Plutonic deal sees De Crespigny-led gold miner emerge with 7Moz and 3Mtpa plant in WA gold belt; Plus, sell-off in lithium stocks doesn’t make sense.

Iron ore prices have reached highs not seen in more than nine months, topping $US130 a tonne in intraday trade in Singapore (reports The West Australian).

Rio Tinto is the latest miner to reveal a hit to its bottom line from higher inflation and weaker commodity prices, but chief executive Jakob Stausholm remains bullish on emerging demand from the energy transition (reports The West Australian).

Recent field exploration at Inca Minerals’ (ASX: ICG) MaCauley Creek project in north-east Queensland has generated “outstanding” bonanza grades of copper, silver, and lead, plus zinc, lithium, tantalum, tungsten and tin (reports Small Caps).

The call of Canada is being heard clearly by Australian lithium hopefuls, with some of the best-known names from the Aussie mining boom heading north to ride a wave driven by the US Government’s trade protection policies (reports Tim Treadgold on Small Caps).

Bellevue Gold has reshuffled its management team ahead of first gold production later this year (reports MiningNews).

Inflation, rising interest rates and the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine combined to drag markets lower this week even as China’s reopening promised to boost demand for Australia’s major commodity exports.

And another big position said to be held through derivatives. Plus, SQM betting on Azure’s lithium potential.

Takeover action brought some relief for investors this week as central banks ploughed through political objections to push on with their attack on inflation, promising to continue ratcheting up interest rates until consumers stop spending.

Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) has kicked off a 2023 exploration program at the Montague gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison district (reports Small Caps).

Western Australian gold miner Red 5 has produced record gold from its King of the Hills gold mine in the Eastern Goldfields (reports MiningNews).

Lithium explorer Trek Metals (ASX: TKM) has been buoyed by an independent geochemical review of its flagship Tambourah lithium project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, as it gears up for a maiden drill program slated to begin in Q2 2023 (reports Small Caps).

Centaurus Metals would arguably surprise if it were to become a nickel miner by 2026 as promoted (reports MiningNews).

RockTalk is a Stockhead video series featuring a roundtable of resources experts discussing a new macro topic each week.  

Watch Here: https://stockhead.com.au/stockhead-tv/rocktalk/graphite-growing-interest-in-value-for-new-and-emerging-battery-tech/

Appointed last year to boost Alicanto Minerals market traction, managing director Rob Sennitt has made comparisons between Alicanto’s Sala deposit in Sweden and the much, much higher valued Rupice deposit in Bosnia and Herzegovina owned by Adriatic Metals (reports MiningNews).

Alicanto Minerals (ASX: AQI) believes it is on to a winner at the historic Falun gold-zinc-silver-lead mine in Sweden, with its due diligence revealing extensive mineralisation remains at the world-class project (reports Small Caps).

It has been an unusually rough week for the dual listed lithium high-flyer Patriot Battery Metals (writes Barry Fitzgerald on MiningNews).

Takeover action put gold in the limelight this week thanks to Newmont’s bid for Newcrest, though the metal itself refused to co-operate, falling by US$50 an ounce even as Newcrest’s share price rose by $2.71 (12%) to $25.07.

Plus, big share trade fuels talk of a Hancock vs Forrest shout out for Chalice while the dogs are barking louder about MinRes’ appetite for emerging lithium star Patriot.

Nimy Resources (NIM) continues to close in on highly valuable nickel sulphides, with the latest exploration results confirming several targets and identifying new ones (reports Stockhead).