Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining

Codelco in talks with Australia’s Lithium Power – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 28, 2023)

September 28, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Lithium Power International (ASX: LPI) confirmed on Friday it is engaged in talks with Chilean state-owned copper miner Codelco about a potential deal to jointly mine for the battery metal in the South American country.

Chile announced in April a new national lithium strategy, which calls for public-private partnerships for future lithium projects. Under the new model, the state takes a controlling stake in operations considered strategically significant, while private firms can retain control of projects in non-strategic areas.

Glencore to stop funding New Caledonia nickel mine as Indonesian supply surges – by Harry Dempsey and Leila Abboud (Financial Times – September 27, 2023)

September 27, 2023

https://www.ft.com/

Local industry extracting a key metal for electric car batteries is under pressure from rising production elsewhere

Mining and trading giant Glencore is to stop financing a lossmaking nickel mine in New Caledonia, as growing Indonesian production of a key metal in electric car batteries squeezes rivals.

Closure of the mine would be a blow to the French territory’s economy — mining accounts for 6 per cent of its GDP — and further concentrate global nickel production in Indonesia, where the supply chain is largely controlled by Chinese companies.

NEWS RELEASE: Ring of Fire Metals, Wyloo Metals, Mincor Resources combine to become major nickel player, “Wyloo” (Wyloo – September 27, 2023)

September 27, 2023

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Ring of Fire Metals, Wyloo Metals and Mincor Resources and will unify under the brand name Wyloo after becoming the largest pure-play nickel company outside of Russia. Wyloo Metals’ acquisition of Mincor Resources, completed last month, makes Wyloo a producer of high-grade nickel sulphide from its newly acquired Cassini and Northern Operations mines in Kambalda, Western Australia.

The new name also applies to Wyloo’s Canadian subsidiary, formerly Ring of Fire Metals, which owns the high-grade Eagle’s Nest project and the only material chromite resource in North America, in the Ring of Fire region in northern Ontario, Canada.

Rio Tinto’s stealth moves in WA lithium grab – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review – September 18, 2023)

September 18, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Rio Tinto has quietly entered the lithium land grab unfolding in Western Australia as it looks to secure its future in battery minerals, racking up exploration tenements spanning more than 145,000 hectares in the red-hot jurisdiction that has minted billionaires and fanned takeover battles.

The Australian Financial Review can reveal that Rio has claims covering more than 61,000 hectares close to the Kathleen Valley lithium project being developed by $6.6 billion takeover target Liontown Resources.

Queensland coalmines to rival electricity sector for climate pollution by 2030, report finds – by Graham Readfearn (The Guardian – September 6, 2023)

September 7, 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/

Eighteen new coal projects represent ‘carbon bomb’ that should not be approved, conservationists say

Emissions of methane that escape from Queensland coalmines will rival the state’s electricity sector for climate pollution by 2030 if a clutch of new projects are allowed to go ahead, according to a new report.

Conservationists have identified 18 new coal projects in development in Queensland – most of them targeting coal to export for steelmaking – that will represent a “carbon bomb” and should not be approved.

From ‘Ring of Fire’ to Mincor: Twiggy’s nickel dream drives Wyloo boss – by Simon Johanson (Sydney Morning Herald – September 3, 2023)

September 5, 2023

https://www.smh.com.au/

Ask Wyloo Metals boss Luca Giacovazzi, 31, if he’s a bit young to be four years into running a pure-play nickel miner that wrestled control of Canada’s fabled “Ring of Fire” basin from resources giant BHP, and he quips: “Don’t hold it against me.”

As head of Wyloo, Giacovazzi has the ear of mining magnate Andrew Forrest. The $1.5 billion mining and exploration company he has been building with strategic and capital creating deals since 2019 sits alongside Squadron Energy as a prize asset in Forrest’s private investment vehicle Tattarang.

Lynas flags higher costs for Kalgoorlie rare earths plant, profit slumps – by Poonam Behura and Melanie Burton (Reuters – August 28, 2023)

August 31, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (LYC.AX) hiked construction cost estimates for its Kalgoorlie rare earths facility by more than a quarter and said it would boost the plant’s production capacity to tap growing demand.

Lynas has sped up construction at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia amid worries that a facility in Malaysia may have to be partly wound down after regulators there raised concerns about radiation levels from the process of cracking and leaching.

Fortescue CEO Fiona Hick’s sudden departure raises eyebrows – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 28, 2023)

August 28, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) announced on Monday the unexpected departure of its chief executive officer Fiona Hick, who held the post for less than six months and who attended a corporate party on Saturday to mark the iron ore miner’s 20-year anniversary.

Hick, who was scooped up in November last year from oil and gas producer Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS), has been replaced by current chief operating officer for the iron ore division, Dino Otranto. The 49-year-old female executive made her name by pushing the Western Australia’s resource sector to address its sexual harassment and bullying issues while serving as president of the state’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy.

Frenzy of Foreign Suitors Wooing Australian Lithium Miners (Asia Financial – August 23, 2023)

August 23, 2023

https://www.asiafinancial.com/

The deals mania comes as Australia undertakes a critical minerals strategy that envisages major collaborations with investors and global partners to become a renewables superpower

Emerging Australian lithium companies have seen a surge of buyouts from suitors seeking to secure cheaper supplies of electric-vehicle battery materials.

Companies such as Albemarle Corp, the biggest lithium producer, have been seeking buys in Australia, which makes the most lithium in the world and has more than 80 lithium-related companies listed on its main stock exchange. Their interest has been driven by falling prices for the commodity and a move by major producer Chile to nationalise its lithium industry earlier this year.

Lithium Craze Sparks 1,100% Stock Gains as Well as Deep Losses – by Georgina McKay and James Fernyhough (Yahoo News/Bloomberg – August 22, 2023)

August 23, 2023

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Investors who bought Australian lithium stocks at the start of the year could have doubled their money or lost more than half of it — reflecting the extreme volatility of companies mining one of the world’s hottest commodities.

Lithium mining is dominated by small and mid-sized firms in Australia, the world’s No.1 producer of the critical electric vehicle battery ingredient. Previously unknown companies have soared in value after striking large deposits of lithium-bearing spodumene, mainly in Western Australia, while others have sputtered on uncertainty.

Column: BHP sees China commodity demand as stable. And that’s the best case – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – August 22, 2023)

August 22, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Aug 22 (Reuters) – BHP Group reported its lowest annual profit in three years, but the decline isn’t the most worrying factor for the world’s biggest mining company. That prize goes to an increasingly uncertain outlook for its key commodities.

BHP (BHP.AX) said on Tuesday the company’s underlying attributable profit for the year ended June 30 dropped to $13.42 billion from $21.32 billion a year earlier. This was below a Refinitiv estimate of $13.89 billion, and the lower profit resulted in the divided being slashed to $0.80 a share from $1.75 the prior financial year.

Wyloo will be mining more than nickel at Eagle’s Nest – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 17, 2023)

August 17, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Underground aggregate extraction for Ring of Fire road will deliver both practical and environmental solutions

The proposed Eagle’s Nest mine will “set a new benchmark for what mining could look like” in the Ring of Fire, said its Australian developer.

Luca Giacovazzi, CEO of Wyloo Metals and a director with Ring of Fire Metals (formerly Noront Resources), revealed some of their innovative engineering solutions last week at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum, a leading industry bash held at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Lawyer alleges Gina Rinehart committed ‘egregious fraud’ over transferred mining licences – by Staff (Mining.com – August 15, 2023)

August 17, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Hancock Prospecting Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart committed “egregious fraud”, Perth Supreme Court heard on Monday, according to a Guardian report.

A lawyer for Rinehart’s children alleges there is clear evidence that mining licenses were unlawfully transferred to the company and a subsidiary after her father, Lang Hancock, died in 1992, the Guardian reported. “We don’t use the word fraud lightly,” lawyer Christopher Withers reportedly said during the trial over mining assets and royalties.

Opinion: Australia is on the frontline in battle for rare earths – by Jennifer Hewett (Australian Financial Review – August 15, 2023)

August 15, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Australia is in the race to develop alternative supplies to China’s dominance of the supply and processing of rare earths that are critical to the global economy and to national security. But the West is far behind. How quickly can this be done?

Rare earths aren’t actually that rare. Nor are the 17 rare earth elements in the periodic table worth much in isolation, with some of purely nominal value. Current estimates of the global market value for rare earths are somewhere between $US8 billion-$US10 billion ($12.4 billion-$15.5 billion).

Yet some of these rare earths are necessary for the production of everything from cell phones to advanced robots, electric vehicles to wind turbines, to a myriad of defence applications.

Carmakers are desperate for nickel and have nowhere to look. It’s spurring majors to invest big – by Josh Chiat (Stockhead – August 13, 2023)

August 14, 2023

https://stockhead.com.au/

The head of Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s mining vehicle Wyloo Metals says carmakers are struggling to find nickel to stick in electric vehicles in a sign the sector is ripe for investment. It comes as BHP (ASX:BHP), a customer of Wyloo’s recently acquired Mincor Resources business in WA’s historic Kambalda nickel district, launches into one of the biggest investment splurges its once near dead nickel division has seen in 50 years.

Wyloo Metals CEO Luca Giacovazzi, who has spearheaded a dramatic expansion of Fortescue founder and iron ore billionaire Forrest’s private mining enterprise in recent years, told the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie last week contracts signed to date showed how short carmakers would be of the key cathode material.