Preview - Australia's Paydirt Issue 349 (June 2026)

ISSN 1445-34369 771445 34300705 Australia’s Paydirt June 2026June 2026 VOLUME 1. ISSUE 349 $11.95Galan galvanised for lithium volatility PLUS...● Critical Battery Minerals Conference Review● Europe’s exploration renaissance● Mining services feature

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Registered by Australia Post PP 643938/0071. No pages or articles in this publication may be reproduced in any form without the consent of the publisher. This includes photographs either taken by Paydirt Media staff or provided by other parties.PAYDIRT (ISSN 1445-3436)Published byPaydirt Media Pty Ltd.A.C.N. 063 985 133Head Office: Suite 9, 1297 Hay St, West PerthWestern Australia 6005P.O. Box 1589, West PerthWestern Australia 6872Phone: (+61 8) 9321 0355Facsimile: (+61 8) 9321 [email protected]: Editor: Dominic PiperDeputy Editor: Michael WashbourneSenior journalist: Rhonda MalkinJournalist: Michael CameronArt director: Nick BrownAdvertising:Head of Advertising: Richa FullerSubscriptions: Nicoletta AnticPhone: (+61 8) 9321 0355Facsimile: (+61 8) 9321 0426Pre-press and printing:Vanguard Press, 26 John St,Northbridge WA 6003Member of:Paydirt MediaExecutive chairman: Bill RepardFinance manager: Giovanny JeffersonAccounts/administration: Vanessa CaleConferences: Angelique Julien,Paula Fujita6326 NEWSThe gold sector’s first major M&A deal of the year has been unveiled with Regis Resources and Vault Minerals to join forces. The proposed $11 billion tieup will create Australia’s third largest gold producer, boasting a total production profile of more than 700,000 ozpa, utilising up to 22.3 mtpa of milling capacity across nine facilities in WA. Dominic Piper reports COVER Galan Lithium is about to become the newest member of the ASX-listed lithium producers club with first chloride concentrate from its Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina expected any day now. Michael Washbourne sat down with Galan boss JP Vargas de la Vega to reflect on a success story more than eight years in the makingCRITICAL BATTERYMINERALS REVIEW Lithium has finally started to thaw from its second prolonged winter of the last decade. To ensure all participants are appropriately dressed for the commodity’s next sunny season, the WA Government has doubled down on its support for the sector, offering fee waivers to the State’s two lithium hydroxide producers. WA Mines Minister David Michael’s exclusive announcement was the opening act for the 11th edition of Paydirt’s Critical Battery Minerals Conference. We capture all the major talking points across our 22-page wrap of the two-day forumEUROPE ASX-listed juniors continue to lead the changing of the guard in Europe, which has put mining and exploration back on the agenda after more than two decades focused on advanced manufacturing, services and the digital economy. Beginning our coverage, Rhonda Malkin examines the political discourse driving a new chapter for the industry on the continentMINING SERVICES High commodity prices have supercharged the services side of the sector over the past 12 months but a leading advisory firm has warned against CONTENTSMember of:263254in support of Australia’s mining industrymaroomba.com.au69Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 4 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTThis time last year, the local lithium sector was hanging onto life. Mines and processing plants were closing, exploration had dried up and even the established producers were forced into curtailing production and saving costs. The mood was caused by tumbling lithium prices and an assumption the great EV adoption thematic was overblown. Twelve months on, prices are buoyant, miners are talking about expansion and dozens of explorers are remembering to report lithium intercepts again after only focusing on gold for a year. On the supply side, the rise of stationary battery storage and the oil price-inspired rush towards EVs has blown up all forecasts. I’ve heard, read and written a lot about lithium over the past decade, how it is a special market, unlike the traditional base and precious metals Australian miners usually deal with. Countless times I have been told versions of “Pricing is opaque”, “So much depends on individual product quality”, “There is no predictable demand trends”. The latest volatility may only reinforce those claims, however, prices recovering and companies regaining confidence if anything proves that lithium is beginning to act like any other commodity. It goes through cycles with the requisite ups and downs we see in copper, nickel, zinc or iron ore.The difference for lithium is both ends of the market are nascent, so the peaks and troughs are more pronounced as either oncoming supply rapidly outstrips demand, or unpredictable demand growth catches suppliers by surprise. It seems likely this volatility will continue but flatten over the coming decade as both supply – particularly long-life assets such as the lithium brine projects in Latin America – and demand grow to such an extent that unpredicted shifts on either side no longer have a dramatic effect on the overall balance of the market. Mature markets like copper or iron ore see price movements but they are rarely affected to any great extent by “black swan” events because the markets are so deep. Lithium is heading towards such a state. It has not been the only commodity for which industry observers have predicted end-times. Whenever a price turns, or a major mine closes, or a new overseas operation opens up, there is inevitably predictions of doom. However, in my two decades in the sector, the end has rarely come. Of those commodities for whom a local industry doesn’t exist anymore, only potash reckons as a total flop, and that occurred before it even properly started. Some of you may be already thinking about the West Australian nickel sector, and I cannot argue that it is certainly not what it used to be.Most of the commentary has blamed Indonesia’s arrival as a nickel superpower – funded by Chinese stainless steelmakers – as the death knell for WA nickel. However, while Indonesia hastened the process, in reality the demise of the WA nickel industry was already in play. The standard argument goes that Indonesia has flooded the market with cheap nickel, driving down spot prices and making it impossible for WA miners to compete. Several elements of the argument are true; Indonesia did rapidly expand production and did so at low cost, but the LME nickel price has largely recovered. At the time of print, LME nickel was trading at just under $US20,000/t, a ceiling it has broken for only a single 18-month period in the last 15 years. Kambalda and Widgiemooltha, as well as Leinster and Forrestania, operated for years at much lower prices than today but they were all found more than a generation ago, and their discovery has barely been repeated since. The last great nickel discovery – Nova-Bollinger – is the last nickel sulphide player standing in WA and is actually making good money at current prices.Similarly, Kambalda, Widgiemooltha, Leinster and Forrestania all operated through sustained periods of much lower prices than today and survived. They could be producing at a profit today but The lithium cycle has turned again, perhaps proving the Australian sector was not facing the existential threat so many of us [email protected] @Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Discovering Critical Minerals,Delivering Shareholder ValueEXPLORING TODAYPOWERING TOMORROWAdvancing Australia’s Next Strategic Antimony & CriticalMetals DistrictsHigh-grade antimony, silver and gold projects in Tier‐1Australian mining jurisdictions (Tasmania and New SouthWales), with multiple near-term exploration anddevelopment catalysts.loderesources.comUnlocking Opportunity. Driving Growth.Scan to learn moreHIGH GRADE PROJECTSSilver, Antimony, Gold & TinAcross Tasmania and NSWMAIDEN RESOURCE8.2Moz AqEq @ 533g/t AgEqat MontezumaCLEAR PATHWAYTO DEVELOPMENTAdvancing Montezuma towardsa Pre-Feasability StudySecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 6 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTEndurance is contemplating bringing the Abra lead-silver operation back to the market via an IPOIPOsAbra plots path backto marketAn IPO is one of the options being considered to bring the rejuvenated Abra leadsilver mine back in front of public investors later this year.Endurance Mining Pty Ltd has appointed Azure Capital and DLA Piper as corporate and legal advisors, respectively, to administer a dual-track process to either float the Taurus Funds Management-backed entity or join forces with an existing ASX-listed company.Located about 200km north of Meekatharra, Abra was developed and operated under a 60/40 JV between Galena Mining and Japanese smelting powerhouse Toho Zinc Co Ltd until April 2024 when the mine’s eponymous parent company entered voluntary administration. A large rainfall event in the Gascoyne region earlier that year proved to be the final nail in the coffin for an operation already carrying a very heavy debt burden.Abra continued to operate while administrators KordaMentha canvassed several recapitalisation options, including liquidation or divestment, for the ASIC-registered holding company. Ultimately, it was decided the mine should remain in private hands, paving the way for the incorporation of 100% Taurus-owned Endurance in June last year.Following an impressive March quarter which saw a host of production and financial records broken, Endurance managing director Matthew Hine said the Abra operation was primed for a return to the public market.“This asset belongs back in the market,” he told Paydirt. “We want to give new capital a chance to invest in it and really support what we think is going to be a very exciting, Australian-born business.“We’re working on a prospectus at the moment, in parallel with looking at other companies on where a merger could be mutually agreeable. We expect both of those workstreams to finish up at the back end of this year, at which point the board and our investors will make a decision on what’s the best way to go.”Record lead grades were mined and processed at Abra during the March period, culminating in a new quarterly production benchmark of 38,755t concentrate grading 188 g/t silver and 60.3% lead. Metal-in-concentrate produced totalled 234,000oz silver and 23,473t lead, aided by no major impacts on operations during the recent wet season.Endurance also posted record EBITDA of $37.6 million in the March quarter, up 93% on the December period. Free cashflow ($19.8 million) and net cashflow ($19.7 million) also increased 125% and 131% respectively, while reported C1 costs came in at a record $0.17/lb.Debt on the company’s balance sheet was also reduced to $164.3 million following a payment of $US10.9 million ($15.5 million) to Taurus in April. It had peaked at $267.7 million during voluntary administration.Hine said the company had made a conscious decision to operate to the same standards as its ASX-listed peers.“It is ready to be an ASX-listed company right now,” he said. “You can see that in the disclosure undertaking around our reporting and the systems we’ve set up, right through SEUSMICAPPROVEDCOMPANYISO 9001Quality Management SystemsAPPROVEDCOMPANYISO 14001 Environmental Management SystemsIPOsSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 7to the way we’re operating.“We did look at listing it and taking it back to the market straight away, but we needed to make sure for future equity and investors that this was going to be a business that could sustain and perform over the long term.“You can’t turn a ship around overnight, it was always going to take 12 months, so we went to work on that. That way, when it does come back to the market, it’s not a forwardlooking promise, it’s a backward-looking set of results which future investors will have confidence can be replicated going forward.”Abra remains on track to meet its target of producing 80,000t contained lead and 850,000oz silver this year. Costs are also expected to remain in check if the 16MW hybrid power station and 11ha solar farm continued to account for circa 50% of daytime electricity consumption. Endurance also reported diesel consumption represented less than 10% of total energy usage on site during the March quarter.“That diversity in energy has really helped de-risk the business,” Hine said. “We’re also looking at ways to reduce our total energy needs. It’s not just about our energy makeup but reducing the amount of energy we need as well.”With operations at Abra seemingly stable, Hine said the company could now afford to deploy more time and resources towards exploration across both its 10,000ha near-mine tenure and 37,000ha regional ground package.Endurance recently declared an updated resource of 31.1mt @ 7.2% lead and 18.5 g/t silver containing 2.23mt lead and 18.5 moz silver metal following last year’s extensive grade control drilling programme across the Abra orebody. This included a 35% uplift in the measured and indicated categories to 17.6mt, a 14% increase in silver grade and a 33% jump in contained silver metal.“It’s a tremendous orebody, very highgrade and very big,” Hine said. “It’s still one of the highest-grade lead deposits in the world, at over 7%, with a lot of silver in there, too.“Obviously it was all drilled from surface in the early days and it wasn’t really until the prior owners got down there, they realised there was a lot of spatial complexity, particularly with how the lead presented against the mine plan. That’s why we’ve made this big investment in grade control drilling… so we’ve got the confidence and the surety over the metals within a zone, telling us exactly where the drives need to be.”Hine, who joined Endurance in late 2024 after a stint in Bosnia as chief operating officer for polymetallic producer Adriatic Metals, also sees plenty of upside in Abra’s production capacity.“The mill was designed at 1.2 mtpa, but this year will be a record,” the now Perthbased executive said. “We think we’ll come in at 1.4-1.5 mtpa and we’ve already got initiatives in place where we think we can break that and exceed 1.5 mtpa next year for the first time as well.“With polymetallic orebodies, a lot of the risk can be in the metallurgy, but we’ve got a fantastic flotation plant which is producing a very high-quality concentrate, low in deleterious elements, which is attracting a premium on the market. There was, and continues to be, incredible demand for our concentrate. “The asset wasn’t broken, we just had to fix the parts to make it hum. There was a hell of a lot that was going right.”Should Endurance go down the IPO route and list the company on the ASX later this year, Hine is hopeful there will be more to the prospectus than just the Abra operation, with the company scouring the landscape for complementary producing or development-ready assets.“We’ve got a great asset today in Abra, but it’s certainly not the end point. We’re actively looking at producers and developers that might be complementary to our vision of being a silver-focused producer,” he said.“When I think about the companies I’ve worked for [including OceanaGold Corp and Evolution Mining Ltd] they were consistently able to deliver sustained returns and earnings growth over time, largely because they were multi-asset businesses. They had diversification of revenue streams and if you had a hiccup at one mine, another comes in to support.“We’ve got a view that 3-4 [assets in a production portfolio] is the ideal number.” – Michael WashbourneSEUSMICAPPROVEDCOMPANYISO 9001Quality Management SystemsAPPROVEDCOMPANYISO 14001 Environmental Management SystemsAPPROVEDCOMPANYISO 9001Quality Management SystemsAPPROVEDCOMPANYISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems Nationally Accredited with decades of experience. Safe, Innovative and Efficient.Proven Track Record for Successfully delivering exploration projects across diverse Australian terrains.Client-Focused Approach, Tailored drilling solutions designed to meet unique project requirements.Tailored drilling solutions to complex problemsAbra is currently host to 2.23mt contained lead and 18.5 moz silver metal Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Complete Mining Services [email protected] | www.capdrill.comEXPLORATION & PRODUCTION DRILLINGLOAD & HAUL SERVICESGEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS LABORATORIES (MSALABS)INTEGRATED DRILLING TECHNOLOGIESPAGE 8 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTWest African Resources Ltd (WAF) has finally settled with the Burkina Faso Government over the future of its Kiaka gold mine in the West African country, accepting a $175 million payment for an additional 25% interest in the asset.The settlement brings an end to eight months of uncertainty after Burkina Faso’s military government said it would enact its entitlements under the 2024 Mining Code to acquire an additional stake in a project which poured first gold in June 2025 after a $US565 million capital spend.The Government’s original request was “to acquire, for valuable paid consideration, an additional 35% of the company’s subsidiary Kiaka SA”. Speaking at Africa Down Under in September 2025, Mamadou Sagnon, director general of the Department of Mines, said the letter was an opening to negotiations.“The Government added a letter to make solicitation to the company to increase participation to a further 35%,” he said. “For the moment, it is a solicitation, it is not forcing. We say in the mining code state participation starts with 15%, and we can make it at least 30% again for the state or national investors.“This is the beginning of solicitation. We will have discussions with the company to see what we can do together.”Having concluded with a 25% stake, the Burkinabe Government will now hold 40% of Kiaka SA, the operating local subsidiary.WAF executive chairman Richard Hyde was relieved to have finally reached agreement. “The publication of the Decree removes uncertainty regarding the Government’s interest in Kiaka,” he said. “Our discussions with SOPAMIB [the state-owned miner] have been extensive and robust.”Speaking on the company’s March quarterly call, Hyde said WAF was working with the Government to finalise terms of the acquisition with the goal of completing the transaction by the end of the year. He said it was likely the transaction would be completed through a cash payment.“In our extensive discussions, we discussed a cash payment,” he said. “The Government is seeing the recent revenue from the gold price and given the return on this investment, it is probably commercially attractive to banks as well. So, we are expecting to be paid in cash.”On the valuation of the 25% stake, Hyde said the formula was set out in the Mining Code.“The value mechanism used in the 2024 Mining Code is not a NPV base, but a sustaining capital estimate for the life-of-mine. It is unusual but it is in the code,” he said.Crucially for WAF, the Decree made no REGIONAL ROUND-UPWAF settles with Burkinabe GovernmentSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

www.capdrill.com www.capdrill.comComplete Mining Services [email protected] | www.capdrill.comEXPLORATION & PRODUCTION DRILLINGLOAD & HAUL SERVICESGEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS LABORATORIES (MSALABS)INTEGRATED DRILLING TECHNOLOGIESAUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 9AFRICAreference to its other Burkinabe assets, the operating Sanbrado gold mine and the Toega gold project.“There were no discussions on Sanbrado or Toega, and they weren’t referred to in the Decree published,” he said. “From our understanding, our other operations are not being targeted for the same treatment and we will look to add that in the documentation process for the 25% stake. There are issues with other fiscal financial terms, however we are attempting to get surety.”The news on Kiaka came just days before WAF released another impressive quarterly result, showing 107,728oz gold produced at AISC of $US1,921/oz. At Sanbrado, the transition to underground operations continued with 27,320oz @ 7.4 g/t delivered from the M1 South underground out of a total 42,024oz produced at the mine. “We will see a higher contribution of ounces from the M1 South underground as more stoping areas become available,” Hyde said. Kiaka produced 65,704oz gold at $US1,779/oz AISC as mining and processing rates continued to increase, 18% and 6% respectively, over the previous quarter. The company is also increasingly bullish on its future. A new production plan released on March 31 established a 10-year outlook for Sanbrado and Kiaka, with the goal now of producing 533,000 ozpa over the decade. Production is expected to peak in 2030 at just over 600,000oz, with Sanbrado contributing 317,000oz of that. The plan was backed by an updated reserve-resource statement which showed an increase in reserves to 7 moz gold and increase in resources to 13.7 moz.“The 10-year plan highlights just what a strong and sustainable future our company has and our potential to continue to generate value for stakeholders and host communities over the next decade and beyond,” Hyde said.The Sanbrado production profile will be augmented by feed from the 1.1 moz Toega project, where first mining is expected to start this year.“Pre-stripping has continued, with 621,000 bcm moved in the March quarter and surface grade control drilling in preparation for first ore movement in the June quarter,” Hyde said. “That will be delivered to the Sanbrado plant in the September quarter.”The company will continue to test the limits of its gold systems. More than 100,000m of drilling is planned for Sanbrado to chase underground extensions in M1 South, M5 South and Toega.With $847 million in cash and $213 million in bullion at March 31, the WAF exploration team will not be facing a funding issue and Hyde expects the drilling can deliver another reserve-resource upgrade in the June quarter.“It might not move the needle on ounces like the last one did, but it will move the category,” he said. The WAF result was the most prominent of another wave of success for Australia’s African gold producers. Perseus Mining Ltd produced 107,144oz gold in the quarter, up 18,256oz, while increasing its cash margin by $US758/oz to $US2,395/oz to give it a net cash and bullion position of $US817 million. Meanwhile, Predictive Discovery Ltd – fresh from its merger with Robex Resources – posted 48,178oz of gold production from the Kiniero and Nampala mines in Guinea and Mali, respectively, during the quarter. The two operations came with the Robex deal and the $US139 million cash margin generated from them will be a welcome injection into the coffers as Predictive presses ahead with FEED and pre-development work on its flagship Bankan project, also in Guinea. Dual-listed Orezone Gold Corp also enjoyed strong performance producing 37,563oz from its Bombore gold mine in Burkina Faso, having only poured first gold on December 15. – Dominic PiperMamadou SagnonWAF’s Sanbrado operation produced 42,024oz at $US2,034/oz AISC in the March quarterSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 10 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTCOVERGalan is poised to imminently join a select group of Australian companies when the first batch of lithium chloride concentrate is produced from its Hombre Muerto West (HMW) project in Argentina, matching a feat previously achieved in country by the likes of Orocobre and Galaxy Resources, both now an integral part of Rio Tinto Ltd’s burgeoning lithium division.First production from Phase 1 operations at HMW – about 90km north of the town of Antofagasta de la Sierra in Argentina’s Catamarca province – is expected later this month following installation and commissioning of all key infrastructure, including the nanofiltration plant and evaporation ponds.Galan has accumulated a brine inventory of circa 10,000t lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in the evaporation ponds and will target an initial production rate of 4,000 tpa before scaling up to 5,200 tpa from early next year. The company’s journey to first lithium production has incorporated more twists and turns than a traditional Formula 1 racetrack. Perth-based Vargas de la Vega – affectionately known across the industry as “JP” – has been there every step of the way.“Since we started the company, we’ve h a d t w o lithium winters plus COVID,” he told Paydirt. “It’s a lot to take. We tried to prepare for a rainy day – and I’ve mentioned this many times before – we ended up getting a massive storm and we just had to do the best we could with what we had.“Even though things have been difficult, you have to stick to your guns and have conviction that you have the right asset, you have the right team working for you and that you can survive.“I’m proud of everyone that has been part of this through the history of Galan. We’ve never been conventional and there’s always been someone criticising us for missing this or missing that, however, we’ve always been very clear about where we think we Nothing ever happens in a straight line. Just ask Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega, the founder and managing director of the next ASX-listed lithium producer, Galan Lithium Ltd.Brine time:Galan rides out lithium stormSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 11can take the company.“Nothing ever happens overnight. We could be a success story the last eight years in the making.”Vargas de la Vega was already a popular and respected analyst amongst the Perth stockbroking community before he built a reputation as one of the foremost experts on all things lithium when the once niche industry first gained mainstream attention from early 2016.By the end of the following year, the Chilean-born mineral economist decided he wanted his own piece of the action, founding private company Blue Sky Lithium and pegging ground in what he considered “elephant country” for lithium, specifically the Hombre Muerto salt flat in Argentina. At the time, Hombre Muerto was an emerging lithium province with the likes of Galaxy and FMC (the predecessor to Livent, also later absorbed into Rio Tinto) establishing major operations at the southern tip of what is widely referred to as South America’s “Lithium Triangle”.One of the tenements acquired by Blue Sky would later prove host to HMW, now one of the world’s top 10 lithium resources currently under development.“I was in Argentina, keeping my eyes open for lithium projects,” Vargas de la Vega recalled.“There were a few options out there, then I was prompted to look at what else might be available. That’s when I had this idea that if I was in Newman [in Western Australia’s Pilbara region] and somebody said to me, ‘here’s this little plot of iron ore, next door to one of the world’s biggest and best iron ore mines, but it’s not owned by BHP [Ltd], what am I missing?’“I’m a mineral economist by background and I worked as a mining analyst for a number of years, so I did a back of the envelope calculation of what it could be and immediately I knew that I was looking in the right place.“We had an idea there’s a baby elephant in elephant country – but we’re not a baby elephant anymore.”Vargas de la Vega funded the initial purchase of the project into Blue Sky with $15,000 of his own money before vending his private company into Nathan McMahon’s Dempsey Minerals in May 2018. The listed entity would later be renamed after Cerro Galan, the most prolific caldera in Catamarca.HMW may never have found its way into Galan if Vargas de la Vega was not able to lean heavily on his Latin heritage.“Knowing what I know and what I’ve seen, if you were born and raised in Australia, there was zero chance of getting this because it took quite a lot of discussions,” he said. “First of all, the person that I ended up negotiating with spoke zero English. How can you communicate if you don’t speak the language? “Culturally, it definitely helped a lot. I had to knock on a lot of doors at the start, move to the next one and the next one. It didn’t take me long because I knew what I was Phase 1 construction works, including the Authium-led nanofiltration plant, at Hombre Muerto West concluded earlier this yearSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

COVERdoing. There’s a saying ‘don’t lose your shirt doing this’ [implying don’t incur significant financial loss]. The way I saw it is you’ve got less chance of losing your shirt if you know the language.”Within a year of Galan joining a growing cohort of ASX-listed companies in Argentina, the first lithium winter had begun to set in. The company’s share price peaked at 62c at the start of March 2019 but collapsed to 23c by the end of the month. The stock would continue to decline over the next 18 months, bottoming out at 11c in November 2020.Vargas de la Vega knew he had to stay the course during this period of low pricing, pushing ahead with a resource drill-out which would ultimately confirm HMW as one of the highest-grade lithium projects in the district.Lithium prices started to recover from December 2020 onwards with Galan completing two separate capital raisings over the course of the next 12 months, yielding $60 million to initiate feasibility and permitting work at HMW and potentially start laying the foundations for future construction.It was during this period Vargas de la Vega came to the realisation his company was destined to become a producer.“The dream was always there to be an operator,” he said.“Because there are so many turns in the life of a junior company, you never know where you’re going to land. But as long as it continued to make good business sense, we were always going to continue doing what we were doing and add as much value as we could for shareholders.“It’s always been in the back of my mind that Galaxy and Orocobre were $3 billion companies [before they merged in late 2021, creating Allkem]. You then ask yourself, ‘why cannot we be there as well?’ “We have everything to demonstrate we can get there. We’ve got better grades and a larger resource than both of them. The main difference for us [back then] was funding.”A 2022 study conceptualised steady-state production of 20,000 tpa over a 40-year life “Nifty’s reputation in the Australian market was similar but I feel like we spent much of 2024 and 2025 doing our ghostbusting and in 2026 it becomes all about execution.PAGE 12 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTGalan’s transition from lithium developer to producer is nearly complete“We had an idea there’s a baby elephant in elephant country – but we’re not a baby elephant anymore.Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 13“If the world goes backwards to what it was 12 months ago, we will be able to survive.JP Vargas de la VegaSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

As lithium prices finally begin to thaw from another prolonged winter, the West Australian Government has doubled down on its support for the headline act of the State’s fledgling critical minerals industry.Opening the 11th edition of Paydirt’sCritical Battery Minerals Conference, WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum Hon David Michael exclusively announced the Cook Labor Government had allocated $30 million towards fee waivers for the State’s two established lithium hydroxide producers, Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA) and Covalent Lithium.It is an extension of the WA Government’s $150 million Lithium Industry Support Programme (LISP) first announced in November 2024, offering emerging lithium miners a 24-month waiver on port charges and tenement fees for upstream projects in the rampup phase, plus access to a $50 million loan facility – interest-free for up to two years – to help sustain operations.Downstream pair TLEA and Covalent will now have government fees and charges in the areas of land, water and electricity waived until the end of next year, an extension of exactly 12 months on the previous arrangement.Michael said including hydroxide producers in the LISP made sense given the Government’s ongoing commitment to protecting local jobs and investment in WA’s budding lithium industry.“We don’t underestimate the size of the challenge in establishing new industries in WA,” Michael told delegates on the opening morning of the conference.“Midstream and downstream processing are technically complex, requiring special skillsets. We are aware of this and are committed to supporting industry along this journey.”The WA Government has also committed another $5 million towards the development of standards for the re-use of lithium byproducts in construction materials, aimed at reducing disposal costs.Michael expected these new funding initiatives would have broader benefits beyond WA’s own battery and critical minerals strategy.“Extending the State Government support for the likes of Covalent and Tianqi Lithium also backs the Federal Government’s initiatives on the horizon,” he said.“I’m talking about the Commonwealth’s Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive. The PTI, effective from 1 July next year, will provide a 1 0 % rebate on total operating costs for critical mineral processing operations and we expect both Tianqi and Covalent to be eligible for the PTI when the rebate is available between 1 July next year and 30 June 2040, for a maximum of 10 years.“The Cook Government fully supports the PTI and we thank our federal counterparts, especially our friend Hon Madeleine King [Federal Resources Minister] who tirelessly advocates for Australia’s resource sector.”Michael’s address was followed by one of the most upbeat outlooks for lithium since the commodity was added to the conference agenda in 2018, just prior to the first of two lithium downturns over the intervening eight years.CRU Group principal consultant Jason Needham said lithium prices had “effectively doubled” over the past six months, indicating basic market fundamentals had shifted from surplus into tightness. However, he noted the key reason for this demand uptick was markedly different to previous cycles.“There’s been a massive draw on lithium inventories over the past six months and this is primarily driven by the success of LFP in stationary battery energy storage systems [BESS],” he said.Lithiumrecovery critical to WACRITICAL BATTERY MINERALS CONFERENCE REVIEWPAGE 14 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTDavid MichaelSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 15“This year is the first year that energy storage demand growth will exceed EV-related demand growth. [We see] a little bit of weakness in EV demand [over the next five years], however, energy storage will continue to grow and we expect BESS applications, in terms of battery demand, to increase from 15% in 2025 to 30% of market share by 2030.“This is primarily driven by the economics of power storage arbitrage and grid balancing. These systems are largely there to support utility-scale deployment of renewable systems, however, you’ll also see other applications, particularly in areas such as AI and data centres.”Needham added that BESS systems now represent about one-in-three of all lithium-ion batteries produced globally.CRU forecasts suggest LFP cathode chemistries will be the dominate player in the battery market in the near term, especially with most consumers prioritising affordability and longevity.“NMC battery cathodes in Chinese EVs have stabilised at only about 20% of market share, the rest being mainly LFP,” Needham said.“Chinese producers are relentlessly innovating to lower cost and to improve performance, but the next generation of highdensity LFP is already being commercialised in EVs and Chinese producers are increasing the compaction density of these LFP cathodes to enable products to realise either faster charging or higher energy densities. However, at this stage, only a few manufacturers in China are able to produce these fourth-gen LFP cathodes, so that gives a little bit of a bifurcation to the market – and stronger power to the big boys, so to speak.“China clearly dominates the technical space for LFP technologies and this is also done by limiting the sharing of technology by export controls and leveraging its technical expertise, particularly when it comes to attracting technical partnerships and entering new markets.”Needham said various government interventions impacting supply of any critical mineral, not just lithium, would inevitably have a knock-on effect to the demand side of the conversation – if it hasn’t already.“Zimbabwe effectively banned concentrate exports earlier this year and will implement production quotas,” he said. “This follows similar quotas implemented in Indonesia and the DRC that particularly affect the battery value chain.“When you try to develop effectively China-free value chains, it has a pretty marked impact on how the whole system is going to work.”CRU research found that average profits for lithium miners in the December quarter were more than double the returns recorded in the first three reporting periods of 2025. While rebounding prices through the back half of last year and into 2026 have brought considerable relief to those companies in production, it has also spurred the next crop of developers and explorers back into action.“Last year global lithium exploration saw its first contraction since 2021 as prices effectively bottomed out, however, this is expected to recover with improved margins for miners,” Needham said.“A similar trend did occur in the last price cycle where huge investment was made in both exploration and new capacity. In 2022 and 2023 however, that precipitated supply growth overshooting demand up until mid2025 and that essentially caused this contraction of margins that we’ve seen.”CRU also anticipates growth in intermediate products such as lithium chloride and lithium sulphate. Collectively, they accounted for little more than 3% of total market share last year.“Companies like SQM have expanded their sulphate by-product capacity and African miners, particularly in Zimbabwe, are also developing similar capacity because of policy requirements in terms of onshoring of refining but also to save on transport costs and logistics,” Needham said.“Brine operators, particularly in South Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 16 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTCRITICAL BATTERY MINERALS CONFERENCE REVIEWChina could overtake Western Australia as the world’s top lithium producer but local companies struggling to economically beneficiate the metal can take heart from the Middle Kingdom’s own processing hiccups.The revelation the world’s No.1 minerals processing hub continues to find lithium recovery from spodumene an uphill battle emerged during a panel discussion on the opening morning of the conference. While WA has been the world’s largest lithium producer for a decade, the International Lithium Association (ILiA) said China’s large-scale investments in multiple deposit styles (brines, hard rock and sedimentary) placed it on an inevitable path to upstream dominion. ILiA founding chair Anand Sheth said the road to the top had not been a smooth one for Chinese lithium companies. Fierce internal competition had produced its fair share of losers and Sheth said China’s decades-long campaign to build lithium processing capacity had been littered with failures. He was not at all surprised at the well-documented travails of the IGO Ltd/Tianqi Lithium and Albermarle Corp lithium hydroxide plants, despite the help of Chinese lithium industry experts to design the facility. Such a story was far from uncommon in China, Sheth said.“I know of cases in China of companies that have been doing this [processing lithium] for the last 20 years, setting up another new refinery and not succeeding for years,” Sheth explained.“[Kwinana’s problems are] not new, it happens in China with the best people, with the most highly experienced people – they still struggle when they make the next generation of plant. They are in their fourth generation [of lithium refineries] and went through lots of cycles of failures before they succeeded.”The Kathleen Valley lithium mine near Leinster has been the most recent WA operation to come online, declaring commercial production at the start of last calendar year. Owner Liontown Ltd said the operation’s speedy development, especially in the face of pandemic-related disruptions, reflected the company’s steely determination.Liontown’s insistence on sticking to its plans for underground mining further illustrated this tenacity, chief operating officer Ryan Hair saying the targeted nature of underground extraction had allowed Liontown to limit contamination and optimise processing. “Contamination and the containment of that contamination is absolutely key,” Hair said. “Mining more cleanly with less dilution is a key advantage of underground lithium min - ing.“Underground mining does come with its own unique challenges but the downstream benefits [of underground mining] – all the way through the processing to the point of conc-grade recovery – are absolutely there. That is something Liontown has spoken about for some time and it is absolutely something we are living every day.“We started with an open-pit mine that was always meant to operate for three years before we got into the underground proper. The processing ability of that ore type, relative to what we are seeing underground, bearing in mind they are fundamentally mining from the same orebody, are chalk and cheese.”Pre-development Delta Lithium Ltd has watched Kathleen Valley closely. Plans to bring the flagship Mt Ida lithium project in the Eastern Goldfields into production received a shot in the arm from the potential for mica-hosted rubidium to add a valuable byproduct credit to the project flowsheet.Delta managing director James Croser said the company would have a hard time catching Liontown, given the head start it enjoys but, like the established producer seeing its glass-half-full at Kathleen Valley, he saw great potential for the previously problematic mica to improve project ecoRyan Hair (Liontown), James Croser (Delta Lithium) and Anand Sheth (ILiA)China still teething on spodumeneSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 17The odds may be stacked against the Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery but Tianqi Lithium is dogged in its conviction the ambitious project can still prove meritorious.Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia [TLEA] – which operates the plant and is the JV vehicle between Tianqi and partner IGO Ltd – halted a planned expansion early last year after the facility was deemed not economically viable. The lithium hydroxide prices at the time had experienced a substantial reduction since hitting a record high of over $US80/kg in early 2023.By July 2025, IGO had fully impaired its 49% stake in the refinery and as of April this year, Kwinana has been operating at a reduced output with its owners reportedly yet to decide on its future. But Tianqi has taken a cautiously optimistic view of the recent turn in lithium sentiment and TLEA chief executive Raj Surendran told Paydirt’s Critical Battery Minerals Conference the JV could still succeed at Kwinana. Surendran said the company’s shareholders had plenty of experience weathering pitches and rolls in the lithium sector and were conscious of how long it would take to iron out the kinks of such a midstream supply chain as the one slowly growing in Western Australia.“Our shareholders, the Tianqi shareholders in particular, have a very patient, longterm view of the industry, they have been in the industry for many years and understand it really well – certainly the dynamics around it,” Surendran said.“The issues we have had have been well-publicised and documented, the original design and execution was the first Tianqi’s faith in Kwinana unshakenRaj Surendrannomics.“The mica content at Mt Ida really has presented Delta with a very interesting problem – it is great to dive down the rabbit hole on that one and get stuck,” Croser said. “We have found that if we wriggle a little bit further, we find things out. “There is a possibility we go downstream and produce the battery-grade lithium from that mica concentrate, given it is too valuable to put on the haul road. From there, it is a natural progression to say, ‘if we are going to invest that amount of capex to produce that LC [lithium carbonate] and if the numbers line up, we are getting into the marginal costs of producing another product’. Then we are really squeezing as much juice out… as we can.“So it is incumbent on the board and the management of Delta to see what those solutions might be – if the economics line up, we could [go further downstream], for sure.”Sheth said the rapid rise of WA to become the world‘s top lithium producer had proven its reputation as a Tier-1 jurisdiction but with alternative deposit types such as large-scale brine operations in South America set to come online this cycle, the State’s exclusively hard rock industry would need government support to continue. Sheth said this would be especially important if WA aimed to compete with China on cost. The average capex for a WA lithium operation would probably always be higher than that of a Chinese mine but the panel agreed technological advancements, such as automation, could help level the playing field when it came to operational expenses – if, that is, Australia is able to solve its two most pressing concerns, the ongoing labour shortage and the price of energy.Croser cautioned against adopting automation technology before the kinks in an operation were ironed out, reminding the conference, “if you automate a mess, you end up with an automated mess”.Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 18 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTCRITICAL BATTERY MINERALS CONFERENCE REVIEWStrike digital goldwith Paydirt TVPaydirt has taken its award-winning editorial For more information on Paydirt TV,please contact Dominic Piper at [email protected] US faces internal competition and market distortion in its burgeoning rare earths supply chain if demand signals aren’t carefully managed, leading UK market analyst Project Blue has warned.Such is the fragility of the fledgling sector, the past 12 months of rapid progress in establishing its own rare earths supply chain ex-China could quickly unravel, according to Project Blue senior analyst Luke Allum. Despite notable progress in domestic oxide production, expanded separation capacity, and the entry of new players into processing, the US still had significant challenges ahead. Allum said market pricing remained uncertain and domestic production could become uncompetitive if costs remained above global – primarily Chinese – benchmarks. The US would also need to further strengthen partnerships with allied countries, including the EU, Australia and Japan, to avoid demand surges created by concurrent building of strategic reserves.“What you don’t want to do is bring on a load of demand because you’re trying to stockpile, that sends a bit of false signal to the market,” Allum said. “So, it’s really interesting on how internal competition can really influence these markets.”A more resilient and independent rare earth supply chain required balance between domestic production goals and international competitiveness, according to Allum, who said success would be based on effective partnerships, careful market management and a clear-eyed assessment of the true cost of supply security. The US strategy for sovereign control of critical minerals and energy supplies is being replicated around the world, with globalisation taking a backstep to nationalism and protectionism. This trend could develop into a broader split into distinct spheres of influence around rare earths, bringing into doubt the stability of collaborative approaches to building secure supply chains.“That doesn’t mean we’re splitting the market into maybe six pieces, it’s all about that collaboration and those MoUs,” Allum said. “Globally, a decision is needed on whether there is a split between that China sphere of influence.“I think people outside of the US maybe find that decision more tricky – you look at European automakers and they’re very happy to blow the trumpet on following the US, and then as soon as the pricing goes lower, they go and happily support China again.“So, I think there needs to be some tough decisions made on where you sit in the world and where that sphere of influence lies.” – Rhonda MalkinUS heads off shaky supply chainLuke AllumSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 19France is committing a big portion of its critical minerals strategy to recycling but leaders in Paris recognise that the country will need to open mining projects if it is to meet its domestic and continental objectives.The French Government has developed a wide-ranging set of financing tools to support development of more robust critical mineral value chains, including having invested €5 billion in recycling and reuse R&D since 2022. However, with demand for critical minerals only increasing, there is recognition more action will be required. “We have a dedicated strategy on circularity which makes sense but this will not cover the increase in demand so we have to open mines again in France,” Patrick Fullenwarth, international cooperation officer at Expertise France, told the conference. “There are good geological settings in mainland France and in New Caledonia and in mid-2025 we launched a new resource inventory, led by BGRM [the French geological survey] as the previous one from the 1980s didn’t include specialty minerals.”While France is far from a 21st century mining superpower, the country’s industry has a long history and Fullenwarth – himself an exploration geologist by profession – is confident it can be re-established.“We have projects being developed such as lithium in geothermal brines on the French side of the Rhine Valley and also a hard rock lithium deposit where mineralisation is hosted in lepidolite.”As well as encouraging Australian miners and explorers to consider project development in France, Fullenwarth said the Government was eager to engage on the international front across mining, refining and recycling.“There is financial support dedicated to the sector targeting projects that sit anywhere along the value chain within or with France, from mining, to refining, p-CAM and CAM production, gigafactories and even recycling,” he said. Of the four agencies administrating the grant schemes and tax credits, Infravia and BPIFrance are the more overseas-focused, with both capable of investing in non-domestic projects.“These funds can take equity stakes in mining, refining or recycling projects in the EU or in mining projects anywhere,” Fullenwarth said. “They are targeting projects with very high ESG standards. Australia is high up in this regard.”Infravia’s first investment is in Core Lithium Ltd’s Finniss lithium mine restart in the Northern Territory, committing to a $US50 million convertible note as part of the $US205 million funding package.Fullenwarth is seconded to Curtin University’s Critical Minerals Hub where he works on value chains and partnerships. In April, he was joined by French Minister for Foreign Trade Nicolas Forissier who visited Perth as part of a mission, signing a joint communique with West Australian Premier Roger Cook. – Dominic Piper Paris takes on critical value chainThe success of Australia’s proposed $1.2 billion critical minerals reserve will rely on the Federal Government’s support for ceiling prices to stabilise revenue during periods of market uncertainty.That was the advice from Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) Commonwealth director Sash Pavic on the industry body’s rare earths production scheme (REPS), recommended as part of the administration of the reserve, which it proposed to the Government in January. The framework, which is expected to boost commercial bankability while also protecting taxpayers, will focus on the four key rare earth magnet metals of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium and is similar to the Capacity Investment Scheme successfully deployed in the renewables sector.The Federal Government would top-up rare earths miners when prices fall below a floor price and would receive a portion of revenue when prices exceed the ceiling. With the reserve expected to become operational by the second half of 2026, AMEC is keen to see the finer details put into action quickly to support Australian rare earths producers. The Export Finance and Insurance Corp Amendment (Strategic Reserve) Bill 2026 was passed on March 31 handing Export Finance Australia (EFA) new powers to administer the reserve. Pavic said through REPS, AMEC recommended a competitive reverse auction to support a price discovBillion-dollar bet hinges on price guarantees: AMECPatrick FullenwarthSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 20 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTThe recent landmark free trade agreement between Australia and the EU to pursue critical minerals supply chain diversity could become the bedrock of increased mining development throughout Europe. After eight years of negotiations, the agreement, completed in March, eliminated tar - iffs on key Australian energy and resource exports, including lithium hydroxide, cobalt manganese and hydrogen. It locks Australia in as a key supplier to the EU’s clean energy Europe recommissionsits mining industryEUROPEBy the beginning of this century, Europe had seemingly outgrown mining, the focus of government and capital trained more on advanced manufacturing, services and the digital economy. More than two decades on, the wheel has turned again. Critical minerals supply chain resilience, new emissions targets and a moribund local economy have led the EU and national governments to reconsider the net benefits of mining and their approach to the resources sector has shifted from laying obstacles to clearing the path to development. Regulatory burdens are being eased and capital mobilised to spark a new wave of mining developments on the continent. Never slow to react to a changing landscape, ASX-listed juniors have leapt at the opportunity. There are now more than 40 ASX-listed companies active in Europe, ranging for numerous junior explorers to in-development lithium producer Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd in Germany and established mid-tier copper miner Sandfire Resources Ltd in Spain. Paydirt casts Mining remains a vital industry in several European economies, most notably Sweden, where assets such as the Aitik copper mine are world-class producersEurope recommissionsits mining industrySecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 21manufacturing and EV industries and reduces Europe’s heavy reliance on high-risk suppliers.China tops the list of high-risk suppliers to the EU due to its recent export restrictions on rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and tungsten amongst many others. Given the EU had historically relied on China for 100% of its heavy rare earths, 97% of magnesium and 71% for gallium, the restrictions signalled a death knell for once secure supply chains. Along with zero tariffs on critical minerals, the free trade agreement is expected to stimulate investment in Australian-owned mining operations both in the EU and in Australia through improved regulatory certainty and increased foreign investment screening thresholds for EU investors. At the end of last year, the EU mobilised up to €3 billion as part of the Resource EU Action Plan to boost domestic mining, processing and recycling projects with a focus on reducing reliance on China, Russia and Turkey.Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd has paved the way for Australian-EU collaboration by developing Europe’s first integrated lowcarbon lithium supply chain in Germany’s Upper Rhine Valley. In late 2025, Vulcan secured $3.9 billion for its Phase 1 Lionheart project from European government funds such as Germany’s KfW Bank and the European Investment Bank, as well as Export Finance Australia. Vulcan executive chair Francis Wedin said the agreement created a level playing field and was an indication the two jurisdictions were working together “very closely” and were “producing results”.“They are collaborating on project finances for critical raw materials projects, so the rubber has hit the road, which is very welcome,” he said.Hosting the largest hard rock lithium resource in Europe at the Cinovec project in the Czech Republic, European Metals Holdings Ltd would have likely viewed Vulcan’s lithium asset as a lighthouse project, proving European projects are fundable and developable. European Metals executive chair Keith Coughlan expressed the company’s gratitude for Vulcan’s role as a first mover in Europe.“As you take a project up the value chain and get it to the stage where you do need to go and raise the real money to build it, there has been a historical reluctance across global mining investors to go into mainstream Europe because of the perceived problems with permitting and environmental issues,” Coughlan said. “I think what we are seeing very recently now moves towards a global shift in that.“I think Vulcan’s project and raising significant capital there is fantastic for us because it sets a scene, we’re following behind, and thank you to Francis and his team for paving the way.”Coughlan said the changed attitude in Europe was attracting significant overseas investment.“Financing won’t come if there are concerns that y o u ’ r e g o i n g to lose y o u r project, its one of the m a j o r con -c e r n s globally with any project in an unusual jurisdiction,” he said. “I think the Europeans have reduced that perceived sovereign risk significantly just in the last 6-12 months with the development of other mining projects.” The French Government has also taken steps to radically strengthen its supply links with Australia, investing $US50 million in Core Lithium Ltd’s Finniss project based in the Northern Territory. Furthermore, in April, French foreign trade and economic attractiveness minister Nicolas Forissier signed a joint communique with the West Australian State Government to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals and sustainable mining.Domestically, France also invested €50 million in the Imerys EMILI lithium project in Allier, providing a clear signal EU nations are fast-tracking development of critical minerals projects at home and abroad. French Consulate international coordination officer for critical minerals Patrick Fullenwarth said the nation had seen a dramatic rise in awareness for the “criticality” of its supply chains but still faced an “outdated” mining vision.France updated its mining code mid-last year to speed up critical mineral’s extraction, through improved sustainable practices and modernised regulations with the country looking to Australia as a benchmark, according to Fullenwarth. “Australia is a great benchmark to promote because we can show the findings at the top of the industry in terms of safety [and] technology,” Fullenwarth said. “It’s still not completely understood or accepted that we have to generate an impact and dig holes in the ground.“The industry in Europe, in France, is made up of people that have this outdated There may be little evidence of a modern mining sector but Europe is littered with examples of its proud mining heritage, from a statue to St Barbara, patron saint of miners, in Oltre il Colle, Lombardia, Italy (left) to The Miner’s Arms near Plymouth, Devon, UK (top) and the Kiruna tourist iron ore mine in Sweden (above)Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 22 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTAmendments to Finland’s Mining Act have opened a pathway for Latitude 66 Ltd to regain exploration permits across its Kuusamo Schist Belt (KSB) project as part of efforts to extend its mining zone rights.The amendment allows permits to be granted where previous mining rights had expired or been revoked, which for Latitude 66 was a major stumbling block for further development of the project, in north-east Finland, near the Arctic Circle. Upon receiving the green light, Latitude moved quickly to apply for exploration permits with the Finnish Mining Authority, Tukes, for the K1, K2 and K3 prospects at the KSB gold-cobalt project, where more than 85% of the high-grade resource of 7.3mt @ 2.7 g/t gold for 650,000oz and 0.08% cobalt for 5,840t is in the indicated category.Given the latter commodity is a heavily prioritised strategic raw material for the EU, it’s easy to understand the reasons for the change in attitude from the Finnish Government. Latitude 66 remained focused on development of KSB in the face of its 2022 mining extension approval being reversed by Tukes in 2024, releasing a scoping study in March 2025 which confirmed KSB’s potential as a robust, standalone gold-cobalt operation. The scoping study projected a sevenyear mine life, with average annual production of 65,000oz of gold and 465t of cobalt. A post-tax NPV of about $US433 million and a relatively low estimated capital cost of $US100 million also highlighted the opportunity for impressive financial returns.Latitude 66 is currently completing an optimised scoping study which is set for release in Q2 2026 just months after gold major Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd inked a $C3.8 billion acquisition of Rupert Resources Ltd to consolidate a 2,500sq km gold district near its Kittila mine. The acquisition provides Agnico with a monstrous gold footprint in Finland just 250km from KSB. Latitude 66 managing director Grant Coyle said Agnico’s arrival was another tick in the box for the past eight years of steely-eyed focus on his company’s Finnish tenements.“It’s good for us to see that these large companies are willing to take a long-term view of Finland and what it can be,” Coyle told Paydirt. “It’s been helping us for the last couple of weeks, a lot of inbounds from people that probably hadn’t realised Finland was such an attractive mining jurisdiction.” Latitude hasn’t needed to tap the market for funds in the past 18 months to progress development of KSB, preferring instead to divest several assets to maintain cashflow. In July last year, Latitude 66 divested its 17.5% non-core stake in the Greater Duchess copper-gold JV to Carnaby Resources Ltd for $6 million and by the close of the March 2026 quarter sold the remaining shares in Carnaby for $2.2 million.The cash will allow Latitude 66 to accelerate completion of a PFS on KSB and while the 65,000 ozpa gold production goal will generate a tidy annual sum, it’s the 5,840t cobalt resource which has Coyle excited. “That would equate to about a quarter of European supply of cobalt – Finland is the largest refiner of cobalt outside of China – so that security of supply angle for us is massive,” he said. “We’ve got parties that we are working with at the moment, just looking at [how] we’ll produce a cobalt concentrate [and] just looking at how we Mitch ThomasEUROPEFinnish amendments open door for Latitude expansion Latitude 66 is out of a deep freeze on its plans for expansion in FinlandSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Dr Silvia Black is the senior programme manager at Amira Global, where she leads a global portfolio of strategic research and innovation projects in mining and sustainability. With more than 35 years of experience across metallurgy, geochemistry, environmental science and education, she brings deep expertise to collaborative industry initiatives. Her expertise in cyanide chemistry, soil leaching and water quality is recognised internationally.Even as a child, I had natural interest in chemistry… Growing up in Argentina, I would play with water and try to make perfume out of flower petals and fiddling with little bottles. My family is not from a scientific background but I always knew I wanted to do something like that. It wasn’t until I was in high school in Australia learning English, I joined the chemistry class halfway through the year and the teacher gave me a whole lot of workbooks. They were all about atoms and electrons and I loved it. By the end of Year 10 I had committed to doing science and managed to get into chemistry at Curtin University without really knowing what a chemist was – I imagined a white-haired old man in a lab coat.My first professional role… was actually in mining. I worked as a shift supervisor in a lab in Kalgoorlie associated with Agnew gold mine. I was chucked in the deep end as a shift supervisor, looking after everything from sample prep to pulling apart the analytical equipment, putting it back together and calibrating it all, using metal grinders to fix the equipment. We also got to go to the mine site and support operations there, I just loved it. My career as a chemist… then took me through many aspects. I worked in water and food analysis and did a graduate diploma in food and drug chemistry and that’s where I realised research was of real interest to me. I really began on research and innovation while working in the racing and gaming lab, we developed new methods to identify doping in racehorses. They were innovative enough to publish scientific papers. From there, I moved into forensic toxicology at the Chem Centre because they wanted to develop similar methods for humans. All that training in water, food and drug analysis proved useful. It was during my work in forensics… that I was invited to join the environmental lab and develop technology for identifying trace levels of copper and cobalt in highly saline water samples. This was really the start of my journey into environmental science and towards sustainability. I just loved it and I’m very proud of some of the innovations. There was knowledge that I acquired through instrumentation and my forensic days, which I actually brought into the environmental space. It led to an innovative way of fingerprinting the metal cyanide species, you could actually get a spectral fingerprint. I eventually worked on cyanide in gold at the Parker Centre, one of the early CRCs. So, after all those years in other areas, I was back in minerals. I began working on cyanide… and the use of alternatives in gold leaching. The presentation I gave on it was called “green gold” but sustainability wasn’t the conversation it is now. The industry was just starting to look for alternatives that weren’t toxic. We were looking at the most viable reagents for extracting gold and asking which was the most environmentally friendly.A t t h e time… we had a new chief executive at the Chem Centre who as very focused on innovation and collaboration. It was a new era for the Chem Centre as it shifted from a public-funded to private sector-funded model and we had to be self-sustaining. I suggested we consider reviving our work in the minerals sector, which had dropped off in the 90s. I was invited to be part of a team of two developing opportunities, money, research and innovation. I began meeting with a lot of mining companies to better understand where the challenges were and brought together people from different disciplines for different projects – mine pit lakes, acid mine drainage, environmental risk assessment tools, etc. We then introduced the L.E.A.F. assessment tools from Europe. It was the first time it had been used in Australia.At Amira we’re in a position… to work with the industry, understanding what our members’ challenges are, both the proAUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 23PPIIPPEELLIINNEE CCAAPPAABBIILLIITTYYTT hh aa tt MM oo vv ee ss PP rr oo jj ee cc tt ss FF oo rr ww aa rr ddC O N S T R U C T I O NGas InfrastructurePrecision pipingexecutionSafety-led deliveryLPG PIPELINE PROJECTTTAALLKK TTOO MMYYRRAAAA aabboouutt yyoouurr nneexxtt ppiippeelliinnee ssccooppeeP R O JE C T H I G H LI G H T SBrownfield/live-plant executionPrecision installation and tie-insGas infrastructure capabilityExperienced industrial piping teamSafety-led deliveryBuil t for demandingindustrial environments.SUSTAINABILITY C O N S T R U C T I O NSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 24 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTMINING SERVICESDetecting portable expansionFrom innovative start-up with a handful of employees and grand ambitions, Portable PPB now stands at the inflection point its founders always hoped it could reach.When Portable PPB founder and managing director Simon Bolster acquired the global rights for the CSIRO-developed detectORE™ geochemistry technology in 2018, he told Paydirt’s sister publication GMJ it had the potential to be “the holy grail for gold explorers”, a system which could identify gold of less than 10 ppb in the field using portable XRF analysers, upending the traditional sampling-assaying-interpretation model and speeding up the entire exploration process.Portable PPB brought detectORE™ to market in 2022 and after four years of steady adoption, the company now stands at the cusp of fulfilling Bolster’s initial plans. Not only is detectORE™ being used across the gold industry but the company itself is adding further elements to both the technology and its own capabilities.“When I joined 18 months ago, Simon was almost everything in the company – CEO, CFO, sales manager, everything,” Portable PPB’s director global sales Todd Houlahan told Paydirt “Since then, we have put in place a CFO, a product manager, brought in Wes Rowe as APAC sales leader and grown the software team. We have gone from about 18 employees to more than 35 now.”Part of that growth came through the October 2025 acquisition of Melbourne-based group Block 10 which boasts a range of sample preparation equipment and expertise in automation which Houlahan said complemented Portable PPB’s own technology to allow it to offer end-to-end sample collection and analysis solutions. At the heart of the Block 10 deal and all Portable PPB’s advances is the same core rationale – detectORE™ is capable of compressing the time it takes to collect, analyse and interpret samples from weeks into hours, opening up new possibilities for early-stage exploration.“Time is money in exploration and by speeding up the exploration process, explorers are saving on general costs, but more importantly, it gives exploration teams the ability to be reactive,” Houlahan said. “Instead of waiting weeks or even months for sample results, they can have them within 24 hours. It means geologists can make decisions on the fly in the field. You could do a soil sampling exercise over multiple targets in a matter of days rather than weeks, which then means you can get to drilling much quicker.”Everything Portable PPB has since introduced into the detectORE™ ecosystem has been with this principle in mind. The technology the company inherited from CSIRO uses a patented reagent to prepare a sample capable of being tested for gold values using commercially available portable X R F machines.It has since taken that concept and added elements of software, automation and other operational solutions to provide a reliable, user-friendly, end-to-end, in-field sampling solution.“Everything is controlled by the software, with each element reporting into our portable lab management system,” Houlahan said. “That ensures everything is working correctly, removing the opportunity for human error.”Having attracted several of the gold world’s major miners to support its trailblazing, Portable PPB enjoyed immediate industry take-up on commercialisation. Houlahan has now been tasked with expanding this and also the notion of where and when detectORE™ is most effective.“There is a perception that detectORE™ is only really good in remote locations where you are far away from the lab, but that is not the case,” he explained. “Whether you’re in West Africa or Kalgoorlie, if you can reduce a 4-5 week sample turnaround time to 24 hours, isn’t that adding value?“We are also fielding inquiries from customers who want to see if we can improve the economics of their mine site labs by offering less acid, less reagents, fewer people, and from smaller gold producers who don’t want to build their own wet lab.”Even the technology’s own limitations are providing opportunity. “Refractory ore is still a challenge we haven’t cracked yet,” Houlahan admitted. “We won’t miss it, but refractory gold will Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 25Fire assay labs need specialist labour. Our equipment only needs the crusher and the machine, so it is very easy to train people, which also makes it attractive in those areas where it is hard to get people.Juniors find value in MPC approach Having proved its value during challenging periods for the industry, Mineral Process Control’s assaying technology is often associated with cost efficiency; however, in today’s buoyant gold sector, general manager Nathan Edwards sees a new generation of customers drawn by its broader operational advantagesMineral Process Control (MPC) was founded in 1995 and cut its teeth during the global gold industry downturn of the early 2000s. By the time the gold revival arrived, the company’s assaying technology – comprising its LeachWELL™ cyanide accelerant and AssayTabs, incorporated into its PAL1000 pulverising-leaching units, had been widely adopted. Edwards said the success of PAL1000 could be attributed to more than just its low-cost nature and operational simplicity, reflecting a broader step change in assay capability.“It was a bold innovation at the time – a system that could deliver coarse, high-rate cyanidation assays on 1kg samples, at a high throughput and at a fraction of the cost of other methods,” Edwards said.“It proved particularly popular with the major miners operating in West Africa and in Suriname, where we have installed seven units, because it is cost-effective, needs little support and requires very little training to operate.”Unlike their overseas peers, miners in the gold heartland of Western Australia do not lack support and skilled labour – with gold prices at record highs, cost has never been less of an impediment. But Edwards has sensed growing interest from MPC’s home state, and not from the majors who dominate the client list elsewhere. “There are lots of juniors getting mothballed projects up and running, projects with only limited mine life,” he said. “Because of the limited mine life, these producers have capital restraints so can’t necessarily afford to put big assay labs on site. They find our technology is particularly suited to their needs. Not only is it low cost, but the simplicity of the unit means we can have them on site and running within a month.“It is as simple as throwing it in a container and trucking it to site, it is almost instant, compared to the long lead times required to establish site-based fire assay and photon assay systems.”The only other option for miners who cannot or will not install an assay lab on site is to join up to the multi-user facilities. “Many of the major labs have a hub-andspoke model, they prep the samples at site and then send them back to a central lab facility,” Edwards said. “However, in those scenarios, juniors will almost inevitably find themselves at the back of the queue for grade control assaying, with the biggest clients obviously getting preference.“Our equipment is turnkey and is easy to install. Yes, it is only partial leach but miners don’t need more just for grade control. We are finding a lot of interest in that niche market of smaller customers. They are establishing smaller operations with restricted capital so savings on grade control equipment can be crucial. “For $90,000 we can have a unit in a container and established on site.“Fire assay labs need specialist labour. Our equipment only needs the crusher and the machine, so it is very easy to train people, which also makes it attractive in those areas where it is hard to get people.“We also have hire-lease options to allow customers to match their spending to cash flow. We’re always willing to work with clients on that kind of thing.”Having started in the assay labs of the majors, MPC’s PAL1000 system is now being adopted across the junior and mid-tier gold spaceNathan EdwardsSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 26 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTMINING SERVICESLycopodium finds its global villageLycopodium will never abandon the hometown elements through which its identity was forged, but the expanding company is taking a localised approach to work throughout its global network.Having successfully expanded, both organically and by acquisition, into Canada, South Africa, and most recently South America, Lycopodium is now a truly global business and while its engineering fundamentals remain the same, a new corporate strategy is intended to make the most of its strong regional presence.“Our reputation and success are founded on the fact that when you have a Lycopodium plant, whether it’s a gold plant or a copper concentrator, you get high utilisation, high recoveries and a very operable and maintainable facility,” Lycopodium managing director Peter De Leo explained. “We have one standard for safety. We have one standard for operations, we have one standard in terms of our expectation, but you’ve got to pay attention to where you’re working because it will be defined by the circumstances surrounding the project, and the circumstances are always unique.”The approach becomes even more crucial as emerging competitors around the world deliver clients off-the-shelf, readymade plants promising sometimes cheaper, quicker solutions. De Leo is conscious of this rising competition but believes Lycopodium’s bespoke approach to plant design and execution will almost always deliver superior returns.“Maybe in a lower cost environment and with an orebody which is very, very rich, a catalogue plant may underpin your economic viability,” he said. “But in a high-cost environment like Australia or Canada where you need to be on your best game, you require bespoke high-quality engineering. Unfortunately, that’s something some owners only learn later, to their own detriment.”Even in lower-cost environments, engineers must be aware of the unique circumstances facing them, which is where Lycopodium’s strategic changes should prove effective.“Although we design lots of plants in that 5-15 mtpa range, they’re all specifically designed to the orebody, the metallurgy, the geography, the topography,” De Leo said. “Putting the same plant into a project in Kalgoorlie is not the same as putting it into a remote region of, for example, West Africa. West African Resources poured first gold ahead of schedule and under budget at its Kiaka mine in Burkina Faso, with Lycopodium providing EPCM services for delivery of the 8.4 mtpa process plant and selected non-process infrastructureSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 27You have to have that thinking behind what you do.”Having leveraged its global spread of offices in the past, the company has settled on a more regional approach to take advantage of local expertise.“In the last 12 months, we’ve become that bona fide, global business,” De Leo said. “But what we have learnt is that whilst we need to leverage all our offices for work share, you ideally need to be servicing those regions from within those regions.“It means that in five years, you will largely see Americas projects being supported out of our operations in the Americas somewhere and our African projects more commonly supported out of our African hub. Our APAC hub in Perth will always be the centre of gravity, the beating heart, but those regional centres will have grown additional capacity and capabilities.”The pivot towards a more localised structure has been partially informed by its experience in Argentina, where it acquired a 60% interest in local engineering company SAXUM in a $US7.1 million deal last year. “How you address a new market is interesting. I was of the view that the combination of Lycopodium plus SAXUM would see people automatically jump on board with us because we’re the preeminent company in gold and have delivered lots of copper and lithium projects, but it hasn’t necessarily been the case,” De Leo admitted.“We’ve always relied on our track record and word-of-mouth and that has not fully transferred into this market, so we understand we need to focus on building our credentials in Latin America. We delivered the design and associated services for the Cobre Panama Project, which is a massive project, so that’s a good starting point, but we realise it will take time and commitment.“We recognised we needed to have greater presence in that market to leverage the significant opportunities there and also given most of the capital flows into Latin America from North America, it would make more sense to have an Americas-aligned team.”With offices spanning Peru, Argentina, Brazil, the US and Canada, Lycopodium is well stocked for what De Leo believes will be the impending arrival of major opportunities.“We’ve been in Toronto since 2011, however the last 12 months has seen a significant uptick in activity and we expect the amount of business out of that hub in the next 12 months to approach the levels we see out of APAC.”The shift into Latin America will evidently lead to a growing emphasis on copper projects b u t with gold still hovering near record levels, De Leo doesn’t expect Lycopodium to forgo its precious metal fundamentals anytime soon. “We have always strived to have a diversified portfolio, so while we are working with MDO’s Yanqul Copper Project in Oman, and are actively looking at other copper opportunities, there is still huge demand for our services from the gold sector,” he said. “The difference is that these copper projects are larger and higher capex projects and tend to come along every 3-5 years. At the same time backlogged with gold projects in Africa, Australia and North America and the speed you can bring those onto market cannot be beaten.”Every customer is looking for speed of delivery when commodity markets are running hot but Lycopodium still urges a deliberate approach to project development. “People are sometimes wanting to jump straight from early study to execution, sometimes even before a DFS is finished,” De Leo said. “That creates its own challenges, but we have a long history of gold project delivery and can provide a strong guiding hand.”Clients also strive for solutions which will allow them to improve the economics of projects. Lycopodium is renowned for its willingness to incorporate new technology into its work but De Leo said it would never be done to the detriment of the asset owner.“You’re doing your client a disservice if you’re not trying to bring the best technology or the best solution to the opportunity,” he said. “But what we don’t want to be is the first to pioneer on behalf of our clients and introduce unnecessary technical risk. Where we understand the technology well, we are willing to shift them sideways a little bit and try new things if we have a high degree of confidence that it’s the right solution for that particular challenge. Our relatively early adoption of high-pressure grinding rolls is a good example.”Regardless of commodity, location or individual challenges it faces, Lycopodium’s fundamental approach remains the same – identify the best solution to an individual project’s unique proposition.“It all comes back to making sure you define and develop the right mousetrap,” De Leo said. “That could be defined by how you approach comminution, the technologies you’re using in the plant, your approach to grindThe delivery of Osino Gold Exploration and Mining (Pty) Ltd’s Twin Hills gold project in Namibia is leveraging Lycopodium’s global resourcesSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

PAGE 28 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTMINING SERVICESNavigating thecommunications minefield Few resources companies are built with communications in mind as a key driver to success, but effective and efficient communication can deliver significant benefits across the business.In an industry shaped by complex operations, mining companies need to communicate clearly with employees, investors, communities and other stakeholders. “A lot of mining and engineering businesses are doing highly technical work. The challenge is making sure people understand why it matters,” Cinch Consulting director Justin Manning explained. “It comes down to reputation and how you want existing employees, prospective employees, investors and communities to view your business.“Whether through annual and sustainability reports, capability statements or case studies, strong communication helps companies build trust and credibility, particularly in industries where projects are complex and scrutiny is high.”It also plays an important role in attracting and retaining employees. “This is especially important in mining, where the skills shortage remains a major challenge and employees move between roles frequently,” Manning added.Internal communication is key to keeping employees engaged. Companies that communicate clearly internally are often better positioned to retain employees, maintain culture and keep teams engaged during periods of growth or change. Having spent years in the sector, Manning co-founded Cinch Consulting after identifying a gap in the market. While larger mining companies often have the resources to maintain in-house communications teams, junior and mid-tier miners may not need, or be able to justify, full-time communications support. “That’s where we step in,” he said. “Companies are doing good work. The challenge is explaining it in a way that is consistent and easy to understand.“We saw an opportunity to provide services and support that many smaller companies can’t achieve on their own. Our role is to keep it simple and make sure all communication is aligned.”Manning said that many junior miners were intimidated by the idea of developing multi-stakeholder communications strategies, often believing it would distract from their core business. The process is more achievable than many leaders expect. “We create strategies that align with your overall business goals,” Manning said. “A good example is digital and social media. Many companies know they should have a stronger digital presence, but the real value comes from having a clear purpose and strategy behind it.“Whether it’s supporting recruitment, stakeholder engagement or project communications, we tailor approaches that align with your broader business goals.”Cinch Consulting co-foundersJustin Manning and Alexis GilmartinFive communicationpriorities for growingmining companiesClear internal communication during growth and change:Rapid growth, restructures and project changes can quickly create confusion if communication is inconsistentExplaining technical work clearly: Investors, communities and stakeholders need to understand why projects matter and what companies are delivering. Consistent messaging across channels: Websites, capability statements, social media and reports should reinforce the same story and prioritiesBuilding workforce engagement: Strong communication helps ++++Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Melbourne forumto raiseLatin opportunitiesAustralia’s METS sector continues to be at the vanguard of trade and investment relations with Latin America, creating links not only to the mining sector but also energy, infrastructure and agriculture. Companies such as Orica and Austin Engineering have enjoyed massive commercial success in the region but behind them is a wave of Australian METS companies pursuing growth projects across the region, as well as dozens of junior miners and explorers unearthing the next generation of mining projects. To showcase this ongoing success and promote further opportunities, the AustraliaLatin America Business Council (ALABC) has launched a new forum Latitudes of Opportunity, to be held in Melbourne this month. The forum will bring together senior leaders from industry, government, academia, institutions and the community to discuss and debate the Australian-Latin American trade relationship across energy, critical minerals, agri-business, innovation and education.ALABC chief executive Kim Prior admitted the scope of the event was broad but said it reflected the opportunity in front of Australia.“The breadth of the forum agenda is ambitious, but it needs to be if we want to maximise the potential of the Australia-Latin America relationship,” she told Paydirt.“We live in an increasingly globally connected world with a focus on projects and programmes that are sustainable and can deliver long-term impact and benefits. That is why the forum focuses on the three key themes of collaboration, energy and growth – because increasingly they are interconnected.”The forum’s opening address will be delivered by Matt Thistlewaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, who is the Australian Government’s spokesperson on Latin American engagement. Prior said Thistelwaite’s presence at the forum was an indication of Canberra’s increasing focus on the region.“The Australia Government has a vital role to play in setting the platform for engagement with Latin America and I am very encouraged by how active it has been,” she said. “Naturally, the Australian Government has had to focus on the impact of the Middle East conflict, the war in Ukraine and developments in Asia with the growing influence o f China.“However, our argument at ALABC, is that this is the perfect moment to take relations with Latin America to a new level, to deepen relations with Latin American economies and put both regions at the centre of the next economic cycle.”In doing so, the Government would also be supporting the Australian companies already active in the region. Miners and METS companies have been leaders in trade and investment interaction with Latin America. Given the region’s critical minerals prospectivity, this interaction is expected to increase. “The development of strategic and critical mineral projects is at the heart of the expanding relationship between Australia and Latin America and a major focus for the forum,” Prior said.“My view is that Australian resources companies, especially juniors and mid-tier miners, are extremely well positioned to play a leading role in critical minerals projects. “Australian firms bring deep technical expertise, operational experience, strong govAUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 29Kim PriorSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Siemens caps offLionheart rosterVulcan Energy Resources Ltd and Siemens AG have inked the last major supply agreement needed at the Lionheart geothermal lithium brine project in Germany with Phase 1 production slated for 2028.Siemens agreed to act as the main automation contractor at two Vulcan work sites in Frankfurt and Landau, as well as at the project’s production well sites in the Upper Rhine Valley.The circa €40 million deal includes engineering/delivery of the distributed control system, industrial network and cybersecurity infrastructure, building automation, safety systems and associated design and lifecycle services.Siemens Financial Services previously agreed to contribute €67 million to the project’s €2.2 billion development financing package.“The signing of this framework agreement with Siemens builds on our established partnership with the broader Siemens group which shares Vulcan’s commitment to innovation and sustainability,” Vulcan managing director Cris Moreno said.“We are pleased to be working alongside Siemens who have a vast local presence and history working in the broader region, and bring decades of experience in delivering engineering, automation, telecommunications and digital technology systems to similar types of industrial projects. With construction under way, the stage is set for Vulcan and our key partners to deliver our flagship Lionheart project, which will deliver Europe’s first fully domestic and sustainable lithium supply chain.”Avetta delivers hotshot gamechangerSupply chain software provider Avetta has cut onboarding times at hotshot delivery specialist Harmon Transportation generating a notable revenue boost.Harmon reported a 93% increase in revenues over an 18-month period with Avetta helping the company overhaul operations, finance, workplace health and safety and technology processes and systems.Onboarding times, a key area of focus, were cut by 70% while profit margins lifted 17% with no increase to Harmon’s administrative staff.Harmon was granted Western Australia Heavy Vehicle Accreditation (WAHVA) and transferred its administration from paperbased processes to a hybrid system in this time, assisted by Avetta software. Harmon chief executive Paul Konstek described Avetta as a “gamechanger”.“We experienced phenomenal bottomline growth without needing to hire additional admin staff, which reflects the robust, reliable and highly efficient systems we now have in place,” Konstek said. “When working with clients using other systems or their own bespoke systems, they are often not tailored for their industry or business, leading to a lot of back and forth simply to clarify what the questions mean. It wastes a lot of time. “Instead, working with Avetta, we’re onboarding in 30% of the time and getting our people moving faster.”Critica opts forESG focusCritica Ltd has appointed DRA Global to lead the Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten project scoping study in Tasmania, with a brief to focus on ESG.DRA agreed to deliver a study of an underground operation at Mt Lindsay, departing from previous plans to pursue an open pit design. The study will examine the viability of using paste/backfill to materially reduce surface tailings, as well as ways to minimise the environmental impact of associated infrastructure through appropriate positioning.Critica chief executive Jacob Deysel said the strategic shift in focus to an underground operation at Mt Lindsay was part of a broader evaluation of the asset’s role in the company’s portfolio. He said the company’s flagship Jupiter rare earths project in Western Australia remained the anchor of Critica’s goal to build a scalable Today. Tomorrow. Together.PAGE 30 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTSIGNED, SEALED & DELIVERED2021Protecting almost half of Australia’s listed mining and energy companies.We’re Australia’s leading D&O insurer for the Mining and Resources industry. Ranging from junior explorers through to the largest producers, talk to your insurance broker about how Liberty can support your business through all stages of the mining cycle.Insuring400+boardsDiscover moreLiberty Mutual Insurance Company, Australia Branch (ABN 61 086 083 605) incorporated in Massachusetts, USA (the liability of members is limited) (Liberty)Siemens has committed to the last major Lionheart supply agreementSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Today. Tomorrow. Together.2021Protecting almost half of Australia’s listed mining and energy companies.We’re Australia’s leading D&O insurer for the Mining and Resources industry. Ranging from junior explorers through to the largest producers, talk to your insurance broker about how Liberty can support your business through all stages of the mining cycle.Insuring400+boardsDiscover moreLiberty Mutual Insurance Company, Australia Branch (ABN 61 086 083 605) incorporated in Massachusetts, USA (the liability of members is limited) (Liberty)critical minerals platform.“The focus on underground mining and backfill has the potential to significantly reduce the project’s surface footprint while maintaining development optionality,” Deysel said. “Mt Lindsay strengthens our portfolio alongside Jupiter, providing additional optionality across critical minerals and enhancing our strategic relevance as we continue to advance Jupiter as our flagship development asset. The scoping study provides a structured pathway to assess value realisation options for Mt Lindsay.”Plush digs essential at BullabullingMinerals 260 Ltd (MI6) has chosen a builder for the Bullabulling gold project site village near Coolgardie, with quality accommodation awarded the highest importance.MI6 awarded the contract to ATCO Structures & Logistics Pty Ltd in April for the construction of a 400-person accommodation village, using a design which allows for increased capacity up to 600 people.Construction activities began immediately following the relevant regulatory approvals last month. The facility is expected to be operational by next year.MI6 chief development officer Russell Brooks said the establishment of highquality accommodation at Bullabulling was an important step in the project’s development.“The village has been designed to attract and retain a high-calibre workforce over the life of the asset, supporting both construction and operations,” Brooks said.“Construction under an early works programme provides the opportunity to mobilise a substantial construction workforce upon FID, targeted for early 2027.”Canada giant swallows Iron MineCanadian company North America Construction Group Ltd (NACG) has closed its acquisition of Western Australia-focused Iron Mine Contacting in a move designed to expose NACG to “structural demand” for rare earths and critical minerals.The deal was first announced in December last year and since then, NACG has increased the scopes of work at several Iron Mine sites including a gold-copper mine in the Pilbara. The transaction’s total expected consideration has been estimated at $US125 million but is subject to determination of Iron Mine’s financial statements for the December quarter.With National Bank Capital Markets acting as NACG’s financial advisor, the company amended a senior secured credit facility, securing direct lending capacity of $US535 million, from which NACG intends to draw the initial $US41.5 million cash payment. Equipment financing was assumed at about $US45 million with the remaining consideration provided by earn-out and deferred payment mechanisms, based on business performance over a four-year period.“IMC [Iron Mine] represents a natural and strategic extension of our business into the WA market,” NACG chief executive Joe Lambert said.“The IMC team has built a high-quality business with strong margins sharing NACG’s core culture of operational and safety excellence. This acquisition provides a great foundation to fast-track our WA growth strategy which is considered a global powerhouse for base metals, precious metals and critical & rare earth minerals.“Combined with the MacKellar Group, we are now an Australian Tier-1 contractor capable of executing complex scopes across the entirety of Australia. IMC is a well-run business in a great market presenting a clear opportunity for low-capital growth by leveraging our underutilised Canadian assets and our highly skilled in-house maintenance team experienced in major component and whole machine rebuilds.”AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 31NAGC acquired Iron Mine to increase its exposure to critical mineralsSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

BMC on track togrow reserveBMC Minerals Ltd has intersected highgrade massive sulphides from the Krakatoa Zone, part of its Kudz Ze Kayah (KZK) project in Canada.Initial assays from this year’s 20,000m diamond drilling programme targeted extensions to mineralisation outside of the current reserve. The first hole returned 25.1m @ 180 g/t silver, 9.7% zinc, 1 g/t gold, 0.3% copper and 3.4% lead. BMC managing director Michael McClelland said the results reinforced the company’s theory the Krakatoa Zone hosted thick, high-grade mineralisation beyond the reserve“[It’s] exactly what we were targeting – the result sits between two historical holes drilled in 2016 and demonstrates that a substantial body of high-grade massive sulphide mineralisation remains open down-plunge to the north,” he said. “This increases our confidence that Krakatoa may have meaningful potential to contribute additional tonnes to the mine plan, extending the life of the KZK project. With the follow-up hole now testing a 200m step-out down-dip and assays pending from two further holes at ABM and GP4F, we anticipate a steady flow of results through the field season. Importantly, Krakatoa represents just one of several targets scheduled for testing this year.”“We have identified a number of highly prospective areas and plan to commence drilling across key targets in the coming months. This includes the highly promising Rhyolite Peak, Fuego and GP4F prospects and we look forward to providing shareholders with updates as the program advances.”KZK covers 372sq km of underexplored tenure with work to continue for 12 months, focusing on multiple targets within 5km of the proposed ABM mine.Olympio dives deep into gold extensionsCanada-focused Olympio Metals Ltd has confirmed the main lode at its Paquin prospect significantly increases in grade at depth.Results from one of the holes for 6.1m @ 1.24 g/t gold from 74.9m was the closest position to the current “up plunge” model orientation of the main lode, producing an 8 gram-metre gold intercept with a vertical depth of 65m. Paquin is part of Olympio’s Bousquet project in Canada.A bonanza intercept of 19.4m @ 17.29 g/t gold from 172.5m also points to an increase in gold grade down-plunge. Olympio managing director Sean Delaney said the results from Phase 2 drilling at Bousquet confirmed its plan to test the lateral extension of the 19.4m @ 17.29 g/t intercept in the next drill programme, set for late May.“[We’ll] test the down plunge extension of the main lode,” Delaney said. “The upcoming televiewer survey will help to confirm the structural links between holes.”The Bousquet project is located 15km from the Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd’s multimillion ounce working La Ronde gold mine and Iamgold Ltd’s Westwood project.Olympio has the option to acquire an 80% interest in the Bousquet project in Quebec from Bullion Gold Resources Ltd for $C1.25 million in cash and shares and an exploration investment of $C2 million. The company has made payments of $C300,000 to date and completed an exploration spend of almost $C1 million.Gold visible fromHopes HillGolden Horse Minerals Ltd has encountered more visible gold from its Hopes Hill project in Western Australia.The visible gold was discovered in a footwall lode as part of diamond drilling result of 16m @ 6.8 g/t gold from 115m about 830m north of previous results in an area untested by drilling. Golden Horse will continue to test the footwall lode to determine the potential for a larger gold system than previously recognised.Other robust intercepts were 13.6m @ 3 g/t from 308.4m, including 3m @ 8.3 g/t from 317m. “Prior operators were constrained by tenement boundaries, with Golden Horse now the beneficiary holder of a large contiguous ground package in the Southern Cross region centred on Hopes Hill,” Golden Horse managing director Nicholas Anderson said. “This ownership now facilitates comprehensive drill programmes aimed at unlocking the value and potential of the broader Hopes Hill deposit and other regional targets largely untested for decades.“To the south of the Hopes Hill pit, a recently announced shallow intercept of 7m PAGE 32 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTBMC Minerals has delivered high-grade massive sulphide results DRILL BITSDeep hole directional drillingDiamond core drillingSpecialist engineering servicesMine infrastructure drillingReverse circulation drillingRemote exploration servicesSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 33@ 13 g/t from 13m in 26HHRC066, coupled with hole 26HHDD010 16m @ 6.8g/t gold from 115m and you can see why we are excited about the potential scale of Hopes Hill. “These intersections represent immediate follow-up targets for drill testing, with approximately 830m of untested lode horizon between hole 26HHDD010 and hole 26HHDD001 which also returned highgrade and visible gold from 297m near the centre of the historic pit.”Austral adds copper chill to Snow QueenAustral Resources Ltd has delivered exceptional results from drilling at its Snow Queen copper prospect in north-west Queensland.An intersection of 10m @ 7.52% copper from 35m (downhole width) confirmed the presence of high-grade copper mineralisation associated with a breccia system at the contact between the Hardway Granite and Corella Formation. It also included 4m @ 15.98% copper from 38m and supports the potential for a broader mineralised corridor within the Cameron River project. It is also one of 35 historical copper workings Austral plans to test in the next 12-18 months. Austral chief operating officer Shane O’Connell said Snow Queen would make up a broader portfolio of satellite opportunities to build regional scale around the Rocklands processing facility.“As an established copper producer, Austral is focused not only on discovery but on converting these opportunities into mineable inventory that can be efficiently integrated into our existing production and processing infrastructure,” he said. “This producer mindset ensures that exploration success is aligned with practical development pathways and near-term value realisation. We see significant value in systematically testing these targets, with the aim of identifying additional sources of copper mineralisation that could complement and sustain our current operations.”Caprice unlocks new high-grade gold zoneCaprice Resources Ltd has hit a gold jackpot with the results from its latest drilling campaign at the Island project in Western Australia.Bonanza grades of 22m @ 66.2 g/t gold were intersected in a new high-grade zone 120m parallel to the primary Vadrians lode. The results included 8m @ 181 g/t gold from 42m and represent the highestgrade intercepts to date.Furthermore, the intersection occurs at a shallow depth within a parallel hangingwall position to the Vadrians lode and could represent a mineralisation style distinct from BIF-hosted mineralisation at Vadrians, strengthening the possibility of Island being a multi-lode, high-grade gold system.Caprice managing director Luke Cox said the results could lead to significant scale potential.“Intercepting 22m @ 66.2 g/t gold, including 8m @ 181 g/t gold from just 42m downhole in the hanging wall parallel to Vadrians is an exceptional result by any measure,” he said. “The combination of grade, thickness, shallow depth, and proximity to the main Vadrians mineralisation reinforces our view that Island is evolving into a multi-lode system with significant scale potential.“The fact that this new mineralisation sits beneath a weathered depletion zone strongly validates our broader IGP exploration approach, where low-level aircore anomalism is acting as an effective vector to concealed high-grade gold mineralisation.“With follow-up RC and diamond drilling already underway, including testing of northern strike extensions, depth extensions and additional targets across the Island corridor, we are in an exciting phase of discovery and growth.” Deep hole directional drillingDiamond core drillingSpecialist engineering servicesMine infrastructure drillingReverse circulation drillingRemote exploration servicesGolden Horse has found more reasons for extending Paquin Secure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Transforming how our industry finds, defines and mines Explore smarter, discover fasterPAGE 34 JUNE 2026 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRTHumphrey Hale will guide the next phase of growth for Carnavale Resources Ltd as its managing director, stepping up from his previous role as chief executive. Hale joined Carnavale in July 2020 after working as technical director for Infinity Lithium, managing director of Wolf Minerals and exploration manager at Sunrise Dam for AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.Andrew Caruso will start as Kingsrose Mining Ltd’s new chief executive on June 15. Terry Holohan will remain acting chief executive until this date. Caruso was previously chief executive of private company Avanti Kitsault Mine Ltd and former ASX-listed pair Ascot Resources and Atrum Coal.Christopher Gerteisen has joined Adelong Gold Ltd as the nominee director for substantial shareholder Nova Minerals Ltd.Meeka Metals Ltd has added former Western Areas and St Barbara Ltd managing director Dan Lougher to its board as a non-executive director. Lougher is also currently a director of Perseus Mining Ltd and Alligator Energy Ltd and non-executive chairman of American West Metals Ltd.David Greig, group executive for Australia West at mining contractor Thiess, has joined Dundas Minerals Ltd as a non-executive director. Lithium Universe Ltd has appointed Rachel Rees as an independent non-executive director. She previously chaired the audit and risk committees at MACA Ltd and the Governance Institute of Australia.Asara Resources Ltd has promoted its chief executive Matthew Sharples to the role of managing director.Corazon Mining Ltd has appointed Warrick Clent as a non-executive director and Paul Hughes as chief financial officer. Clent was previously exploration manager for Robust Resources Ltd and Geopacific Resources Ltd while Hughes recently held a senior role with PLS Ltd. Robert Orr has retired as chief financial officer after 16 years in the role but will continue as company secretary.Deep Yellow Ltd has appointed former Rio Tinto Ltd executive Sinead Kaufman as an independent nonexecutive director. Kaufman worked for the mining giant for almost three decades, starting out as a geologist in 1997 and most recently serving as chief executive of minerals from 2021 until last year.Pascal Alexander-Bossy has resigned as chief financial officer of Andromeda Metals Ltd to pursue other opportunities. Financial controller Clint Ettridge has assumed all departmental responsibilities until a permanent replacement is appointed. Geopacific Resources Ltd has refreshed its board and leadership team as it approaches development of the Woodlark gold project in Papua New Guinea. Hamish Bohannan has been appointed managing director, succeeding outgoing chief executive James Fox. Rowan Johnston has also replaced Graham Ascough as non-executive chairman, although the latter will remain on the board as a director.Former FTI Consulting senior managing director Mark Chadwick has joined TerraCom Ltd as an independent non-executive director.Richard Holmes has joined Cyprium Metals Ltd as chief development officer. The noted copper executive most recently held the same role at Sandfire Resources Ltd following a long stint as head of exploration and growth at Oz Minerals. Holmes was also previously group manager, global geology and business development of Aditya Birla Group, the former owner of Cyprium’s Paterson copper assets.Perenti Ltd has added Alinta Energy chief financial officer Vincent Nicoletti to its board of directors following the recent retirement of Tim Longstaff.Sharmila Watson has resigned as G50 Corp Ltd’s chief financial officer, having been with the company since prior to its IPO in 2021. Peter Frew was named as her replacement.Brett Smith has agreed to transition from non-executive director to an executive director role at Tanami Gold NL.Mineral Resources Ltd nominee director Joshua Thurlow has resigned from COMINGS AND GOINGSDan LougherHumphrey HaleSinead KaufmanSecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!

Transforming how our industry finds, defines and mines Explore smarter, discover fasterthe board of Delta Lithium Ltd. The company indicated it does not intend to appoint a replacement.Viridis Mining and Minerals Ltd has appointed Geoff Bedford as an independent non-executive director following Tim Harrison’s retirement from the board. Bedford was previously chief executive of Neo Performance Materials Inc and its predecessor Molycorp.Altair Minerals Ltd chief executive Faheem Ahmed has joined Dalaroo Metals Ltd as a non-executive director. Ahmed also sits on the board of Infini Resources Ltd.Johan van Vuuren has resigned as chief financial officer of IGO Ltd.Timothy Young has joined EV Resources Ltd as a non-executive director, replacing the retiring Adrian Paul on the board. The Hong Kongbased capital markets and investor relations specialist was previously managing director and head of equity sales and trading at MCM Partners and currently leads Coscar Investor Relations Pty Ltd.Pinchas Althaus has resigned as a non-executive director of Challenger Gold Ltd.Mount Ridley Mines Ltd has appointed Chris Larder as technical advisor, metallurgy and processing.Cobre Ltd has appointed former Glencore and BHP Ltd executive Kaveen Bachoo as chief financial officer.American Rare Earths Ltd has strengthened its USbased leadership and project delivery team with the appointments of Brook Brockman as director of public and government affairs for its wholly-owned subsidiary Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc and Taylor Cable as director of projects and engineering.Recharge Metals Ltd has appointed Luke Timmermans as chief executive, while managing director Felicity Repacholi has transitioned to non-executive chair. An experienced geologist, Timmermans was recently exploration manager for Rumble Resources Ltd where he oversaw delivery of the maiden resource for the Earaheedy zinc-lead-silver project.Minerals sands veteran Graham Hewson has joined Chilwa Minerals Ltd as a non-executive director. Hewson was most recently executive vice-president, titanium operations at Cristal (now Tronox Ltd).Ora Banda Mining Ltd has appointed Sandfire Resources Ltd chair John Richards as a non-executive director. Richards is earmarked to succeed Peter Mansell as chair of the gold miner at the company’s AGM later this year.Alistair McDonald has replaced Cameron Wilson as a company secretary for IGO Ltd. Rebecca Gordon remains IGO’s principal company secretary. McDonald also continues as the company’s head of legal.Kaiser Reef Ltd has appointed Tony Muir as chief financial officer, replacing Andy Tran. Muir previously spent five years with Gold Road Resources.Paterson Resources Ltd has appointed Samuel Baker non-executive director, filling the board vacancy left by John Kay. Greg Entwistle has assumed the role of nonexecutive chairman.Aurelia Metals Ltd has welcomed Franklyn (Lyn) Brazil back to the company’s board as the nominee director for Brazil Farming Pty Ltd which, along with related entity Anchorfield Pty Ltd, collectively holds 23.94% of the copper miner’s register. Brazil was previously a non-executive director between July 2023 and December 2025. Bradley Newcombe will serve as his alternative director.Former Black Cat Syndicate Ltd boss Gareth Solly has been appointed chief executive and executive director of Auric Mining Ltd. Solly is set to succeed company founder Mark English as managing director on December 1, with the incumbent transitioning to finance director.Minrex Resource Ltd has appointed Max Piirto as chief executive. He was most recently vice-president of global engineering firm Wood plc, which oversaw the development of the Krumovgrad and Chelopech gold projects in Bulgaria.AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT JUNE 2026 PAGE 35Transforming the gold exploration process Explore smarter, discover fasterJosh ThurlowJohn RichardsGareth SollySecure your Paydirt subscription and view the magazine in full every monthSubscribe to read this article.Sign up today!