Glencore shows off Mt Isa assets

Glencore Queensland Metals mines zinc and copper in the Mt Isa region. Image: Glencore

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has visited Glencore’s Mount Isa mines to discuss the importance of metals and minerals.

The Mt Isa copper-zinc mines are located in Mount Isa, Queensland, and are home to the only copper smelter and refinery in the state.

Glencore head of zinc and copper business Sam Strohmayr said the company had been looking forward to welcoming the Prime Minister to the site.

“We were delighted to host the Prime Minister and pleased that he was able to take time to visit our zinc operations,” Strohmayr said.

“We were also grateful to have the opportunity to discuss the increasing importance of metals and minerals in Australia and the contribution our operations make to the region.

“Mount Isa is one of Australia’s most successful mining towns and this is in large part to the support we get from the community.”

Glencore’s Queensland metals business employed over 4400 people in 2022, and contributed $2.4 billion to the economy.

This number included $1.7 billion spent on goods and services, which allowed the company to work with approximately 2130 local suppliers.

In 2022, Glencore spent $1.25 billion in investment commitments in transition metals, including spending $475 million to acquire the remaining 56.25 per cent interest in the MARA copper project in the Catamarca province of Argentina.

Newmont-Newcrest deal makes billions for Australia

OLIVIA THOMSON

The Cadia operation. Image: Newcrest Mining

Pitchers Partners has released its Dealmakers: mid-market M&A in Australia 2023 update, where it found that the mining sector contributed significantly to the country’s M&A (mergers and acquisitions) value through the Newmont acquisition of Newcrest.

Pitcher Partners is an association of independent accounting and business advisory firms located in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Sydney.

Its latest dealers M&A (mergers and acquisitions) update found that international corporate buyers accounted for $48 billion of M&A activity in the first half of 2023. As a result, this has delivered the strongest six-month interval for offshore M&A values since 2018.

“Across all markets, foreign interest was led by North American dealmakers who contributed 77 per cent of deal value as they explored opportunities in Australia’s rich technology sector, as well as mining and resources, finance and healthcare,” the report said.

The overall value of global M&A was down by 35 per cent compared to the first half of 2022 and with a 37 per cent slump in the mid-market.

However, it was good news for Australia as the country’s M&A value increased by 13 per cent compared to the first half of 2022. Australian transactions in the first half of 2023 were worth $64.8 billion, coming from 390 deals. The number of deals has decreased by 26 per cent compared to those recorded in 2022.

The value figure is said to be influenced by the $26.6 billion Newmont purchase of Newcrest, which has made up approximately 41 per cent of the total deal value in Australia during the first half of 2023.

“Energy, mining and utilities made up 78 per cent of deal value in the first half of 2023, and even without the inclusion of the Newcrest sale, the sector still made up 50 per cent of total sales,” the report said.

Pitcher Partners Sydney corporate finance partner Andy Hough said that while values remain strong, Australian deal volumes were the lowest in more than five years, which he attributed to deals taking longer to complete in comparison to 12 months ago.

“Due diligence is becoming an increasingly drawn-out process, with factors such as environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and increased regulatory burdens leading to a greater depth of scope,” Hough said.

A key example of this is the Newmont acquisition of Newcrest recently receiving approval from the Canadian Competition Bureau and Papua New Guinea’s Independent Consumer and Competition Commission.

“While that has negatively impacted on deal numbers in this half, it should result in an uptick of completed deals in the second half of the year,” Hough said.

Newmont takeover of Newcrest receives PNG approval

OLIVIA THOMSON

Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has granted clearance for Newmont to proceed with its acquisition of Newcrest.

After a three-month process beginning in February 2023, Newmont secured a $26.2 billion takeover deal with Newcrest.

The Canadian Competition Bureau issued a ‘no action’ letter clearing Newmont’s announced transaction with Newcrest under Canadian competition law in mid-July.

Newmont has since been continuing to advance other regulatory approvals, such as PNG’s, and it expects to close the transaction in the December 2023 quarter.

Newmont still needs regulatory approvals from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australia Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) to complete its acquisition of Newcrest.

Additionally, Newmont has been in consultation with Newcrest, and through this has determined that a pre-merger notification under the Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 will not be required in the US for the transaction to proceed.

“We appreciate the ICCC in Papua New Guinea carefully reviewing and clearing our proposed acquisition of Newcrest,” Newmont chief executive officer Tom Palmer said.

“Lihir in PNG is one of the world’s great gold mines and a Tier 1 operation by any measure. In addition to Lihir, we see profitable gold and copper growth through the world-class Wafi-Golpu project.

“We remain committed to building strong, mutually beneficial and long lasting relationships with PNG’s government and local communities. As part of this commitment, Newmont plans to establish PNG as a standalone fifth region in our portfolio with an in-country senior leadership presence and pursue a secondary listing of Newmont depositary interests on the PNG’s National Stock Exchange (PNGX).”

Both miners will continue engaging with the PNG Government and regulators about other approvals and clearances for the takeover.

Westgold aiming bigger next year

Westgold Resources has released its guidance for the 2024 financial year, hoping to mine more gold at a lower operating cost.

After delivering on production guidance for 2023, Westgold has set itself the goal of producing between 245,000 to 265,000 ounces of gold for next year. This is a 5,000 ounce increase on 2023.

The company has also decreased its projected al-in sustaining costs to $1800 to $2000 per ounce.

“Westgold delivered its guidance in financial year 2023, hitting the top end of production guidance and mid-point of costs. This was achieved while undertaking an organisational transformation which has placed the company in a position to build cash and enhance profitability on a sustainable basis.”

Westgold is set to increase its growth capital to $130 million for the 2024 financial year, $60 million of which will be invested towards new growth opportunities at the company’s operations.

Thirty million will go to developing the Great Fingall decline. At steady state, Westgold expects Great Fingall to produce between 300 to 450 thousand tonnes of ore at four to six grams per tonne of gold.

The Big Bell expansion will receive $24 million in capital funding for mine development, ventilation and development of a surface located paste plant. A feasibility study and final investment decision is expected in the first quarter of 2024.

Westgold has allocated $6 million to the restart of Fender, which it expects to produce around 330 thousand tonnes per annum at 2.7 grams of gold per tonne.

“The business is now structured to deliver safe and profitable ounces and critically, our financial year 2024 growth ambitions are funded from our existing cash resources. Looking forward, prudent capital investment into our organic growth projects such as Great Fingall, the expansion of Big Bell and restart of Fender establishes a growth runway into financial year 2025.”

Red 5 continues to shine

OLIVIA THOMSON

Following four months of record gold production at its King of the Hills (KOTH) gold mine, Red 5 has released its June 2023 quarter report.

During the quarter, the KOTH mine produced 61,705 ounces (oz) of gold, a significant increase from the 40,869oz produced in the March quarter.

Red 5’s June quarter sales equalled to 58,960oz, an increase from its March quarter’s 40,907oz. These gold sales resulted in operating cash flows of $50.6 million.

The company achieved the upper end of production and mid-range of cost guidance for the second half of the 2023 financial year, with production of 102,574oz at an AISC of $1837/oz against guidance of 90k-105k oz at AISC of $1750–1950/oz.

On top of successful operations, the company saw an improvement in safety, seeing no recordable injuries.

An ongoing board renewal process also began in the June quarter, with Russell Clark being appointed as chair and Peter Johnston being appointed as a non-executive director.

As of June 30, Red 5’s net debt position improved, reducing by $44.5 million to $81.9 million, its cash and bullion being $45.9 million, $22.0 million of bank debt being repaid, with $127.8 million outstanding on the KOTH debt facility.

“The June quarter has been a watershed period for Red 5, with the KOTH mine delivering strong results for the company, both operationally and financially and with a greatly improved safety performance,” Red 5 managing director Mark Williams said.

Red 5’s FY2024 production guidance has been set to 195k–215k ounces at AISC of $1850–$2100/oz.

“Our clear focus for the year ahead is to continue delivering safe, consistent and profitable ounces from the KOTH processing hub. This will, in turn, provide us with a platform to execute our longer-term growth strategy,” Williams said.

Newcrest achieves 210m

金矿巨头Newcrest全年黄金产量录得210万盎司

2023-07-25 10:40:47 (AET) by Edward Zhang 819

黄金生产商 Newcrest（ASX：NCM）在23财年实现了集团黄金产量和AISC（全部维持成本）的指导目标。但由于Cadia和Telfer的工厂产量下降，其全年铜产量低于指导范围1%。

【澳股资讯平台 – 61 Financial 7月25日讯】黄金生产商 Newcrest（ASX：NCM）周二发布公告，提供了2023年6月季度的活动报告。

报告显示，Newcrest在23财年实现了集团黄金产量和AISC（全部维持成本）的指导目标。但由于Cadia和Telfer的工厂产量下降，其全年铜产量低于指导范围1%。

由于本季度Cadia、Lihir和Brucejack业务的工厂吞吐量增加，以及Lihir和Brucejack的头矿金品位提高，黄金产量比上一季度高出9%。与前一时期相比，Red Chris和Telfer的黄金产量也有所增加。

公司季度总黄金产量录得55.6万盎司，铜产量录得3.5万吨。这推动公司23财年黄金总产量录得210万盎司，总铜产量为13.3万吨。

Newcrest本季度的AISC录得1196美元/盎司，比上一季度高出20%，主要是由于Lihir、Cadia和Red Chris的资本支出增加，以及实现铜价下降。本季度公司主要运营地点的黄金产量增加，推动了全集团黄金销量的增长，以及铜销量增加和澳元兑美元贬值对运营成本的影响，部分抵消了这一影响。

6月季度，Newcrest旗下受伤率与前一时期基本一致，这反映了Newcrest对安全的高度关注，因为所有工厂都在继续进行控制改进计划，以解决主要危险。尽管在整个23财年稳步降低了工伤率，但Cadia在本季度遭受了工伤的上升。

Cadia的TRIFR（总可记录伤害频次率）录得每百万小时7.06次可记录伤害，高于前一时期。公司指出，在本季度，来自Cadia合同合作伙伴的一名团队成员严重受伤，目前正在接受新南威尔士州资源监管机构的调查。

目前，Newcrest正在为这名队员、他的家人和同事提供支持。并致力于评估和改进其安全文化和系统，以减少伤害事件。

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公司公告Quarterly Report ended 30 June 2023

‘Copper South Australia’: The BHP era begins

TOM PARKER

The Carrapateena operation in South Australia.

BHP had plenty of news in its June quarterly, including first production results from the newly acquired Prominent Hill and Carrapateena mines in South Australia.

The major miner also revealed annual production records at Western Australian Iron Ore (WAIO), the Olympic Dam operation, and the Spence copper mine in Chile.

This is particularly significant for Olympic Dam, with the historic mine enjoying a new lease on life after overcoming years of operational hurdles.

Olympic Dam produced 212,000 tonnes of copper in the 2022–23 financial year (FY23). This is a 54 per cent increase from FY22 (138,000 tonnes), a year when BHP conducted major smelter maintenance at the mine.

Spence, which forms part of BHP’s Pampa Norte operations in northern Chile, boosted its annual copper production to 240,000 tonnes, supported by increased throughput from the Spence concentrator.

Prominent Hill and Carrapateena produced 8000 tonnes and 12,000 tonnes of copper, respectively, across two months of production since BHP acquired the mines in its acquisition of OZ Minerals.

BHP has grouped Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carrapateena together under the banner ‘Copper South Australia’, and the company hopes to produce between 310,000–340,000 tonnes of copper from the mines in FY24.

Integration activities saw small volumes of copper concentrate from Prominent Hill transported to Olympic Dam for processing.

WAIO continues to fire on all cylinders, producing a record 257 million tonnes of iron ore in FY23 – a 1 per cent increase from FY22.

“WAIO shipped record volumes on the back of productivity in its supply chain, rail network and car dumpers, while South Flank completed its deployment of autonomous haul trucks in May and is on track to ramp up to full production in the next 12 months,” BHP chief executive officer Mike Henry said.

BHP saw average prices for its copper, iron ore and metallurgical coal markets reduce year-on-year in FY23. Nickel prices remained stable, while thermal coal prices were higher, driven by a buoyant first six months.

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Rio Tinto details copper growth aspirations

TOM PARKER

The Oyu Tolgoi mine.

Rio Tinto has lofty copper ambitions in the years to come, with hopes to account for 25 per cent of growth volumes in global copper supply in the next five years.

The major miner held an investor site visit at the Oyu Tolgoi operation in Mongolia this week, where it detailed its copper aspirations and provided an update on Oyu Tolgoi’s production ramp-up.

Rio Tinto said Oyu Tolgoi was on track to reach 500,000 tonnes of annual copper production by 2028, which would coincide with a boost in head grade to about 1.25 per cent copper.

This would be done by unlocking various deposits such as the Oyut open pit (ore reserves: 702 million tonnes at 0.44 per cent copper), Hugo North (ore reserves: 447 million tonnes at 1.55 per cent copper) and Hugo South (inferred resources: 731 million tonnes at 0.83 per cent copper).

The company produced 28,100 tonnes of copper from Oyu Tolgoi in the first quarter of 2023 at a head grade of 0.49 per cent.

Rio said as it uplifts Oyu Tolgoi and its Kennecott copper mine in the US, and benefits from its interest in the Escondida operation and the emerging Resolution and La Granja projects, the company is targeting one million tonnes of annual copper production within five years.

This will be further supported by other US advancements, including the growth of Rio Tinto’s Nuton project which looks to boost copper recoveries from 25–35 per cent (from traditional heap leach) to at least 80 per cent.

Nuton not only has the potential to unlock copper sulphide resources but also copper-bearing waste and tailings, all the while achieving increased recoveries on oxide and transitional material.

This has the potential to deliver improved environmental performance by reducing water usage and carbon emissions, while also giving old mine sites a second life through the reprocessing of mine waste.

Rio Tinto said the US has jurisdictional advantages, with a growing local electric vehicle (EV) market boosting copper demand projections.

Rio acquired a majority interest in Oyu Tolgoi (66 per cent) when it bought out Turquoise Hill Resources at the end of last year. The Government of Mongolia owns the balance.

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Northern Star’s new $67 million gold project

TIMOTHY BOND

Northern Star Resources has announced the purchase of the Millrose gold project from Strickland Resources for $67 million. The deal comprises $41 million in cash and 1.5 million fully paid shares in Northern Star.

The WA gold project has a known mineral resource of 346 thousand ounces of gold at a grade of 1.80 grams per tonne.

Millrose is located 40km to the east of Northern Star’s Jundee operations. According to the company, Millrose will become a supplementary feed source for the Jundee mill in the medium term, complementing Jundee’s underground base load.

Jundee underground operations currently source roughly 1.8 million tonnes of ore each year.

Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin reacted to the agreement.

“The acquisition of the Millrose gold project presents a very compelling development opportunity that is accretive to the Jundee life of asset plan as it should deliver us a sizeable low cost, high grade supplementary resource feed.

“This bolt-on acquisition, which also comes with significant brownfields exploration upside, will provide us with further confidence to plan organic and profitable growth for Jundee, which already is the lowest cost asset in our tier-1 portfolio.”

Strickland has advised its shareholders of exactly how it intends to spend its new funds.

Within the first twelve months, Strickland plans to undertake 3500m of diamond drill and 25,000m of reverse circulation drilling. The company also intends to upgrade its portfolio of gold prospects to mineral resource status, as well as continue base metal exploration at its Iroquois zinc-lead project.

In the same announcement, Northern Star indicated that it was strengthening renewable energy at its Jundee operation. The company has entred into a long-term power supply agreement with Zenith Energy, which incorporates 40 megawatts of wind and solar generation.

Once completed, this will provide 56 per cent of the mine site’s power.

Northern Star Resources set to expand the Super Pit

金矿商Northern Star计划开发价值15亿澳元项目扩展

金矿商 Northern Star（ASX：NST）已决定批准在西澳大利亚州卡尔古利（Kalgoorlie）开发价值15亿澳元的KCGM工厂扩建项目。

【澳股资讯平台 – 61 Financial 6月23日讯】金矿商 Northern Star（ASX：NST）周四发布公告称，其已决定批准在西澳大利亚州卡尔古利（Kalgoorlie）开发价值15亿澳元的KCGM工厂扩建项目。

根据更新，Northern Star预计该开发将进一步加强北极星的关键资产和公司的整体投资组合。预计KCGM的处理能力将从1300万吨/年增加到2700万吨/年，并实现现代化。

根据每盎司2600澳元的金价（当前金价约为2850澳元），公司预期如下：

税后内部收益率（IRR）为19%；
项目投资回收期4.6年；
黄金平均年产量为90万盎司；
平均每年全部维持成本（AISC）为每盎司1425澳元（全公司AISC目前为每盎司1766澳元）。

公司透露，为期三年的建设阶段现已开始，并已订购了长期领先的项目。

Northern Star预计，产量将从2027财年开始增加，到2029财年达到2700万吨/年的稳定产量。

此外，这想开发将完全由该公司手头现金和预测现金流提供资金。因此，公司的股息政策将得以维持。

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公司公告KCGM Mill Expansion Financial Investment Decision

Northern Star Resources set to expand the Super Pit

ALEXANDRA EASTWOOD

The Northern Star Resources board has approved the expansion of the Fimiston Mill, part of the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines’ (KCGM) Super Pit.

The expansion from 13 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 37Mtpa is set to cost $1.5 billion and is due to be completed in 2026.

Located at the centre of the Kalgoorlie goldfields, the Super Pit is one of Australia’s largest open pit gold mines and includes the Mt Charlotte underground mine and the Fimiston and Gidji processing plants.

“Today is an exciting day for Northern Star and a historic new chapter for this world-class asset,” Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin said.

“The board’s decision to approve the KCGM mill expansion and optimisation represents the next stage to revitalise our largest asset as well as the surrounding district for decades to come.

This project is financially compelling, and a significant enabling step towards delivering our strategy to generate superior returns for our shareholders.”

Northern Star has had a productive start to the year at the Super Pit, increasing gold resources to 57.4 million ounces (Moz) and keeping ore reserves steady at 20.2Moz.

Tonkin said the company is confident the site will continue to produce significant value.

“Our confidence in the economics of KCGM to remain a long-life, low-cost gold mine has been further reinforced through the feasibility study phase,” he said.

“Expanding the processing capacity of KCGM will strengthen Northern Star’s portfolio, materially increase our free cash flow generation and progress our long-term strategy to be within the 2nd quartile of the global cost curve.

“Further, the project is important in our sustainability journey and will also sustain hundreds of local jobs, economic and social investment, and local procurement opportunities in the Goldfields region.”