Another record price for Pilbara Minerals’ product prompts MD Ken Brinsden to question analysts’ price assumptions. And Sandfire chief Karl Simich also has a message for the market: forget costs, focus on margins.

Australian investors crept out of their foxholes yesterday after a confidence-sapping week under a barrage of heavy fire that included news of soaring inflation, slowing growth, rising interest rates and higher taxes

With open pit and underground mining underway on schedule at its flagship King of the Hills redevelopment in Western Australia, Red 5 is now describing the first gold pour as “imminent” (reports MiningNews).

Minerals 260 boss David Richards says the gold and copper hits the Liontown Resources spin-out company is getting at its Moora project shows how much of WA’s mineral wealth is yet to be discovered (reports The West Australian).

Mincor Resources boss David Southam says recent volatility in the nickel market has distracted investors from the healthy underlying fundamentals of the battery metal (reports The West Australian).

A series of “outstanding” high-grade hits at Stavely Minerals’ namesake copper-gold project in western Victoria have paved the way for an initial mineral resource this quarter (reports Small Caps).

RareX has put drill rigs on the ground at Cummins Range critical minerals project, right as Federal Government support for critical minerals ramps up (reports Stockhead).

Labyrinth’s strategy to convert the existing foreign resource at its namesake project to JORC standards has received a leg-up with drilling returning some impressive high-grade golds (reports Stockhead).

Batteries – and more precisely battery metals – are poised to replace chips as the new bottleneck for the auto industry (reports The Washington Post).

Pilbara Minerals boss Ken Brinsden has declared the lithium price will go higher after his company achieved another record price for a spot cargo of its concentrate (reports The West Australian).

Shares in Sandfire Resources jumped today after the company’s quarterly production included the first contribution from the newly acquired MATSA complex in Spain (reports MiningNews).

Dozens of countries including Britain and France are now turning to Australia to lock in a long-term clean energy source that can help the world dramatically cut its carbon emissions (reports The Australian).

Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) is readying to make a final investment decision early next month for the re-start of its flagship Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia after workstreams have progressed “more rapidly” than expected (reports Small Caps).

Continuous ore processing is underway at Calidus Resources’ A$106 million Warrawoona gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region (reports MiningNews).

The red metal has not run with the likes of nickel and lithium, but the strong demand outlook means big inventories are very valuable, while explorers like Sunstone and Stavely are increasingly appealing amid the hunt for the next generation of producers.

Battery and technology metals led the way up in another short trading week which saw the Australian stock market bump against an all-time high while a number of potentially interesting discoveries and curious value gaps emerged.

BHP has joined rival Rio Tinto in citing COVID absenteeism for a 10 per cent drop in quarterly iron ore shipments from its key Pilbara operations (reports The West Australian).

A year into its ownership of the Henty gold mine, Catalyst Metals appears to be increasingly confident in its strategy to grow inventory, mine life and production rates, with a further string of high-grade intercepts reported ( MiningNews).

The surging iron ore price is fuelling renewed investor interest in junior iron ore stocks, in the process stoking speculation that Rio Tinto may bid for its little Pilbara neighbour CZR Resources (reports Stockhead).

The rush of junior miners to the ASX continues with Nordic Nickel looking to raise up to $12m to target Lapland’s mineral riches (reports The Australian).