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China Stimulus Details Wanted as Metals Wane

China Stimulus Details Wanted as Metals Wane

Bauxite maintains it lofty heights while brokers tip an iron ore decline

December 16, 2024

The Pre-Start

Lindian executed a non-binding term sheet with commodity trader Gerald for US$50m in Stage 1 funding & offtake for the Kangankunde project (LIN)
Aura Energy increased its uranium reserves at Tiris to 62.8Mt at 243ppm U₃O₈ containing 33.6Mlb of U₃O₈(AEE) FID expected Q1 CY25
American West increase the indicated resource at Storm to 20.7Mt @ 1.1% copper & 3.3g/t Ag (AW1)
Silver-play Investigator Resources has delayed the release of its Paris DFS to run further optimization work (IVR) Perhaps the initial numbers didn’t make the grade…? The market would agree, with the stock down 34% today
Ten Sixty Four looks to finally have some progress in its restructuring efforts as an MOA between MMPRC and Philsaga has been agreed (X64) settlement of a disputed US$248m loan included in the terms
Jervois has bought an extra 6 days (until 20 December) to meet certain milestones to recapitalise the company’s balance sheet (JRV) sounds like a fun Christmas…
From the drillbit:
- Pantoro hit 16.4m @ 8.85g/t Au from 176m at Scotia, Norseman (PNR)
- Predictive hit 6m @ 19.98g/t Au from 13m at Bankan (PDI)
- Antipa hit 17m @ 6.8g/t Au and 0.50% Cu from 65m at Minyari Sth (AZY)
- Turaco hit 9m @ 9.9g/t from 288m at Afema (TCG)
- Firetail hit 23m @ 3.6% Cu, 0.3% Zn and 4.3g/t Ag from 152m (FTL)
- Arrow Minerals hit 11m @ 55.8% Al₂O₃from 3m (AMD)

High Grade It

Benchmark prices for standard Guinea grade bauxite climbed to $US112 ($176) a tonne last week, marking a 59% increase since January (AFR) “funds Ausbil and Perennial’s Strategic Natural Resources Trust cashing in”
MinRes and its boss Chris Ellison are fighting claims by an in-house lawyer that she was ousted for raising concerns about the company’s culture (West)
Prices for gallium — a metal used in semiconductors and advanced technology — jumped to their highest level since 2011 (Bloomberg)
‘No deadline’ on Federal Government’s ruling over Bellevue Gold heritage challenge (West)
U.S. start-up Last Energy said on Friday it had received a tentative offer of $104m in debt financing from Washington (Reuters)
South32 a big winner as WA backs down on its plans to police greenhouse gas emissions (Australian)
Personnel at Rio Tinto’s Paraburdoo iron ore operations were briefly evacuated from site following a gas leak yesterday (West)
Iron ore to average 10% less in 2025: Goldman Sachs (AFR)
A court has raised PWC’s borrowing limit to C$105m to fund the cleanup of Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine in Yukon (NM)
Peter Dutton will ‘stare down’ nuclear scare campaigns & seek an election mandate to compel sceptical premiers & business chiefs into fast-tracking his plan (Australian)
Rio Tinto has doubled down on its lithium bet with a $US2.5b investment in its first large-scale brine project (AFR)
Resolute appears to have at least temporarily staved off handing an even bigger chunk of Syama to the military junta as Holohan takes leave (Australian)

Wheelin’ n Dealin’

IGO has entered a joint venture with Encounter in the Paterson Province after sole-funding $15m of expenditure at Yeneena, earning it 70% (ENR)
Novo Resources has acquired options over the John Bull gold project from TechGen and the Tibooburra gold project from Manhattan, both in NSW (NVO)
Mineral Commodities has agreed to sell its Skaland graphite project in Norway to Norge Mineraler for US$12 million (MRC)

Rattlin’ the Tin

Tungsten Mining is in trading halt pending a capital raise (TGN)
Minbos received firm commitments to raise $4.4m (MNB)
Artemis Resources has received commitments to raise $4 million (ARV)
Eagle Mountain is “pivoting its activities towards exploration” after undertaking an entitlement offer to raise $6/4 million at a 47% discount to last… (EM2)

Word on the Decline

Two well-publicised deal theories doing the rounds lately (which honestly we don’t have a good read on how probable either would be in the near term):
- Antipa to be acquired by Greatland Gold
- Wildcat to be acquired by Pilbara Minerals
We can certainly understand the synergistic merit of both. Whether it unfolds that way, we’ll have to wait and see…

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In the Weeds

“A Banker’s Perspective on Feasibility”: Focus on Production Ramp-up and Sustaining Capital (Warren Flannery) slide 7 is brilliant
The big sting: how a mythical bee halted a gold mine (AFR) A deep dive by Pete Ker into McPhillamys
Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm says this is a pivotal moment for the resources sector (Australian)
I sent Andrew Forrest 50 hard questions. He invited me to have a talk (AFR)
How This New Battery is Changing the Game (Undecided with Matt Ferrell)
How Marc Rich’s Former Haven Put a Commodity Trader on Trial (Bloomberg)
Grattan: History tells us to be wary of promises around nuclear costings (Australian)