18 January 2026 : Gallium + US$171.00/kg (9.00%) to US$2,060.40/kg… + 19.61% YTD !
When a picture tells 1,000 words……
China’s gallium export restrictions began in August 2023; the gallium price has tripled.
Old trader adage “prices that cling to highs , assume unfulfilled demand below”
Two major derisking events for critical metals in the USA this week.
- Arizona is open for mining
- Data centre power demand large enough to reopen copper mines.
Amazon Is Buying America’s First New Copper Output in More Than a Decade.
Bloomberg reports that “Amazon.com” is turning to an Arizona mine that last year became the first new source of U.S. copper in more than a decade, to meet its data centers’ ravenous appetite for the industrial metal”. The mine was restarted as a proving ground for Rio Tinto’s new method of unlocking low-grade copper deposits. Rio signed a two-year supply pact with Amazon Web Services, a vote of confidence for its Nuton venture, which uses bacteria and acid to extract copper from ore that was previously uneconomical to process. The move by Amazon is the latest example of a technology company rushing to secure the power and critical materials necessary to build and operate artificial-intelligence data centers. The Nuton copper will satisfy only a sliver of Amazon’s needs. The biggest data centers each require tens of thousands of metric tons of copper for all the wires, busbars, circuit boards, transformers and other electrical components housed there. The 14,000 metric tons of copper cathode that Rio expects the Arizona Nuton project to yield over four years wouldn’t be enough for one of those facilities. Rio deployed its bioleaching process in the recent restart of a mine east of Tucson and has partnerships to take the technology to several others in the Americas. The idea is to uncork the low-grade ore left behind at old mines and is key to Rio’s plans to boost output when new discoveries are harder than ever to bring online and copper demand is surging. Growing copper consumption for data-center construction, along with power-grid upgrades, electric vehicles and renewable-energy installations, has more than made up for slower demand from cyclical manufacturing sectors and in construction, where the metal is used for plumbing and wiring.
Mr. Robert Friedland – Presentation to the Future Minerals Forum 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Link here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiesaxJiVlk) to a compelling 16 minute presentation by Mr. Friedland, known as a highly influential advocate for the global mining industry. The presentation combines market positioning, predictions, and emerging technologies.
A key insight is a slide (see below) showing the surprising volume of metals required to build Microsoft’s recent “baby” data centre. The intensity of metal consumption underscores the powerful, inelastic demand emerging from data centre growth—driven by cloud computing and AI infrastructure.
Metals indicated with green arrows on the slide represent those within the Ivanhoe Mines portfolio, suggesting the company is well positioned to benefit from this structural shift. Overall, the example from Microsoft’s experience illustrates how data centre expansion is creating substantial new structural demand for both traditional and strategic metals in the commodities sector.
Between G50’s Golconda Project in Arizona and White Caps in Nevada – we have exposure to 6 of the 13 listed commodities in this slide.
Onward and Upward.
