BHP Divests Shuttered Kambalda Nickel Plant to Gold Fields

Lao Minister of Industry and Commerce Malaythong Kommasith explained the shift in national mining development policy at the tenth session of the National Assembly. The draft of the new Prime Ministerial Decree on Improving Policies and Strengthening Management of Mineral Resource Development in the New Phase proposes four policy directions, including establishing ten criteria for selecting investors, requiring one hundred percent open and transparent bidding for projects, clearly planning to stop raw ore exports, and shifting management toward digitalization while implementing ESG standards. Among these, approvals for new rare earth projects will be halted absolutely. For already approved projects, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce will formulate a plan to reduce raw ore exports by the end of 2026 and submit it to the government for approval. For minor metals such as cobalt, tungsten, and nickel, raw ore exports will be fully stopped before 2030. Several industry analysts told Jiemian News that the new Lao policy will have limited impact on China's overall mineral supply and demand landscape. Li Congming, a rare earth industry analyst at Shanghai Ganglian, pointed out that China has a relatively high self-sufficiency rate for rare earth raw materials, and the scale of imports from Laos is not large compared with Myanmar and the United States. However, since 2025, as US import volumes have dropped sharply, the share of Lao ore has increased. Data from Antaike show that in 2025, China's imports of intermediate rare earth smelting products from Laos rose 57.8 percent year on year, with Lao ore accounting for 25 percent, surpassing the 19 percent share from the United States. Chen Qiqi, an antimony industry analyst at Shanghai Ganglian, said Laos accounts for only about 2 percent of China's total antimony raw material imports, and the figure was 2.81 percent from January to August this year. The disappearance of that import volume would actually reduce downward pressure on domestic prices in the short term, making its symbolic significance greater than its practical impact. Bai Qiong, a nickel industry analyst at Shanghai Ganglian, said Laos has cobalt reserves exceeding 100,000 tonnes and nickel resources of a certain scale, but its output accounts for an extremely low share globally. Tungsten industry analyst Lü Yannan said China's imports of tungsten concentrate from Laos account for less than 1 percent of total domestic tungsten raw material imports, so the impact is basically negligible. The new policy is the result of continued tightening of mining regulation in Laos in recent years. In May 2026, Directive No. 11 of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party explicitly banned raw ore exports for the first time. In July, the Standing Committee of the special session of the tenth National Assembly proposed setting a two-to-three-year deadline to stop raw ore exports. The new Prime Ministerial Decree issued in October turns those principles into a concrete ban plan by mineral type and timeline.