Iron Ore Giants Tussle While Australia’s Processing Plans Struggle

Astron flies after scoring approvals, Perenti nabs Great Fingall contract

June 26, 2025

The Pre-Start

  • Perenti announced that its Barminco subsidiary was awarded the Great Fingall contract by Westgold, valued at ~$200m over 3 years (PRN)

  • Patriot updated the market on its ambition of adding value through tantalum by-production, with various options being evaluated (PMT) See meme below

  • Santana released metallurgical test work, with analysis of low-grade ore from RAS, seeing recoveries on average of 88.7% with low reagent consumption (SMI)

  • Collective Mining reported the discovery of a new sub-zone enriched in copper and silver in Apollo, hitting 114m @ 4.14g/t AuEq (CNL.TO) Up 9%

  • Energy Fuels’ Donald Rare Earth & Mineral Sand JV (with Astron) has received final regulatory approvals (UUUU.NY, ATR) Astron up 47% yesterday

  • Chalice said its PFS remains on track for Q4 CY25, with environmental docs in line for 2026 based on plans to expand mine throughput from year 5 (CHN)

  • Neometals has signed a non-binding MoU with Rio to explore opportunities to collaborate on the potential validation of the ELi Process Technology (NMT)

  • Omai Gold drilled 2.67g/t over 21m amongst other hits in its latest round of assays from the Wenot deposit in Guyana (OMG.TO)

  • Hillgrove shared drilling from down plunge at Kavanagh, hitting 2.4m at 0.9% copper and 0.04g/t gold from 238m (HGO)

  • Bowen’s suspension will continue until it has an update on operation and financing solutions (BCB)

  • Brightstar reported maiden ore reserves for Second Fortune and Fish, containing 6koz and 18koz respectively (BTR)

  • Stellar reported assays from drilling at Queen Hill, intercepting 6.3m at 2.2% tin from 369m (SRZ)

High Grade It

  • The WA gov’t has accused MinRes’ Chris Ellison of political posturing in a court fight over millions of dollars in unpaid port levies set to flow to Chevron (AFR)

  • The WA EPA has approved the next mine in Rio Tinto’s $20B investment spree, West Angelas, aimed at replacing a stable of ageing projects (West)

  • BHP’s Tim Day rejected claims the iron ore sector is in decline, indirectly rebuking Andrew Forrest’s China steelmaking emissions warning (AFR)

  • Lithium miner SQM cut 5% of its Chilean workforce as price weakness continues (Reuters)

  • South32’s dispute with Colombia will enter its 5th year after Bogota appealed a World Bank ruling over Cerro Matoso taxes and royalties (AFR)

  • CATL is making overseas expansion its top priority due to intense competition in China's domestic car market (Bloomberg)

  • Korea Zinc’s Sun Metals, one of Australia’s two zinc refineries, posted a US$37m loss, testing the govt’s mineral processing push (AFR)

  • French month-ahead power prices rose after EDF warned that nuclear output could be cut at the end of June on weather concerns (Bloomberg)

  • China is set to overtake Australia as the world's top lithium miner by 2026, according to Fastmarkets (Reuters)

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Wheelin’ n Dealin’

  • Ioneer has commenced a strategic partnering process as it looks to develop Rhyolite Ridge (INR)

  • Strickland is in a trading halt relating to a transaction involving the sale of an asset (STK)

Rattlin’ the Tin

  • Shandong Gold is seeking to raise up to US$600m in loans, following two bonds totalling US$400m last month, and its subsidiary is considering a Hong Kong listing (Bloomberg)

  • Champion Iron announced the offering of US$450m in senior notes due in 2032, refinancing its current senior credit facilities (CIA)

  • Metalla Royalty announced a revolving credit facility of up to C$75m, while retiring its Beedie convertible loan (MTA.TO)

  • Americas Gold & Silver closed a US$100m debt financing facility (USA.TO)

Word on the Decline

  • We’ve got a suspicion that Bellevue’s June quarter could miss expectations. And we very well might be wrong

  • But if our suspicion is true, it would complicate the strategic process being run to maximise value with a dataroom open to potential suitors

  • What’s priced in and what’s not? You be the judge. You could make a fair argument that a miss is already baked in, and a fair argument it’s not

  • Regardless, their quarterly results will be one of the most anticipated this season

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In the Weeds

  • Equity Investing in Commodities with Matt Zabloski (HC Pod) Bearish uranium, neutral copper, positive precious metals and tin

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