Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has been appointed primary data provider for Veramark's new Responsible Metals Value Chain Platform, giving companies across the copper value chain a shared, independent view of the market they operate in. Veramark, formerly the Copper Mark, launched the platform on 28 October. It brings together miners, smelters, refiners, fabricators, recyclers, traders, manufacturers and financial institutions to work on shared challenges, from traceability and transparency to greenhouse gas emissions and recycled content. More than 20 companies have already signed up as Value Chain Partners, adding to Veramark's assurance coverage of over 140 upstream sites.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is pleased to announce the expansion of its Rare Earths Price Assessment with 19 new price grades, bringing price transparency to a broader range of rare earth oxides and metals that are essential to modern technology. Cerium and lanthanum are used in catalysts, glass and polishing, while europium underpins the phosphors used in displays and lighting. Ytterbium, erbium, holmium and thulium are used in lasers and fibre optic amplifiers, gadolinium in medical imaging, and lutetium in the scintillators used for PET scans. Praseodymium-neodymium metal is the key feedstock for the permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and defence systems.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is pleased to announce the launch of its Gallium and Germanium Price Assessments, bringing price transparency to these critical mineral markets. Gallium and germanium are recovered as byproducts of aluminium and zinc processing, and both are essential to many modern technologies. Gallium is used in compound semiconductors, which underpin power electronics, 5G networks, LEDs and radar. Germanium is used in fibre optic cables, infrared optics, thermal imaging and the solar cells that power satellites. Both metals also have several applications important to the defence industry.

US buyers of flake graphite are shifting procurement from China to East Africa as the cost of imported Chinese flake soars. This comes on the back of slow and unpredictable Chinese export licences, combined with high freight costs, and the US tariff on Chinese natural graphite which came in effect in January.