The Pre-Start

Hudbay has temporarily shut its mill at Constancia on the back of protests in Peru (HBM.NY) Its workforce put on obligatory leave
Newmont poured first gold at its Ahafo North project in Ghana (NEM)
Rox shared an exploration update, with an airborne magnetic survey completed at Youanmi and an academic study commissioned (RXL)
Talga & Aurubis announced a non-binding supply agreement, whereby the latter would provide recycled graphite from lithium-ion battery production scrap (TLG)
Anson signed a definitive offtake agreement with LG Energy Solution for supply of lithium carbonate of 4ktpa for 5 years (ASN)
Yandal received further assays from its Arrakis discovery, with a hit of 50m at 1.3g/t gold from 122m, 400m northwest of its previous hit (YRL) Up 34%
Dreadnought updated its M&I mineral resource for Star of Mangaroon up 36% from 2024. Drilling is being undertaken with results expected in Dec quarter (DRE)
West Coast Silver’s diamond drill program hit 21m at 50g/t Ag from 20m, with a second DD and RC program to commence in October (WCE)
Hammer metals DD and RC results delivered 6.34m at .08g/t Au from 449m at Brownzwing East (HMX)
G50 Corp announced results from its maiden RC program at White Caps with a hit of 6.1m at 1.58g/t Au, 1.1% Sb, 1.69g/t Ag from 75m (G50)
KGL is undertaking optimisation work following positive commodity price moves as RCF emerged with an 8.3% shareholding (KGL)
Liontown has appointed Greg Jason as CFO (LTR)
Catalyst’s James Champion de Crespigny and Bruce Kay sold 3% and 36% of their shareholdings, respectively (CYL)
A new presentation was shared by Metallium

High Grade It

The Trump administration is seeking an equity stake of as much as 10% in Lithium Americas as it renegotiates terms of the company's US$2.3B Energy Department loan for Thacker Pass (Reuters) LAC jump 90% in after-market trade
US Antimony Corp has secured a sole-source, 5-year contract worth up to US$245m from the US Defense Logistics Agency to supply antimony (Reuters) For those who haven’t seen the UAMY chart… look here
Gold goes ‘parabolic’ as investors bet big on Fed rate cuts, with the precious metal up 10% over the past month (AFR)
Fortescue has quietly slashed references to hydrogen in its latest plan to eliminate emissions from the company’s iron ore mining operations (Australian)
The US-China dispute over Beijing's control of rare earth supplies has yet to be resolved, according to a US lawmaker (Bloomberg)
China’s copper industry could face pressure due to the decline in the price of a byproduct, acid, potentially leading to a drop in operating rates (Bloomberg)
Indonesia suspended 190 mining permits after they failed to meet their rehab obligations or comply with production quotas (Reuters)
Stock options offered to MinRes’ Mal Bundey are ~$11m in the money, and if approved, will be one of corporate Australia’s most generous remuneration packages for a non-exec chair (AFR)
The head of the largest US aluminium producer, Alcoa, warns import tariffs will destroy demand for American metal (Bloomberg)

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Wheelin’ n Dealin’

Deterra announced the sale of its non-core gold offtake assets, alongside its St Ives and Dandoko royalties for A$91m to Vox Royalty. Proceeds will reduce net debt (DRR)
Trigg entered an acquisition for an Idaho Gold-Antimony project, while receiving A$5m through a placement at $0.09 from Tribecca (TMG)

Rattlin’ the Tin

Lynas’ SPP, which hard-targeted $75m, has been upscaled to accept all applications, totalling $182m (LYC) Is someone going shopping?
Canyon was out raising $200m yesterday, priced at 26c a share, with the bulk of the raise taken up by EEA and Afriland (AFR)
Concurrent with Vox’s acquisition of the gold offtake assets from Deterra, they are raising US$55m at $3.70 per share (VOX.TO)
Highlander Silver announced a C$75m bought deal public offering to progress its San Luis gold-silver project in Peru and consider acquisitions (HSLV.V)
Gateway is raising $22.5m under share placement at 5.5c/share for exploration and drilling at Yandal Gold project and Glenburgh South project (GML)
PT Merdeka Gold surged by the 25% daily limit in its Jakarta trading debut after wrapping up Indonesia’s largest IPO this year (Bloomberg)
RareX announced $50m equity funding facility with investor GEM. $25m will be made available on the grant of Mrima Hill, plus a $25m extension if sought (REE)

Word on the Decline

There’s a bit to mull over when it comes to African gold miners at the moment
We’re increasingly thinking about the future for Perseus in the aftermath of the Jeff Quartermaine era
We think Perseus could find itself an acquisition target - and Chinese gold miners such as Zijin have shown their intent all over the continent
There’s no doubt that Montage Gold has its own ambitions to become the leading African growth gold producer too. Yes, their own market cap is significantly smaller than Perseus’. But does it mean an eventual tie-up is out of the question? Certainly not - especially if Predictive goes to Montage first
And throw Robex in the mix: watch their moves with their own neighbours…

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In the Weeds

Squarepoint, a quant investor, has emerged as a fast-growing trader of real-world commodities, competing with Glencore & Trafigura (Bloomberg)
2008 = RMBS, 2025 = AIBS* (Artificial Intelligence-Backed Securities also known as AI-BS!) (Le Shrub on Substack)