The Drill Down
Thursday 2 July 2026
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Developing High-Grade Gold & Copper in a Tier-One Belt
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670Koz
Au Eq Resource
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700km²
Serbian Landholding
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7,000m
Drilling Underway
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MinRex Resources is advancing a high-grade gold, silver and copper portfolio across 700km² of Serbian landholding in the West Tethyan Belt, anchored by a 670Koz @ 2.9g/t Au Eq resource at its advanced Tlamino gold-silver project.
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Lead Insight
BHP Bids to Reopen Chile's Cerro Colorado Copper Mine at a Cost of $1.5 Billion
BHP has lodged a US$1.5 billion plan with Chile's environmental regulator to restart and extend its Cerro Colorado copper mine in the Tarapacá region, which has sat in care and maintenance since December 2023. The project would add about 20 years of life, built around advanced sulphide leaching technology and a new water supply system to address the chronic water constraints facing miners in the Atacama. Cerro Colorado is a smaller asset in BHP's Chilean portfolio, but the move signals the group leaning into brownfield copper growth alongside its giant Escondida operation.
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Our Take
Days into the new CEO's tenure, this is BHP answering its own buy-versus-build question with build. Reviving a mothballed mine on leaching and desalination is cheaper than chasing another Anglo.
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Commodity Prices
Precious Metals (USD/toz)
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Gold
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$4,062
+0.77%
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Silver
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$60
+1.00%
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Platinum
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$1,612
+2.39%
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Palladium
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$1,229
+1.49%
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Base Metals & Commodities
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Copper USD/t
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$13543.21
-0.27%
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Nickel USD/t
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$16331.00
+0.21%
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Zinc USD/t
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$3459.39
-0.39%
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Lead USD/t
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$1861.00
-0.06%
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WTI Crude USD/bbl
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$67.84
-1.08%
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Prices updated as of 2 July 2026, 3:48 pm AEST
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Market Movers
Winners & Losers - ASX Markets
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VHM Ltd
VHM surged after signing an 18-year, life-of-mine offtake with Iluka for 100% of the rare earths concentrate from its Goschen project in Victoria, feeding Iluka's Eneabba refinery. The deal comes with a A$40 million convertible note from Iluka, providing early development capital and de-risking Goschen's path to a final investment decision.
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Kaoko Metals Ltd
Kaoko rose as managing director Gerard O'Donovan detailed a copper discovery at the Bootless prospect within its Chalkos project in Namibia's underexplored Kaoko Copper Belt. The belt has returned high-grade surface copper of up to 69.6%, with the company chasing a sediment-hosted system it likens to the Central African Copperbelt.
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True North Copper Ltd
True North Copper climbed after hitting 25 metres at 4.2% copper equivalent in a new structure at its Wallace North deposit, part of the Cloncurry Copper Project in northwest Queensland. The result adds fresh high-grade tonnes as the company advances a prefeasibility study targeted for late 2026.
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C29 Metals Ltd
C29 fell after resuming trading with an update on its Cancún acquisition alongside a capital raising. For a micro-cap uranium and copper explorer, the fresh equity and its dilution weighed heavily, with such raises typically priced at a discount to market.
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Neometals Ltd
Neometals dropped after flagging it still had not received the second-tranche placement funds from Omaha Value Holdings, due by 30 June, with the investor now proposing to pay in instalments. The funding uncertainty hit a company leaning on the raise for near-term working capital across its Barrambie gold and Utah lithium projects.
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Pan African Resources Plc
Pan African Resources eased as it completed its scheme acquisition of Emmerson Resources, consolidating the Tennant Creek goldfield and issuing about 102.6 million new CDIs. The scrip issuance and selling from former Emmerson holders and the sale agent weighed on the new ASX line, against a soft gold backdrop.
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Market data as of 2 July 2026, 4:10 PM AEST
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This Week's Poll
Six Months From Now, Which Commodity Will Have Surprised the Most to the Upside?
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Today's Stories
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CnEVPost
CATL Restarts Jiangxi Lithium Mine With 100,000-Ton Annual Capacity
CATL has restarted its Jianxiawo lepidolite mine in Yichun, Jiangxi, one of the world's largest single lithium operations, after securing a safety production permit on 29 June. The vertically integrated mine and refinery carry annual capacity of about 100,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate and once supplied 8 to 10% of China's output, though analysts expect a slower ramp of roughly 50,000 tonnes this year. The site had sat idle since August 2025 after its licence lapsed, a suspension widely read as Beijing reining in an oversupplied market.
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Our Take
This is the supply return lithium bears feared made real. It caps any near-term price recovery and pairs with the sodium threat to keep ASX producers on the back foot.
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The Australian
Fortescue Pays Up in Minutes After Years of Battling Yindjibarndi in the Courts
Fortescue has paid the record native title compensation owed to the Yindjibarndi people, moving quickly after the Federal Court entered its final orders on 1 July, according to The Australian. The total was set at about $150.3 million, headlined by $150 million for cultural loss, the largest such award in Australian history, over mining at the Solomon Hub since 2012 without an agreement. Fortescue had fought the claim for years, arguing for an $8 million cap against the $1.8 billion the Yindjibarndi sought.
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Our Take
The number is small against Fortescue's earnings, but the precedent is not. Every miner operating without a land use agreement now carries a nine-figure liability the courts will award.
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Financial Times
US Fossil Fuel Power Spending to Beat China for the First Time in Decades
US investment in coal- and gas-fired power will reach about $50 billion this year, roughly $3 billion more than China and the first time in decades the US has outspent it, according to IEA figures reported by the Financial Times. The surge is driven by the AI data-centre boom, with US electricity demand set to rise around 2% a year to 2030 and customers ordering some 20 gigawatts of gas turbines in the first quarter alone. Chinese fossil-power spending is expected to fall over the same period as Beijing leans further into renewables.
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Our Take
AI is rewriting the thermal power thesis. Gas, coal and uranium gain a demand tailwind the energy transition was meant to remove, and the US is now building for it.
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Bloomberg
Gold Miner Northern Star Replaces CEO After Elliott Pressure
Northern Star Resources, Australia's biggest gold miner, has replaced its CEO with a Glencore executive following pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management. Elliott had pushed the company to rebuild investor confidence.
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Our Take
Elliott gets its scalp. Northern Star hands the top job to a Glencore man. Smart. Trading blood runs deep there, and this gold miner needs discipline, not more empire building.
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Bloomberg
Slovakia to Revive Aluminium Plant That Was Once a Top Producer
Norsk Hydro's Slovalco smelter in Žiar nad Hronom will partially restart after a four-year shutdown, switching on the first 75,000 tonnes of its 175,000-tonne capacity from the fourth quarter under a EUR 100 million investment and a new long-term power deal with the Slovak government. Slovalco, 55.3% owned by Hydro and 44.7% by Penta, was curtailed in 2022 as high power prices made European smelting uneconomic. The remaining capacity hinges on framework conditions beyond 2030, with the restart still subject to European Commission approval of Slovakia's carbon-cost compensation scheme.
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Our Take
Europe wants its aluminium back just as the price is falling. Every restart this week, Slovakia, Missouri, hinges on subsidised power, which tells you the economics still do not work unaided.
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Kamoa Capital
kamoacap.com
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This newsletter is for general information, education & entertainment. Kamoa Capital is not licensed and does not know your circumstances. Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice. Seek professional advice and read any PDS before acting. We aim for accuracy but make no guarantees and accept no liability. Views are opinions only and may include forward-looking statements that may not occur.
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