The Pre-Start
Northern Star reported underlying free cash flow of $14m and net mine cash flow of $183m on the 381koz it produced at an AISC of $2,522/oz. Disruptions at Jundee & South Kal early in Q2 will impact volumes by ~20koz (NST)
Teck reported adjusted EBITDA of C$1.2B and adjusted profit of C$372m for the quarter, exceeding consensus expectations. It produced free cash flow of ~C$200m while guidance remained unchanged (TECK.NY)
Regis produced 90koz at $2,861/oz, realising a price of $5,405/oz. Cash and bullion grew by $158m (RRL)
Bellevue closed the Sept quarter with cash & gold of $156m as well as $100m in debt, with the company’s pre-reported results covering most quarterly details. Hedging commitments for the Dec quarter stand at 4.7koz at A$2,877/oz (BGL)
Vault produced 92koz at an AISC of $2,613/oz, realising a price of $4,446/oz. Underlying free cash flow was $28m, while $9m was spent buying back stock (VAU)
Ora Banda shared drilling results from Little Gem & Riverina, significantly expanding known mineralisation with hits including 2.6m at 4.3g/t from 203m (OBM)
Catalyst hit 33m at 7.4g/t from 322m at Cinnamon, an undeveloped resource 25km NE of Plutonic (CYL)
Meeka produced 7.1koz at $2,133/oz, seeing cash and bullion lift $4m to $59m. It processed 84kt at 2.7g/t gold with 98% recoveries (MEK)
Rox received final regulatory approvals for underground mining and associated works at Youanmi (RXL)
VRX Silica secured binding offtake contracts for Arrowsmith North with customers across Asia, for an aggregate commitment of 410ktpa (VRX)
White Cliff hit 15m at 4.8% Cu and 20g/t Ag from 12m at Danvers 2 at the Rae copper project in Canada (WCN)
St George’s second diamond hole at Araxá intercepted 88m at 2.95% TREO and 0.41% Nb2O5 from 2m (SGQ)
Brazilian Critical Minerals delivered mixed rare earth carbonate grading 50% TREO from its first field trial (BCM)
Astral shared RC results from in-fill drilling at Theia, drilling the deposit on a 12 × 12m density (AAR)
Theta Gold Mines has broken ground on the construction of the plant at the TGME gold mine, targeting production in Q1 2027 (TGM)
Torque hit 12m at 6.2g/t from 505m at Paris Main/West, in its latest round of step-out drilling (TOR)
South32’s Chair, Karen Wood, will retire from the board in Feb 2026, with Stephen Pearce to take on the position (S32)
Deterra announced that MD & CEO Julian Andrews will step down at the end of the calendar year, with Jason Neal to take the role on an interim basis (DRR)
High Grade It
Major lithium producers are split over an Albanese gov’t proposal to set a floor price for the commodity as part of a plan to create a national stockpile of critical minerals (AFR)
US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said deeper US-Aus co-operation on critical minerals will help ensure Washington does not lose the AI “arms race”, saying it was just as important as the Manhattan Project (Australian)
Gold’s price plunge this week has sparked fresh concerns about the quality of deals being pushed by brokers amid record-breaking capital raisings (Australian)
Spot prices for platinum surged by as much as 6.4% in London to $1,646/oz, the biggest intraday jump since 2020 (Bloomberg)
Investor holdings of physically-backed gold ETFs reached their highest level in 3 years just as bullion suffered its biggest one-day plunge since 2013 (Bloomberg)
Wheelin’ n Dealin’
Rio Tinto is exploring a potential asset-for-equity swap with Chinalco that would trim the Chinese investor's 11% stake, freeing up Rio to resume buybacks and pursue new strategic deals (Reuters) Simandou, Oyu Tolgoi and the titanium business explicitly mentioned as potential assets
Mont Royal completed its merger with Commerce Resources (MRZ) many eyes on how this does out of the gate
Rattlin’ the Tin
Challenger Gold is in halt to raise capital (CEL)
Abrasilver raised C$46m via bought deal financing (ABRA.TO) participation from both Kinross and Eric Sprott
Taseko raised US$170m via bought deal financing to repay its debts (TKO.TO)
American Tungsten completed a C$16.8m LIFE offering (TUNG.CN)
Allied Critical Minerals closed a C$16.2m LIFE offering (ACM.CN) two +$16m cap raises from juniors on the CSE of all exchanges… This is some market.
Word on the Decline
From the Reuters story on Rio’s potential asset-for-equity swap, this paragraph at the end:
We have already reported our technical doubts of Jadar… And to cap things off, we hear a significant write-down of the lithium business is coming with the next set of results
Got Word on the Decline? Simply reply or email [email protected]. We will always take your privacy seriously.
In the Weeds
Recharge by BMR: LME Week, Lithium debate, China controls (Pod)
Dale Henderson on the global lithium sector (Bloomberg interview)
Were you forwarded this email from someone else?
Today’s Top Tweet
Devil’s in the Detail
It’s AGM season. And with every AGM season comes a familiar ritual: the quiet withdrawal of certain resolutions after all shareholder proxies are received but before the actual meeting begins.
In this narrow window, directors already know which resolutions will fail. Rather than face the embarrassment of public rejection, they simply make them disappear.
Deterra, one of the easiest punching bags on the ASX, has once again managed to wound itself (we suspect). Their proxy deadline was Tuesday. The AGM is today. They’re right in that special window.
And right on cue, amid the shock news that CEO Julian Andrews will depart by year’s end, with non-executive director Jason Neal stepping in as Interim CEO, came this telling line at the bottom of the announcement:
Resolution 5, if you were wondering, was for shareholders to approve this:
I guess we’ll never know how shareholders really thought about that one...
Catch up on our latest episode
🟢Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🟥 Youtube