• Alcoa signed a gas deal Chevron to supply its alumina refineries in WA (MiningNews)

• BHP train driver ‘stressed and sleeping with lights on’ when train crashed (Australian)

• Shuttered nickel mines & cutbacks in alumina production have reduced the risk of near-term gas shortages in WA domestic market, according to AEMO (AFR)

• BHP faces class action over sexual harassment and discrimination (FT)

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned the record $90b surge in off-budget spending would be even worse under the Coalition’s plan to build taxpayer-funded nuclear plants (AFR)

• Nickel shutdowns ease WA’s gas shortage fears (AFR)

• Lobby groups representing Australia’s biggest miners have hit out at gov’t policy settings with forecasts for falls in commodity prices factoring in the budget blowout (Australian)

• Namibia investigates China’s Xinfeng for alleged illegal mining (Bloomberg)

• PetroChina to start metals trading, eyeing energy transition (Reuters) lithium, copper, nickel and carbon named specifically

• Alrosa’s 2024 diamond output falls by 4.6% (Reuters)

• Gas pipeline owner APA defied opposition and deepened its involvement in developing the huge Beetaloo Basin gas resource in the NT (AFR)

• Gold held a decline ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming rate decision, steadying around US$2,650/oz (Bloomberg)

• US graphite miners ask Washington to impose 920% tariff on Chinese rivals (Reuters) competitive, eh? SYR announcement more muted

• Scoping study encourages Medallion to push on with developing Ravensthorpe gold project (Kalgoorlie Miner)

Today’s Director’s Special newsletter is our last edition for 2024 and our final podcast will go up this afternoon. We’ll be back on deck on 20 Jan next year.

Until then, Hooteroo from team Money of Mine 🍻

• Patriot Battery Metals has received C$69m investment from Volkswagen at C$4.42/sh, a 65% premium to last (PMT) included is a binding offtake for 100,000 tonnes of SC5.5 over a 10-year term, ~25% of Patriot’s Stage 1 target

• Woodside and Chevron have agreed to an asset swap under which Woodside will acquire Chevron’s interest in the North West Shelf, NWS Oil and Angel CCS in exchange for Chevron’s interest in Wheatstone and Julimar-Brunello (WDS)

• Glencore is in talks to sell its Philippine copper smelting unit, in discussions “with at least one domestic buyer for the unit” (Bloomberg)

• Japanese giant Idemitsu buys Aussie vanadium battery start-up Vecco in coal to minerals pivot (AFR)

• Paladin received clearance under the Investment Canada Act for the acquisition of Fission (subject to certain conditions) (PDN) Deal expected to close by Jan 2025

• Could more of MinRes be sold to Hancock? (BN) just hypothetical conjecture, no real rumours

• Champion Iron announced a partnership with Nippon Steel and Sojitz to advance the feasibility assessment & potential development of Kami, with the partners to initially contribute $245m for a 49% interest in the partnership (CIA)

• Megado Minerals executed an exploration agreement with an option to purchase with Iluka for the North Folk rare earth project in Idaho (MEG)

• Aurum has increased its stake in Mako Gold to ~72.1% as part of its takeover offer (AUE)

• Geopacific is raising $40m via an entitlement offer which is largely underwritten by friends of the show Deutsche Balaton (DELPHI) and Patronus (GPR) funds earmarked to advance Woodlark in PNG…

• Nouveau Monde Graphite gets C$50m to fund Quebec project from two government entities (Bloomberg)

• Antipa completed its $16m placement adding to its existing $23m cash balance “providing maximum corporate flexibility” - can someone plz explain the angle here? (AZY)

• Emperor Energy raised $3m via a placement (EMP)

Seeing Geopacific raising this morning is pretty interesting. We wouldn’t be surprised to see something happen between them and Kingston Resources - who has a gold development project of their own in PNG which they have been trying to sell. Lucky them, they share a common major shareholder, DELPHI!

Oh and did we mention Patronus (who is sub-underwriting the raise) is also the result of two DELPHI companies merging?

And while we’re on the topic of PNG gold M&A, tune in to our final podcast this evening to hear a deal theory from Pete Ker.

• What’s missing from the CSIRO’s latest GenCost draft with Zoe Hilton (CIS)

• Mike Henry: the world needs miners with higher standards (MiningNews)

• Evolution of Long-Short Equity Investing (Capital Allocators)

• How China is setting up shop in America’s backyard (FT)

• The nuclear renaissance is here: where to invest (Livewire)

• China’s economy is in for another rough year (Economist)

• ‘A different animal’: Inside Huawei’s new EV business (AFR)

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