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China produces more than 90% of the world’s processed rare earths. Credit: Ascannio/Shutterstock.com

China has broadened its export restrictions on rare earth elements by including five additional elements to its control list.

The announcement follows calls by US lawmakers for wider bans on semiconductor-related exports to China and precedes a scheduled meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of October which may now be cancelled.

The Ministry of Commerce has now restricted exports of a total of 12 rare earths, adding holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium onto the initial list announced in April. The new restrictions will take effect on 8 November.

Foreign companies producing certain rare earths and related magnets will need a Chinese export licence if their final product contains Chinese equipment or material, even if no Chinese companies are involved in the transaction. This rule will take effect on 1 December.

It remains unclear how China, which produces more than 90% of the world’s processed rare earths, will enforce these new regulations, especially as the US, EU and others are seeking alternatives to the Chinese rare earth supply chain.

The Pentagon is aiming to acquire up to $1bn of critical minerals to mitigate China’s dominance over essential metals. The US Defense Logistics Agency is spearheading this initiative, aiming to enhance the national reserve of minerals crucial to defence manufacturers.

Meanwhile, EU representatives expressed their intent to coordinate with the US and other G7 partners in response to China’s rare earths restrictions. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen emphasised the need for a united and “tough” response, stating: “This is an area of common interest with our friends in the US. If we stick together we can much better pressure China to act in a fair way.” European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic added that G7 coordination could involve diversifying supply by advancing joint projects for extracting or processing critical minerals.

China recently expanded its rare earths export restrictions by adding five more elements to its control list.

Blasting operations are due to restart at Barrick Mining’s Loulo underground gold mine in Mali on 15 October, following a four-month period during which a court-appointed provisional administration assumed control.

The provisional administration, appointed by a Bamako court in June, initially limited activities at the mine to transporting existing ore stocks and processing them. Led by former Malian Health Minister Soumana Makadji, the administration has overseen the production of around 1.07 tonnes of gold from pre-suspension ore stocks.

Plans to resume operations in September were delayed due to payment negotiations with subcontractors, some of which have been unpaid since operations halted in January.

The suspension resulted from a dispute between Barrick and Mali’s military-led government over a new mining code which proposed increased taxes and greater state ownership in gold mines.

Speaking at the FT Live Metals and Mining Summit on 9 October, Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad reaffirmed his confidence in the company’s $50bn merger with Teck Resources, following Teck’s recent announcement forecasting slashed copper production.

Wanblad stressed that the Anglo Teck merger was “not impacted at all by the announcement”, adding: “We did an extraordinary amount of diligence, pretty much at the same time that the review was going on. While we clearly didn’t have the details of the forecast, I think the findings of that are very consistent with our diligence.”

The previous day, Teck lowered its 2025 output projection for the trouble-ridden Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Previously projected to produce 210,000–230,000 tonnes (t) of copper, the mine is now expected to produce between 170,000 and 190,000t, a decrease of between 17% and 19%. This downward revision is the second in the last three months.

Merdeka Gold Resources (MGR) has initiated mining operations at the Pani Gold Mine in the Gorontalo Province of Indonesia, beginning with overburden stripping and the extraction of initial ore.

The company will initially employ heap leach processing at the open-pit mine, targeting annual production of around 140,000 ounces (oz) of gold from 7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of ore, with first production expected in the first quarter of 2026. The subsequent phase will see the construction of a carbon-in-leach processing facility with an initial processing capacity of 7.5mtpa of ore to expand to 12mtpa by 2030.

Once both facilities are running at complete capacity, the combined processes will handle 19mtpa of ore, with a maximum annual production potential of up to 500,000oz of gold.

This announcement follows MGR’s recent listing on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.