Recently, Taiyuan's first Zhichu 100 MW standalone ESS power station was connected to the power grid at full capacity. The project is Taiyuan's first standalone ESS power station, marking a new breakthrough and a key step forward in the city's construction of a new-type power system. The Taiyuan Zhichu 100 MW standalone ESS power station is a key project under Shanxi Province's "14th Five-Year Plan" for new-type energy storage development. Covering an area of approximately 29 mu, with a total investment of 390 million yuan and a total installed capacity of 50 megawatt hours, the station adopts the highly safe hybrid technology of "flywheel energy storage + LFP battery." Composed of 12 prefabricated modular energy storage units, it functions as a large-scale "super power bank," capable of storing or releasing 50,000 kWh of electricity per hour, meeting the daily electricity needs of nearly 30,000 households simultaneously.

SMM News, May 9: It is learned that in March 2026, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the first batch of tungsten concentrate mining quotas for 2026. The total mining volume under the first batch of national quotas stands at approximately 60,000 tons, an increase of 2,000 tons or 3.45% year-on-year compared with the first batch in 2025.

Copper prices moved closer to record highs on May 8, driving strong gains in shares of BHP and Rio Tinto. Investors are increasingly betting that AI infrastructure, power grid upgrades, and clean energy investment will create long-term structural demand for copper. Analysts in Australia said discussions around a new commodity supercycle are intensifying as capital flows back into mining stocks.

The correction in precious metal prices initially continued as expected over the course of this week.

According to the Dalong Development Zone News and Information Center, during the Labour Day holiday, construction sites of major key projects in Dalong Development Zone, Guizhou were bustling with activity and operating at full capacity. At the project site of Guizhou Depu New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.'s 20,000 mt/year lithium-ion anode material project, nearly 60 workers remained at their posts, pushing forward with all construction tasks at full speed. "Currently, the main structures of two factory buildings have been completed. Workshop No. 3 is undergoing accelerated installation of 10 sets of roller mills, 45 sets of reactors, and other core equipment. Workshop No. 4 has completed the installation of roof panels and wall panels, and internal site leveling work is underway. The comprehensive building and the 110KV substation are also under simultaneous construction, with subsequent work to advance the improvement of fire protection facilities and hardening of the factory area roads," said Liu Shaofeng, the company's administrative supervisor. He noted that during the Labour Day holiday, workers strictly controlled project quality and safety, striving to achieve phased trial production by the end of June.

On April 21, 2026, SMS group announced that its subsidiary Paul Wurth has entered a definitive agreement with Tata Steel to convert Blast Furnace E at the Jamshedpur plant into an electrically assisted syngas smelter (EASyMelt). This world-first industrial-scale implementation uses plasma torches to superheat syngas, which is then injected into the furnace to replace coke. The project aims to cut CO2 emissions by over 50%, providing a critical blueprint for decarbonizing existing "brownfield" blast furnace assets globally.