MINING CORPORATIONS – AUSTRALIA

BHP urges Labor to fix IR before issuing subsidies

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Original article by Peter Ker, Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 21-Feb-24

BHP CEO Mike Henry says the resources group would be supportive of any assistance for Australia’s embattled nickel industry, such as a short-term production tax credit. However, he warns that a tax credit may not be sufficient to save the industry, given the significant challenges facing the nickel market. Henry adds that getting industrial relations policy right is more important than offering subsidies and rescue packages. BHP in particular will be impacted by the same job, same pay’ regime for labour hire workers. BHP’s wholly-owned labour hire firm, Operations Services, pays workers less than their colleagues employed on site-specific enterprise bargaining agreements. BHP’s Western Australian nickel mines are among the sites that use Operations Services workers.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, OPERATIONS SERVICES

BHP train drivers to get $300,000 plus bonus

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 7 : 16-Feb-24

BHP has averted industrial action after agreeing to a new pay deal with its iron ore train drivers in the Pilbara that will see their base salary rise to more than $300,000 over the next four years. The in-principle agreement with the Mining & Energy Union includes an immediate pay rise of four per cent, followed by four annual increases of four per cent. The train drivers will also receive two retention bonuses of $20,000; the first will be paid immediately, with the second to be paid in 12 months’ time. The protected industrial action that was slated to disrupt iron ore rail shipments to Port Hedland from Friday will no longer proceed.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, MINING AND ENERGY UNION

BHP hit in $5.4b nickel wipeout

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Original article by Brad Thompson, Peter Ker, Tom Rabe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 17 : 16-Feb-24

BHP’s Nickel West division has made a loss of $US200m ($308m) over the last six month, due to the sharp downturn in the price of the battery metal. BHP has advised that its half-year accounts will include a pre-tax writedown of $5.4bn in the value of the nickel business; the resources group has also warned that it could potentially place the nickel operations – which employ about 3,000 people – in ‘care and maintenance’ mode. Meanwhile, the Western Australian government may provide royalty relief to struggling nickel producers, but Premier Roger Cook says governments at all levels need to step in and assist them to ride out the "significant structural disruption" to the industry.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, NICKEL WEST, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET

BHP’s train drivers to strike

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 13-Feb-24

BHP’s iron ore shipments from the Pilbara are set to be disrupted after 97 per cent of train drivers who are members of the Mining & Energy Union voted in favour of industrial action. The union has organised a 24-hour strike on Friday as part of negotiations for a new enterprise agreement. The train drivers rejected a proposed agreement in December, and BHP’s Warren Wellbeloved says it was a " fair and generous offer". The strike will be the first since 2008 in the Pilbara’s iron ore industry, which is largely deunionised.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, MINING AND ENERGY UNION

WA gold miners Silver Lake, Red 5 in $2.2bn merger deal

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Original article by Giuseppe Tauriello
The Australian – Page: 15 & 18 : 6-Feb-24

Shares in gold miner Red 5 rose by three per cent to $0.34 on Monday, in response to a proposed merger with Silver Lake Resources. Red 5 is offering 3.434 of its shares for every Silver Lake share, and Red 5 shareholders will own 51.7 per cent of the merged entity if the deal is approved. The deal has the support of both groups’ boards, and Red 5 chairman Russell Clark does not expect a bidding war to emerge. The combined company would be the fifth-largest gold miner on the Australian sharemarket, with annual production of about 445,000 ounces.

CORPORATES
RED 5 LIMITED – ASX RED, SILVER LAKE RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX SLR

Forrest wants tax credits, royalty relief to save nickel

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Original article by Brad Thompson, Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 : 24-Jan-24

Wyloo Metals CEO Luca Giacovazzi has warned that Australia’s nickel industry is at a crossroads, arguing that action is needed to ensure that the sector remains viable. Amongst other things, the private company of mining magnate Andrew Forrest has called for a 10 per cent production tax credit for downstream nickel processing, royalty relief and greater access to government funding. Wyloo also advocates a price premium on nickel that is produced in accordance with environmental, social and governance standards.

CORPORATES
WYLOO METALS PTY LTD

Rio iron exports up as Mongolia bites

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 : 17-Jan-24

Rio Tinto’s production report for the December quarter shows that its Pilbara mines shipped 86.25 million tonnes of iron ore in the final three months of 2023, and 338.1 million tonnes in the calendar year. The resources giant is targeting shipments of between 323 million and 338 million tonnes in 2024. Rio Tinto also advised that shipments of its benchmark ‘Pilbara blend’ product fell by five per cent year-on-year, while export volumes for its lower grade SP10 ‘fines’ were 56 per cent higher; the company expects SP10 shipments to remain high until its new mines come into production. Meanwhile, Rio Tinto says it has received a new claim for unpaid taxes by the Mongolian government regarding the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

CORPORATES
RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO

Nickel miners brace for job losses after Panoramic ends production

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 10-Jan-24

About 300 workers at Panoramic Resources’ Savannah nickel mine in Western Australia are expected to lose their jobs after the company’s administrators moved to suspend production at the site. FTI Consulting was appointed to the role in mid-December, with the aim of keeping Savannah open, but the price of nickel has continued to fall. Panoramic reopened the Savannah mine in the Kimberley region in 2021, but factors such as a sharp fall in the nickel price in 2023 weighed on the company. There are fears of further job losses in Australia’s nickel sector, amid expectations of a global oversupply in 2024; Indonesia in particular intends to ramp up nickel production via Chinese investment in the sector.

CORPORATES
PANORAMIC RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX PAN, FTI CONSULTING PTY LTD

Rinehart, SQM unite for $1.7b Azure bid

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 20-Dec-23

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has teamed up with Chile-based lithium miner SQM to make a joint bid for Azure Minerals. The target’s board had backed a takeover offer from SQM pitched at $3.52 per share in late October, but Hancock subsequently acquired an 18.4 per cent blocking stake in Azure. Hancock and SQM currently have a combined stake of 37.8 per cent in Azure, and have made a cash offer of $3.70 per share. They will pursue an on-market bid priced at $3.65 per share if the scheme of arrangement bid does not succeed.

CORPORATES
AZURE MINERALS LIMITED – ASX AZS, HANCOCK PROSPECTING PTY LTD, SOCIEDAD QUIMICA Y MINERA SA

Allkem shareholders green-light $9.7b Livent merger

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Original article by Elouise Fowler
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 : 20-Dec-23

Some 89 per cent of proxy votes cast at Allkem’s shareholders meeting on Tuesday were in favour of the proposed merger with US-based Livent. The latter’s shareholders will shortly vote on the deal; the combined entity will be called Arcadium Lithium and is set to be one of the world’s biggest producers of the battery mineral. It will have assets in Western Australia, Canada and Argentina. Allkem’s chairman will take up the same role at Arcadium, while Livent’s Paul Graves will be CEO.

CORPORATES
ALLKEM LIMITED – ASX AKE, LIVENT INCORPORATED, ARCADIUM LITHIUM