News & Updates

On July 14, 2026, the Defense Logistics Agency published two Requests for Information through its Warstopper Program — one covering titanium and one covering magnesium — asking U.S. manufacturers to detail their current usage, annual demand, lead times, and stockpiling practices. Responses are due August 31, 2026. The RFIs are a formal, non-binding market intelligence step before potential contract competition, but they signal that Pentagon officials are actively assessing whether domestic supplies of both metals could hold up under wartime pressure. The U.S. has had zero domestic titanium sponge production since a Henderson, Nevada plant closed in 2020, leaving manufacturers entirely dependent on imports from Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan. China has grown its share of global titanium production from roughly 40% in 2019 to a projected 75% by 2025. The Warstopper Program — established under the 1993 NDAA — targets specific industrial bottlenecks most likely to stall weapons production in a conflict. These RFIs are part of a broader push that has already allocated $2 billion to strengthen the National Defense Stockpile, $5 billion for critical minerals supply chain investments, and a separate $12 billion Export-Import Bank stockpiling initiative. Project Dry Powder's TiO₂ grades of up to 13.2% place it directly in the domestic titanium supply chain the Pentagon is now working to rebuild. Source: Defence Blog, July 14, 2026

At the G7 Summit in Évian, France (June 17, 2026), leaders from the U.S., UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, and Italy issued a landmark declaration on critical minerals security. The joint statement commits G7 nations to reducing dependence on any single non-G7 supplier of rare earths and permanent magnets to under 60% by 2030, with a further target of 50% "as soon as possible." Leaders established the G7 Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance and a new IEA-backed crisis coordination platform. They also announced 195 critical mineral projects totaling €64 billion in investment across G7 and partner countries since the start of 2026. Rare earth elements — including neodymium and praseodymium — were explicitly identified as a priority for expanded supply chain traceability programs. The declaration directly validates Origin Minerals' mission to build a domestic U.S. supply of Nd, Pr, Nb, and Ti at Project Dry Powder.

Rare Earths Americas, Inc. (NYSE American: REA) priced its upsized IPO at $19.00 per share — the top of its range — on May 5, 2026, raising approximately $63.3 million. The company targeted a pre-money valuation of $368.4 million. Shares opened at $25.00 on May 6, a 31.6% first-day gain, before closing flat at the $19 issue price. The IPO is a notable data point for U.S.-focused critical mineral exploration companies seeking access to public capital markets as investor demand for domestically sourced rare earths continues to build.

Key Mining Corp., a global critical minerals and infrastructure company with a flagship rutile (titanium) deposit in Chile, announced a definitive merger agreement with Compass Digital Acquisition Corp. (OTC: CDAQF) on January 6, 2026. The all-stock business combination values Key Mining at $230 million in merger consideration, with a combined pro forma enterprise value of approximately $303 million. The transaction, expected to close in the first half of 2026, would list the combined company on a U.S. national securities exchange. Key Mining's rutile deposit is among the world's largest and highest-grade titanium resources — directly relevant to the same defense and industrial supply chains that Project Dry Powder targets.

On January 26, 2026, USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR) announced a Letter of Intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce's CHIPS Program for $1.6 billion in government funding — comprising $277 million in direct funding awards and a $1.3 billion senior secured loan. Simultaneously, the company closed a $1.5 billion PIPE at $21.50 per share. The combined capital package of approximately $3.1 billion is among the largest government commitments to a domestic rare earth company in U.S. history and directly validates the federal government's commitment to funding domestic critical mineral supply chains — the same thesis underlying Project Dry Powder.

USA Rare Earth, Inc. completed its business combination with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. II (Nasdaq: IPXX) on March 13, 2025, in a transaction valued at approximately $870 million. The deal was approved by IPXX stockholders on March 10, 2025. Shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "USAR" on March 14, 2025. The transaction marks one of the first major de-SPAC transactions in the U.S. critical minerals sector and demonstrates a viable path to public market access for domestic rare earth and critical mineral companies — a pathway directly relevant to Origin Minerals' own capital markets strategy.

Origin Minerals' October 2025 field campaign at the Powderhorn District returns TREO 1.27%, Nd 2,190 ppm, Pr 634 ppm, Nb 1,010 ppm, and TiO₂ 7.84% from Sample IHS1 — a carbonatite dike crosscutting pyroxenite. Results confirm historical grades using modern assay methods and validate the geological model developed from 70+ years of prior exploration by DuPont, Teck, and USGS.

Origin Minerals completes staking of 127 lode mining claims across approximately 2,550 acres in the Powderhorn District, Gunnison County, Colorado, on Bureau of Land Management lands. The claims cover the primary target zones identified through historical exploration data, with significant surrounding discovery potential for future expansion within the broader Iron Hill Carbonatite Complex.

The U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) program confirms the Powderhorn District — home to Origin Minerals' Project Dry Powder — as a top-priority domestic critical minerals zone for rare earth elements, niobium, and titanium following federally funded airborne geophysical surveys. The confirmation adds significant government validation to a deposit with over 70 years of private and government exploration history.

A series of executive orders mandate domestic sourcing of critical minerals for all Department of War applications, streamline permitting for priority projects on federal lands, and authorize DPA Title III funding for qualifying domestic projects. All four of Origin's target minerals — Pr, Nd, Nb, and Ti — are on the U.S. Critical Minerals List and directly covered by these mandates, creating both regulatory and commercial tailwinds for Project Dry Powder.

Teck Corporation completes a major exploration program at the White Earth project, directly adjacent to what is now Origin Minerals' Project Dry Powder claim block. The program defines a 46Mt resource at 13.2% TiO₂ — the largest known titanium concentration in the United States — validating the world-scale mineral potential of the broader Powderhorn District / Iron Hill Carbonatite Complex.

The U.S. Geological Survey publishes a landmark resource estimate for the Iron Hill / Powderhorn carbonatite complex: 722 million tons at 0.4% total rare earth oxide (TREO). The estimate establishes the deposit as one of the largest rare earth resources in the United States and provides the geological foundation that modern exploration programs — including Origin Minerals' active work — continue to build upon.