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Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining

Global delegates converge on Sudbury to chart a path forward in mining – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – October 11, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australian mayor shares his community’s experience of growth in the ore-rich Pilbara at the OECD conference

The City of Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region is a hive of mining-related activity. Known for its rich iron ore deposits, the region has a population of just over 24,000 people. Karratha alone generates a whopping $20 billion annually in gross domestic product (GDP).

Put in other terms, each person working in the region contributes $375 per hour to the GDP; that’s in comparison to the national average of $56 per hour. “That’s how important our region is to the national economy of Australia,” said Daniel Scott, mayor of the City of Karratha, while speaking in Sudbury this week.

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Moore brothers reflect on nickel boom and now bust as BHP’s Kalgoorlie smelter shuts down – by BJarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – October 10, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

A profile image of a man with dark, spiky hair.

Brothers Donald and Tim Moore lived through the country’s first nickel boom in Western Australia’s resources-rich Goldfields. The metal’s discovery near Kambalda in the 1960s sparked a modern-day renaissance for the historic mining region built on its 1890s gold rush.

It set the brothers on different paths that were heavily influenced by the “magic metal” of the day. Donald, 60, worked extensively in gold mining and spent 13 years at the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, while his 59-year-old brother Tim has documented the region’s ups and downs as a historian with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

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Plibersek releases reasons why $1bn McPhillamy’s gold mine near Blayney is on hold – by Lani Oataway and Hamish Cole (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – October 11, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has found the ‘irreversible’ and ‘permanent’ loss to Aboriginal heritage outweighed the financial cost of halting a $1 billion gold mine development in the New South Wales Central West.

Ms Plibersek today released the Statement of Reasons behind her decision to protect part of the Belubula River, its headwaters and springs near Blayney, from the tailings dam earmarked for the site by Regis Resources McPhillamys gold mine.

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Rio Tinto’s real prize: Arcadium’s lithium extraction technology – by Ernest Scheyder and Clara Denina (Reuters – October 11 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Rio Tinto’s $6.7 billion buyout of Arcadium will give it a suite of lithium filtration technologies that are poised to revolutionize how the metal is produced for the electronics and electric vehicle industries.

Arcadium’s expertise in so-called direct lithium extraction (DLE) is the real prize for Rio, analysts said, and vaults it into contention with Eramet, Sunresin, Exxon Mobil and others aiming to make the technology commonplace in coming years.

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Rio Tinto buying Arcadium in US$6.7-billion bet on lithium – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 10, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Rio Tinto PLC is buying lithium producer Arcadium Lithium PLC in a big bet on the electric-vehicle battery metal in the midst of a vicious bear market.

The Anglo-Australian major is paying US$5.85 a share for U.S.-based Arcadium, a premium of 90 per cent to Friday’s close, in an all-cash transaction worth US$6.7-billion. The boards of both companies are in favour of the deal. Lithium prices have crashed in recent years owing to China flooding the market and a slowdown in electric-vehicle sales.

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Canada reviewing Paladin’s Fission Uranium takeover on national security grounds – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 2, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Paladin Energy’s (ASX: PDN) proposed takeover of Canadian explorer Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) has hit a roadblock after receiving a notice from the Canadian government informing the company the deal is now the subject of a national security review.

The Australian miner entered in June into an agreement with Fission Uranium to acquire it for C$1.14 billion ($846m), as strong prices for the fuel used in nuclear reactors has lit fire under market consolidations and deals.

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South African company Sibaneye-Stillwater eyes New Caledonia nickel mining plant – by Patrick Decloitre (Radio New Zealand – September 17, 2024)

https://www.rnz.co.nz/

A South African company is reported to be the most probable bidder for shares in New Caledonia’s Prony Resources. As part of an already advanced takeover of the ailing southern plant of Prony Resources, the most probable bidder is reported to be South African group Sibaneye-Stillwater, local media reported on Monday.

Just like the other two major mining plants and smelters in New Caledonia, Prony Resources is facing acute hardships due to the emergence of Indonesia as a major player on the world market, compounded with New Caledonia’s violent unrest that broke out in May.

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Chinese investor steps in to block Paladin’s Fission buy – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 16, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) has hit a roadblock in its proposed acquisition of Canada’s Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) after a Chinese investor in the takeover target opposed the tie-up.

The Western Australia-based miner revealed on Monday that CGN Mining Company, a subsidiary of China General Nuclear Power with a 11.26% stake in Fission, is opposing the tie-up. Paladin moved in June to buy the Canadian miner for C$1.14 billion ($845 million), contingent on at least two-thirds of Fission shareholders voting in favour of the transaction by Aug. 26.

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[Australia] Mirarr Traditional Owners criticise uranium miner ahead of final fight over Jabiluka – by David Prestipino (National Indigenous Times – September 16, 2024)

https://nit.com.au/

Mirarr Traditional Owners in the Northern Territory are disappointed at comments from Energy Resources Australia bosses they say undermine their cultural authority.

Criticism of the “disrespectful” comments in legal documents by ERA chief executive Brad Welsh and independent director Ken Wyatt comes as the company appeals the NT Government’s rejection in July of a 10-year-extension to its minerals licence over the uranium-rich land surrounded by Kakadu National Park.

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Stop taking our mining good fortune for granted – by Editorial (Australian Financail Review – September 12, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

There is a danger of not only bashing the mining industry, but in treating new minerals as the “next big thing”, while overlooking legacy conventional mining.

Mining has made all Australians prosperous, not just miners. Real wages have been considerably higher during the past 20 years than if there had been no resources export bonanza or mining investment boom.

Each surge of national income from mining booms has underpinned our housing and super wealth, and kept Australians near the top of global rankings of GDP per head, behind mostly rich European tax havens and Middle East oil sheikhdoms.

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Lithium prices have crashed this year, squeezing margins at Australian miners – by Clint Jasper (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – September 2, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

It is an essential element of the green energy transition and just a few years ago Australia was in the front seat of a lithium boom, but a new wave of supplies has put their competitive edge under pressure.

Consumers are increasingly opting to drive EVs, and governments continue to invest in solar and wind projects, yet lithium miners have spent the last year watching the price of their ore sinking. Last week, the financial pain inflicted by a year of declining lithium prices was revealed as Australia’s major producers opened their balance sheets up for investors.

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BHP has nothing good to say about nickel prices – by Frik Els (Mining.com – August 27, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP’s relationship with its Western Australian nickel operations has been something of an on-and-off affair. In 2014, Melbourne-based BHP excluded Nickel West from its South32 spin-off, created to house the company’s non-core assets. Today South32 is worth $9.5 billion, 50% more than on its debut, and senior management in Perth may well feel that in the end that was a blessing.

Later that year the world’s top mining company, more than $30 billion clear of its nearest rival, also waved away bidders for Nickel West, said to be Glencore and Chinese nickel group Jinchuan, in a sale put as high as $1 billion.

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Lithium mine closures just ‘tip of the iceberg’ – by Alex Gluyas (Australian Financial Review – August 26, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

The lithium sector is facing a wave of mine closures as prices for the battery material continue to decline despite some companies already delaying future projects.

UBS slashed its lithium price forecasts for the 2025 and 2026 calendar year by up to 23 per cent on Monday as it cautioned that not enough supply was being deferred, and global demand for electric vehicles was softening.

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Paladin excited to enter the ‘Pilbara of uranium’ – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly – August 7, 2024)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Australia-headquartered uranium miner Paladin Energy is set on transforming itself from a single-asset entity into a “serious global producer with scale and upside potential”, said COO Paul Hemburrow.

Speaking at the Diggers and Dealers forum, in Kalgoorlie, this week, he expressed enthusiasm about the proposed acquisition of Fission Uranium, a deal valued at C$1.14-billion.

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Soaring Prices Have Australian Gold Bugs Expecting M&A Splurge – by Sybilla Gross (Bloomberg News – Ausgust 6, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Australia’s gold industry — buoyed by the precious metal’s record—setting run this year — is anticipating a wave of deal-making, with smaller miners being targeted as exploration lags.

The potential for a flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the world’s biggest gold producer after China and Russia has been one of the major talking points at the three-day Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in the dusty Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie.

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