The Pre-Start
Anglo American and Teck have agreed to a merger of equals (TECK.TO) More below
Iluka has suspended production activities at Cataby & SR2 due to subdued demand for mineral sands & their downstream products, particularly pigment (ILU)
Alkane share FY26 guidance of 160-175koz AuEq at an AISC of $2,600-2,900/oz, plus ~$85m in growth capital (ALK)
Agnico sold down its Orla Mining stake for C$560m (AEM.NY)
Kinross trimmed its stake in Asante Gold, netting C$46m (K.TO)
G Mining claimed a new discovery at Oko West, intercepting 2.9m at 37.9g/t from 492m, whilst sharing assays from Gurupi (GMIN.TO)
Mount Gibson extended its buyback program for up to 10% of its shares for a further year, which to date has acquired ~3% of its stock (MGX)
Core Lithium updated ore reserves at Carlton to 4.5Mt at 1.19% Li2O (CXO)
A new structural tower is being installed as part of a 14-day shutdown at Black Cat’s Lakewood, with the work factored into guidance already (BC8)
Vulcan has received a permit to build & operate its Central Lithium Plant near Frankfurt, Germany (VUL)
Rox has appointed Byrnecut as the underground contractor for Youanmi (RXL)
Aurum hit 17m at 9.3g/t Au from 236m from diamond drilling at Napie as part of its 30,000m program (AUE)
Aldoro claimed its best hole to date at the Kameelburg niobium & REE deposit, intercepting a combined 184m at 2% TREO, 0.23% Nb2O5 & 395ppm Mo in the upper layer of a recent hole (ARN)
Brightstar shared RC drilling assays from Lord Byron, claiming wide zones of mineralisation beneath existing inferred resources (BTR)
Barton’s preliminary met testwork at Wudinna indicated gold recoveries of 94.3-99.3% at a 75μm grind size from Bureau Veritas, amongst other results (BGD)
Astral announced in-fill drill results from RC program, 32m at 10.7g/t Au from 50m at Mandilla Project (AAR)
Haranga’s maiden air core program intercepted near-surface mineralisation, including 20m at 6.5g/t Au from 12m at Ibel South Project (HAR)
High Grade It
Iron ore climbed for a 6th day and headed for its highest close in over 6 months ($107/t) on expectations of Chinese demand momentum (Bloomberg)
BHP fired back after being put on notice by Roger Cook over their “moral obligation” to decarbonise (West)
Australian miners now spend $5.50 to generate the same $1 return they achieved for just $3.50 at the turn of the century, as productivity plummets (Australian)
Rio Tinto and its Simandou iron ore partners will enjoy tax discounts of more than 50% on crucial parts of the project, in the projects early years (AFR)
Freeport said it had temporarily halted mining in Indonesia's Grasberg after a large flow of wet material blocked access underground (Reuters)
Alcoa will back privately-owned Western Gas with $46m as it looks to secure competitively priced & reliable power for its WA alumina refineries (Australian)
James Gorman has won a $50m compensation battle against Olive Downs over the impacts of an open-cut mining on his QLD properties (Courier)
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Wheelin’ n Dealin’
Anglo and Teck are merging, with Anglo shareholders to hold ~62% and Teck ~38%. Ahead of completion, Anglo investors will pocket a US$4.5B special dividend. The combined Anglo Teck will boast >70% copper exposure and target US$800m in annual pre-tax synergies (TECK.TO, AAL.L, call recording), adjusting for Anglo special dividend, the premium to Teck is ~12%
Investors at Ninety One, Legal & General, Janus Henderson, Aberdeen and Church of England Pensions Board, and Artemis, all said they supported the Anglo Teck tie-up (FT)
Yancoal is rumoured to be looking closely at acquiring both Kestrel and Anglo’s coal mines (Dataroom) also linked to Kestrel is International Resources Holding
Hastings has divested a portfolio of WA gold assets to Metal Bank for $2.3m, paid in new MBK shares (HAS)
Rattlin’ the Tin
Word on the Decline
Anglo Teck is a sensible deal for both companies. A rare mega merger in mining. And this one doesn’t have any of the hallmarks that a regrettable deal has: there’s no giant premium, no debt-funded sky-high purchase price. And there’s tangible operating synergies that can be pointed to at Collahuasi + QB.
Now the majors have to risk ‘paying overs’ if they truly do want a step-change in their own copper production. Both Anglo and Teck are in play.
Got Word on the Decline? Simply reply or email [email protected]. We will always take your privacy seriously.
In the Weeds
L1 Capital’s Mark Landau likes gold producer K92, Capstone Copper, and Nexgen (Livewire) on MinRes, “lithium assets could be spun out – potentially triggering a rout among short sellers!”
The Steelmaking process in Korea (YouTube) From iron ore to finished product… a truly incredible process
Anglo’s $85B Teck deal shows miners are breaking-up, then making-up (AFR Analysis)
Teck sells itself on the cheap to Anglo American writes Javier Blas (Bloomberg)
Javier Blas’ op-ed in Bloomberg
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Today’s Top Tweet
Tether Gold is buying 2 tonnes Gold per week from the biggest Swiss refiners. It's not going to be long before Tether is backed by all the Gold supply in the world. The rehypothication and endless gold loans days are over.
— #Garrett Goggin, CFA & CMT (#@GarrettGoggin)
5:44 PM • Sep 9, 2025
Shout out to @TRAVmoneyofmine and team @moneyofminepod for consistently putting out their "Director's Special" every evening. How they get the time to put all that together & do regular detailed but quality interviews & focus sessions is beyond me.
Well done gents!— #Neil Ringdahl (#@NeilRingdahl)
1:41 AM • Sep 9, 2025
Gotta correct Neil here - JD does most the work... I do the big value-add stuff like picking a funny tweet each day. But listen to Neil and share this newsletter with your work group chat 👇
Devil’s in the Detail
The auto-transcription is a cracker.
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