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BHP Trims Dividend, Puts QLD on Notice

BHP Trims Dividend, Puts QLD on Notice

The Big Australian offloads Brazilian copper for up to US$465m while Kaili lights up the ASX

August 19, 2025

The Pre-Start

BHP reported US$9B in attributable profit on US$51B in revenue, while investing US$9.8B in capex & exploration. It issued a US$0.60/share dividend (BHP)
Deterra reported $263m in revenue, up 10% YoY, with MAC contributing $239m, for underlying EBITDA of $250m. It’ll pay a 13cps dividend, representing 75% of NPAT (DRR)
Macmahon delivered record revenue up 20% of $2.4B, with FCF of $140m up 89% (MAH)
Monadelphous reported revenue up 12% and net profit up 35% to $84m, while issuing a 72cps dividend (MND)
SRG reported net profit of $61m on $1.3B of revenue, issuing a 5.5cps dividend (SRG)
Kingston shared an update on its Mineral Hill growth strategy, with the Misima sale funding a 40,000m 2-year drilling program (KSN)
Hillgrove hit 14m at 2.67% Cu from 136m at Kanmantoo (HGO)
Gorilla intercepted 5m at 66g/t Au from 399m at Comet Vale (GG8)
St Barbara has advanced its mining lease application over Simberi, with extension documentation now being prepared (SBM)
Encounter share intercepts from Crean, where it hit 7.3m at 6.3% TREO and 8.1% Nb₂O₅ from 91m (ENR)

High Grade It

BHP has slashed spending on new mines and increased its willingness to carry debt after a 26% slide in full-year earnings forced the miner to cut dividends to the smallest in 8 years (AFR), while adding it’ll consider its future in QLD if extreme coal royalties persist (Australian)
MinRes maintains it won’t pay WA government port levies destined for oil & gas giant Chevron (Australian)
Glencore filed applications to have two copper projects, El Pachon & Agua Rica, included in Argentina’s investment incentive program (Bloomberg)
Companies controlled by the Victor Smorgon Group have been accused of running a dishonest and fraudulent scheme to invalidly acquire a stake in Stawell gold mine at a below-market price (AFR)
Australia’s biggest steelmaker, Bluescope, has said local manufacturing has hit a ‘tipping point’ and without urgent gas market reform (Australian)
The ASX had its own meme stock moment when Yitai Coal-backed rare earths miner Kaili Resources rocketed 8650% (AFR) <$2m worth changed hands

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Wheelin’ n Dealin’

BHP has agreed to sell copper assets in Carajás, Brazil to CoreX Holding for up to US$465m, with US$240m on completion & up to US$225m in contingent payments (Reuters)
The Bank of Montreal is reportedly eyeing a strategic stake in Aussie stockbrokers (AFR) with Euroz confirming they’d met, though terms & valuation haven’t been discussed (EZL)
Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina-based rare earth magnet manufacturer, has agreed to buy supply from ReElement Technologies that will be sourced outside of China (Reuters)
Tombador will acquire GoviEx Uranium, with the new company to be re-named Atomic Eagle while focusing on its Zambian Uranium project Muntanga (TI1)

Rattlin’ the Tin

Southern Cross Gold commences trading on the OTCQX today (SX2) because two listings weren’t enough already?
Syrah received a further US$6.5m disbursement from its US DFC loan (SYR)
Magnetic completed a $35m placement to advance Lady Julie (MAU)
Snowline confirmed that B2Gold would maintain its 9.9% shareholding by participating in its raising, with a C$10m contribution (SGD.TO)
Massive capital raisings in the rare earths sector, Lindian’s is $100m with FID and Arafura was $80m…

Word on the Decline

The only media outlet reporting that M Resources is eyeing a bid for Anglo’s coal assets as the Peabody deal remains in doubt, is the Courier Mail…
An unusual source for a deal rumour, but as Queensland’s local masthead, they are close to the proverbial coal face, so we should take it seriously
Of relevance to ASX punters is whether or not Stanmore is part of the bidding consortium with M Resources right now. Because the pair together were the widely rumoured underbidders on the assets behind Peabody when the sale process ran its course

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In the Weeds

Lithium's rally is super-charged with speculative spice (Reuters op-ed)
Big banks clash over $US100 iron ore call (AFR)
In Search of Nathan Tinkler (Four Corners) A 2013 on Australia’s youngest Billionaire

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Today’s Top Tweet

Once again, Neil condenses years of accrued expertise into concise lessons for us all

🧵Mining 101: The #Economics of #OpenPit vs. #Underground#Mining, following on from the thread below.👇❗️
Why are some mines underground (UG), others Open Pit (OP) & others a hybrid of the two?
We will mainly discuss mine economics here, but there are others reasons too...
— Neil Ringdahl (@NeilRingdahl)
6:27 PM • Aug 18, 2025