Diggers & Dealers 2024: Recap from Day 3 of the annual mining forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder

And that’s a wrap.

Chairman Jim Walker has officially closed out the annual mining forum for 2024.

A record 2800 attendees flocked to Kalgoorlie for the three-day exploration and mining bonanza.

Mad markets, languishing lithium and opportunities in gold emerged as three noticeable themes this year.

Later this evening we can expect the winnners of the Diggers & Dealers annual awards cermony presented at the WesTrac Gala Dinner.

Until next year!

The Atlas Iron founder is leading a new iron ore and bauxtie venture located north of Rio Tinto’s mammoth Simandou development in Guinea.

While David Flanagan acknowledges the impressive scale of Simandou, he doesn’t believe it will be a threat to the Pilbara. On the contrary...

“How is this not a Pilbara killer? I actually think it’s a Pilbara saver.”

He suggested that declining iron ore grades in the Pilbara could be blended with high-grade Simandou ore, and that this would allow lower grade mining in the WA region to continue for longer.

“By blending product, Simandou could actually save Western Australia.”

The comments echo a similar sentiment recently made to The West Australian by Rio’s chief executive Jakob Stausholm, who sought to assure the new giant mine would not undermine the Pilbara.

David Michael has seemingly shut the door on near-term potential for WA’s struggling lithium miners to receive tax breaks.

Tony Ottaviano — the boss of Australia’s newest lithium miner Liontown Resources — on Tuesday urged the State Government to consider fast-tracking royalty relief for lithium producers as the commodity’s price languishes in the doldrums.

The Government earlier this year introduced a 50 per cent royalty rebate on nickel sales, also amid a backdrop of sinking prices, but Mr Ottaviano suggested that help came too late.

Mr Michael was pressed by The West Australian if his response indicated that, for the time being at least, impending lithium royalty relief was off the table.

“For the time being, we’ll discuss options with both industry and, importantly, the peak bodies that I regularly talk to,” he said.

“We know that royal relief is not a silver bullet for worldwide (battery metal) demand not hitting where we thought it would be.”

Gold explorer Spartan Resources left little to the imagination when it whipped out a share price graph chart during its Diggers presentation earlier today.

It could easily be brushed off as friendly playground banter among WA gold miners and would-be producers ... but you have to admit, it’s been a pretty impressive rise.

And to borrow a bit of baseball parlance, Spartan’s only just hit first base.

It’s the sprint for home that’ll really give you bragging rights among the big pick swingers.

With most of the blockbuster acts done and dusted, crowds have started to thin out at the Goldfields Arts Centre.

It’s quite the different picture to the jam-packed theatre as delegates piled in on Monday morning.

Just like Glastonbury or Coachella, there’s benefit to saving a headliner or two for the tail end.

Ramelius Resources boss Mark Zeptner walked a tightrope during his Diggers presentation when it came to his views on the Takeovers Panel.

The process of the Takeovers Panel, I’ve got to be careful not to be too critical here, wasn’t timely ...

... Mr Zeptner said when quizzed over the pace of an application the miner first instigated in April to try and scupper a $2.4 billion tie-up between rival Westgold Resources and Karora Resources.

He also spoke of his spicy back-and-forth with Spartan Resources chief Simon Lawson.

Lawson replied in kind when he took the stage for his presentation just minutes later.

Here’s what they both had to say ...

Former Pilbara Minerals boss Ken Brinsden took to the stage on Day 3 of Diggers & Dealers eager to tell what be believes is the “real story” in lithium markets.

The exploration company he moved to Canada to lead, Patriot Battery Metals, boasts the eight biggest lithium resource in the world.

And even though he holds Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora mining operation “close” to his heart, Mr Brinsden reckons the Shaakichiuwaanaan project in Quebec’s James Bay region looks more like “a Greenbushes story” than the Pilbara asset he spent years getting up and running.

With most lithium bears pairing up the beliefs that there’s too much supply going around to match electric vehicle demand for the forseeable future, Mr Brinsden argued that cheaper EVs in China means the potential market in the lithium-ion battery world was “ballooning”.

“The cells are getting so much cheaper and so much faster, and that translates to the next wave of demand which is what we should all be looking for,” he told the crowd.

“Have a look at whats happened to the cost of EVs in China. Becase the cells are getting cheaper, it’s now economically compelling to buy an EV because it’s cheaper than the internal combustion engine car.”

Herd at Diggers ....

Tales abound from the night-time “networking” activities of West Perth’s finest, but since we aren’t overly eager to be party to defamation proceedings — identifying details will have to remain scarce.

What we can reveal is that a geologist from an up-and-coming base metals explorer woke up in a groggy haze to find a large sum of money had been deposited into a mysterious Venmo account.

Our victim was last spotted in the early hours conversing with one of the underdressed mixologists that make K-town infamous.

Our sources were not privy to their discussions in the crowded watering hole, but the Bull’s powers of journalistic deduction have so far ruled out a debate about Plato’s philosophical musings.

The ASX’s biggest uranium company is about to get bigger.

Chief operating officer Paul Hemburrow told a Day 3 Diggers audience its $1.25 billion purchase of Canada’s Fission Uranium was on track for the September quarter.

The deal received Canadian Competition Act clearance in mid-July, and the deal doesn’t require shareholder approval to proceed, meaning it should be relatively smooth sailing from here on out.

Once done it’ll create a new global uranium giant with assets in Canada and Africa.

The deal coincides with renewed interest in the potential of nuclear power as countries consider their options for less fossil fuel-intensive power.

Uranium prices have ticked up to about $US80 per pound since November last year, highs not seen for about 15 years.

Gold continued its march lower overnight Tuesday, while global equity markets steadied after the previous day’s rout.

Spot bullion was down about one per cent, falling after US data showed a June trade deficit of $US73.1 billion - slightly larger than the median estimate of 44 economists. The drop follows a 1.3 per cent fall on Monday amid broader market chaos.

A rebounding US dollar and a pullback in expectations of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve are also weighing on the yellow metal. Meanwhile, exchange-traded funds added 125,101 troy ounces of gold to their holdings in the last trading session.

Monday’s market chaos likely put pressure on traders to liquidate some gold positions to cover margin calls on other assets. Prices fell as much as 3.2 per cent before paring some of those losses.

Still, bullion hit an all-time high just a few weeks ago and despite the recent declines it’s still up by more than 15 per cent so far this year. Expectations of rate cuts by the Fed - traditionally seen as supportive for non-yielding gold - and buying by central banks are among the key price supports.

Precious metals were “dragged down by the general panic mood on the markets at the start of the week,” according to a Tuesday report from Commerzbank. Along with overblown expectations of Fed rate cuts, selling to compensate for losses in other assets may have also been behind gold’s recent weakness, it said.

Spot gold fell to $US2385.84/oz. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose, as did US 10-year Treasury yields. Palladium and platinum were up, while silver fell.

Bloomberg