Stausholm Exit: More Beneath the Surface?

Amplats debuts down while adopting Valterra name, Woodside receives hotly debated approval

May 29, 2025

The Pre-Start

  • Woodside’s North West Shelf extension received environmental approval by the federal government (WDS)

  • Champion Iron shared its Q4 results, with production of 3.2Mwmt and sales of 3.5Mdmt for EBITDA of $127m. Its DRPF project is planned for Dec commissioning, while a 10c dividend was declared (CIA)

  • Develop reported that earthworks at Sulphur Springs have commenced, including construction for the boxcut and clearing for plant infrastructure (DVP)

  • Resolute shared that while media reports indicated its Guinean permits had been revoked, it has not received formal communication from the government (RSG)

  • Black Cat provided a drilling & development update from Paulsens, with 45 holes that were designed to infill the Gabbro Veins completed to date (BC8)

  • St Barbara confirmed the 15-Mile Processing Hub as its preferred approach in Canada, with a 3Mtpa plant planned (C$251m capex), targeting 100kozpa (SBM)

  • Meeka released drilling results from open pit expansion work at Turnberry, returning a headline 10m @ 5.2g/t from 37m (MEK)

  • Brazilian Rare Earths shared drilling from Sulista West, confirming a “Monte Alto” style deposit (BRE)

  • Tesoro reported intercepts with gold mineralisation outside of the Ternera deposit boundary (TSO)

  • Golden Horse shared assay results from RC drilling at Hopes Hill, including 10m at 2.6g/t Au from 150m (GHM)

  • Nordic Resources added 147koz from the Angesneva deposit to take the Kopsa project to 961koz @ 1.11g/t AuEq (NNL)

  • David Naoum and Gemma Cryan have been appointed as independent NEDs of Evolution Energy (EV1)

  • New presentations were shared by Marimaca, Bannerman & Champion Iron

High Grade It

  • Anglo will complete its Amplats (now Valterra) spin-off this week, with some brokers, including UBS, theorising that this may tempt BHP back to the table (AFR)

  • Murray Watt dismissed opposition from UNESCO and a string of activists to approve Woodside’s decades-long extension of the NWS gas plant (Australian)

  • Santos boss Kevin Gallagher took aim at Victoria’s investment climate by comparing it to North Korea, as the gas industry demands red tape cuts (West)

  • Chile's SQM, missed quarterly profit estimates substantially and warned of lower realised prices in the next quarter due to lithium oversupply (Reuters)

  • The mining industry warned it’ll pull back on investment in Victoria after a proposal to ramp up fees imposed on the sector by 234% (AFR)

  • Trafigura said Australia’s hopes of becoming a leading critical minerals exporter are at risk as its smelters fight for survival, pleading for gov’t aid (Australian)

  • Copper miner Antofagasta has proposed negative treatment charges (-US$15) for sales to Chinese smelters amid a global squeeze on ore supply (Bloomberg)

Wheelin’ n Dealin’

  • Rio Tinto split with CEO Stausholm over conflicting priorities, sources have said (Reuters) Jakob’s rejection of a deal with Glencore is explicitly named, plus no movement on a Chinalco asset swap & a lack of focus on costs

  • Nexa rumoured in talks to buy BHP's Brazil copper, gold assets (MNN)

  • Midnight Sun enters into an earn-an agreement to acquire the Luswishi Dome project (MMA.V)

Rattlin’ the Tin

  • Fireweed Metals upsized its placement to C$46m plus $8m initial tranche (FWZ.V)

  • Euro Manganese closed its C$11m financing (EMN)

Word on the Decline

The Australian considers iron ore boss Simon Trott as favourite to become Rio’s next CEO

Reuters points to Aluminium boss Jerome Pecresse as the frontrunner

Can someone put this on Polymarket? We’ll take the outside odds that it’ll be Chief Commercial Officer Bold Baatar instead. Our theory: Baatar and the Board both agree on more bold M&A…

Pun intended 

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In the Weeds

  • How would Australia produce green iron? (MNN)

  • Mining in Ghana: Gold Coast Redux (Hallgarten & Co) Details the variety of players operating in the country from producers to developers

  • The lessons from China’s dominance in manufacturing (FT) State guidance + private sector comp., not every sector strategy worked, results have strained relationships with the West

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Devil’s in the Detail

Some humorous wordsmithing by the team at Warriedar in a nod to the Australian F1 star

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