• Tiger’s Realm, the ASX-listed Russian coking coal producer breached Commonwealth law prohibiting business with Russia (AFR)

• CEO of commodity trading giant Vitol has confirmed the company’s rebuilding its metals trading book after a long stint out (Bloomberg)

• Santos’ Papua LNG Project looks increasingly unlikely to reach FID this year following comments from venture partner, TotalEnergies (AFR)

• Woodside, together with fund manager Allan Gray, has fought back at proxy adviser Glass Lewis for recommending rejection of the company’s climate report and re-election of Richard Goyder (AFR)

• Julian Wright is headed to the High Court in his bid to reclaim some of his siblings’ multi-billion dollar iron ore fortune (The Australian)

• Citi has said copper has entered its 2^nd secular bull market of the century, led by decarbonisation-related demand growth (Mining.com)

• Benchmark zinc treatment charges dropped 40% from last year, on the back of mine supply tightness, as Teck & Korea Zinc agreed terms (Reuters)

• Gina Rinehart has emerged as a 5.3% shareholder in MP Materials, the NYSE-listed rare-earths producer with a market capitalisation of US$3 billion which was subject to merger speculation with Lynas earlier this year (AFR)

• Getting M&A deals done in Australia is set to get harder thanks to the introduction of more onerous competition laws and vetting powers handed to ACCC (The Australian)

• The emergence of Gina (via Hancock Prospecting) as a 5.3% shareholder in MP Materials is very interesting to us. Her foray into the world of rare earths has seen her pop up with a 10% shareholding of Arafura, a 6.4% shareholder of Brazillian Rare Earths and it’s been reported that Hancock owns its fair tilt of Lynas stock directly too

• We should not forget the merger discussions between Lynas and MP Materials which did the rounds just two months ago. Let us remind you that Lynas is capped at A$5.6 billion vs MP Materials at A$4.5 billion and that these are the only two major producers of rare earths in the West

• Gina is clearly extremely friendly with Lynas’ CEO, Amanda Lacaze. We urge you to watch Gina’s comments about Lacaze during her acceptance speech at last year’s AFR Business Person of the Year Award, available on YouTube starting at 4:50 thanks to Hancock… If you’re lazy, here’s her quote:

• This is a beauty… Angolan phosphate explorer/developer Minbos Resources is raising $6m at $0.07 with a 1:1 attaching option also at $0.07 (that’s not normal, it’s a broker special).

• Great Southern Mining is raising $1.8m

• Chinese solar-panel makers, which now account for 80% of the market, have paid the price for their rapid growth, as operating margins and share prices have halved in recent years (FT)

Disclaimer

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