Glencore Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (INO) mine rescue team won the overall champion title at Ontario Mine Rescue 2026 competition, which ended 12 June in Sudbury, beating seven other provincial teams. The mock-emergency scenario, staged at Magna Mining Podolsky Mine—a historical property under care and maintenance—simulated teenagers trespassing into an abandoned site, testing teams on oxygen-deficient air, opioid-overdose response with Narcan, rope rescue and a vehicle fire using a Compressed Air Foam System. This is a workplace-safety and community item with no nickel market or pricing relevance.

SMM, June 24: Based on the profound accumulation in the copper industry and the need for mutual development, on June 23, Zhou Bo, Vice President of SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (SMM), Long Huachen, General Manager of the South China Office, and Lin Jiazhi, Business Manager of the Copper Business Division, visited Guangxi Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd. for discussions and communication. They received a warm welcome from leaders including Xu Jun, General Manager of Guangxi Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd., Zhou Guoqing, Deputy General Manager, Mo Liping, Deputy Manager of the Supply and Sales Department, and business executives Xu Tianli and Liu Jianming. The discussions between the two sides were conducted in a cordial atmosphere. During the discussion session, the two parties leveraged their respective resource advantages for in-depth collaboration. Guangxi Jinchuan has a single-series copper smelting production line that is leading both in and outside China. Leveraging the strategic location near Fangchenggang Port, it serves as a core hub for Jinchuan Group’s expansion into markets outside China. Backed by its mature smelting capacity and advanced processes, and complemented by a digital technological transformation project that enables intelligent control over the entire process, the company has established a digital demonstration production line in the copper smelting industry. SMM, leveraging its big data on nonferrous metal industries, authoritative spot and futures pricing system, and strengths in integrated services across the entire industry chain, precisely addresses the core demands of enterprises in production and operation, cross-border trade, and digital transformation. The two parties engaged in in-depth discussions on topics such as copper price analysis, spot-futures coordination, industry chain resource integration, port-side cross-border trade, smelting digital upgrading, and frontier technology collaboration, laying a solid foundation for mutual empowerment and synergistic development. About Guangxi Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd. Guangxi Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd. (hereinafter the "Company") was founded in May 2010 and is located in the beautiful coastal city of Fangchenggang, Guangxi. The Company is a Sino-foreign joint venture controlled by Jinchuan Group Copper & Precious Metals Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jinchuan Group (holding 70% of shares), with Trafigura as a stakeholder. It serves as a maritime gateway and bridgehead for the Gansu provincial government and Jinchuan Group in their pursuit of international operations and expansion outside China, and is highly aligned with the national Belt and Road Initiative, functioning as an export base for Gansu Province on the Maritime Silk Road. Benefiting from the unique coastal advantages and favorable business environment of Guangxi and Fangchenggang City, and relying on the expertise and dedication of all shareholders deeply engaged in the metal processing and trading industry, the Company has, after over a decade of development, achieved an annual production capacity of 800,000 mt of copper products and 3 million mt of sulphuric acid. The Company has received numerous honors, such as being recognized as a National Green Factory Demonstration Enterprise, National Intellectual Property Advantage Enterprise, Guangxi Industrial Leader, Guangxi High-tech Enterprise, Quality Management Benchmark for Industrial Enterprises, Guangxi Intelligent Factory Demonstration Enterprise and Digital Workshop Enterprise, Nomination Award for the Chairperson's Quality Award of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and the Mayor's Quality Award of Fangchenggang City. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 66.7 billion yuan and total industrial output value of 67 billion yuan, ranking 12th among the 2025 Top 100 Guangxi Enterprises and 5th among the Top 100 Manufacturing Enterprises. The Phase I “Double Flash” system, commissioned in 2013, is the world’s largest single-system production system for mined copper by capacity. The technologies employed in the project, including “Double Flash” pure-oxygen smelting, high current density stainless steel cathode electrolysis, low-temperature heat recovery, rhenium recovery from waste acid, and krypton-xenon gas purification, are at a leading level in China. Its comprehensive resource utilization level and key technical and economic indicators lead the industry. In line with Jinchuan Group’s “Trillion Jinchuan” development goal and Fangchenggang’s deployment to build a “100-billion copper industry cluster,” the company launched a 300kt copper system process and digital upgrade project in 2022. The project adopts the internationally advanced “side-blown smelting + multi-lance top-blown converting” technology, takes the lead in the industry in adopting digital design and delivery, simultaneously constructs an intelligent digital factory, and achieves the organic integration of energy flow, material flow, and information flow with operational management, creating a model for the digital transformation of copper smelters in the non-ferrous industry. The project was incorporated into normal production sequence management in May 2025, and the company’s annual total industrial output value has exceeded 65 billion yuan. In 2026, against the backdrop of the global green transition and the ongoing advancement of the “dual carbon” goals, the non-ferrous metals industry is accelerating toward low-carbon, intelligent, and high-end development. South China, as a key non-ferrous metals industry cluster in China, possesses a well-established downstream processing system, abundant recycled resource reserves, and robust policy support. Leveraging South China’s unique industrial foundation and the new development trends of the industry, with the aim of precisely implementing industry-related policies, addressing industry pain points, and building a bridge for resource connectivity across the entire industry chain, the , organized by SMM, will be grandly held from September 9 to 11, 2026 in Nanning, Guangxi . The conference will conduct in-depth discussions on key topics such as metal price trends, medium and long-term market patterns, cross-border trade dynamics, industry policy interpretation, and low-carbon green process innovations. It aims to build an efficient and authoritative platform for industry exchange and cooperation, empower enterprises with technological innovation and green transformation, help industry participants seize market opportunities and calmly address development challenges, and jointly promote the high-quality advancement of China’s non-ferrous metals industry. We sincerely invite colleagues from all sectors of the entire non-ferrous industry chain to gather in Nanning to discuss new industry development opportunities and explore long-term paths for collaborative development of the industry chain! SMM Contact : Lin Jiazhi: 15017566696

[SMM Rare Earth Flash] JL MAG Rare-Earth recently announced that the company plans to acquire, through public listing for transfer on the Inner Mongolia Property Rights Exchange Center, the 9.24% equity stake in Baotou Rare Earth Products Exchange Co., Ltd. held by China Northern Rare Earth. The estimated transaction price is 22.0836 million yuan. This investment aims to enhance the company's ability to ensure the supply of rare earth raw materials and boost overall competitiveness, and does not constitute a connected transaction or material asset restructuring.

Spartan Metals announced the confirmation of two tungsten skarn zones at the Tungstonia claims within its wholly owned Eagle Project in Nevada, US. As part of its ongoing exploration programme launched in May 2026, rock sampling from the historic Yellow Jacket Mine within the project returned tungsten trioxide grades ranging from 0.89% to 1.87%. Crucially, assays from the mine entrance and dumps detected notable concentrations of zinc (up to 3.3%) and 1,320 ppm beryllium, the latter being a newly discovered critical metal at the property. Backpack core drilling at the mine also intercepted a 0.3-meter interval grading 0.21% tungsten trioxide and 0.33% zinc. The confirmed mineralization, spanning an estimated 2-kilometer area, hosts a complex system of tungsten, molybdenum, beryllium, rubidium, and silver. Spartan Metals intends to launch approximately 3,000 meters of diamond core drilling at selected targets from early to mid-August to further untangle this expanding mineralized system.

[SMM Analysis] Overseas HRC prices Declined More Than Chinese Prices; Overall Procurement Demand Continued to Weaken Passive Contraction in China–Foreign HRC Price Spreads and Blocked Export Channels Price spread models showed entirely diverging trends. Steel billet price spreads were relatively stable, while HRC spreads continued to contract. The China–India HRC spread, after a streak of declines in mid-June, recently plunged to -36, an all-time low in the table. This figure was not only far above the quarterly average of -65, but also well below the current monthly average of -49. The root cause is not a sharp slide in Chinese export prices, but rather extremely weak Indian domestic demand. To defend their domestic market share and digest surplus production, local steel mills in India adopted a highly aggressive "defensive price-slashing" strategy. Meanwhile, given the domestic supply-demand pattern of strong supply and weak demand, there is still room for further downside in Indian domestic steel prices in the near term, and the China–India spread will hover at lows. Data source: SMM Monsoon Rains Suppressed Downstream Demand; Indian Steel Market Was in the Doldrums Weighed down by the traditional demand off-season due to the monsoon rainy season and generally very cautious purchasing attitudes among buyers, Indian long steel prices remained under pressure last week. Rebar EXW prices dropped notably to around $630/mt EXW, hitting the lowest level since May. In contrast, Raipur billet showed slightly more resilience, with prices edging up about $2/mt to around $453/mt EXW. This was mainly supported by a boost from earlier transactions and short-term support from buoyant sentiment in surrounding markets, though current spot procurement remained cautious and restrained. Notably, Chhattisgarh has planned to raise electricity prices, which is expected to push up the production cost of electric furnace billet by about $3–4/mt starting in July, providing some cost support. Overall, the Indian steel market will continue to face a mix of weak demand and cost support in the near term, and prices are expected to remain on a weak fluctuating trend. Off-Season Suppressed Rigid Demand and Shipping Disrupted: Southeast Asian Steel Market Stayed in the Doldrums Short-Term Due to seasonal factors, construction activity rates in core Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand have recently been low, directly limiting the release of rigid demand for long products like rebar and wire rod. Currently, major local mills' rebar EXW prices in Southeast Asia were generally weak, ranging between $520–535/mt EXW. Meanwhile, due to persistently subdued sentiment in end-user buying, destocking in the market remained relatively slow. Facing the current weak market, most buyers chose to wait and see, with purchasing strategies mostly centered on "purchasing as needed and buying just enough for immediate use." Additionally, stimulated by progress in US–Iran negotiations and news that the Strait of Hormuz may reopen, buyers in the Southeast Asian market grew more expectant of a pullback in ocean freight rates. Driven by the desire to "rush to buy amid continuous price rise and hold back amid price downturn," this expectation further amplified the market's bearish and wait-and-see sentiment. Still, the actual easing of shipping pressures stemming from geopolitical issues will take some time, and international freight rates are expected to remain mainly high and volatile in the short term. New Quotas Taking Effect on 1 July Prompted Full Buyer Wait-and-See; European HRC Trading Mediocre, Import Offers Weakened MoM Last week, the overall European steel market was relatively mediocre, with sellers and buyers locked in deep standoffs ahead of the policy window period, and both spot and import markets were subdued: In Germany, mainstream transaction prices for HRC with August–September delivery remained at €680–700/mt EXW. In Italy, mainstream transaction prices for HRC with July–August delivery were at €670–680/mt EXW. Most European buyers generally chose to refrain from booking and are fully waiting for the new import quota system that will officially take effect on 1 July. End-users and traders are eager to assess the actual restrictive impact of the new policy on future import volumes in order to readjust their procurement strategies. At the same time, hit by a double blow from sluggish European domestic demand and uncertainty over the quota policy, steel import activity in Europe also dropped to a freezing point. At present, HRC offers for August shipment from Turkey and Asia to Europe have pulled back to €640–650/mt DDP. With a lack of buyer support, overseas mills' forward export offers showed clear signs of weakening on a MoM basis. Copyright and Intellectual Property Statement: This report is independently created or compiled by SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SMM"), and SMM legally enjoys complete copyright and related intellectual property rights. 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China’s rebar futures fell below around 432 USD/tonne, the lowest in two months, as weak economic data and the property downturn weighed on demand expectations. May crude steel output dropped 2.7% YoY to 84.35 million tonnes, while slower fixed-asset investment and consumption further pressured sentiment. Steel exports rose 8.8% MoM in May, but Jan–May exports were still down 8.1% YoY amid rising trade barriers.