Bellevue Declares Commercial Production, Newmont Confirms Telfer Halt

Develop updates Pioneer Dome numbers, First Quantum get hopeful

May 07, 2024

G’day GC #

The Pre-Start

You can always count on some news flow dropping to market on the first day of a conference

  • Bellevue declared commercial production at the Bellevue Gold Project. FY25 production and cost guidance to be released in July 2024 and a scoping study on plant expansion to 1.5Mtpa has commenced (BGL)

  • St Barbara provided an updated annual gold production target for Simberi for FY25 to FY27 of 70 - 75koz, full-year FY24 guidance towards bottom end of 60 - 70koz (SBM)

  • Develop released an updated scoping study for Pioneer Dome with a "build own concentrator” and a “mine gate sale / toll treatment” scenario. Project on track to be shovel ready by end of CY24 (DVP)

  • Patriot Battery Metals shared assay results from a new high-grade zone at the CV13 spodumene pegmatite at Corvette, with a hit of 34.4m at 2.9% Li2O (PMT)

  • Australian Vanadium grew the Measured and Indicated portion of the high-grade domain of its Australian Vanadium Project Mineral Resource by 39% (AVL) the global resource has barely changed, if you bother reading to page six'

  • Kingston Resources have reported an upgraded mineral resource for Pearce North, reporting 30% more gold now (KSN) apparently thanks to new drilling “acquired” by KSN but we think the gold price assumption is what moved the needle:

Pit optimisation at 3200 per ounce aud

Is this the new normal or are we getting ahead of ourselves here?

High Grade It

  • Newmont’s for sale Telfer gold mine in the Pilbara has had production halted since April over tailings “seepage”, which will reportedly last until September (The West) but you read it here first

  • Sierra Rutile apparently met with its new largest shareholder Gemcorp after granting a bid extension to ascertain their intentions (AFR)

  • US-listed Energy Fuels nears a decision on a $206m investment in Astron's Donald Project in Victoria, which boasts the biggest zircon deposit globally (SMH)

  • Regis Resources to develop two more underground mines (The West)

  • A dearth of gold discoveries and new mines could be set to change, with additional interest amid strong prices likely to lead to more finds (MiningNews)

  • A revamped minerals-for-infrastructure deal between the DRC and China will send billions in financing to the Central African nation and is contingent on the price of copper (Bloomberg)

  • First Quantum will be hoping that the new Panamanian president will bring a new perspective to the closed Cobre Panama mine (Reuters)

  • Executives from Saudi Arabian mining company Manara Minerals are in Islamabad to continue talks about buying a stake in Pakistan’s Reko Diq gold and copper project. Barrick has said it’ll invest US$10b in the project (Mining.com)

Wheelin’ n Dealin’

  • Two more funds have given BHP the greenlight in its pursuit of Anglo, namely, Wilson Asset Management and Argo Investments (AFR)

  • BMO is managing the sale of Newmont's North American mining assets, inviting bidders to access confidential documents (The Australian)

  • BHP’s Anglo American ambitions put South African mining on the spot, and could see one of the most familiar companies largely withdraw from the country more than 100 years since it was founded (Reuters)

Rattlin’ the Tin

  • Manuka Resources is in a trading halt pending a capital raise (MKR)

 

Word on the Decline

In the Weeds

  • Mining is a force for good, but don’t say it too loud (FT)

  • The $9tn question: How to pay for the green transition (FT)

Today’s Top Tweet

Knowing many of the readers of this email work in IB, this tweet thread is a heavy but important read. Everyone who has ever worked in a bulge bracket bank has stories.

There are many issues and not all of them have a realistic solution but the low-hanging fruit is to fire the soulless MDs that intentionally overwork juniors with 120-hour work weeks just so they look like a genius to their client and boss. Investment bankers like to think they are the most important people in the world and that their work is the most important thing in the world. But let’s be honest, it doesn't really matter.

Devil’s in the Detail

This is a week old but I was listening to the IGO quarterly call on the flight over to Sydney and realised I missed this detail relating to the sale of 200kt of stockpile from the Greenbushes JV.

180-day payment terms, yeesh!

Disclaimer

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