• Australia has ordered Yuxiao Fund and its associates to sell their stakes in rare earths miner Northern Minerals (Bloomberg)

• Investors are weighing the durability of this year’s commodity bull market amid warnings of “frequent and violent price swings” (AFR)

• Chile registered its lowest month of copper production in over a year, undermining the recovery from its 20 year low (Bloomberg)

• A BHP decision on Nickel West by July is a possibility now attention has turned, with closure the expected outcome (The Australian)

• Palladium prices won’t recover unless the mining industry cuts supply further, according to industry leaders (Bloomberg)

• Heavy rain has impacted Australian gold miners, with cyclones across swathes of the nation blamed for a drop in production (The West)

• Copper giant Codelco will become a major lithium player after signing the deal giving it a majority stake in SQM’s prized asset (Bloomberg)

• The Argentine Chamber of Mining Companies issued a communiqué rejecting a possible 5% increase in mining royalties (Mining.com)

• Auto & steel-makers plus unions urged Canadian lawmakers to hike tariffs on over-produced Chinese goods similar to the US (Bloomberg)

• Thiess deal to acquire Pybar finalised (Australian Mining)

• An interesting read in the FT reveals that BHP held back bidding for Anglo immediately after it provided a profit warning in December that sent its shares tumbling to avoid looking opportunistic. This excerpt is particularly fascinating, suggesting Anglo got wind a bid was coming from unorthodox analytics.

• Silver Lake shareholders on Friday cast their votes on the proposed merger with Red 5, with 97% voting in favour (The West)

• Duncan Wanblad has admitted that selling the diamond business De Beers will be the hardest part of a radical restructuring (FT)

• Brightstar closed its off-market takeover of Linden Gold, with an interest in ~97% of shares and compulsory takeover commencing (BTR)

• Lithium Energy received Chinese approvals for its sale of 90% of the Solaroz project to CNGR (LEL) Enviro & shareholder approvals next

• Galileo announced a Norseman lithium JV with Mineral Resources, selling an initial 30% of its rights for $7.5m (GAL)

• Vulcan announced a €40m strategic investment from CIMIC (€25m), Hancock Prospecting (€12.5m) and Victor Smorgen Group (€2.5m) (VUL, AFR) Stock was placed at a 9% discount (to 30-day VWAP) at $4.09

• Polymetals is in trading halt for a capital raise (POL)

• DiscovEx has received commitments for $4m and anticipates receiving the ASX listing letter next week (DCX)

• Ausgold in trading halt for a capital raise (AUC)

• I know the stock shenanigans of Vancouver give West Perth a run for their money. But serious question here…

• Is there a single other company in Canadian history that managed to shove through this resolution that NexGen did in 2016, letting them double the potential dilution by way of stock options, thrust upon other shareholders? Because 10% per annum wasn’t enough, they had to make it 20%. Get real.

  

• Further signs that the copper story is going mainstream here with a short video by CNBC on “Why Copper Demand is Skyrocketing”

• While M&A volumes are at a two-year high, they are well below the record levels seen during the pandemic, and trail activity at the same point in more normal years, such as 2019 (FT via AFR)

• This podcast is an old one, but I listened to it on the weekend and loved it. It’s a Founders episode on Robert Friedland based on the book, The Big Score

• Here’s a Grant Williams interview on inflation, sovereign debt levels and the commodity set-up

• We interviewed two ex-geologist fund managers (Firetrail's Matthew Fist and Janus Henderson's Darko Kuzmanovic) on Livewire

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