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Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development gazetted a formal Mineral Classification and Declaration on 22 May 2026, signed by Minister Dr Polite Kambamura, classifying 14 minerals as "critical" (nickel, cobalt, graphite, copper, REE, chrome, PGMs, manganese, antimony, uranium, ruthenium, tungsten, niobium — plus metallurgical coal as "special critical") and 10 as "strategic" (limestone, potash, phosphorus, iron ore, pyrites, oil, gas, coal, gold, diamonds). The declaration mandates minimum state shareholding through designated Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in all critical-mineral exploitation operations and prohibits export of listed minerals in raw or unbeneficiated form without a ministerially-approved conditional transitional plan specifying a local beneficiation timeline.

The Kyrgyz Republic's National Investment Agency (NIA) under the President formally issued a new mining license and license agreement to ZAAV CJSC — a joint venture between Silvercorp Metals (70%, operator) and state SOE Kyrgyzaltyn (30% free-carried interest) — extending the valid period of the Tulkubash/Kyzyltash gold project mining licence from June 25, 2032 to June 25, 2062, a 30-year extension. Under the Cooperation Agreement, Silvercorp paid $60M to the NIA (with a further $10M due upon specified milestones), and Phase 1 Development of Tulkubash (4 Mt/yr open-pit heap-leach, ~110,000 oz Au/yr) was approved for 2026–2027. The deal marks the first major Western mining capital re-entry into Kyrgyzstan since the 2022 Kumtor nationalisation from Centerra Gold, with Kyrgyzaltyn's 30% free-carry as the operative equity structure conditioning Western FDI access.

President Ilham Aliyev signed Decree No. 649 on 20 April 2026, transferring eight named limestone and sand-gravel deposits across six Azerbaijani districts (Garadagh/Baku, Absheron, Zagatala, Balakan, Oghuz, Imishli) to state-owned AzerGold CJSC, extending the state mining champion's mandate beyond precious metals into non-metal construction aggregates previously licensed to private operators. The decree also establishes a "Digital Ecology" single-window e-licensing system — effective 1 August 2027 — for all non-oil-gas subsoil-use activities including rights-granting, state expertise, operator reporting, and auction/tender organisation, replacing Azerbaijan's fragmented licensing regime. Cabinet of Ministers is directed to develop proposals on strengthened operator liability and monitoring systems within three and six months respectively, creating an implementing-regulations pipeline through end-2026.

The Bank of Uganda launched a three-year pilot Domestic Gold Purchase Programme on April 20, 2026, with initial test purchases executed on April 17, 2026. Under the programme, BoU purchases domestically mined gold exclusively from prequalified licensed miners, paying in Uganda shillings at prevailing international gold prices; the gold is processed through designated domestic refineries to international monetary gold standards before incorporation into Uganda's official foreign exchange reserves. The programme targets approximately 1,000 kg (~USD 160 million) in its March–June 2026 inaugural tranche, with contracts signed with EuroGold Refinery Limited and Feldstein Trading Limited, and is anchored on the ICGLR Regional Certification Mechanism for conflict-mineral traceability.

On 8–9 April 2026 the Argentine Cámara de Diputados gave final passage (137–111 with 3 abstentions) to a bill amending Ley 26.639 (the 2010 Régimen de Presupuestos Mínimos para la Preservación de los Glaciares y del Ambiente Periglacial), after the Senate had already approved the reform in February 2026 (40–31 with 1 abstention). The Executive promulgated the law as Ley 27.804 via Decreto 271/2026, published in the Boletín Oficial on 24 April 2026. The reform narrows the federal protection floor by limiting strict protection to glaciers and periglacial geoforms with proven hydrological function, and transfers to provincial governments the authority to define the technical and scientific criteria delimiting protected areas — directly unblocking the "ABCD" copper pipeline (Agua Rica/MARA, Filo del Sol, Josemaría, Los Azules, El Pachón) and adjacent lithium and gold projects whose prior periglacial-buffer encumbrance had stalled an estimated USD 30bn of investment, ~70% in copper / gold / silver.

On 7 April 2026 Ghana's Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources announced that the Damang Mining Lease — previously held by Gold Fields Limited (South Africa) under a 30-year lease that expired in 2025 — had been awarded to Engineers and Planners Co. Ltd (E&P) following a competitive tender. Gold Fields formally handed over the mine to the Government of Ghana on 18 April 2026 after a 12-month government-granted transition extension was not converted into a renewal. This is the first senior gold-mine lease reassignment to an indigenous Ghanaian operator under the Mahama administration's resource-nationalism architecture, establishing a competitive-tender plus indigenous-operator-prioritisation template distinct from outright state nationalisation.

The Ecuadorian National Assembly approved on 26 February 2026 (vote 77-70, urgent-economic-matter procedure) the Ley Orgánica para el Fortalecimiento de los Sectores Estratégicos de Minería y Energía, the statutory complement to President Daniel Noboa's Decreto Ejecutivo 273 of 31 December 2025. The law was published in the Quinto Suplemento of Registro Oficial on 2 March 2026 with no presidential objection and entered into force the same day. It comprises 28 articles, two general provisions and one transitory provision. The mining title codifies the 3–8% sliding royalty scale and channels 60% of royalty receipts to social investment via decentralised governments (45% provincial / 35% municipal / 20% parochial) — the legislative anchor for the regime introduced by Decree 273. The energy title amends the Ley Orgánica del Servicio Público de Energía Eléctrica to recognise distributed generation, self-supply and autonomous energy districts, and establishes exception-route participation for foreign state-owned enterprises and popular/solidarity-economy organisations alongside private capital. A controversial Galápagos-adjacent provision permitting expedited mining/energy procedures has triggered domestic constitutional challenge.

On 22-23 February 2026, President Félix Tshisekedi signed and publicly read on RTNC (state television) a series of presidential ordinances replacing the entire leadership of three strategic state-owned mining companies: Gécamines (copper/cobalt), SAKIMA (Société Aurifère du Kivu et du Maniema — eastern DRC 3T minerals and gold), and SOKIMO (Société Minière de Kilomoto — Kilo-Moto gold sites). New appointees include Baraka Kabemba as DG of Gécamines, Guy Robert Lukama as DG of SAKIMA, and Yannick Nzonde Mulundu as DG of SOKIMO. The sweeping governance reshuffle came approximately two months after the December 4, 2025 DRC-US Strategic Partnership Agreement on Trade and Investment, signalling a strategic repositioning of DRC state mining apparatus toward a US-aligned critical-minerals framework.

On 17 February 2026 Morocco's Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development (MTEDD), via its Direction Générale des Mines, published Notice n°1/DGMH/2026, an "appel public à la concurrence" opening 361 mining exploration/exploitation zones (~13,000 km², roughly 22% of the designated Tafilalet-Figuig mining region) spanning the Drâa-Tafilalet and Oriental regions for gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and barite. Award is multi-criteria (technical, financial, and local socio-economic factors plus health/safety compliance) rather than price-only, reflecting the ESG principles adopted at Morocco's November 2025 International Mining Conference (Marrakech Declaration). Candidacy files are due 15 May 2026, filed with the regional MTEDD directorate in Errachidia (Drâa-Tafilalet blocks) or Oujda (Oriental blocks).

The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Mali, presided over by General Assimi Goïta at Koulouba Palace, adopted on 6 February 2026 texts creating Société de Patrimoine Minier du Mali (SOPAMIM S.A.) — a wholly state-owned société anonyme charged with holding and managing all state participations in mining companies, implementing the 10% free-carry + optional 20% paid + 5% national-private participation architecture introduced by the 2023 Mining Code. SOPAMIM provides the single corporate vehicle through which renegotiated or newly-awarded state stakes in foreign-operated mines (including Barrick Gold Loulo-Gounkoto, B2Gold Fekola, Allied Gold Sadiola, Resolute Mining Syama, and Endeavour Mining Hounde-Mali) will be consolidated, operationalising the Code Minier's mandate for a *société de patrimoine* and closing the corporate-vehicle gap in Mali's AES/Sahel resource-nationalism architecture.

The Council of Ministers of Côte d'Ivoire, chaired by President Alassane Ouattara, adopted two presidential decrees on 4 February 2026 granting industrial gold exploitation permits to AMPELLA MINING CÔTE D'IVOIRE SARL. The first is a 19-year permit for the Assafou-Didibango project (Endeavour Mining) covering an investment of CFA 451.31 billion (~USD 750M), with average annual production of 7.99 tonnes and total production of 120 tonnes; the second is a 14-year permit for the Doropo project (Resolute Mining, ASX: RSG) in north-eastern Côte d'Ivoire, producing 6.43 tonnes per year and 59 tonnes in total. Combined investment across both projects exceeds CFA 730 billion (~USD 1.25 billion), and both permits clear the final regulatory hurdle for construction to proceed.

On 4 February 2026, Ecuador and the United States signed a bilateral critical minerals cooperation framework at the inaugural FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington DC, committing both parties to cooperation across exploration, mining, processing, refining, and value-added manufacturing of critical minerals. The instrument is the eleventh and final founding bilateral signed under the FORGE architecture, completing the cohort of 11 bilateral frameworks established at the Ministerial. Ecuador's strategic profile centres on Tier-1 porphyry copper-gold deposits (Mirador, San Carlos-Panantza, Cascabel) and emerging rare-earth-bearing carbonatites, with the framework opening access to approximately USD 10 billion in EXIM Bank and DFC financing for Ecuadorean critical-minerals projects.

On 4 February 2026, in Washington, DC, Peru and the United States signed an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on critical-mineral supply chains, covering exploration, extraction, processing, and downstream investment. The MoU was one of eleven founding-member bilateral instruments signed simultaneously at the inaugural FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) Critical Minerals Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and USTR Jamieson Greer. Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer (~12% of mined supply), a top-two silver and zinc producer, the leading Latin American gold producer, and a globally significant source of tin, molybdenum, and lead — making it the most strategically important Latin American signatory of the FORGE founding cohort alongside Argentina.

On 27 January 2026 President Gabriel Boric presented Chile's National Critical Minerals Strategy (Estrategia Nacional de Minerales Críticos, NCMS) — the country's first horizontal critical-minerals governance framework, identifying 14 minerals as priorities for development and establishing five strategic pillars: production and diversification of critical minerals; responsible mining; development opportunities based on critical minerals; enabling capacities; and strategic international positioning. The strategy was developed through a multi-year participatory process coordinated through Cochilco and Sernageomin, involving a 16-member high-level advisory committee, 120 specialists from 56 institutions, regional workshops and a public consultation. It materially broadens Chile's mineral policy beyond the 2023 lithium-specific National Lithium Strategy to a cross-cutting framework that underpins future bilateral critical-minerals MOUs and positions Chile as a strategic raw-materials partner for the US, EU and Japan under their respective IRA/CRMA/GX supply-chain frameworks.

The Council of Ministers, chaired by President Andry Rajoelina at its 27–29 January 2026 session, approved the lifting of Madagascar's 16-year moratorium on the issuance of new mining permits. The suspension — originally imposed by Decree No. 2011-074 of 8 February 2011 following the 2009 constitutional crisis — had effectively frozen upstream mine development despite the 2023 Mining Code overhaul (Loi n° 2023-007). Gold permits remain explicitly excluded pending resolution of substantial discrepancies between officially declared production (~13 kg) and artisanal-mining scale. The decision unlocks approximately 1,650 pending permit applications held by the Bureau Central des Mines de Madagascar (BCMM) cadastre, with at least ten large-scale projects in graphite, nickel, cobalt, rare-earths, and iron-ore sectors expected to advance within three months.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolución 6/2026 (Boletín Oficial, 15 January 2026) approving Minas Argentinas SA Sucursal Dedicada RIGI I – Nuevo Gualcamayo ("MASA-SD," CUIT 30-71915462-6) as a Único Proyecto beneficiary of the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) under Law 27.742. The project covers exploration of the Gualcamayo 1 and 2 mining concessions in San Juan province and feasibility/construction of a processing plant for the "Carbonatos Profundos (DCP)" gold-silver deposit, with a declared total investment of USD 519,647,635 in computable assets. MASA-SD's RIGI accession dates to 27 November 2025; it must complete 40% of the minimum qualifying investment within two years and reach the full minimum by 31 December 2028. This is a follow-on RIGI approval at the existing Gualcamayo mine site (operated by Minas Argentinas SA, owned by Eris LLC since a September 2023 acquisition from Colombia's Mineros S.A.), extending the mine's life via a new deep-carbonate ore body rather than a greenfield project.

The Government of Kazakhstan, under Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, launched a second-generation geological exploration programme allocating 240 billion tenge (~USD 500 million) over 2026–2028 across 20 projects covering approximately 100,000 km² at 1:50,000 scale in 11 regions (Akmola, Aktobe, Almaty, East Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kostanay, North Kazakhstan, Mangystau, Turkistan, Abai, Ulytau). The programme targets copper, gold, lead, zinc, rare earth elements, barite, and bauxite deposits using aerogeophysical, geochemical, and seismic-exploration methods together with Earth remote-sensing data analysis. It represents a ~50% uplift over the USD 469 million invested cumulatively in geological exploration over the prior 15 years, and modernises Soviet-era 1:200,000-scale mapping to 1:50,000-scale resolution across priority areas of 30,000 km² annually. The programme directly peers Western critical- minerals supply-diversification efforts anchored by the November 2025 US–Kazakhstan Critical Minerals MOU and the EU–Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Roadmap 2025–2026.

On 2 January 2026 the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources concluded the 9th Exploration Licensing Round — the largest mining-licensing round in the Kingdom's history — by awarding 172 mining sites (including 76 sites cleared via multi-round public auction) to 24 companies and consortia drawn from 26 qualified bidders. The round covered over 24,000 km² spanning the Ad-Duwaihi/Nabitah gold belt (Riyadh region) and the Nuqrah and Sukhaybirah/As-Safra gold belts (Madinah and Qassim regions). Successful bidders committed over SAR 671 million of exploration spend in the first two years of their work programmes; total project investment across the round's awarded licences exceeds SAR 44 billion (~USD 11.7 bn) and represents a 220% YoY surge in licensing-round commitments versus the 2024 round. The round operationalises auction provisions of the 2020 Mining Investment Law (Royal Decree M/47) and is the first Saudi licensing round to formally include the Aramco-Ma'aden lithium JV (Manara Minerals) on the bidder side.

On 27 December 2025, Codelco and SQM formally closed NovaAndino Litio SpA, the 50:50 joint venture (with a golden share for state-owned Codelco) mandated by the 2023 National Lithium Strategy to bring the Salar de Atacama under state operational control. The vehicle is formed by merging Codelco's subsidiary Minera Tarar SpA with SQM's SQM Salar SpA, governed by a six-director board (three Codelco, three SQM), and runs until 2060 under a CORFO contract amendment that extends operations beyond SQM's previous 2030 lease expiry. SQM manages operations 2025-2030, Codelco from 2031 onward; the Chilean state captures up to ~70% of operating margins through 2030 and ~85% from 2031. As part of the closing, SQM transferred all of its mining concessions in the Salar de Maricunga to Codelco. President Boric and the Cabinet Económico formally endorsed the venture on 29 December 2025, when the first board meeting was held in Santiago.

The Minerals and Mining (Royalty) Regulations, 2025, a Legislative Instrument (MMRR 2025) laid before the Parliament of Ghana on 19 December 2025 by Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, replaces the flat statutory royalty structure under L.I. 2173 with a sliding-scale band framework indexed to international commodity reference prices across all mineral classes. Ghana's #1 gold-producing status (≈4 million oz/year in 2024) means that even marginal rate increases above the prior 5% flat baseline translate to hundreds of millions of USD in additional annual state revenue at current gold prices. The L.I. matured automatically into law on 9 March 2026 under Article 11(7) of the 1992 Constitution (21 sitting days without parliamentary annulment), over objections from the Minority and the Chamber of Mines, who warned of stability-clause breach and ~1 million job losses.

The Agencia Nacional de Minería (ANM) of Colombia formally launched the Ronda Minera Cobre on 15 December 2025, opening a competitive selection process for 14 Áreas Estratégicas Mineras (AEM) across Antioquia, Cesar, La Guajira, and Tolima targeting copper, gold, and polymetallic minerals. The round operates under Contratos Especiales de Exploración y Explotación (CEEE) and operationalises the strategic-minerals designation framework established by ANM Resolución 1006 and Decreto 0977/2024, converting those prior designations into an active tender vehicle for the first time under the Petro government. Each of the 14 AEM blocks was front-loaded with geological certification, environmental viability sign-off, and community-consultation status verification, substantially reducing the regulatory risk that historically has slowed Colombian mining project timelines; evaluation horizon is up to 10 months.

On 12 December 2025 the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) approved Act 1361/2025, amending the Mining Minerals Tax Act (kaivosmineraalivero- laki, Act 314/2023) on the basis of government bill HE 127/2025. The amendment raises the value-based royalty on taxable metals contained in mined metallic ores from 0.6% to 2.5% (a 4.2× increase) and lifts the tonnage royalty on industrial minerals and other useful rock from €0.20 to €0.60 per tonne (3× increase). Iron is newly added to the list of taxable metals (alongside silver, gold, cobalt, chromium, copper, lithium, nickel, lead, palladium, platinum, uranium and zinc). Tax revenue is split 80% to the state and 20% to mining municipalities. The amendment enters into force on 1 January 2026.

On 4 December 2025, the United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement on Trade and Investment, executed at a White House trilateral ceremony alongside the parallel U.S.-Rwanda framework and witnessed by President Trump, President Tshisekedi (DRC), and President Kagame (Rwanda). The Agreement creates a Strategic Minerals Reserve (SMR) and a Strategic Asset Reserve (SAR) under DRC sovereignty, gives U.S. persons preferential access to SAR assets, and commits DRC and its state-owned enterprises to route at least 30% of their commercialised cobalt volumes through the Sakania-Lobito Corridor within five years. A Joint Steering Committee (JSC) co-chaired by State and DRC's Ministry of Economy holds its inaugural meeting on 4-5 February 2026, designating the initial SAR asset list and launching implementation. The DFC announced a proposed equity investment in a Gécamines-Mercuria copper/cobalt joint venture as the first commercial vehicle under the framework.

The Ivorian Council of Ministers adopted on 3 December 2025 the Politique Intégrée des Ressources Minérales et de l'Énergie (PIRME), a 15-year cross-sector extractive and energy industrial-policy strategy requiring CFA 38,000 billion (~USD 68bn) across three five-year phases to 2040. The policy targets doubling the mining-energy sector's GDP contribution from 7% (2022) to 14% by 2040, positioning it as the economy's second pillar after agriculture. Core mandates include a 50% local transformation target for gold, a 10 million-tonne iron-ore production target, a 500,000 bbl/day oil production target, 45% renewable energy integration, and a 38% reduction in energy-sector emissions — backed by national-content and value-addition requirements across mining, hydrocarbons, and electricity sub-sectors.

On 18 November 2025, during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's White House visit (17-19 November 2025), the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Framework for Cooperation on Securing Uranium, Metals, Permanent Magnets, and Critical Minerals Supply Chains. The framework was signed by US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Saudi Minister of Energy H.R.H. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, and positions Saudi Arabia (via Ma'aden + Public Investment Fund vehicles) as a regional hub for processing rare earths and producing permanent magnets, supports a US-backed rare-earths refinery in the Kingdom, and channels Saudi capital — alongside the broader USD ~1 trillion Saudi investment commitment in the US announced the same week — into US and allied critical-mineral projects. It is paired with a separate joint declaration on civil nuclear cooperation (Section 123 Agreement contemplated) and was operationalised one day later by the 19 November 2025 binding term sheet between MP Materials, the US Department of War, and Ma'aden to develop a rare-earth refinery in Saudi Arabia (Department of War financing the US side's 49% stake; Ma'aden retaining ≥51%).

Colombia's Ministerio de Minas y Energía filed Proyecto de Ley 282 de 2025 in Congress on 1 October 2025 — the first comprehensive reform of the national Mining Code since Ley 685/2001. The bill replaces the existing extractivist concession model with a state-directed planning framework that designates Strategic Mineral Areas (AME) for copper, lithium, and nickel under direct state control aligned with energy-transition goals. It establishes excluded zones (ZEM) and permitted zones (ZAM), restructures the concession and royalty regime to expand community and ethnic-peoples' participation rights, and redefines minerals as national public-interest assets rather than private-sector concession targets. As of May 2026 the bill was advancing through Senate committee deliberation.

Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Serviço Geológico do Brasil (SGB) released the final report of the Plano Decenal de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (PlanGEO 2026-2035) on 24 September 2025. The plan defines 145 priority research areas selected through public consultation for ten years of focused geological mapping and mineral-resources research, prioritising ten commodities — rare earths, lithium, copper, nickel, manganese, graphite, tin, gold, phosphate, and potassium — covering the battery / magnets demand spectrum plus food-security inputs. The plan is enabled by Portaria Normativa nº 72/GM/MME of 13 March 2024 and operates on a 2026-2035 horizon, with a SGB/MME budget-and-staffing scenario proposing up to a 50% increase in execution team and a 100% expansion in annual financial investment.

On 19 September 2025 (Communiqué CM N°2025-39/SGG), Mali's Council of Ministers, chaired by General Assimi Goïta, adopted four exploitation-phase "conventions d'établissement" operationalising the 2023 Code Minier (Loi n°2023-040) against named foreign-operated mines: Lithium du Mali S.A. (Goulamina, Ganfeng Lithium), Les Mines de Lithium de Bougouni-S.A. (Foulaboula, Kodal Minerals), SEMOS-S.A. (Sadiola gold, Allied Gold) and SOMISY-S.A. (Syama gold, Resolute Mining). Each convention raises the State's shareholding to 35% (a free non-contributory 10% carry plus up to 25% acquired, of which 5% is reserved for Malian private investors) and converts the stakes into non-contributory, non-dilutable participations carrying priority-dividend rights.

Tanzania's Minister for Minerals issued the Mining (Local Content) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025 via Government Notice No. 563 of 2025, published on 12 September 2025 and in force on the same day with no grace period. The amendment overhauls the Mining (Local Content) Regulations, 2018 (GN No. 3 of 2018) and introduces a new Regulation 13A empowering the Tanzania Mining Commission to publish — in the Gazette, on its website, and in nationwide media — a list of "reserved" goods and services that may be supplied only by an Indigenous Tanzanian Company (ITC) that is 100% Tanzanian-owned (no joint venture permitted in those reserved categories). For non-reserved categories, non- indigenous suppliers must form a JV with an ITC operating in the same line of business in which the ITC holds at least 20% equity, with the JV agreement subject to prior Mining Commission approval. Sole-sourced contracts above ~USD 10,000 must be notified to the Commission, and Local Content Plans must now include Banking Services and Procurement sub-plans, channelling mining-related financial transactions through Tanzanian-registered banks.

On 8 September 2025 at Prime Minister House in Islamabad, U.S. Strategic Metals (USSM, Missouri) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan's Frontier Works Organization (FWO, Pakistan Army-affiliated and the country's largest miner of critical minerals) committing to an initial USD 500 million investment programme covering antimony, copper, gold, tungsten, and rare-earth elements, with an envisaged poly-metallic refinery inside Pakistan. Embassy Islamabad Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Zach Harkenrider attended the signing. The first shipment of rare earths and other critical minerals from Pakistan to the United States was dispatched on 2 October 2025, marking the operational start of the partnership. The instrument forms the strategic- minerals limb of a broader Pakistan–U.S. realignment paired with U.S. EXIM Bank's USD 1.25 billion financing commitment for the Reko Diq copper-gold project (announced 10 December 2025) — a single coherent bilateral package positioning Pakistan as a non- PRC source of refined critical minerals to the United States.

Parliament of India passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2025 (Act No. 28 of 2025) — Lok Sabha on 12 August 2025, Rajya Sabha on 19 August 2025, Presidential assent on 21 August 2025, in force 1 September 2025 — amending the parent MMDR Act, 1957. The Act removes the prior 50% cap on captive-mine production eligible for open sale (allowing captive-block holders unrestricted third-party sale after meeting end-use requirements), widens the National Mineral Exploration Trust into the National Mineral Exploration and Development Trust (NMEDT) with mandate extended to mine development, offshore areas, and overseas acquisition operations, raises the NMEDT royalty contribution from 2% to 3%, waives the auction premium for the 24 critical and strategic minerals listed in Part D of the First Schedule (including lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, REE, PGM, beryllium, and antimony), and establishes a statutory authority to register and regulate Mineral Exchanges as electronic commodity-trading platforms for minerals and metals.

Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) issued Ministerial Decree Kepmen ESDM No. 268.K/MB.01/MEM.B/2025 on 8 August 2025, establishing Guidelines for Determining Benchmark Prices (Harga Patokan Mineral/HPM and Harga Patokan Batubara/HPB) for the sale of metal minerals and coal. It revokes the predecessor Kepmen 72/2025 and relaxes the absolute HPM/HPB price-floor mandate—exempting pre-existing contracts at below-benchmark prices—while preserving HPM/HPB as the obligatory basis for royalty and tax calculation, closing transfer-pricing avoidance. Pricing formulas cover nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, bauxite, tin, and coal grades, directly determining royalty revenues collected under the already-filed PP 19/2025 progressive royalty framework from the world's largest nickel producer (~62% of global supply).

Loi n° 25-12 du 3 août 2025 governing mining activities, promulgated by President Tebboune and published in the Algerian Journal Officiel n° 52 on 7 August 2025, replaces Loi 14-05 of 2014 and is Algeria's first comprehensive mining-code overhaul in eleven years. The reform raises the foreign-ownership ceiling in mining-exploitation companies to 80% of share capital (with a non-dilutable 20% reserved for an Algerian State-owned enterprise), abolishes the prior "strategic substances" category and the statutory monopoly that accompanied it, and allows foreign companies to apply directly for prospection authorisations and exploration permits without first incorporating a local entity. The 51/49 majority-Algerian rule remains in place for quarries and for the hydrocarbons regime — the reform is mining-specific.

The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Armenia, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, approved the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan for Promoting Exports of the Republic of Armenia and its accompanying Action Plan on 31 July 2025. The Strategy targets a 1.7-fold increase in total Armenian exports to USD 16.9 billion by 2030 (USD 10.3 billion services + USD 6.6 billion goods), with an implementation envelope of approximately AMD 98 billion (~USD 250 million). It designates critical minerals (copper-molybdenum concentrates, gold, antimony, emerging rare-earth-element zones), IT and tech services, agri-processing, and green-transition equipment as priority export categories, and operationalises Armenia's ongoing reorientation of export geography away from Russia/EAEU toward EU, US, Gulf, and Asian markets.

Kazakhstan's Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 214-VIII ZRK ("On Taxes and Other Mandatory Payments to the Budget"), signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on 18 July 2025 and effective 1 January 2026, replaces the 2017 Tax Code (Code No. 120-VI ZRK) with a wholesale recodification of the Kazakh tax regime. The most consequential IPTM-relevant provision restructures the uranium mineral extraction tax (MET) from a flat 6% rate to a differentiated schedule of 4–18% tiered by annual production volume per subsoil use agreement, supplemented by uranium-price-band surcharges of 0.5–2.5% above $70–$110/lb thresholds. The code also introduces a tenfold MET reduction for processing man-made mineral formations (mining waste / tailings reclamation) to incentivise circular-economy mineral recovery, and for exploration or production licenses issued after 31 December 2026, replaces MET with a tiered royalty regime — ore 13%, concentrate 10%, refined metals 7% — grandfathering existing operating projects under MET. The processing-grade discount (ore → concentrate → metal) is an explicit incentive to push value-added steps onshore within Kazakhstan. Directly material to Kazatomprom (NAC Kazatomprom JSC), the world's largest uranium producer supplying approximately 43% of global output, and to all solid-mineral operators (chromium, copper, zinc, gold) commencing new subsoil use agreements after January 2027.

Decreto 449/2025, signed by President Javier Milei on 4 July 2025 and published in the Boletín Oficial on 7 July 2025, modifies Argentina's Mining Investment Law (Ley 24.196, in force since 1993) and the National Geological Information Bank Law (Ley 24.466), invoking the deregulation authority granted by the Ley de Bases (Ley 27.742). The decree (i) restructures the Article 10 fiscal-stability certificate, replacing the multi-jurisdiction tax-consolidation requirement with a single-date statement anchored to the feasibility-study presentation date; (ii) replaces the previous 1,000+-data-field investment-validation form with an annual sworn declaration accompanied by an independent third-party technical-attestation report (modified Article 18); and (iii) reassigns administration of the National Geological Information Bank from the Mining Secretariat to SEGEMAR (Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino), while requiring all Mining Investment Regime beneficiaries to submit surface geological data to the national database. Decreto 449/2025 is procedural rather than market-moving: it does not alter tax rates, royalties, or export duties, but it accelerates certificate issuance and reduces administrative friction for mining investors operating below the USD 200M RIGI threshold (Decreto 749/2024 / Ley 27.742). It complements the parallel Milei mining deregulation pipeline — RIGI for large investments, Decreto 563/2025 zeroing mining export duties, and the April 2026 glacier-law reform — and applies retroactively to pending proceedings.

Tanzania's Parliament enacted the Finance Act, No. 11 of 2025 on 30 June 2025 (presidential assent same day), in force 1 July 2025, introducing three structurally distinct amendments to the Mining Act, Cap. 123 that sit on top of the 2024-11-05 Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Act and the 2025-09-12 Mining (Local Content) (Amendment) Regulations GN 563/2025. (i) New Section 113A creates an "HIV Response Levy" at 0.1% of gross mineral value, payable concurrently with mineral royalty by all mineral-right holders and licensees, allocated 70% to the AIDS Trust Fund (under the Tanzania Commission for AIDS Act, Cap. 379) and 30% to the Universal Health Insurance Fund (under the Universal Health Insurance Act, No. 12 of 2023). (ii) Section 59 of the Mining Act is amended to extend the 20% local-value-addition gold-allocation requirement (mandatory supply of refined gold to domestic smelting, refining, and trading operators) from holders of mineral-development agreements to **all** gold-licence holders with no carve-out. (iii) The withholding-tax rate on non-resident service providers under Section 60 is raised to 10% to incentivise use of local service providers. The amendments combine a new social-fund mineral levy, a horizontal expansion of the domestic-beneficiation mandate, and a tax-side push for service localisation — adding a fiscal-instrument layer on top of the 2024-25 critical-minerals classification and 2025 local-content reservation framework.

On 11 June 2025 the Burkinabè Conseil des Ministres adopted Décret N°2025-0598/PRES/PM/MEMC, formally completing the transfer of five gold-mining assets to the state-owned Société de Participation Minière du Burkina (SOPAMIB): two operating gold mines (Wahgnion Gold SA and SEMAFO Boungou SA, formerly held by Endeavour Mining subsidiaries) and three exploration-stage companies (Ressources Ferké SARL, Gryphon Minerals Burkina Faso SARL, and Lilium Mining Services Burkina Faso SARL). The underlying share-and-social-interest transfer agreement was concluded on 24 August 2024 between the Burkinabè state and Endeavour Mining / Lilium Mining; the June 2025 decree formalises SOPAMIB's full legal ownership. Executed under President Capt. Ibrahim Traoré's "sovereign ownership of mining resources" doctrine and the authority granted by the 2024 Code Minier (Loi N°016-2024/ALT), the decree marks the first comprehensive operating-mine nationalisation in the AES bloc (Alliance des États du Sahel) and signals that Sahel resource nationalism has moved from legislative code-amendment into direct operating-asset seizure.

South Africa's Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) released the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy on 20 May 2025 following Cabinet approval, alongside the gazetting of the Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDB) 2025. The strategy classifies platinum group metals, manganese, iron ore, chrome ore and coal as "high criticality" and identifies seven intervention areas — exploration, beneficiation at source, R&D coordination by Mintek, regional integration (SADC), financial instruments, energy security, and international partnerships positioning South Africa for CRMA-equivalent partnerships with the US and EU. It is the first formal South African industrial-policy framework for critical-mineral beneficiation and the first ZA action in the IPTM register.

On 14 May 2025, President Emomali Rahmon signed Law No. 2173 "On Capital and Promotion of Investment Activity," replacing Tajikistan's 2016 Law "On Investments." The law introduces a 15-year stability and grandfathering guarantee shielding investors against adverse changes in tax, customs, and foreign-exchange legislation after capital commitment, codifies fair-and-equitable-treatment and the minimum international standard of treatment for foreign capital, establishes a state Investment Committee under the Government as the authorised inter-ministerial coordination body, creates a government-level Investment Council chaired by the Prime Minister for high-strategic-priority projects, and clarifies that unpublished legal acts (gazette-unpublished government orders, ministerial instructions, regional regulations) are not binding on investors. The law directly strengthens the regulatory foundation for Chinese and other foreign mining-investment vehicles operating in Tajikistan's antimony, silver, gold, and uranium sectors.

On 23 April 2025 CMOC Group (HKG:3993) announced the acquisition of TSXV-listed Lumina Gold Corp — 100% owner of the Cangrejos (Los Cangrejos) gold-copper project in El Oro Province, southwestern Ecuador — via a court-sanctioned plan of arrangement at C$1.27/share (C$581M / ~USD 420M); the transaction closed on 24 June 2025 through a Singapore subsidiary, making Cangrejos Ecuador's largest primary gold deposit under full Chinese operational control. On 27 April 2026 CMOC's Ecuadorian subsidiary ODIN Mining del Ecuador signed a 26-year exploitation contract with Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines committing >$1.7B in total investment (~$54M advance royalties, $34M paid on signing); commercial production is targeted for 2028 at ~11.5 t/yr gold (~370,000 oz/yr), making the state-projected total revenues $4.39B over the mine life. The acquisition extends CMOC's critical-mineral portfolio — anchored in DRC cobalt/copper — into Ecuadorian gold and copper, concentrating a globally significant undeveloped gold-copper deposit under Chinese operational control ahead of the competing 2026 Ecuador–US Critical Minerals Bilateral Framework.

On 21 April 2025, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed Presidential Resolution No. PP-145 "On the Privatization of Large Enterprises with State Participation on International Markets," establishing the 2025–2028 roadmap for selling minority equity stakes (10–25%) in 12 major state-owned enterprises via IPO/SPO on international and domestic exchanges, and full/near-full stakes in 29 further enterprises through competitive public tenders. The resolution introduced a three-tier asset-segmentation framework — large SOEs (IPO/SPO with international advisor mandates), medium SOEs (domestic stock-exchange sale), and small assets/real estate (e-platform sale) — and mandated engagement of international investment banks and a State Privatization Commission to oversee implementation. It was issued the same day as the sister Presidential Decree UP-70 "On the Privatization Program for 2025," which approved a 2025 annual program targeting 30 trillion UZS (~USD 2.4 bn) in state-asset disposals across 115 companies, 659 real-estate properties, and 6,100 hectares of land.

Government Regulation No. 19 of 2025 on Types and Rates of Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) applicable to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, signed by President Prabowo Subianto on 11 Apr 2025 and effective 26 Apr 2025 (15 working days after promulgation), revokes PP 26/2022 and replaces fixed mining royalty rates with a progressive tiered system anchored to international benchmark prices (HMA for nickel, HBA for coal). Headline shifts: nickel ore from fixed 10% to 14–19% by HMA tier; ferronickel 2% → 4–6%; nickel matte 2% → 3.5–5.5%; NPI 5% → 5–7%; copper cathode 2% → 4–7%; tin 3% → 3–10%; gold 3.75–10% → 7–16%; coal up to 13.5% at HBA >USD 90 for >5,200 kcal/kg grades. The regulation is the cornerstone fiscal lever of the Prabowo nickel-downstreaming/hilirisasi 2.0 strategy alongside RKAB-quota tightening that cut national nickel quotas from 272m to 150m tonnes for 2025.

Pakistan launched the National Minerals Harmonisation Framework 2025 and the Mines & Minerals Act 2025 at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum (Islamabad, 8–9 April 2025), consolidating six regulatory frameworks, eight legislative instruments, and 36 rule sets into a unified federal-provincial licensing system. The framework — convened by the SIFC and Deputy PM Ishaq Dar — establishes a two-tier licensing structure (large-scale: PKR 500M+; small-scale: PKR 25M–500M), mandatory appellate tribunal, and a "Mines and Minerals Force" to counter illegal mining in Sindh and Balochistan. Fiscal-incentive reforms aim to raise investor IRR from 14.5% to approximately 18%, underpinned by Reko Diq as the flagship precedent for future large-scale foreign-capital mineral projects.

Papua New Guinea's Parliament passed the Income Tax Act 2025 (Act No. 11 of 2025) on 20 March 2025, replacing the Income Tax Act 1959 in its entirety and taking effect from 1 January 2026. The Act introduces PNG's first-ever capital gains tax (CGT) at a flat 15% rate on gains from the direct or indirect disposal of interests in extractive assets (mining tenements, petroleum licences, and associated infrastructure). An offshore indirect transfer rule closes the longstanding "Double Dutch" structure used to transfer PNG mineral licences via overseas holding-company share sales without PNG tax exposure: any transaction resulting in a 10%-or-greater change in beneficial ownership of a PNG extractive licensee triggers a notification obligation and deemed disposal, crystallising CGT liability for the offshore transferor. No sector carve-out exists; KPMG and PwC analyses confirm CGT applies uniformly to all mining, oil, and gas disposals.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14241 on 20 March 2025 (Federal Register publication 25 March 2025) invoking Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III sections 301, 302, and 303 — and selected Title VII authorities — for domestic critical-mineral production, and delegated those authorities to the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The order operationalises the "national energy emergency" declared by EO 14156 (Jan 2025) to waive certain DPA §303 congressional-notification thresholds, designates "mineral production" as an Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program priority, expands the EO definition of "critical minerals" to include uranium, copper, potash, gold (and any further item designated by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council), and directs the Departments of the Interior, Energy, Treasury, and EXIM Bank to mobilise federal lands, permitting, and financing to expand US upstream and midstream capacity. EO 14241 is the cross-cutting domestic-mineral umbrella authority of the second Trump administration, paired with FY2025 supplemental appropriations (USD 2bn National Defense Stockpile, USD 5bn Industrial Base Fund) and complemented by the 24 April 2025 follow-on EO on offshore minerals and the 8 April 2025 coal amendment.

On 14 March 2025, the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed the Balochistan Mines and Minerals Act 2025 in a swift, sparsely debated session. The Act establishes the Mineral Investment Facilitation Authority (MIFA) under Section 22, a body composed of provincial and federal members but operating under the umbrella of the federal Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). MIFA is empowered to designate "strategic" minerals with federal oversight, override provincial mining-department decisions, and channel licensing for the Reko Diq, Saindak and broader Chagai-belt copper-gold-REE deposits to investment vehicles aligned with the Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act 2022. The Act drew sharp criticism for recentralising mineral authority that the 18th Constitutional Amendment had devolved to provinces, and for omitting any community-participation mechanism. On 23 September 2025 Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti announced suspension of the Act by executive order pending re-tabling for further deliberation, after a joint meeting with opposition leaders.

The Government of Papua New Guinea released the Mining Bill 2025 for public consultation on 25 February 2025, with submissions due 4 April 2025, targeting Cabinet endorsement and parliamentary tabling by PNG's 50th Independence anniversary on 16 September 2025. The Bill replaces the Mining Act 1992 and formalises a "Take Back PNG" resource-nationalist framework: the State gains a right to acquire up to 30% equity in any mining project on deferred-payment terms, royalties are tiered at 5% gross revenue (where State takes equity) or 10% gross revenue (where it does not), and mining-lease holders must offer at least 50% of production to domestic smelters/refineries where such capacity exists. Projects at Wafi-Golpu and Frieda River are grandfathered under the 1992 Act.

Naalakkersuisut (Government of Greenland), via the Mineral Resources Authority under Minister Naaja H. Nathanielsen, published the Mineral Resources Strategy 2025-2029 in January 2025. The strategy succeeds the 2020-2024 strategy and sets the operational priorities, licensing pipeline and investor-engagement framework for Greenland's mineral sector across the 2025-2029 window. Headline tracks: sustainability (social/environmental/ economic), targeted international marketing and export-import-bank cooperation to mobilise project finance, formal critical-minerals partnerships with the EU and the US (and Nordic regional cooperation), a certification system for small-scale licensees, and expanded geoscientific data availability. The 2021 Inatsisartut Act prohibiting uranium-bearing exploration and exploitation above 100 ppm is preserved.

New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), under Resources Minister Hon Shane Jones, launched the country's first national Minerals Strategy and first Critical Minerals List on 31 January 2025 at OceanaGold's Waihi gold mining operation in Hauraki. The Critical Minerals List identifies 37 minerals essential to New Zealand's economy, national security, and technology needs — including gold and metallurgical coal added in the final version (up from 35 minerals in the September 2024 draft consultation). The Minerals Strategy sets a target of doubling New Zealand mineral exports from approximately NZD 1.2 billion/year to NZD 3 billion by 2035, supported by a Wood Mackenzie advisory assessment (December 2024) that identified 21 of the 37 listed minerals as domestically produced or having domestic production potential.