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- Paladin Falters, NGEx Spins Off Royalty
Paladin Falters, NGEx Spins Off Royalty
Iluka weary on outlook with macro uncertainty, Westgold builds treasury by $132m
The Pre-Start
NGEx Minerals announced its plans to create and spin out NSR royalties on the Lunahuasi (1%) and Los Helados (2%). Shareholders of NGEx will receive 1/4 of a share of RoyaltyCo for each share of NGEx (NGEX.TO) stock up 4%
Paladin produced 994klb of U3O8, while selling 710klb at US$55.6/lb on a cost of production of US$37.5/lb, marking a US$18m operating loss. Cash closed at US$89m, with US$87m drawn (excluding CNNC facility). FY26 production guidance is 4-4.4Mlb (selling 200klb less), at costs of US$44-48/lb (PDN) Down 10%
Iluka produced 37kt of zircon sand, 42kt of zircon-in-con, and 58kt of synthetic rutile, with total sales of 133kt for revenue of $298m. The half year saw free cashflow of -$371m (ILU)
Westgold produced 88koz (55koz Murchison, 33koz SGF) at an AISC of $2,688/oz. Cash, bullion and investments closed at $364m, up $132m QoQ, with $39m spent on capex (WGX)
Emerald has grown its resource at Memot and Dingo Range, with the projects hosting 1.34Moz @ 1.3g/t and 1.36Moz @ 1.1g/t respectively (EMR)
Magnetic released a feasibility study over Lady Julie, with a pre-tax NPV8 of $970m and IRR of 45% (assuming A$4k/oz gold), with upfront capex of $375m. Its maiden reserve contains 997koz @ 1.72g/t (MAU)
Syrah has loaded a shipment following recommencement at Balama, while removing the force majeure declaration (SYR)
Talga has received a patent for its Talnode®-C graphite battery anode material in the US (TLG)
New Found Gold shared a PEA for Queensway, with combined Phase 1 & 2 capex of C$597m, for an NPV5 of C$743m and 56% at US$2,500/oz (NFG.TO)
Vizsla Copper drilled 345m of 0.43% CuEq from 10m at its Thira target in British Columbia (VCU.TO) Stock jumped 24%
Emmerson completed scoping study on White Devil, outlining 7 years of operations, averaging 64kozpa, with peak capital requirements of $33m (ERM)
West Wits updated its DFS for its Qala Shallows, with a peak funding requirement of US$44m for steady-state production of 70koz over 12 years (17-year total mine life). NPV7.5 is US$500m with an IRR of 81% (WWI)
Rumble lifted its Western Queen MRE to 370koz @ 3.1g/t (RTR)
Kingston shared assays from drilling at SOZ underground, intercepting 4m at 12.9g/t Au, 5g/t Ag and 0.73% Cu from 86m (KSN)
Lotus has appointed Melissa Roberts as CFO (LOT)
New presentations were released by Predictive, Alkane, Rox, AIC, Chalice, Paladin, Lowell Resource Fund, & Westgold
High Grade It
China’s mega dam plan in Tibet has sparked hopes of steel-driven growth, boosting iron ore trades (AFR)
Northern Star is facing opposition from traditional owners over plans to discharge water from its Hemi project into an ephemeral Pilbara river (BN, AFR)
Prices of coking coal futures in China hit their ceiling for a 2nd successive trading session on Tuesday, amid market chatter about potential government inspections in China's major coal production hubs (Reuters)
Brazil’s Vale iron ore production in the second quarter beat estimates, driven by an output record from its flagship mine (Bloomberg)
Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro cut its 2025 capital spending guidance by ~US$150m and froze external white-collar hiring, as input costs are volatile and demand uncertain due to U.S. tariffs (Reuters)
Pilbara Port Authority is discussing with BHP, FMG and Hancock about funding a bypass channel to help safeguard the iron ore industry (Australian)
Over 12,000 industry eyes read this daily, including the mining sector’s biggest decision-makers. Want their attention? This is your front-row seat.
Wheelin’ n Dealin’
Carnarvon’s purchase of a 19.9% stake in its rival puts to bed any plans that may have been brewing by Beach or Rinehart to consolidate the Perth Basin, Dataroom reports (Australian)
IRH completed its acquisition of 56% of Alphamin for US$367m (RTT) AFM trading a C$1/share again
Rattlin’ the Tin
Larvotto is in a trading halt to raise equity, after completing its US$105m bond raising (LRV)
Vulcan reported that ~$186m across 2 grants have been approved by various German government agencies (VUL)
Meteoric raised $42.5m via a placement, with it said would fund it to FID (MEI)
IperionX secured $70m in funding to accelerate US titanium expansion (IPX)
Word on the Decline
You have to imagine a takeout of NGEx follows the spinout of RoyaltyCo
And the fortitude to create this vehicle clearly signals that the Lundins are not short of corporate options here…
The deal may be reminiscent to Great Bear Resources for the North American investors where the gold developer spun-out a 2% NSR on its Dixie project in April 2020, then Kinross paid C$1.8B for Great Bear late 2021. Shareholders who held onto Great Bear Royalties got paid twice - Royal Gold acquired them mid 2022
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In the Weeds
More power than Britain: China kick-starts mega dam to bolster economy (AFR)
How the diamond industry lost its sparkle (FT Big Read)
Gina wants a helipad on top of her pink building in Perth (AFR)
This thread from lithium whiz kid Daniel Rau is a banger (Twitter)
Today’s Top Tweet
Re the $NGEX royalty spinout, these things tend to do quite well. Here's Vizsla Royalties $VROY vs silver and $SILJ since the spin.
— David Finch (@DavidFi_)
11:11 AM • Jul 22, 2025
Devil’s in the Detail
If you want some boardroom drama this morning, get out the popcorn and keep your eyes on whatever announcements emerge from microcap Winchester Energer today.
At 10 am Perth time this morning, there’s an EGM, triggered by two separate s249D Notices that appear to have come from opposing sides of the company’s boardroom.
Every single Director is facing removal. So there’s a chance there won’t be a single Director of the company left by the time the meeting ends!
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