Takeover target Mincor has confirmed its nickel supply deal with BHP contains a “change of control” clause that gives BHP the right to terminate the supply contract in certain circumstances and, by extension, trigger a default on Mincor’s debt.
Confirmation the clause exists came on page 55 of the target statement published by Mincor this week in response to a $760 million takeover bid from billionaire Andrew Forrest’s private company Wyloo Metals.
There is no need for an activist short seller to present the bear case for gold miners working in Burkina Faso. International news outlets such as BBC World provide a regular and thorough list of reasons why nervous investors might want to look elsewhere.
Burkina experienced two military coups last year and is now in a kind of civil war after its current leader, Ibrahim Traore, seized power with a promise to ramp up the fight against militant jihadist groups.
The emergence of the next mining boom presents an incredible opportunity for Australia. An opportunity to generate immense prosperity and security for our nation that will benefit generations of Australians. An opportunity to not only lead the world through the transition to net zero economies, but secure a long-lasting economic dividend in the process. To see Australia develop into a clean energy superpower.
Because once again we find ourselves in an advantageous position — the world needs what we have in abundance. To achieve net zero, the world will require astronomical volumes of minerals and metals. By 2030 alone, 50 new lithium mines, 60 new nickel mines and 17 new cobalt mines will be needed to meet demand for electricity storage.
Australia sees its booming lithium sector matching thermal coal’s importance within five years as the world increasingly shifts from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Exports of the battery metal are seen at A$19 billion ($13 billion) in the year to June 2028, matching the record seen for the current financial year, according to government projections released Monday. Meanwhile, the value of power station coal shipments will drop 71% in the period.
(Bloomberg) — Newmont Corp. has gained partial access to the corporate books of Australian rival Newcrest Mining Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that the US company could make a revised offer to seal what would be the world’s largest gold takeover.
Newmont is undertaking limited due diligence on Newcrest weeks after management of the Melbourne-based miner dismissed a $17 billion proposal from the world’s top bullion producer, according to people who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public.
Signs that China is re-focusing its attention on environmental regulation have injected fresh volatility into commodity markets, as traders position for the potential return of intermittent crackdowns amid the economy’s reopening.
Ore-processing operations in China’s top lithium production hub, Yichun, were ordered to halt output as investigators probed alleged environmental infringements at lithium mines, Bloomberg reported.
Australian rare earths producer Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) said on Tuesday that the federal government had prevented its largest shareholder, China’s Yuxiao Fund, from raising its stake in the company on grounds of national interest.
Yuxiao Fund needed the Foreign Investment Review Board’s (FIRB) approval to increase its holding in Northern Minerals to 19.9% from 9.92%. Beijing has condemned Australia for previously blocking Chinese investment on national security grounds, saying those moves have contributed to a years-long diplomatic freeze.
Mount Isa, one of Queensland’s longest-running mining towns, has this week turned 100. Founded on the land of the Kalkadoon people, it is renowned for mine stacks that rise from red-dirt country at the foothills of the Selwyn Ranges. But as locals celebrate a rich and varied past, many look toward a future where the town’s lifeblood is sustained by more than mining.
A chance discovery
On February 22, 1923, John Campbell Miles and his horses stopped to camp during a journey through the arid Queensland outback to the Northern Territory. Curiosity led the prospector to a particularly large outcrop where he knapped off a piece of rock that, according to his writings, he instantly recognised “contained mineral from its weight”.
As demand soars for electric vehicles and clean energy storage, Australia is rising to meet much of the world’s demand for lithium. While this helps reduce the need for fossil fuels, it raises another question – how can we source lithium sustainably?
Roughly a three-hour drive south of Perth, Western Australia, off the South Western Highway and behind the historic mining town of Greenbushes, the land beyond the town’s primary school falls away to reveal a deep, grey scar.
This is the site of an old tin mine known as the Cornwall Pit. At roughly 265m (870ft) deep, the terraced wall of the pit represents a century’s worth of work that began in 1888 when a pound of tin was lifted out of a nearby creek. When the surface-metal was scoured from the landscape, methods changed eventually giving way to open-cut mining in the host pegmatite vein – an igneous rock with a coarse texture similar to granite.
Lithium investors are hoping a retreat in lithium carbonate prices in China has passed after a torrid February for the ASX’s green energy darlings. The sector leaders, including Pilbara Minerals, Mineral Resources, Allkem and IGO Ltd, all firmed on Thursday as investors monitor the collateral damage to lithium demand from China’s decision to end electric vehicle subsidies for consumers from the start of this year.
Lithium carbonate prices in China fell 7500 yuan ($1595) to a one-year low of 410,000 yuan a tonne on Wednesday and have shed around 30 per cent from highs in November 2021.
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The call of Canada is being heard clearly by Australian lithium hopefuls, with some of the best-known names from the Aussie mining boom heading north to ride a wave driven by the US Government’s trade protection policies.
Ken Brinsden, the key man in growing Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) from penny dreadful to $13 billion member of the ASX’s top 50, is the leading Australian lithium export as chairman of the Quebec-focussed Patriot Battery Metals.
(Bloomberg) — Newcrest Mining Ltd. rejected an initial $17 billion takeover bid by US rival Newmont Corp., with the Australian miner’s interim CEO saying the company was “worth a lot more.”
It did offer some hope to its suitor, however, by indicating it’s prepared to provide access to its books on a non-exclusive basis. The all-shares deal would have been the largest globally this year and created the world’s biggest gold miner.
Iron ore looks set to continue its surge in 2023 but the rise of green energy is creating massive opportunities for the Pilbara. Rare earth minerals, lithium, wind and solar are just some of the emerging commodities setting the pace in one of WA’s most productive regions.
Pilbara Development Commission chief executive Terry Hill said the changing landscape was exciting for the region. “One of the really significant changes in the region of the last few years is the diversification in the range of exploration and mineral projects,” Mr Hill said. “One of the ones that is going to come through really strongly this year, and will be at the forefront of growth for the next few years is green energy.”
The new CEO of ASX lithium hopeful Battery Age Minerals (ASX:BM8) Gerard O’Donovan has seen it all since he first stepped into lithium in 2015, eventually becoming the project manager on the concentrator at Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) Pilgangoora mine.
From there he saw the downturn as the new supply brought on by WA miners like Pilbara flooded the market, before leaving to work on Rio’s Winu’s copper-gold discovery, and returned to oversee the rebuild of the Ngangaju plant at Pilgangoora, acquired from PLS’ collapsed neighbour Altura, as the lithium market rose like a phoenix to new heights.
Benchmark lithium carbonate prices fell for an eleventh straight day in China on Monday to an 11-month low, as short sellers raised their bets on Australian lithium stocks falling in 2023.
The latest ASIC data shows that five of the 16 most shorted stocks on the ASX are lithium hopefuls, after a younger demographic of retail investors hooked on mobile share trading apps made the same businesses the most popular stocks to own in 2022.
