the northwestern fringe of Greater Johannesburg as part of its journey towards completing a definitive feasibility study that should see a wide range of South African rare earths enter the market next year to help to satisfy soaring global demand. Remarkably, all the rare earths are being sourced from material on a waste dump in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, which is giving South Africa a significantly low-cost high-value lead-in to the commercial production of rare earths needed by the booming permanent magnet market. Rainbow Rare Earths senior metallurgist Roux Wildenboer, who took the Mining Weekly team around the laboratories, ended the tour by displaying a handful of what he described as "good, final, high-quality product. We're almost at the finish line. It's home stretch for us now. So, exciting times ahead." (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) That is the extent of advanced development that the London-listed Rainbow has reached, in an effort that positions South Africa superbly to take full advantage of becoming a highly competitive supplier of one of these green economy commodities. Historically, there was a massive quantity of phosphogypsum generated as waste from phosacid production of the State-owned Foskor in Phalaborwa. Now, 35-million tons of it will enable 17 years of production of separated rare earth oxides for direct sale into end-use manufacture. Meanwhile, Rainbow is leasing laboratory premises from the State-owned Mintek, in Randburg, where Mining Weekly witnessed advanced process development, reagent consumption optimisation, a flow sheet that is close to final form, and most noteworthy of all, a pilot plant. As final design parameters are precisely identified, the pilot plant is opening the way for scale-up and categorical proof that the process of taking the feed material downstream for on-site refinement works well. The idea is to have a steady stream of high-value rare earths being produced at low enough volume for even a DHL overnight express service to deliver it to those in urgent need. Rainbow is working towards publishing a definitive feasibility study (DFS) in 2026 and then going into full-scale construction as fast as it can. It is important to point out that the Phalaborwa rare earths project has none of the traditional costs associated with blasting, crushing, milling, and flotation that production from typical hard rock phosphate rare earth ore requires elsewhere in the world. Rainbow has the major advantage of being able to use already cracked rare earth host feed material on surface that gives it a headstart over everyone else and the large quantity and highly concentrated material is readily leachable. Being above ground, the resource also lends itself to drone over flights, density measurement, and being able to arrive at an accurate calculation have how much rare earth is available. LABORATORY TOUR In one section of the pilot plant, Mining Weekly was shown how gypsum from site was making contact with a sulphuric acid solution, ahead of being leached in one of several heated, agitated tank reactors, all of which are South African manufactured. In that process, the rare earths are extractable and kept in a leach solution in another section of the pilot plant. The locally manufactured continuous ion exchange (CIX) unit shown to us had 30 columns each containing small resin beads that help to extract the rare earths from the leach solution. In passing the leach solution through the CIX, the resin adsorbs the rare earths, but not the other impurities. During the CIX process, the rare earth concentration is increased tenfold, so if two grams a liter in the solution ...

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• Platinum, iridium-based green hydrogen development continuing, Heraeus reports

  This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Many countries are still pursuing the development of platinum and iridium-using green hydrogen infrastructure, including China where green hydrogen features in the latest Five-Year Plan to 2030. The globally active Heraeus adds in its 2026 forecast just out that a return to demand growth in the hydrogen sector is anticipated, though it is not yet clear how much this will impact iridium market, which the Hanau-based company expects to trade at between $3 800/oz and $5 150/oz in 2026. With PGM prices being much higher than at the start of 2025, South African mining companies now have much better margins and some small projects ramping up are adding small amounts of iridium to South African output, Heraeus, which has a long-standing South African presence, points out in a release to Mining Weekly. Being used along with iridium in green hydrogen electrolysers is ruthenium, another PGM, which is also being used in a variety of other hydrogen-related processes. Within the push to further develop green hydrogen, China's Five-Year Plan from 2026 to 2030 seemingly include hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles and the ruthenium price is forecast to trade between $600/oz and $975/oz in 2026. The Heraeus report estimates that platinum is estimated will trade at between $1 300/oz and $1 800/oz in 2026, when platinum's deficit is expected to shrink. South Africa's platinum output is predicted by Heraeus to be somewhat higher in 2026, partly owing to the processing of work-in-progress stock that was built up during processing plant maintenance, and partly owing to the ramp-up of some new operations. The recovery in PGM prices during 2025 improved the mining companies' margins which makes further cuts to production unlikely. Secondary recycled platinum supply is anticipated by Heraeus to rise modestly next year. In Europe, scrap autocatalyst volumes are predicted to rise with heavy-duty vehicle sales forecast to see robust growth globally, leading to greater numbers of scrapped commercial vehicles. Primary palladium production is forecast to increase by 1% to 6.2-milion ounces next year and the rally in the PGM prices has helped to uplift secondary palladium supply. Industrial use of rhodium is projected by Heraeus to rise modestly next year amid moderate growth in the chemical sector and marginally higher primary supply. Secondary rhodium supply is predicted by Heraeus to rise in 2026 when rhodium prices expected to be between $6 000/oz and $9 000/oz. Heraeus, which covers the value chain from trading to refining and recycling, has extensive PGM insight. Key hydrogen systems Heraeus group laboratories went live in China in October where rapid growth is reported in the platinum-catalysed proton exchange membrane (PEM) green hydrogen technology that is poised to play a central decarbonisation role. The laboratories were described as reflecting China's rapid pace of hydrogen innovation. The cost-efficient production of green hydrogen - on the industrial scale that China can provide - will be an important contributor towards a zero-emission society, on a planet increasingly threatened by climate disruption. A return to demand growth in the hydrogen sector is anticipated by Heraeus in its 2026 forecast report, which points to some Chinese companies having developed PEM electrolysers.

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