Santos Cops $30B Bid as Energy Volatility Tightens Markets

Gold bounced with Pantoro leading the charge, Adriatic confirms Dundee deal

June 16, 2025

The Pre-Start

  • Black Cat announced a strategy to retain a minimum of $20m of production in gold bullion storage, with $24m worth currently held (BC8)

  • St Barbara is in a trading halt pending a reduction in Simberi FY25 guidance following the loss of ore production from Pigibo Central after high rainfall (SBM)

  • Rox declared dewatering of the Main & United North pits has commenced (RXL)

  • Santana released infill drilling results from RAS, with the company claiming intercepts show off underground potential (SMI)

  • Southern Cross published assays from infill work at Sunday Creek, demonstrating further narrow, high-grade hits (SX2)

  • Sweden’s County Administrative Board will now finalise Talga’s Nunasvaara South mine zoning plan after the local municipality missed its deadline (TLG)

  • Mayur stated after talks with PNG that its Special Economic Zone licence remains in force, with the company committed to achieving FID shortly (MRL)

  • Aurizon was awarded contracts for BHP copper logistics in South Australia, anticipating $1.5B in revenue over 10 years (AZJ)

  • Unico Silver released drilling results from Cerro Leon, hitting 36m at 474g/t AgEq from 1m (USL)

  • Brightstar shared Sandstone assays from infill & extensional work at the Indomitable camp (BTR)

  • Lunnon published a scoping study over the short-lived, 18koz, Lady Herial. Assuming A$5k/oz gold, the project would generate $45m in pre-tax free cash after ~$1m in startup capital, operating at an all-in cost of $2,100/oz (LM8)

  • Zuleika’s trial date for ongoing litigation against Catalyst has been set for October of this year (ZAG)

  • PLS announced Flavio Garofalo as interim CFO (PLS)

High Grade It

  • VanEck spent last week battling misinformation about potential changes to its gold miners exchange-traded fund, after shifts announced 2 weeks ago (AFR)

  • Gold rose toward a record, trading at US$3,450/oz, as an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran drove investors (Bloomberg)

  • BHP & Rio have been rejected in their advances to earn credits by storing carbon in mine waste and producing carbon-neutral diesel from trees (AFR)

  • The WA Supreme Court has set a trial date to decide how much Catalyst owes Creasy-backed Zuleika, following a long-running legal battle (West, ZAG)

  • Kazakhstan has selected Russia’s Rosatom to lead a consortium for the construction of its first nuclear power plant (Bloomberg)

  • Indonesia’s president Prabowo Subianto cancelled most mining permits issued in the coral-rich Raja Ampat archipelago, following pressure (FT)

  • Platinum fell by the most in more than 3 years as market tightness began to ease and conflict in the Middle East prompted a sell-off (Bloomberg)

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Wheelin’ n Dealin’

  • Adriatic has agreed to be bought by Dundee via scheme of arrangement. ADT shareholders will receive 0.159 DPM shares and 93p in cash for each share held, valuing the ASX CDI’s at $5.56 each, and ADT in total at $1.93B (ADT)

  • A consortium led by a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company & Carlyle have proposed a cash offer of $8.89/share ($30B value) for Santos. It’s a final non-binding indicative offer following two confidential proposals (STO)

  • Agribusiness Bunge said it has received regulatory approval from China for its merger with Glencore-backed Viterra (Reuters)

Rattlin’ the Tin

  • Greatland’s $50m raising and the simultaneous $440m sell down from Newmont (halving its current 20% stake) has been priced at $6.60/share (AFR)

  • VBX joining the ASX following a BHP bauxite find six decades ago in the Kimberley region (West)

  • Boab Metals completed a $6m placement (BML)

  • Turaco is in a trading halt to raise up to $64m (TCG, AFR)

  • Marimaca closed the second tranche of its US$18m placement (MC2)

Word on the Decline

  • Call us certifiable bonkers, but is this not the sort of gold market where we could feasibly see something happen with Mt Todd?

  • The project is held by Vista Gold at the moment but with project capex always many multiples of their market cap, we understand a dataroom has been open for the longest time.

  • The knock is on the rock hardness - you’d be hard pressed to find a single project out there with harder rock than Mt Todd…

  • Yet this gold market has already seen a dozen projects we’d previously put a line through, find a new life (and often new owner). The North Americans don’t appear to be the best project stewards.

  • And for a “shovel-ready” project - we think there’s half a chance it will find its way into new hands this cycle…

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In the Weeds

  • Zimi Meka interview (Resource Insider) A chat from a couple years ago with the founder of mining engineer firm Ausenco

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Today’s Top Tweet

If you want to know why this is a bad idea, tune in to our rare earths episode released yesterday (YouTube)

Devil’s in the Detail

There was a good bit of market rumble about the news via SMM that Ganfeng would provide an additional $150m of debt into the Mt Marion JV at 7% fixed interest rate.

What isn’t immediately obvious, unless you translate the actual release from Ganfeng, is that MinRes appears to also be tipping in the same amount. So just a typical cash top-up from the shareholders…

Genfeng’s release, translated

Plus, some unaudited financial data out of the JV for the curious.

Catch up on our latest episode

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Rare Earths in 2025: Boom, Bust or Bullsh*t?

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