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West Scrambles as Magnet Supply Crunch Looms

West Scrambles as Magnet Supply Crunch Looms

Firefly rattle the tin for $75m while lithium pain extends to breaking point

June 05, 2025

The Pre-Start

Hudbay Minerals has had to temporarily pause Snow Lake as wildfires rage in Manitoba (HBM.TO)
Lotus’ Kayelekera Environmental & Social Impact Assessment has been approved, with the regulatory path now clear (LOT)
Coronado responded to speculation, advising that it’s in discussions regarding potential changes to its coal supply agreements with Stanwell, to unlock up to US$150m in near-term liquidity in return for additional supply (CRN)
After yesterday’s open, Metro shared an operational update, shipping 672kwmt in May, in line with its yearly target, though weather impacted volumes (MMI)
Saturn claimed a material increase in heap leach recoveries, with test work demonstrating 86% gold recovery achieved in 95 days (STN)
Lindian’s haul road construction is underway, while it shared that critical infrastructure is ahead of schedule, with key contracts to be awarded shortly (LIN)
White Cliff published assays on the final RC hole from its maiden campaign at its Rae copper project, hitting 105m @ 2.25% Cu & 6.97g/t Ag from 27m (WCN)
M Resources has appointed Ben Gargett as CFO (M Resources)

High Grade It

Alarm over China’s stranglehold on critical minerals is hitting home in the West as global car makers joined US counterparts to complain about Chinese rare earth restrictions that could cause production delays and outages (AFR)
The lithium recession has accelerated, leaving thousands of local jobs at risk (West) Seems clear to us that misaligned incentives, plus a game of “who can hold on longer” has led us here… surely we’re close?
Exploration pursuits have fallen across the country and most dramatically in WA in new data that Australia’s junior miners say spells out the funding and bureaucratic struggles they are dealing with (West)
A Walkley Award-winning former journo has admitted to spruiking an ASX gold junior on HotCopper, where he’s employed, under multiple aliases (AFR)
Trump’s newly imposed 50% tariff on aluminium imports may be too much for consumers to accept and crush demand, industry executives warned (Bloomberg)

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Wheelin’ n Dealin’

International Resource Holdings, a unit of Abu Dhabi’s IHC, has agreed to acquire a 56% stake in Alphamin from Tremont–a subsidiary of PE group Denham Capital (AFM.V) acquisition price C$0.70/sh vs C$0.91 pre-deal
Cobalt Holdings has scrapped its US$230m London IPO (Bloomberg, FT) No reason given - hard to believe it was cancelled after being over-subscribed. London capital markets are dead
Barrick’s CEO Mark Bristow has talked about slimming its portfolio (Mining.com), “selling the Tongon mine in Cote d’Ivoire is well advanced”

Rattlin’ the Tin

Challenger Gold has raised $35m, with L1 & Helikon named investors (CEL)
Aeris secured the previously announced $60m facility with Soul Patts, while the maturity on its term facility ($40m drawn) was extended to Aug 2026 (AIS)
Firefly is raising a total of $75m, with a $29m Canadian bought deal and a $46m Aussie equity raise (FFM)
Marimaca launched a placement for proceeds of US$18m (MC2)
IperionX has been awarded a US DoD contract for up to US$99m (IPX)
Compass Minerals announced the pricing of senior notes, which will yield 8% with a 2030 maturity (CMP.NY)
Kingfisher closed a C$11m placement (KFR.TO)
Caprice raised $7m for drilling in the Murchison (CRS)

Word on the Decline

Some lithium market intel: CATL is believed to have pressured spot prices to present a lower cost base for their inputs in the lead-up to their Hong Kong IPO. They’ve shifted towards buying from private producers in Zimbabwe and Nigeria at “aggressively low prices,” which has dragged down the broader market.
Nigeria now has two operating conversion facilities, with a third expected online in Q4 2025, producing 30 Ktpa LCE

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In the Weeds

BHP’s monumental copper pay and play in Chile (AFR op-ed)
Snapshot of China's critical mineral export controls (Reuters) Touching on every niche mineral you can & can’t think of
Muddy Waters' Darren McLean on mining investing (Apple, Spotify) Lundin’s, Montage, Canada, gold, Bre-X, generational brain drain from mining
A man accused of a $200m tax fraud via a web of fake mining companies, Tom Peever, is the nephew of a highly respected former Rio Tinto MD, David Peever (Australian)
Gold - The Journey Continues: Australia (WGC YouTube) A short doco on Aussie gold history

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Today’s Top Tweet

Here’s a thought for juniors - build the mine! So many companies base their strategy on building ounces. After all it worked for Great Bear. That was the worst thing that ever happened to the junior sector because it comforted geologist CEOs in the illusion that if we find ounces
— David Finch (@DavidFi_)
7:59 PM • Jun 4, 2025