December 11th, 2024 - The Mine Wire

METALS MARKET

It was quite the week: South Korea’s President declared martial law which lasted about 6 hours before parliament voted to stop the declaration; Syrian rebels took over the country in a few short days, forcing long-time dictator Assad to flee to Russia; Israel took steps to attack military installations in Syria to prevent weapons from falling “into the wrong hands;” and the French government collapsed in a no confidence vote. All of the increased geopolitical risk helped keep gold high and allowed oil to stay near $70 per barrel. China’s central bank also started buying gold again after a 6-month hiatus as it looks to bolster its reserves.

Australia’s Reserve Bank left rates unchanged at 4.35% this week, the 9th meeting in a row with no change. The Bank of Canada is expected to announce another interest rate cut later today - rates are currently at 3.75%. The European Central Bank is on deck with its decision on Thursday while the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve are next week. Last but not least, China came out and said it will provide stimulus in 2025 to protect its economy due to tariff threats from President Elect Trump. 2025 should be a very interesting year to say the least.

^{**For our chart above we are taking prices from Tuesday 4pm EST to Tuesday 4pm EST, so not the typical week of Monday through Friday.}

KEEPING AN EYE ON GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

Here are some of the notable government policy moves this week:

• 🇦🇺 The International Partnerships in Critical Minerals program will provide $40m in grants across 8 projects. The projects funded under this program will build Australia’s sovereign capability in critical minerals processing. The companies receiving funding are Vecco Group ($3.8m), Graphinex ($3m), Tivan ($7.39m), Australian Rare Earths ($5m), Critical Minerals Group ($2.7m), Renascor Resources ($5m), Queensland Pacific Metals ($8m) and Australian Strategic Materials ($5.1m). (Government of Australia)

• 🇦🇺 Australia will also provide an additional A$400m in financing to Iluka Resources (ASX: ILU) to build a rare earth refinery in Western Australia. This loan is on top of A$1.25bn that the Australian government promised for the project in 2020. Analysts suggested the deal wasn’t as favorable as the miner had hoped and shares in the company fell as far as 15% at one point following the news. (Reuters)

• 🇺🇸 Australia wasn’t the only one handing out some cheddar this week. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $17m to 14 projects. They are focused on strengthening and streamlining manufacturing for high-impact components and technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, magnets for high-efficiency motors, high-performance lithium-ion batteries, and high-yield low-defect power electronics. (U.S. Department of Energy)

• 🇵🇹 Portugal will launch a tender for lithium prospecting in 2025. A new center-right government plans to move quickly to develop known lithium reserves in the nation while ensuring that environmental impacts are minimized. The tender will focus on 6 areas of the country. The government also mentioned that it will look to issue both copper and gold prospecting licenses in 2025 as well. Sunshine, beaches and pasteis de nata (custard tarts) - sign us up! (Reuters)

• 🇳🇪 🇫🇷 The on-going dispute between Niger’s military junta and France, has plagued majority state-owned Orano. The company owns 63% of the Somair uranium national miner in Niger but announced this week that it has lost operational control of the company. Niger is cozying up to Russia while distancing itself from its colonial past and France. We don’t see this one ending well for Orano in the near term. (Reuters) & (BBC)

• 🇲🇱 For such a small country, it seems like we are constantly writing about Niger’s friend and neighbor Mali. So what antics are they up to this week? Well they’ve issued an arrest warrant for Barrick Gold’s CEO, Mark Bristow, accusing him of money laundering and violating financial regulations. It certainly appears to be a strong-arm tactic by the ruling junta to get Barrick to buckle to their demands. The miner’s stock was down nearly 3% on the news. (Reuters)

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇵🇹 🇸🇪 Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN, Nasdaq Stockholm: LUMI) has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Neves-Corvo operation in Portugal and Zinkgruvan operation in Sweden to Boliden AB (OM: BOL). Lundin Mining will receive upfront cash consideration of $1.37bn upon closing and another $150m in contingent cash consideration upon satisfaction of certain conditions. The purchase by Boliden had been rumored for some time as the zinc producing assets will fit nicely into Boliden’s portfolio. (Lundin Mining)

• 🇺🇸 SSR Mining (TSX: SSRM) will purchase the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine in Colorado from Newmont Corporation. It will pay $100m in upfront consideration and up to $175m in additional milestone-based payments. This is expected to make SSR Mining the 3rd largest U.S. gold producer. The stock is up over 25% since the announcement, so clearly investors like what they see. (SSR Mining)

• 🇪🇹 Speaking of gold, Wheaton Precious Metals announced the acquisition of a gold stream from Allied Gold's Kurmuk Project in Ethiopia. Wheaton will pay US$175m to Allied Gold to help develop the project. "Wheaton is pleased to announce a streaming agreement with Allied to advance the construction of the Kurmuk project, which is set to be the first commercial gold mine in Ethiopia," said Randy Smallwood, President and CEO of Wheaton Precious Metals. (Wheaton Precious Metals)

• 🇦🇺 Congratulations to Fortescue who was awarded A$10m from The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to develop a six megawatt (MW) fast charger test unit to support the Company’s innovative fast charger technology. Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson, said: “Fortescue’s fast charger development is a smart and forward-looking project that will help Western Australia’s mining sector electrify their operations and contribute to the critical task of decarbonizing our economy.” (Fortescue)

• According to Reuters, Antofagasta and Jiangxi Copper have agreed to significantly lower copper concentrate processing fees for 2025. The agreement between Antofagasta and Jiangxi Copper for treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) of $21.25 a ton and 2.125 cents per pound represents a drop of 73.4% from the $80/8 cents industry benchmark for 2024, a sign of concerns about sufficient availability of copper concentrate in the spot market in 2025. In recent years smelting capacity has grown quickly while major setbacks at copper mines have meant smelters are competing for less available concentrate. Makes sense to us! (Reuters)

• Vale Base Metals announced it will be eliminating a number of managerial roles as it simplifies its corporate structure to improve performance. “This week we initiated staff changes aimed at making Vale Base Metals more resilient, agile and competitive across our assets for sustained long-term growth,” the company said in a statement. “This new decentralized structure means that some of our people in non-operating roles will be leaving us.” The company has said it won’t impact those on the ground in unionized roles. (The Sudbury Star)

MINING BITS

• 👩‍⚖️ Hailey Welch, aka, the “Hawk Tuah” girl became an overnight sensation with her interview in the picture. So why is she in the news this week? Well she launched her own cryptocurrency called $HAWK. It jumped to a roughly $650m market cap almost immediately and then rocketed down over a few hours. As Hailey was on social media reassuring her fans that they were holding and couldn’t sell, apparently her team and other insiders were offloading coins. Complaints are already rolling into the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and as one X user posted, she will likely have to “Talk Tuah” judge. (Barstool Sports)

• ⛏️ The Visual Capitalist and BHP partnered to show the depths and sizes of major copper discoveries found since 1900 - see infographic in the BHP link. The data shows that copper discoveries are less common but also way further down and more expensive to develop than in the past. BHP estimates that at least $250bn in investment will be needed over the coming decade to meet the growing demand for the metal. (BHP)

• 🇨🇰 What flag is that you say? Well it is The Cook Islands. The BBC takes a look at the country’s push around seabed mining. The Cook Islands' Seabeds Minerals Authority estimates there are 12 billion wet tonnes of polymetallic nodules in their waters. To date, they have issued three licenses to companies to explore the possibility of deep-sea mining while also working with scientists to research the potential environmental impacts. Prime Minister Mark Brown, who is driving the push for seabed mining, also happens to be the tourism minister and the Seabed Minerals Minister. But not all Cook Islanders are convinced. Will be interesting to watch this one play out. (BBC)

• 👣 We enjoyed this look at 5 distinct ancient cities that were built underground on purpose. We knew about Elengubu, Turkey, as we saw it featured on the History channel. It was happened during a home renovation in 1963 when an owner demolished a rock wall and found a room on the other side. Voila! An underground city that could hold up to 20,000 people was discovered. If you like this type of stuff and haven’t heard about Elengubu, do some research. You won’t be disappointed. Another one of the cities is the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland. Work on the massive salt mine outside Krakow began more than seven centuries ago. Over time, miners built chapels, statues, and other artwork into the mine itself, which had hundreds of kilometers of galleries. Not surprisingly, it is now a UNESCO world heritage site. (Discover Magazine)

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