Gold’s rise to record levels has ensured that the gold-heavy ASX junior mining sector got off to a ripper start in the new year.

But the junior sector has also welcomed a second tail-wind courtesy of the escalation of increasingly fraught geo-politics around critical minerals.

The Trump administration has taken things to new heights by nominating Greenland as a place the US should own, and by working towards placing a lien on Ukraine’s mineral wealth in return for its support in the war with Russia.

Whether either land grab comes to pass is not important as even the Trump administration knows there are less controversial ways for the US to secure its critical/strategic metal needs.

What is more important is that Greenland/Ukraine posturing reflects the heightened fear of the new US administration that China is playing a long-game in the control of critical/strategic minerals to the detriment of US interests.

And haven’t the Chinese been tightening the screws in the space with its use of export controls across a wide range of critical minerals in which it dominates.

Previously obscure metals and minerals like antimony, germanium and more recently bismuth of all things have become the subject of tighter Chinese export controls, prompting sharp price rises in response to supply fears.

The ever-enterprising Aussie junior mining sector has rallied to the cause. Every time China imposes a new export control, an Aussie junior will be on to a project that might – or might not – help reduced dependency on China.

It is a nice second tailwind to gold for the junior sector.

And with Chinese warships lurking off the Australian coast in recent weeks, firing off live weapons for practice, who is to say the Trump administration’s attempted Greenland and Ukraine critical minerals grab is that crazy after all.

Ioneer (ASX:INR)

There was nothing gracious in the exit by South Africa’s Sibanye Stillwater from Ioneer’s (ASX:INR) Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada.

All it needed to say was that as it remained under the pump from miserable platinum prices, its continuing involvement was no longer possible. But no, it had to waffle on about how the project did not meet its criteria for investment at modest price assumptions.

Under the 2021 deal, the South Africans were to get 50% of the project in return for $US490m in equity. Ioneer now needs to find a replacement partner to bridge a funding gap for the project’s  development.

The project has $US1 billion in loan support from the US Department of Energy and given the project is capable of expanding US-made lithium fourfold, it has got to be assumed the Trump administration will be supportive.

Ioneer shares have been on the slide in recent months in anticipation the South Africans would go weak at the knees, and the general malaise in lithium markets. It last traded at 14c for a market cap of $360m.

Ord Minnett has a target price on the stock of 30c a share, saying Rhyolite Ridge has a large resource base and the boron by-product credits should make it the lowest cost lithium miner.

“Moreover, both the mine and its offtake are all US-domiciled, lying within Trump’s tariff walls, with US offtake and no risk of punitive import duties. These factors may have appeal for prospective joint venture partners considering the project,” the broker said.

It added that Rio Tinto was one possibility as a new partner given its build out of a lithium division with the Arcadium acquisition and its status as a boron producer from its historic operations at Boron in California. It shares control of the global borates market with Türkiye.

Ord Minnet said that If Rio is interested, it would likely want control of Rhyolite Ridge, adding potential M & A upside to Ioneer.

Copper juniors KGL & HAV:  

With or without the current tariff-inspired copper arbitrage between the US and European markets, the red metal has been travelling nicely.

Take the lower LME price of $US4.30/lb. It is up 9.6% since the start of the year. The gain from last (calendar) year’s average is a lesser 3.6%.

But the point is made. The red metal is starting to lay the foundation for higher prices still in response to supply concerns, notwithstanding the biggest consumer China dithering on pump priming its economy.

The industry itself has read the tea leaves and has been positioning itself for the potential “fly-up” in prices which BHP and others reckon is over the horizon in response to the huge demand coming from the energy revolution at a time of a falling grades at existing mines and a paucity of new mine developments.

It is course why BHP absorbed OZ Minerals for $10 billion, why it tried but failed in a bid for Anglo American, and why it took a second prize of spending $US2 billion on an undeveloped copper project in Argentina.

But today’s interest is what the copper thematic means for juniors with advanced copper projects with some scale to them.

Today’s particular interest is in KGL’s (ASX:KGL) Jervois project in the Northern Territory and Havilah’s (ASX:HAV) Kalkaroo copper-gold project in South Australia.

The companies have similar market caps of about $65 million, which is clearly on the small side of things when it comes to financing the capital needs of their respective $362m and $800m projects.

It is why both are open to looking for partners with deeper pockets. And so they should given the valuation metrics from recent copper and copper-gold asset sales in the Australian market.

Based on the prices paid by South Africa’s Harmony for the Eva project in Queensland, the Salim group’s (it’s a 35% KGL shareholder) acquisition of the Hillside project in South Australia and by Sumitomo for a stake in Rio Tinto’s Winu copper/gold project in WA, it can be suggested that the market caps of KGL and Havilah should be multiples of where they are currently.

A recently released feasibility study by Havilah on its Jervois project established a $405m post tax NPV at $US4.58/lb copper, or $688m at $US5.90/lb copper. Take the three project acquisitions mentioned above, and a case could be made for Havilah’s Kalkaroo being worth $400-$800m.

The trick now is for KGL and Havilah to work some of that implied value upside into their market caps or face hostile low-ball takeover bids. But the Salim group is a gate keeper at KGL, as is the newly established NPV of the Jervois project.

Havilah boss Chris Giles has proved in the past that he is no pushover from his supporter base in the company.

But both companies do want to deal and given the apparent disconnect between their market caps and the implied value of their projects, it will be no surprise to see the gap close rapidly on any deals being struck.