The Pre-Start
MP Materials Q4 saw it produce 718t of NdPr oxide and 12kt of rare earth oxides in concentrate, for adj. EBITDA of US$39m and net income of $9m. The $50m increase in cashflow is primarily due to the DoW price floor (MP.NY)
Alcoa will pay a dividend of US 0.10 per CDI. It produced 37.5Mdmt of bauxite over the year (AAI)
Vault drilled 0.6m at 151 g/t from 193m at Darlot, with additional intercepts such as 7.6m at 31.7 g/t extending mineralisation beyond current LOM (VAU)
Ora Banda reported H1 revenue of $336m, EBITDA $173m, NPAT $96m, closing cash $155m. No dividend was declared (OBM)
Catalyst reported H1 revenue of $267m, EBITDA of $145m, NPAT $60m, closing cash and bullion $238m. It produced 46koz (CYL)
Zimplats reported H1 revenue of US$642m, NPAT US$144m, closing cash US$146m and 6E production of 317koz; no interim dividend (ZIM)
Metals X reported FY25 revenue $285m, NPAT $105m, closing cash $294m, with no dividend proposed (MLX)
Grange reported revenue of $478m for the year to 31 Dec 2025 (down 8% YoY) and profit after tax of $47m (down 21%), with no final dividend (GRR)
Austral Gold reported FY25 revenue of US$51m, profit after tax of US$15m, closing cash US$11m (AGD)
Jupiter reported Tshipi produced 1.7Mt over the year, with no interim dividend declared (JMS)
Polymetals reported half-year revenue of $39m, a loss after tax of $35m and negative EBITDA of $28m (POL)
Challenger has commenced ore haulage from the Hualilán mine to the Casposo plant, initially at ~500t/day ramping to ~1,000t/day (CEL)
Lunnon updated the Lady Herial resource to 0.79Mt at 2.1 g/t Au for 54koz, with mining underway and first ore delivered to the ROM pad (LM8)
Metro will do a buy-back to acquire up to 5% of its shares, after reporting net profit of $142m and underlying EBITDA of $73m for the year (MMI)
Montage sold its stake in Aurum (AUE)
St George is in a trading halt pending resource upgrade announcement (SGQ)
Lefroy has appointed Graeme Gribbin as MD effective immediately (LEX)
High Grade It
The US has taken steps to solidify rules on nuclear fusion energy (Reuters)
Japan's reliance on China for rare earths increased last month, with China supplying around 76% of the rare earths imported (Bloomberg)
The EU steel sector is pushing to be part of 'Made in Europe' act, while it seeks a narrow scope (Reuters)
The UK’s first commercial lithium plant opens in boost to domestic metals mining
(FT) Producing 100t pa (good for 2k EVs). Capex to scale to 1,500t is £640m
Copper has moved past US$6/lb, continuing its strong run of recent sessions amid China getting back to business and a weaker US dollar (MN)
Ecuadorean lawmakers pass reform geared at driving mining investment (Mining.com)
Gold steadied near US$5,200/oz after the US and Iran agreed to prolong nuclear talks, keeping markets on edge (Bloomberg)
Canetoad, the AI-driven geological and financial interface for the serious investor. Facts in the ground. From Stories in a PDF.
Wheelin’ n Dealin’
JX Advanced Metals will acquire the remaining 49.6% of Toho Titanium via a share exchange, with a potential spin-off of Toho's Titanium business to Nippon Steel under consideration (JX)
Dataroom has reported Santos is weighing the divestiture of majors assets (Australian)
Medallion has completed the acquisition of Forrestania from IGO (MM8)
Lindian is in halt pending a material acquisition announcement (LIN)
Rattlin’ the Tin
Terra Metals raised $85m via a placement at $0.37 to fund its Dante project (TM1) Participation from exisitng GEAR, Latimore, Tribeca plus Soul Patts cornerstoned
Avenira secured an $9m placement from majority shareholder Sichuan Hebang (AEV)
Talisker upsized its bought deal to raise C$52m, with a half warrant included for participants (TSK.TO)
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Today’s Top Tweet
In our industry, the operators with the fattest cost bases (the majors!) are ironically the ones clamping down on all LLM tools, even Microsoft Copilot. Allegedly..
Devil’s in the Detail
2.5 years ago, we thought MetalsX’s con notes in Cyprium were worthless. Now they're getting revalued higher thanks to Cyprium's equity strength.
A reminder to ourselves not to be so doom-and-gloom about distressed assets with sunk infrastructure and future optionality. And especially when your exposure sits higher than equity in the capital structure.
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