Aussie copper and iron ore giant BHP Group Ltd (LSE:BHP, ASX:BHP) sent ripples through the mining sector after approaching Anglo American PLC (LSE:AAL) with a £31.1 billion bid for its smaller London-listed rival.
Under the “unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional combination proposal”, as Anglo called it, BHP wants Anglo to spin out key subsidiaries Amplats and Kumba
Junior gold miners listed in London have had a good run since the start of the year, outperforming the bullion comfortably in most cases, notes broker Liberum.
Endeavour is up 22% and Centamin 35%, though Caledonia has disappointed as it hit some unexpected problems at its Blanket mine in Zimbabwe.
Anglo American PLC (LSE:AAL) has confirmed it has received an all-paper bid approach from BHP Ltd valuing the FTSE 100 group at £31.1 billion.
Terms of the offer would see Anglo shareholders get 0.7097 BHP shares for each share they own, plus a proportion of the shares from a demerger of its unlisted Anglo Platinum and Kumba iron ore businesses.
Shanta Gold said production dropped in its latest quarter in its last update before Saturn Resources takes the miner over.
Group output in the three months to 31 March was 21,676 oz (Q4: 27,865 oz) with the mines at New Luika and Singida in Tanzania both seeing production dip.
Critical Mineral Resources PLC (LSE:CMRS) has appointed Dominic Traynor as the company’s new non-executive chair, alongside the release of its audited annual report for 2023.
Traynor steps up to the chair having been a non-executive director of the company for two years.
Empire Metals has confirmed huge levels of titanium from the first 18 assays from the latest drilling at its Pitfield project in Western Australia.
Four reverse circulation holes intercepted titanium at widths of more than 136m at grades above 5.3% TiO2 at or almost from the surface.
European Metals Holdings Ltd (AIM:EMH, ASX:EMH, OTCQX:EMHLF) has chosen a new site for its Cinovec lithium processing plant, situated in an industrial area and further away from inhabited areas as the previous site had been.
Following evaluation and with relevant municipal and regional governments, the site of the former Prunéřov 1 power station, which was decommissioned in 2020, has been chosen.
Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU) has agreed to an all-share merger with Rockover Holdings and will dual-list the new enlarged company in London and on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Currently, Ariana has a 2.1% stake in Rockover, which owns 100% of the 1.3Moz Dokwe gold project in Zimbabwe.
Greatland Gold has been granted a new exploration licence at the Ernest Giles project in Pilbara, Western Australia.
E38/3775 (Mount Smith) covers more than 50km of strike length of the highly prospective Ernest Giles Yilgarn Craton Archean greenstone belt, with very limited previous exploration said the junior.
Rio Tinto Ltd (LSE:RIO, ASX:RIO, OTC:RTNTF)'s earnings could be aided by an unexpected tailwind in the form of gold by-product from its copper production.
So says Benrenberg, which has revisited its estimates with the sky-high price of the precious metal front of mind.
Deutsche Bank has hiked its silver price forecasts 5% for 2024 and 2025, attributing the increase to the metal's close correlation with gold prices.
While a potential correction in gold prices is anticipated to be mild, silver prices are expected to dip from almost $29 per ounce at the end of last week to $26 per oz in the third quarter before rebounding to $28 per oz in the fourth quarter of the year, the German bank said.
Ecora Resources saw royalty income rise by 11% to US$19.5 million its latest quarter driven by a return to metallurgical coal mining on its Kestrel asset in Australia.
Marc Bishop Lafleche, chief executive, commented: "The portfolio performed in line with expectation, production at Kestrel returned to our private royalty area driving a 117% increase in portfolio contribution compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 (US$19.5m vs US$9m).
Atlantic Lithium Ltd (AIM:ALL, OTCQX:ALLIF, ASX:A11) said the chief focus of the past quarter was to continue de-risking the Ewoyaa lithium project in Ghana to enable it to break ground later this year.
"Key to achieving this milestone is the success of the ongoing permitting process, which is advancing as anticipated,” said executive chairman Neil Herbert in a quarterly update.
Thor Energy said partner Investigator Resources (Fram) has met the "Stage 1 Commitment" obligations under the farm-out of the Molyhil and Bonya Projects in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Fram has carried out A$1m of exploration activities and is now entitled to a 25% interest in the tenements, Thor added.
Oriole Resources said soil samples from its 80%-owned Mbe gold project in Cameroon have indicated a wider target than originally modelled and two additional corridors to the east and parallel to the existing MB-01 zone.
A second infill soil sampling programme has started over the wider 12.5 km-long zone of soil anomaly at Mbe covering these new areas.
UBS has thrown a bone to metallurgical coal producers, suggesting prices should hold up over the next twelve months as Indian steel production ramps up, China demand recovers and restocking kicks in.
Supply growth is expected to be modest, with recent sanctions on Russian producers to impact trade flows and new investment in growth and depletion-replacement challenging.
Ferrexpo PLC (LSE:FXPO) shares rocketed 11% higher as production at the Ukraine-based iron pellet maker hit its highest since the Russian invasion, while exports have also resumed from ports in the country.
Output jumped 203% to 1.8 million tonnes of pellets in the first quarter of this year, though this was still some way short of the 2.8 million tonnes produced before the start of the war.
More than £1 billion was wiped from the value of Anglo American PLC after the De Beers owner finally agreed with its partners to cut diamond production.
It was the most newsy part of the mining giant's first quarter update from Anglo, which revealed a 23% year-on-year decline in rough diamond production to 6.9 million carats (Mct).
Bushveld Minerals said its cash position remains "extremely tight" as an expected subscription has yet to come through.
Approval to sell a 50% stake in Vanchem and 64% of the Mokopane project for US$25 million is also pending, while US$3.5 million due from Acacia Resources has yet to arrive as legal proceedings commence.
Bens Creek Group's major shareholder MBU Capital has called a general meeting to discuss options for the cash-strapped coal miner and whether Chapter 11 administration for its US subsidiary is the right course.
MBU is the company’s second-largest shareholder behind Indian group Avani with a 22.08% stake.
Power Metal Resources said the latest drill hole, DDH1-14C, at its Molopo Farms Complex nickel and platinum project in Botswana, intersected its target of a steeply dipping geophysical superconductor.
Interpreted to be a sulphide mineralised carbonaceous mudstone unit, the geophysical superconductor occurred between 760.5-813m downhole depth and from 828.4m-832.6m (end of drilling) where it remains open, said the statement.
Ora Banda Mining Ltd (ASX:OBM) has completed the $26 million sale of non-gold mineral rights at the Davyhurst Project in Western Australia and has received a second cash payment of $11.71 million.
This sale is part of a farm-in arrangement with Davyston Exploration Pty Ltd (DEPL), a wholly-owned company in the Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers division (WesCEF).
Sovereign Metals Ltd (ASX:SVM, OTC:SVMLF, AIM:SVML) has strengthened its owner’s team in the lead-up to development of the Kasiya Rutile-Graphite Project in Malawi through appointing graphite and battery anode specialist consultant Dr Surinder Ghag as chief technology officer (CTO) – graphite.
Dr Ghag, an expert and highly qualified metallurgist with 25 years of experience across critical minerals including graphite and rutile, will assist Sovereign’s graphite strategy in qualifying graphite product from Kasiya for lithium-ion battery anodes.
NextSource Materials Inc. (TSX:NEXT, OTCQB:NSRCF) is positioned to be a leading vertically integrated supplier of lithium-ion battery anode material for electric vehicles, analysts at Capital Access believe.
The firm has initiated coverage on NextSource Materials, which is ramping up to Phase 1 production of 17,000 tons per year at its Molo graphite mine in Madagascar and the final permitting process for its first Battery Anode Facility in Mauritius.
Gold miners could experience a surge in value beyond the first quarter of 2024 as prices for the precious metal have strengthened since the beginning of 2024, according to Jefferies.
Analysts suggests a potential average increase of 14% in target prices for gold miners despite a softer outlook for first quarter results.
Anglo American PLC (LSE:AAL) shares were down in London and down more in Johannesburg after a South African high court granted permission to appeal an earlier ruling denying a huge class action lawsuit in Zambia.
The lead poisoning lawsuit by 140,000 women and children will be taken before the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa later this year against the group's Anglo American South Africa (AASA) subsidiary. Law firms Leigh Day and Mbuyisa Moleele are representing the claimants.
A new exchange-traded commodity (ETF) fund focused on gold produced solely from mines with the highest ESG ratings has been launched in London.
SMO Physical Gold ETC (LSE:BARS) tracks gold bars from mine to vault, only using mines that have been independently audited and accredited with the highest responsibility standard to provide social, environmental and cultural support to local communities
Base Resources rocketed almost 90% after the mineral sands miner announced a merger with US-based Energy Fuels to create a global critical minerals business.
Shareholders in Base will receive shares and a special dividend worth in total approximately A$0.302 (15.7p) per share, a premium of 188% to the last closing price.
Technology Minerals shares leapt almost 40% higher in early trades as it announced the sale of its lithium exploration project in Leinster, Ireland.
European Lithium is acquiring the project with payment to be made through US$10 million worth of shares in Nasdaq-listed Critical Minerals.
CleanTech Lithium has completed the acquisition of the 23 Laguna Verde licences previously subject to an option agreement, meaning it now owns all 108 mining licences comprising the project.
Acquiring the additional licences offers potential future returns to shareholders, while reducing risk, given the asset's now relatively advanced stage.
Adriatic Metals has taken over as the operator of the Rupice Mine at its Vares project in Bosnia & Herzegovina after the success of an accelerated development plan (ADAP).
Contractor Nova stopped working on 20 April, with Adriatic starting a transition process to take over the project.
Technology Minerals has agreed to sell its exploration licences in Leinster, Republic of Ireland to European Lithium for US$10 million to be paid via a stake in Nasdaq-listed Critical Minerals Corp (Nasdaq: CRML).
Alex Stanbury, Technology Minerals chief executive, said: The agreement is an endorsement of our ability to identify and develop early-stage projects with significant potential.
Artemis Resources Ltd (ASX:ARV, AIM:ARV, OTCQB:ARTTF) has strengthened the corporate skillset of its Board of Directors with the appointment of Elizabeth Henson as a non-executive director with immediate effect.
Henson is an international lawyer with more than 35 years of global experience in corporate governance, business and professional services.