The start of the financial year continues to deliver news to the market thick and fast.
Develop has entered a trading halt as it looks to acquire Essential Metals. The acquisition is to executed via a binding Scheme Implementation Deed under which Develop proposes to acquire 100 per cent of the issued shares in Essential by way of a Scheme of Arrangement.
A key piece of this acquisition is Essentials, Pioneer Dome, which is located in WA’s ‘Lithium Corridor’ 130km south of Kalgoorlie. This asset has a Project Feasibility Study underway on it at the moment. Pioneer Dome is a hard rock lithium development asset with a Mineral Resource of 11.2Mt at 1.16% Li2O.
Pioneer Dome – Essential Metals
Essential Metals major shareholder Mineral Resources, has thrown its support behind the proposal. Mineral Resources also hold shares in Develop as the second largest shareholder.
The Scheme Consideration is 1 new Develop share for every 6.18 Essential shares held, implying a fully diluted equity value for Essential of ~A$152.6 million and A$0.56 per share based on the closing price for Develop shares of A$3.46 per share on 30 June 2023.
This represents a significant premium of: 34.9% to the closing Essential share price of A$0.415 per share on 30 June 2023;
30.8% to the 20-day Essential VWAP of A$0.428 per share up to and including 30 June 2023;
62.3% to the Essential share price prior to the pre-Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA) Scheme price of A$0.345 per share on 6 January 2023 and 12.0% to the TLEA Scheme price of A$0.50 per share
Rivet Mining Services has gone into administration due to extreme weather events, labour shortages, project delays and rising costs.
Mining services, which provides bulk haulage and ancillary onsite services to mining companies in WA, is the only business within the Rivet Group effected.
Chris Hill, Vaughan Strawbridge and Hayden White from FTI Consulting have been made receivers and managers of the company.
Rivet Mining Services
Desert Metals has begun extensive field work at three of its key projects near Meekatharra.
The projects include drilling of a previously untested 15m greenstone belt for gold and other base metals at the Belele project; heritage surveys at the Dingo Pass project; and metallurgical work to determine recovery rates of clay hosted REE mineralisation at the Innouendy project to identify the most cost-effective processing methodology.
Rio Tinto has been the victim of a data hack.
Data on GoAnywhere software regarding former and current employees may have been stollen by hackers who have threatened to release stollen data.
“While investigations into this incident are ongoing and threats have been made by a cybercriminal group to release data on to the dark web, to date none of the records described above have been released, and we still do not know if the cybercriminal group holds these records or not,” a memo to staff said.
Several companies using GoAnywhere have reported data breaches, including Hitachi.
Rio Tinto
Lightning Minerals has identified lithium soil anomalism at its 100% owned Dundas project in WA.
Lightning Minerals CEO, Alex Biggs, said: “Further positive lithium in soil anomalism being identified at our Dundas project again supports our exploration strategy and belief in the region as an emerging lithium and critical minerals district.”
The S&P/ASX200 markets had a turbulent week, falling from 6,974 points o Monday to 6,900 on Tuesday, the market jumped again on Wednesday to 7,030 points before falling to 6,961 points on Thursday then finishing off the week at 6,955 points on Friday.
The All Ordinaries has lost 0.70% over the last 5 days. The market was at its lowest at close on Monday at 7,085 points. The All Ordinaries closed at 7,138 points on Friday.
Gold fell Tuesday afternoon from $1,985.88USD to $1,943.47USD before recovering the remainder of the week to $1,990.70USD on Friday, the highest price since April 2022.
Silver finished at $23.22USD on Friday, the highest it’s been since the start of February 2023.
The Federal Government has prevented Chinese company Yuxiao Fund from raising its stake in Northern Minerals on grounds of national interest.
Yuxiao Fund wanted to increase its holding from 9.92% to 19.9% but needed approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Northern Minerals has been focused on fine-tuning its heavy rare earths processing system through a pilot plant, which could make the Western Australia-based miner one world’s first significant heavy rare earth producer outside of China.
Northern Minerals
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has ordered Alcoa to clean out the toxic pipeline it built over Samson Dam in Waroona without approval.
The US based company had already built the pipeline to move firefighting PFAS contaminated water over the dam before even applying for approval.
DWER found the pipeline did not meet the requirements to prevent leaks and its location made it at risk of damage by vehicles.
This news is the latest in a series of potentially disastrous environmental blunders by Alcoa: earlier in the week the WA Forest Alliance called in the WA Environment Protection Authority to review Alcoa’s plans to mine jarrah forests after fear their mines will endanger Perth’s water supply and last week the state government expressed concerns Alcoa mines posed a risk to 1/3 of Perth’s drinking water in Serpentine Dam.
Forest Alliance convenor Jess Beckerling said the risks from Alcoa’s mining warranted a full and transparent assessment of its cumulative impact.
“This is obviously a matter of major public concern,” she said.
“The expectation must be that current best-practice WA government policy and aspirations are applied and maintained, and that the safety of drinking water and the integrity of ecological function is protected.”
Anon via WA Today
Austral Gold has completed the sale of its Pinguino project to E2 Minerals, receiving $3.7M on Tuesday, with another $3.7M over the next 3 years.
Austral Gold’s CEO Stabro Kasaneva said “The transaction resulted in the immediate cash injection of US$2.5M to partially fund the development of the Heap Reprocessing project at our flagship Guanaco-Amancaya mine complex in Chile.”
Austral Gold
Enegex has entered into a sale agreement with Caravel Minerals to sell them a tenement of Walebing Project.
Tenement E70/5442’s 82.4km2 are located 122km northeast of Perth.
Enegex will retain 100% ownership of the remaining 3 tenements at the site.
Enegex Director, Rae Clark, said they are excited the transaction will “provide Enegex with exposure to Caravel’s exploration expertise through a royalty agreement.”
The S&P/ASX200 markets had a positive week, finishing at 7,284 points, 0.39% higher than Thursday. The top performing stocks were Liontown Resources, up 13.19%, and Ramelius Resources, up 5.58%.
Liontown was also the top performing stock in the All Ordinaries, the markets finished at 7,484 points.
Gold has made a swift recovery after a disappointing end to February. The week started at February’s lowest of $1,812.73USD before steadily climbing to $1,850.38USD.
Silver peaked on Wednesday at $21.35, stumbling on Thursday before recovering on Friday to $21.31.
Weeks after the West Australian Government raised concerns that Alcoa’s mines posed a risk to the Serpentine Dam and 1/5 of Perth’s drinking water, it has been discovered that the US miner has risked another WA dam.
Alcoa applied for approval to build pipelines over WA’s Waroona Dam to pump PFAS contaminated water from firefighting foam, and despite not yet receiving approval, has already built the pipeline.
The Water Corporation worries a leak in the pipeline could contaminate the dam and said Alcoa built it without their knowledge.
A spokesperson from Water Corp said “It is Water Corporation’s view that such a pipeline would, along with other concerns, present an unacceptable risk to drinking water quality, therefore, Water Corporation does not support Alcoa’s proposal in its current form.”
Anon via WA Today
BHP has announced it is selling its Daunia and Blackwater mines in Queensland, citing a 9.3B (32%) drop in its half-year profits and increased royalties.
BHP Mitsubishi Alliance asset president Mauro Neves said the Queensland Government’s decision to raise cola royalties had made the state uncompetitive.
Mineral Resources has entered into two binding agreements with Albemarle Corporation, the first to change their 40% ownership of the joint owned Wodgina Mine to 50% and the second to increase investment in lithium in China.
MinRes managing director Chis Ellison said “We are delighted to have reached these binding agreements, which cement MinRes’ place as a world-leader in lithium mining and leverage our partner Albemarle’s strong track record in battery chemical production.
“By growing our battery chemicals business and expanding into global chemical marketing, MinRes will become one of the world’s largest fully integrated lithium chemical suppliers to auto manufacturers, capitalising on the increasing demand for sustainable battery mineral products.”
The Federal and West Australian governments will invest $565m into expanding and upgrading the port at Port Headland.
In the first stage, two seawalls and a causeway will be constructed, increasing the port’s capacity to export lithium and copper.
MGN Civil will complete the construction works, with 90 per cent of materials and suppliers being sourced within the Pilbara region along with partnerships with First Nations businesses.
Anthony Albanese said “Demand is growing locally and overseas for clean energy sources and our Government’s investment in the Lumsden Point expansion will help position northern Australia to take advantage of the economic opportunities this demand presents.”
Town of Port Hedland
Magnis Energy Technologies has entered into an agreement with Tesla to supply them with critical minerals for electric vehicles.
Tesla will buy a minimum of 17,500 tonnes per annum of lithium and other critical minerals from February 2025.
Magnis chairman Frank Poullas said “We are really excited to bring our high-performing AAM to market that requires no chemical or thermal purification throughout the whole process, which differentiates this sustainable material in the market and provides great value to all parties.”
Tesla
The S&P/ASX200 markets have continued its month-long downward path. The week started at 7,354 points, falling sharply on Tuesday and Wednesday, before raising slightly to 7,307 points at close of day Friday.
The All Ordinaries saw similar drops on Tuesday and Wednesday. The index lost 0.52% for the last 5 days.
Gold had a somewhat disappointing week, dropping from $1,848.42USD on Monday to $1,828.95USD on Friday, continuing the downward trend for the month.
Silver stayed steady at the start of the week, though stumbling at the end of the week to finish off at $21.58USD.
Boss Energy has appointed James Davidson as general manager of its Honeymoon Uranium project and Jacobus van Rooyen as its construction manager.
Boss Energy managing director, Duncan Craib said James Davidson “has immense experience across project management and construction, with particular emphasis on uranium metallurgy and operations.”
Craib also said “Kobus is a team player, having held and achieved key senior roles as a multi-disciplined
construction manager, effectively managing resources to deliver small scale all the way through to mega project objectives and deliverables safely, on time and within budget, he will further bolster our team as construction at Honeymoon ramps up.”
Boss Energy
Oz Minerals saw an increase of total copper production in the December Quarter compared to the previous quarter, increasing 6,295 tonnes to 36,307 tonnes. Total gold production decreased from 56,334 ounces to 54,856 ounces.
Both copper and gold production of the FY2022 sat within the target figure – which was revised mid-year.
Managing Director and CEO, Andrew Cole said “A strong final quarter saw a 21 per cent lift in copper production, quarter on quarter, resulting in group production and cost guidance (revised mid-year) being met and creating positive momentum for 2023.
“We are pleased with how the team rest and recalibrated performance to end the year on a strong note after a challenging first half impacted by adverse weather, COVID-19 absenteeism, and supply chain disruption and inflationary pressure. The December quarter of 36,307 tonnes of copper is the highest group copper production on record.”
Iluka Resources has awarded SciDev a three-year contract for the supply of MaxiFlox chemistry, used for the treatment of mine site tailings to maximise water recovery and reduce the tailings footprint.
SciDev CEO, Seán Halpin said “Our ongoing relationship with Iluka reflects both the quality of our products and the skill set of our team.”
Iluka Resources
Liontown Resources has commenced open pit mining at its Kathleen Valley Lithium Project.
Iron Mine Contracting is providing open pit mining services at the site, including drilling; blasting; loading and hauling of ore and waste; hauling road construction; and pit dewatering services.
Liontown Managing Director and CEO, Tony Ottaviano said “Completion of the first blast and commencement of open pit mining at Kathleen Valley is a significant milestone for Liontown, signifying our transition from explorer to mining operator.”
Liontown Resources
The S&P/ASX200 markets have continued the strong increase from the start of the year, beginning the week at 7,492 points and finishing off at 7,558 points.
The All Ordinaries followed the same trend, setting a new 100-day high, and ending at 7,772 points.
Gold continues to stay around the highest its been since May, sitting at $1,919.07oz.
Silver started slow at $24.07oz and peaked at $24.47oz on Thursday but fell again at the end of the week to $23.75oz.
St Barbara Minerals released their December quarterly report this week, with disappointing results.
Consolidated gold production was down from 63,700oz in the September quarter to 60,976oz.
The Leonora operations saw a reduction of gold production from 34,078oz last quarter to 32,175oz. The December quarter from the year before produced 16,462oz more gold than this quarter.
The amount of gold sold was 32,634oz, down 2,712oz from last quarter and 22,966oz less than the same quarter last year.
St Barbara’s share price dropped 21.348% to $0.70 after the report was released on Wednesday.
St Barbara
Pilbara Minerals has appointed John Stanning as Chief Development Officer.
In the newly created position, stanning will over see Pilbara Mineral’s corporate development, growth and exploration functions.
Managing Director and CEO, Dale Henderson said “John brings an impressive track record of lithium sector experience and relationships across the value chain. We are looking forward to having John join our executive team and working closely with him to further our growth objectives as an emerging leader in the provision of sustainable battery materials products.”
Pilbara Minerals has awarded Primero Group a $62m contract for construction work at its Pilgangoora project.
The contract is for the construction of a primary rejection facility and preliminary works for a new crushing and ore sorting facility.
Located 120km from Port Hedland, the project is located at one of the world’s largest hard rock lithium deposits.
Pilbara Minerals managing director and CEO, Dale Henderson said “We look forward to working closely with Primero for the safe and successful delivery of this package, which will step-up our production run-rate to the next level with a total of
680 kilo-tonnes per annum of spodumene concentrate across the combined Pilgangoora operation.
“The successful completion of this project will further cement Pilbara Minerals’ position as
an emerging leader in the provision of sustainable battery materials products.”
Primero Group
Fortescue Metals has released its December quarter report for 2022, announcing record shipments.
Andrew Forrest said “The Fortescue team delivered our highest ever December quarterly shipments of 49.4 million tonnes, our best ever half year, grew the mineral and green energy business globally, strengthened our balance sheet, kept costs low, all while maintaining our excellent safety performance.”
Fortescue’s cash balance increased to $4B USD on 31st December 2022, compared to $3.3B USD for the September quarter.
Fortescue Metals
The S&P/ASX200 markets finished up on Friday at 7,493.8 points, setting a new 100-day high.
The week started at 7,435 points before gaining 0.56% through the week.
Megaport Limited and Liontown Resources were the top performing stocks, gaining 7.22% and 5.19% respectively.
The All Ordinaries closed up at 7,707.5 points.
The top performing stocks were 88 Energy Limited and Develop Global Limited, gaining 18.18% and 12.68%.
Gold peaked at $1,951.15USD on Wednesday, continuing a 9-month high, and rounding off the week at $1,928.82USD.
Silver stumbled at the start of the week, falling from $24.18USD to $23.79USD on Tuesday, before it rose again to finish off the week at $24.07USD.
Hancock Energy has increased its offer to buy Warrego Energy from $0.28 cash per share to $0.36 cash per share, totalling $447m if the offer is approved.
Three of the Four Warrego directors have recommended shareholders accept the deal over an offer made by Strike Energy, offering one Strike share for every Warrego share.
Hancock Prospecting
Great Western Exploration will extend its Firebird Gold Project after gold anomalism was found at their Greenstone Belt site, located near Wiluna.
The announcement saw a 4% share price increase for Great Western Exploration to $0.052.
Fortescue CFO Ian Wells has announced his resignation in order to spend time with family and friends.
Wells is the ninth executive in two years to resign, not long after Guy Debelle resigned in November last year.
Wells said that despite his resignation, “Fortescue is in a strong position to be able to deliver on short-, medium- and long-term growth options through the Iron Bridge magnetite project, Fortescue’s decarbonisation, and FFI’s (Fortescue Future Industries) portfolio of opportunities.”
Fortescue Metals
Everest Metals Corporation’s share price jumped 20.87% to $0.110 per share after an initial drilling program at their Mt Edon mining lease saw positive pegmatite levels, causing EMC to push to exercise its exclusive farm-in option to acquire the right to 100% interest in the Mt Edon Project.
Chief Operating Officer, Simon Phillips said “EMC is pleased to announce its decision to exercise its right to farm into the Mt Edon LCT Pegmatite Project, subject to Shareholder approval. The company is pleased to have the opportunity to take the next step towards 51% ownership in a project with such an extensive array of pegmatite outcrops over six kilometres. The recent reconnaissance drill program gave EMC the data it needed to commit to the next stage of exploration at this highly fertile pegmatite field as part of the Company’s commitment to its Battery Minerals project development strategy”
Lithium Power International has commenced its drilling program at its East Kirup Lithium Prospect this week.
East Kirup is located in the Greenbushes region, Southwest of Collie.
LPI Executive Director, Andrew Phillips said ““The results of this drilling program will be used − along with previously completed environmental surveys − to prepare a CMP to allow drilling on new tracks, the commencement of phase three.
The intention is to hit the ground running in 2023, and we are pleased that the commencement of the program is so early in the year.”
The S&P/ASX 200 started off the week slow at 1,178 points before falling to 7,126 points on Wednesday. The market picked up again, increasing 202 points to finish off at 7,328 points.
The All Ordinaries finished at 7,540 points. The top performing stocks where Poseidon Nickle and Andromeda Metals.
Gold had a slow rise this week, starting at $1,882.00 USD and rounded the week off at $1,898.90 USD at the close of the ASX.
Silver was more turbulent, falling from $24.30 USD to $23.89 USD on Tuesday, raising again to $24.17 USD on Wednesday, then falling again on Thursday to $23.88 USD before finishing off the week at $23.94 USD.
Northern Star Resources Limited has provided an update. In their efforts to initiate a global search for an Independent NonExecutive Chair, Bill Beament will retire from the Northern Star Board, effective July 1, 2021. Mr Beament has agreed to take up an Executive Director role with Venturex Resources from July 1. Mr Beament said he fully appreciated the opportunity to help Northern Star generate exceptional results for all stakeholders. “I share the view that now is the right time for Northern Star to begin the search for an Independent Chair,” he said. “The Company is in an extremely strong position, with an outstanding team and some of the best gold assets in the world.”
Northern Star Non-Executive Director John Fitzgerald thanked Mr Beament for his outstanding contribution. “Bill has guided Northern Star through a period of exceptional growth, building a globally-significant gold company which generates substantial returns for Shareholders,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
The Northern Star Board has decided that Independent Non-Executive Director John Fitzgerald will perform the role of Independent Non-Executive Chair from then until the appointment of the new Chair.
A former advisor to President Nelson Mandela, a key author of twenty one books and a previous Principal Economist at the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) has been announced as the Diggers and Dealers key note speaker for 2021. Professor Ian Goldin.
Professor Goldin specialises in economics and has numerous credentials on the world economic stage. After a start in Africa, Professor Goldin lectures at Oxford, Harvard and Tsinghua Universities as well as providing advisory and consultancy services to thirty leading companies. His recent speaking engagements include the opening keynote at Google Zeitgeist, the Microsoft CEO Forum and TED. For the past twenty one years he has provided keynotes at the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos. Adding to an impressive list of achievements, Professor Goldin also was a previous Vice President of the World Bank. His address at Diggers and Dealers this year is sure to be thought provoking and insightful.
KCGM Super Pit Owners Northern Star Resources and Saracen Minerals have released information to the market this morning about their respective operations based on the lockdown imposed in Western Australia.
Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited and Northern Star Resources advises that it does not expect production and exploration at its West Australian operations to be impacted by the five-day lockdown measures announced yesterday by WA Premier Mark McGowan. All the Company’s operations are located outside the lockdown boundaries set by the Government. The Company will advise the market should these circumstances change. Saracen’s top priority at all times is the health and safety of its staff, business partners and the communities in which we operate and this is the basis of all its strategies for managing COVID-19.
