Andrew Forrest talks a lot about fixing climate change and cleaning up the world’s oceans, but it seems his main mission in life is to frustrate BHP (reports The Australian Financial Review).

BHP and IGO are emerging as the front-runners to counter a $760 million takeover bid for Mincor Resources from Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals (reports The West Australian).

Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) is moving forward with a significant new phase of exploration activity at its wholly-owned Stavely copper-gold project in western Victoria following an extensive review of regional and near-resource discovery opportunities last year (reports Small Caps).

Garimpeiro sent out the wrong message last year when he suggested it was a smart idea to pick up gold developers on the cheap to cash in on the market re-rating that would occur on first production being achieved (reports Barry FitzGerald on Stockhead).

Sunstone could soon have greater insight into the true scale of the T2 porphyry target within its El Palmar project with the start of drilling to test the geophysical anomaly (reports Stockhead).

Recent sell-off just makes rare earth stocks like Lynas and RareX better value. Plus, growing CZR looks to capitalise on strong iron ore price and key funding package sets up Orion to become significant copper-zinc producer. 

With luck, the events of the past few days might not be the start of a new Global Financial Crisis but the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the U.S. and serious problems at Credit Suisse in Europe is a reminder of how fragile financial markets have become as interest rates grind higher.

With copper stockpiles down to just days, the BMO conference in Florida was abuzz with chatter of a looming price spike. This could have big ramifications for leveraged juniors like Caravel and Coda.

Volkswagen is putting on hold a planned battery plant in Eastern Europe and prioritising a similar facility in North America after estimating it could receive €10 billion ($16 billion) in US incentives (reports Bloomberg).

Tim Goyder-backed Minerals 260 has refused to give up on its ambition to get on the ground in the emerging Gascoyne rare earth and lithium space after an aborted attempt last year (reports MiningNews).

The gold producers have been blaming all sorts of factors for what was a truly disappointing December quarter production effort. Diesel costs, skill shortages, general inflation, bad weather . . the list goes on (reports Barry FitzGerald on Stockhead).

Just a month ago, Miningnews.net hit the alarm button for graphite, reporting predictions that 97 new mines will be needed 12 years from now to meet demand (reports MiningNews).

Graphite developer Evion Group has secured a partnership with a leader in the lithium ion battery anode material sector that will give it a foothold in the emerging European battery market (reports Stockhead).

Gold came to the rescue of the stock market this week as a tax scare was added to the deadweight of rising interest rates hanging around the neck of investor confidence.

Boss is closing in on production while explorer 92 Energy is back drilling.  Big funds back Red 5 raising and questions grow over Genesis-St Barbara deal.

Growing Australian gold producer Catalyst Metals and Canadian miner Superior Gold have agreed to a friendly merger (reports MiningNews).

Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) has commenced a new phase of reverse circulation drilling at its flagship Montague gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison district (reports Small Caps).

Caravel’s diamond drilling in late 2022 has successfully achieved two key objectives – adding confidence to the existing resource model and confirming an extension of mineralisation at depth (reports Stockhead).

Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) has commenced a major new phase of drilling at the wholly-owned Cardinia gold project in Western Australia (reports Small Caps).

After months of negotiation, Gascoyne Resources has announced a rescue package worth A$50 million that could see its shares trading as soon as next month (reports MiningNews).