Diggers & Dealers 2024: All the latest news from Day 2 of the annual mining forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Monday’s stock market wipeout made for plenty of chatter at the Diggers & Dealers forum in Kalgoorlie on Tuesday.

It also shifted the tone of an atmosphere that was already feeling some sombre undercurrents amid the raft of job losses in the sector, which MinRes added to this very afternoon with about 100 tipped to go from its Osborne Park office.

There are questions about how serious the downturn is and what it spells for those also starting to feel the pinch from softer commodity prices.

Of course, high prices mean gold is still having its day in the sun, and there’s plenty of chatter about what M&A could be on the horizon.

Seemingly not for Genesis Minerals though, which held firm that organic growth was its primary pathway forward for the forseeable.

Meanwhile in lithium, the chief executive of the commodity’s newest producer Liontown Resources urged the State Government to consider speeding up help for WA’s lithium miners to avoid the fate that befell the nickel industry.

“We don’t want to leave it to the last minute like they did with nickel,” Tony Ottaviano said this morning.

Boss Energy was beating the uranium drum, and Chalice addressed its lacklustre share price performance over the past 12 months.

The third and final day of Diggers & Dealers kicks off at 9am tomorrow with Ramelius Resources, followed straight after by sparring partner Spartan Resources.

This gold mining boss managed to take getting the last slot at day two of the annual mining conference on the chin.

Gold Road Resources managing director Duncan Gibbs took to the lectern for the coveted 5:15pm slot, which is usually just as everyone is starting to gear up for a bevvy or two in the marquee.

Mr Gibbs thanked Diggers & Dealers for the “beer o’clock shift, which I think has just started.”

We hear you Duncan.

The chief of one the largest gold miners in WA is a battery bull and has made ground repairing a tense relationship with the company’s Gruyere joint venture partner.

Speaking to The West Australian, Gold Fields boss Mike Fraser said he believes WA needs to do a better job of harnessing its abundant sunshine.

“We should have so much more solar opportunities, and I think battery technology is going to advance at a rate at which solar, wind, battery technology will probably be the predominant energy source for the for the long term future,” he said.

“I actually do believe there could be a role for nuclear in the world, whether it’s a it’s a role for Western Australia, I’m not entirely convinced.

“Because you’ve got to invest at scale, and then you get, again, these very tired high concentration energy sources.”

It can be a tough gig getting a late afternoon slot at Diggers.

Audiences have heard a few presentations by now from West Perth CEOs trying to hype up their latest nearology plays that are all mysteriously just one year away from releasing a pre-feasibilty study.

So kudos to Poseidon Nickel chairman and Rumble Resources managing director Peter Harold for stepping away from the usual Diggers preso formula, by likening his company’s assortment of gold, tungsten and zinc assets to a showbag one might get at the Perth Royal Show.

In some good news for our suffering lithium and nickel friends we hear there are big discounts going this year too!

In some late breaking news amid Diggers & Dealers day two, Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources joins a huge wave of job losses gripping the WA mining industry amid a weak market across a growing number of commodities.

MinRes has reportedly decided to shed 100 white-collar jobs, the majority based in Perth, and notified affected staff over the past 24 hours.

A MinRes spokesman confirmed the job losses, but did not provide detail about how many workers would be affected.

Read more here:

A stunning 21°C day in Kalgoorlie-Boulder hopefully signals that Diggers & Dealers won’t be cut short due to a tempest, as was the case in 2022.

We hear attendees are making the most of the warm weather while they can. After all the Goldfields Arts Centre courtyard makes for a prime spot to bask in the sunshine.

It means there are no excuses for bad weather stopping any reluctant delegates flying in, or indeed having a reason to try and escape the madness early.

Herd at Diggers...

Anton Chigurh hairstyle exponent and LinkedInfluencer Wayne Bramwell graced the lectern of the Goldfields Art Centre on Monday, but many of his hotshot gold comrades shunned such an opportunity.

Northern Star’s Stuart Tonkin, Genesis Minerals’ Raleigh Finlayson and Capricorn Metals’ Mark Clark are among the head honchos over the past two days to send their underlings to do the spruiking.

Maybe given the record gold price they’re too busy frolicking in piles of cash?

Chalice Mining chief executive Alex Dorsch has told a Diggers crowd there’s “no doubt” it’s been a tough 12 months for the company.

The Julimar explorer’s share price is down more than 82 per cent since this time last year to about $1.

“The share price has been through a tricky 12-month period, no doubt about that. That’s really, matched the lows in commodity prices. It’s been a challenging 12 months for the company,” he said.

Nontheless Mr Dorsch sought to assure shareholders there would be no need to sing out for new capital any time soon.

“We have $111 million in cash and listed investments, no debt. We only need about $15 million over the course of this financial year to complete the PFS (pre-feasibility study),” he said.

“We’ve got a very sound financial position. If you’re a shareholder, don’t expect to be diluted anytime soon.”

Chalice landed a handshake deal with Mitsubishi in July to potentially develop its billion-dollar green metals mine in Toodyay.

Under the deal, the pair will work towards potentially firming up a binding partnership or joint venture to develop the miner’s Gonneville nickel-copper-platinum group elements discovery, but only once a pre-feasibility study is finished in mid-2025.

But the deal seemingly underwhelmed investors, who fear it will be another year before a financing and technical backer is locked in.

The nation’s key interest rate has been left unchanged at 4.35 per cent but the Reserve Bank of Australia says fighting inflation is still top priority.

“Inflation in underlying terms remains too high, and the latest projections show that it will be some time yet before inflation is sustainably in the target range,” the bank’s board said in a Tuesday statement.

“Policy will need to be sufficiently restrictive until the board is confident that inflation is moving sustainably towards the target range.”

Read the full story here ...

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Genesis Minerals managing director Raleigh Finlayson has spent 70 per cent of the past 12 months focused on having a stretch of railway in Leonora shortened.

Presenting at Diggers on his behalf chief operating officer Matthew Nixon said the project had been a “significant focus” for his boss over the past year.

Genesis’ anchor operation is the famed WA gold mine Gwalia. But it’s the undeveloped deposit of Tower Hill that will be key to unlocking further tonnage for the company.

Standing in the way of the mine’s potential development is an 8 kilometre stretch of rail running over the deposit.

“With regard to the rail line this has been a significant focus from our managing director, Raleigh Finlayson over the past 12 months, probably accounting for around 70 per cent of his time,” Mr Nixon told the crowd.

“We continue to have excellent engagement with all rail users and are well-advanced relative to the timeline.”

Mr Finlayson has previously said the Leonora community is “bullish” on the prospect of a new mine, particualrly against the backdrop closures at BHP Nickel West and Wyloo Metals.

The State Government told The West Australian in June Mr Finlayson’s mission to remove kilometres of the Leonora railway to make way for a new gold mine “has merit” on the grounds it would create more jobs.