The Pre-Start
Rio announced that the Robe River JV will invest US$733m (Rio share US$389m) to develop the West Angelas Sustaining project, with approvals received (RIO)
Freeport Indonesia has located the five missing employees at Grasberg, who were found deceased (FCX.NY)
Regis first quarter production was in line with guidance, producing 90koz Au, leading to a total cash & bullion build of $158M (RRL)
Bellevue produced 30koz, with cash & bullion closing up $5m. It processed ~300kt of ore at 3.2g/t, while mining ~260kt. Recoveries were 95.6%. It pre-delivered 9.5koz to reduce shorter-term hedging commitments (BGL)
Greatland produced 81koz Au, building cash by $175m. AISC to be released on 27 Oct, expected to be on lower end guidance ($2,400-2,800/oz) (GGP) Up 10%
B2Gold announced commercial production from Goose mine in Canada (BTO.TO)
Larvotto signed an EPCM contract with Interquip Construction to deliver a processing plant upgrade at Hillgrove to ~0.525Mta (LRV)
Mt Gibson’s R&R statement showed resources of 9.7Mt of 63.2% Fe and reserves of 4.1Mt at 65% Fe at Koolan Island (MGX)
Falcon’s 6th wedge hole at Blue Moon hit 6.5m at 33g/t gold from 832m (FAL)
Cokal has completed trial coal shipments to Indonesia, with sales discussions underway (CKA)
Minerals 260 drill program saw hits of 10m at 7.7g/t Au from 204m at Bacchus with other assays shared from its Phoenix and Kraken deposits (MI6)
Burgundy breached an ASX listing rule as part of its ~$25m short-term financing with a related party, which was secured & settled through inventory sales (BDM)
Zuleika advised that its litigation with Catalyst has been postponed to early 2026 (ZAG)
Many Peaks extensional and infill program included a best hit of 55m at 2.85g/t Au from 463m at its Ouarigue prospect (MPK)
Kairos shared drilling results from Mt York’s Main Hill prospect, where it hit 9m at 4.4g/t from 138m (KAI)
Horizon Gold intercepted 39m at 4.5g/t Au from 133m, including 17m at 9.8g/t Au from 148m (HRN)
Felix diamond drill program assays intercepted a best hit of 5.8m at 4.3% Sb from 54m at NW Array targeting production later this year (FXG)
Presentations were shared by St Barbara & Champion Iron
High Grade It
Australia said it expected gold to become its second most valuable resource export after iron ore this financial year, dislodging LNG (Reuters)
The federal resources minister has rebuffed calls to weigh into BHP’s iron ore dispute with China, calling it “not particularly unusual” (AFR)
BHP's Aus president Geraldine Slattery has praised co-operation with Japan while remaining silent in an escalating row with China (Australian)
MinRes’ new chairman Mal Bundey has stepped up his efforts to polish the miner’s tarnished corporate governance by appointing a new joint company secretary (AFR)
Investor Matthew McLennan has predicted that just a whisker of economic growth could light a fire under oil, copper, iron ore and “it could be rocket fuel for the Aussie dollar” (Australian)
The DRC will permanently ban cobalt exporters that violate its new quota system, President Felix Tshisekedi has warned (Reuters)
Growing fiscal concerns in some of the world’s biggest economies are adding momentum to a so-called “debasement trade”, long bitcoin & gold (Bloomberg)
If you’re looking for an end-to-end mining solution, look no further. Blue Cap will take financing headaches off your plate, and look after everything from engineering to rehab.
Wheelin’ n Dealin’
Rattlin’ the Tin
Fortescue has launched a tender offer to repay up to US$600m in debt, targeting its 2030-32 notes that pay 4.4-6.1% (FMG)
GBM Resources is raising $33m at 5.3c (GBZ)
Tolu Minerals is raising $60.5m at A$1.20/sh for resource definition and plant refurbishment at its 1.5Moz Tolukuma gold mine (TOK)
St Barbara upsized its raising to $58m (SBM)
European Lithium sold 3m CRML shares to a US institution at US$7m, netting US$21m (EUR)
G Mining secured a US$388m financing package, with potential to be increased by US$150m, to allow it to construct Oko West (GMIN.TO)
Word on the Decline
It’s impossible not to pay attention to the on-market stock purchases from Gateway Mining’s new MD, Andrew Bray. In the space of a month, he has bought ~$8m on market. We welcome the level of conviction and alignment from management
Gateway’s new key asset is Strickland’s old Yandal East project. And Bray is ex-Strickland
Before Strickland pivoted to Serbia, the pitch was that the 400koz Yandal East project could prove up and be sold to NST given its proximity to Jundee, similar to the Millrose playbook
There are other options too. Wiluna is desperate for oxide feed to fill its CIL plant (they still release quarterlies on their website which reveal as much)
And what’s not on the map below, but not too far to the north-west, is Catalyst’s Plutonic operation. And we think Catalyst took a very close look at the Yandal East project when it was in STK…
Got Word on the Decline? Simply reply or email [email protected]. We will always take your privacy seriously.
In the Weeds
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Devil’s in the Detail
Patiently waiting for the PDI-RXR transaction docs to surface. The most interesting detail of this deal is whether there is a fiduciary-out for Predictive or not. All we have to go by so far is this one paragraph.
We interpret that as reciprocal fiduciary outs… i.e. both PDI and RXR have fiduciary outs. But if this deal was structured to try and prevent an interloper, you’d exclude the fiduciary out on the acquirer (being PDI). We will get clarity soon.
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Gold Soars & China Corners BHP (Jeff Quartermaine)
Stocks mentioned: PRU, NEM, B.NYSE, BHP, AAI, FCX.NYSE, WIA, 1208.HK, 2899.HK, NXG, HGO, TSO, STN, JBY, NGEX.TO, PEX
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