Metals Rise as Markets Notch Up Bullish Sentiment

Carnarvon dips into cash pile to investment in Strike, Champion Iron confirms Kami partnership

July 22, 2025

The Pre-Start

  • Capricorn shared a maiden Mt Gibson underground resource of 684koz at 3.1g/t, increasing the total MGGP MRE to 4.5Moz (CMM)

  • Perseus shared resource definition work from Nyanzaga, with a total of 35km drilled since Dec, improving average spacing to 20×40m (PRU)

  • Sheffield produced 201kt of concentrate, including 43kt of zircon con for operating cash flow of $25m. The company closed with $7m, while the JV held $15m (SFX)

  • Metro Mining shipped 1.7Mwmt, up 19% YoY, for record EBITDA margins of A$32/wmt. Cash closed at A$29m, with US$57m in debt (MMI)

  • Aeris shared a group resource & reserve statement (as of Dec 31 2024), with reserve containing 249kt Cu, 398koz Au, 413kt Zn & 11.8Moz Ag (AIS)

  • Strickland shared assays from drilling at Gradina, with a headline hit of 19.6m @ 7g/t from 377m (STK)

  • Vanadium Resources signed a binding 2-year offtake agreement with China Precious Asia for supply of vanadium-rich magnetite DSO from Steelpoortdrift (VR8)

  • Q2 Metals revealed an initial Exploration Target estimate at the Cisco project from 215 to 329 Mt at a grade ranging from 1.0 to 1.38 % Li2O (QTWO.V)

  • Norges lifted its stake in Iluka to 7.2% (ILU)

  • Franklin emerged as a substantial (5.4%) holder of Ausgold (AUC)

  • New presentations were shared by Aeris, Ballard, Patriot, Warriedar, & Antipa

High Grade It

  • Iron ore and steel traded around a four-month high, as China’s plan for a mega dam in Tibet bolstered the outlook for demand while Beijing’s efforts to rein in overcapacity lifted sentiment (Bloomberg)

  • Glencore has been offered several secretive financial incentives by the Crisafulli gov’t to save hundreds of jobs after it threatened to close its Mount Isa copper smelter (Australian)

  • Russian precious metals exports to China almost doubled in the first half of the year, sitting nearly 20x up on 2022 levels (Bloomberg)

  • Adani’s QLD coal mining & rail businesses lost a combined $500m over the past year after being weighed down by huge debt and interest repayments (AFR)

  • Iluka claims mine camp dues owed on $600m NSW Balranald build (West)

  • AVZ has CATL in its legal corner as talks over control of the Manono lithium project with KoBold Metals reach a price impasse (Australian)

  • Environmentalists opposing Ausgold’s Katanning gold project ready as public comments open (West)

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Wheelin’ n Dealin’

  • Sibanye-Stillwater is acquiring Metallix Refining for US$82m (EV: US$105m). Metallix is a producer of precious metals via industrial waste recycling, with 2 processing & recycling operations in North Carolina (SBSW.NY)

  • CAML has withdrawn its takeover offer for New World (KWC)

  • Northern Star has acquired the Mt Roe tenements from Mantle Resources, which are adjacent to Hemi, for $13.5m (MTL)

  • Champion Iron has entered an agreement with Nippon & Sojitz, for the partners to initially contribute $245m for 49% in the newly formed Kami Iron Mine partnership. Permitting & DFS work is to follow (CIA)

  • Carvarvon Energy will make a strategic investment in Strike Energy of up to $88m, via a 2-tranche equity investment (STX) ahead of a possible merger (Dataroom)

Rattlin’ the Tin

  • Meteoric is raising $35m at A$0.14/sh to advance its Caldeira rare earths project through DFS stage (AFR)

  • Sun Silver is raising $25 million at $0.92/sh (SS1)

  • American Rare Earths is in a trading halt, pending announcements of capital raisings (ARR)

  • Osisko Development secured a US$450m financing facility from Appian Capital to develop the Cariboo gold project (ODV.NY)

Word on the Decline

Pretty quickly, the market is starting to feel a bit 2021-like. One of the defining features of the speculative mania four years ago was the ‘IPO day 1 pop’ which itself drove the flurry of IPOs to hit the market.

We’re not there yet. But the ‘IPO pop’ is back. In the last week alone, take:

  • Broken Hill Mines (BHM): day 1 close $0.46/sh following $0.35 offer price

  • Ballard Mining (BM1): day 1 close $0.37/sh following $0.25 offer price

  • Tali Resources (TR2): day 1 close $0.37/sh following $0.20 offer price… then $0.60/sh on day 2

We all know what comes next

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In the Weeds

  • BHP's plan to revive NickelWest takes another hit (Dryblower)

  • Saving a miner $400m by spotting a few Excel errors (Linkedin article by Julian Poniewierski)

  • Little Aussie miner pushes back on Chinese control of critical minerals (AFR op-ed) Focuses on Tivan & its Japanese MoU’s

  • Rules of Thumb (Trader Ferg) Rules Ferg follows religiously - great read for deep value investors

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