Righto Money Waters, Welcome back to another week brought to you by the trusted advisers and consistent advisers in drill hole Survey, Instrumentation Access Mining technology. Give them a call, they will consistently pick up the phone with a guru on the other end. On to some more inconsistent news. The Australian government. Oh Jesus Christ, we're getting political these days. Holy snapping duck shit. It's a bit of a bit of a sad day for the mining industry, I'd say.
Yeah, she's buddy. Talk about some potential precedents being set for the future. Maybe. Fucking lot happening. Lot happening. We'll, we'll get it. We're talking about the Bloody Mcfillimy's Regis project in New South Wales, pretty much getting the foot put on it by the environment environmental minister after they pretty much did everything asked for him. So asked of them. So crazy. Yeah. So we're going to get right into that. This will be the. This is the headline for the
day. Bloody. Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts here, JD. You've even got a bit of silver chat. Yeah. Good. Silver, I mean, it's a it's a pretty similar story at at silver mines also in NSW also a project that's not going to be going ahead anytime soon. So I think we can wrap the, the two stories in and around each other and then just have a good discussion about the, the ramifications. I mean, you, you say perhaps a precedent for the industry. Let's let's kind of hope not,
right? Yeah, God, we're literally talking about everything in NSW. I've even got a sneaky one at the back about antimony which is yeah another NSW 1 mate. Fucking as a proud New South Welshman and we've won the State of Origin but only God they could do better on the friggin mining front. Far out driving me nuts. I think that Antimony one has a strong bit of China about it. Yeah, interesting to chat about it. But it's in NSW, Yeah, anyway, anyway. Yeah, Yeah. No, no, no, yeah.
It's where I cut my teeth, Jardo. Right. Let's, let's get into it. So Regis's, Mcfilmy's project, the, I think we've talked about it a bit. It was, you know, going to be their, their growth story you'd say, but you know, the DDFS sort of come back with, you know, pretty hefty CapEx grade was sort of, you know, it's like A1 gramme joby. It's going to be a big operation. They're going through a big process with getting all the approvals for a lot of years. Then there's Section 10.
Come along. That was the I guess 3. Four years ago, big. Overhang and effectively now the environmental minister Tanya Plibersek has pretty much put a foot on it and said parts of the project which are is essentially where the TSF has to go. Tiling storage facility is can't go there because of cultural significance of the land to a set of traditional owners. But there's a lot to go through. It's a lot. Of nuance.
Oh right, so for those who don't know this Mcfillummy's project, this has they Regis actually bought this back in 2012 from Newmont and Alkane. 150 million bucks all in shares at 4 bucks 20 a share. So the share price is now $1.60 today. PFS was done in 2017, DFS come out this year 2024. So look at 7 million tonne per annum operation for about I think average 187,000 oz a year. You know, CapEx was sorted up in the billions. It was one of those ones even at a, you know, high gold prices, a
bit of a lower IRR project. But for this project to if it was ever gonna work it, you know, it has to all be in the one spot and it doesn't it's not like a you can just truck a bit up the road sort of thing. And but we're in a rising gold price environment. So but this was this is just really put a bit of a temporary, temporary Nile in the coffin, unfortunately. Yeah, but look, shit load to go
through. So 'cause they went into Regis, went into the trading halt on Friday morning bit after lunch Sydney time, Yeah. And announcement out today detailing that as we said, the Federal Minister for Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, she was, she was appointed in June 2022. So she's bloody made a declaration of protection over part of the approved Mcfillimmys Gold project, which applies primarily to freehold land ultimately owned by Regis but under section 10 of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. So pretty much where that TFTSF scan can't put it there because of these, I guess the start of these, this river, the river's name. And this game is like a huge surprise to everyone, including Regis, who who had a call today to sort of brief everybody about this. I mean, this project had already been assessed and approved under both state and Commonwealth
legislation. So this, this announcement sort of over the weekend from Minister Plibersex essentially overridden conclusions that were already made at those state and federal levels, including her own office. Yeah. The first part that comes through earlier last year was the IPCI think Independent Planning Commission. So that went through that whole
process that was approved. Then you had the EPGEPBC Yep, part of it, which was actually which was approved by you guess the the head of NSW and ICT environment and water, which is actually a, you know, part of blipper second Chris Bowen's body division. So they've they've actually approved it, but then she's come in now and actually just shit canned the whole thing effectively, but claiming that this will not stop the mine. Just saying they have to find a
another location for the TSF. But if it was that friggin simple, you'd do it like Jim by went through in the call about you can't just move it like that. That area for the TSF being assessed like geotechnically, water floor and fauna safety and everything is the most appropriate place for that TSF. And to go through the whole process again of finding another spot for approvals is like essentially another five to 10 years.
So it just ain't that simple. It might be to someone, to the government, but practically it just doesn't work like that. Yeah, we can. We can keep that IPC in mind. They'll they'll come into play with the the silver mines story in a little bit as well. And to wrap a bit more kind of narrative around a lot of people asking, you know, why can't you just sort of fence off this area if it if it is like that on on
the call. And just for people wondering why or what the answer to that might be, it is essentially the whole tailings area. There is no way around this. Interesting looking at the like, you can't help but look at the political side of thing of this, because when one person just puts a foot down, you got to look at the history of it.
So this Tanya Plibersek, Minister Plibersek seems like there's been a bit of done a bit of both and Create had a bit of backlash last year because she actually in terms of blocking mines because she blocked Clive Palm as that central QLD coal project in 2023, citing potential pollution of the Great Barrier Reef, which is 10 KS away. Also rejected another two coal mines in central QLD last year. But she also approved 4 coal mines last year.
But as a result of that, she and the two companies that she approved and for Whitehaven and Mack were then taken to the Federal Court by this Central Environmental Council of Central QLD. Regarding the expansion of the the Narrabri underground and the Mount Pleasant mine, both in NSW, They'll sort, they're talking about Great Barrier Reef protection, but those mines are in NSW, so I can't figure that
one out. And then she also approved 151 coal seam gas wells in Queensland this year for the Cenex Atlas project, which is Gina Rinehart backed. So whatever's going on here after like, you know, approving that thing, going to court and then not approving ones, it's like what is actually happening, especially considering leading into a federal election either at the end of this year or the start of next year. So not consistent as we said.
No. And I mean even like looking at the the the media release from the the IPC, this is from a from a state level back in March of last year. It says the Commission finds that on balance, the project this is Macphillum is is in the public interest and the application is consistent with the objectives of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.
And that the Commission noted found that the positive impacts resulting from the project, including employment, training, investment and additional economic activity will outweigh the negative impacts. So, and then you've had the the, the further approval here from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water as well also proved May of last year. That's the sub one under bloody the the ministers for that are Plibersec and Chris Bowen.
Yeah, yeah. And like, and you look at it there, it says like decision approved controlling provision, listed threatened species and communities and signed off by the branch head for environmental assessments in NSW and ICT. And I think I think there was a mention in the Regis announcement here, what they're citing now wasn't even talked about or mentioned as part of the whole approval process prior to this. This has just come out now. Yeah, from what I remember.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you spot on. Maddie. I can read a little snippet from the announcement that kind of relates to that one, the referral made by Regis under the EPBC Act, including an assessment on Aboriginal cultural heritage, which at the time the Minister's delegate did not note as a point of concern for the project.
Like back in the like the Section 10 back in October 2020, like as we said, this was they deemed like that any potential harm to Aboriginal heritage can be acceptably managed through conditions of consent. It was assessed and approved in May 2023 by the by the delegate delegate. And then you had the Orange local Aboriginal Land Council were engaged in the process and they're the actual and we'll get to this bit. They're the actual statutory.
They hold the legal authority to speak for this. Land that part, that part of the land. And then so the the traditional owners that they're talking about today are actually different. They're not part of that orange one. I think these ones are closer to to Bathurst. So it's like a different set of traditional owners that have like, you know, laid claim to this being of cultural
significance. Like to my understanding, there's no like actual like physical artefacts or, or anything that it is just like a cultural significance. So Regis are essentially claiming that, you know, the, the decision by the minister is essentially unprecedented 'cause it's like contradicts both the EPBC and the IPC approval process that was done by our own department, the EPBC. And it's just vetoed them the whole thing.
And it's, it's worth tying into that, Maddie, that they were pretty eager on the call to stress that this is freehold land, essentially land owned by Regis, which is, you know, used for, for grazing cattle and whatnot, as it has been for a couple 100 years now. It's not Crown land. That was just something that really stuck out from the, you know, from the call today. Yeah. So essentially cattle have been eating there and shitting in that river for bloody hundreds of years.
And this, this what they've put in place today. And the the way it seems like the way and Jim mentioned it on the call, the way they interpret it that even now what because of this, you can't even have cattle on the land, which has been been there for ages, hundreds of years. You can't do you can't even essentially got to fence it off and protect it. So it was all, all on the basis of the, the mining side. So and that's setting a
precedent for I know. And look, we talked about like last year when that was potentially we're going down this road in WA about the whole, what was it like the traditional owner approvals for everything, which could have applied for bloody farmers and, and everything to get all these surveys done. And like, this is essentially pretty similar. Yeah. What what's happening here? So because like, this land is owned by owned by Regis. So yeah, buddy.
Oh, so it's, we're fucking learning a lot at the moment. JC Learning. A lot talking. About politics, politics, I never paid an interest till I did this. And this is, interestingly, on the back of just recently, the whole Jabiluka thing. As well, Yeah. Very only a couple of weeks ago, like bloody putting their foot on that side. Now that's going into Kakadu National Park.
We're just making the decision right now and there's another questions about who is actually being properly engaged in this process. And who is the right people to engage as part of this process? Because I think one one comment, which which is quite important is this is not so much an argument of, you know, whether a site is sacred and should be protected. We're all for responsible mining, doing things the right way and working collectively
with the traditional owners. This is more so a discussion about the process. How can you say this is OK and approved and then it's not? That's what I don't understand. If this was identified as part of these, these processes that are set up by the government, say, hey, look, I know we've identified a few sites for ATSF, but this is not one that you can do. Regis would have then, you know, done the work to, you know, advance other alternatives at
that time. But that's already been and gone now. So why are we talking about that now? Again, I'm just, I'm also confused if there's this, there's a process that's been followed and you know, supposedly the right parties have been engaged, consulted as they should and then this has happened. I just don't understand. MMM and and cause the the were were Rogery people that she's cited as the you know, the T OS that she's engaged with here.
But it sounds like then this orange local Aboriginal land council that were the people that Regis were engaged with. I'm not not sure if this the were Rajory people were if Regis engaged with them or they didn't know that they were gonna claim ownership of that part of the land. Like to say like. Yeah, they couldn't. Sounds like like Regis could not have done any more than they possibly could have done in terms of very much following the
regular true process. And. That's that's super well said, Ally. Yeah, I totally agree with what you've said there. And I'll, I'll put a pin on it 'cause I think we can chat about it more after the, the silver mines 'cause I think there's heaps of comments to be made about the the process. I just add that readers still don't have a heap of
information. They're they're still waiting on the, you know, sort of quote unquote official ruling or whatever it's called from the government to understand what exactly is gone down and what they can do going on forward from here. Because you look at the, I guess we'd say the site, the impact of it, the social and economic impact. So they're saying 500 and 80 full time jobs in construction, around 290 when in production, about 200 million bucks worth of state royalties to the state.
The directed indirect benefits it can provide to local indigenous communities benefits and opportunities to local businesses, local communities like You can just see the impact that a decision from 1 politician can have a. 100% and you even had the the head of a MEC, Warren Pierce sort of echoed these comments as well in an Amex statement.
And it was also in the AFR around the decision sort of claiming that sort of, as we discussed before, Indigenous groups in NSW had differing views about the significance of the side question if the right people had been listened to. And as Warren said, this decision affects the local community of Blaney. The traditional owners and the mining industry described it as a lose, lose, lose situation. That's when it's 3 + 3 + 1 = 1. -5 or.
Something it's it's three. So yeah, anyway, this has been going on for frigging years. Like as you said, asset purchase in 2012, PFS from 2017, a bits. A bits happened since 2017. I mean, Trump has been and gone, COVID has been gone, Brexit has happened. You were still on the jumbo. I was just learning the jumbo. You were just learning the jumbo. Me and JD were young whippersnappers at Argonaut still.
I mean a lot's happened since then compared to other sort of major projects and their approvals in Australia as well. So guys, sort of taking all that information in, what do you think this ultimately means for Regis going forward with Mcfillemys? The the first thing that kinda springs to mind and I mean we're, we're at 2024 now this investment was made in 2012 a $150 million. Of course it was in in script like, yeah, you guys said at the beginning there. But it doesn't scream out as a
stellar investment. And, you know, was this project really going to go ahead? We can kind of have another debate about that. We we spoke about this when the DFS came out and the numbers didn't look too good just a month or so ago. What do you reckon, Maddie? Oh, and it look, it's to the point it's like nearly the project is irrelevant in this this story today in terms of just the whole process and the precedents it sets.
Like it's heavily wided to. I guess to say it's a a poor investment is sort of impacted by the fact of how long the approvals and how difficult it's been and the time and money they've had to spend on that side of things that it sounds like was fucking out of their control. Absolutely agreed. Yeah. Yeah, but, and I do agree it's like, and we'll get into the like what other options they've got, but it just looks like this project is for it to work, it has to all be there.
It has to probably all go right. It has to like there's a, there is issues with it in terms of like it's a 0 discharge. So that's a lot of capital has to go into, you know, ponds and can't just like run water out of it. What they went, they went through all that to try and like, and it's a, you know, it's a big capital investment, but potentially, potentially long life and you might make your money back from it eventually. But it's, it seemed to has to be
done this way to work. So yeah, it's why they could have got the weather dependent on the bloody gold price and how they fund it. And if there's bloody hedging in place, determines whether they're going to whether it'd be a very profitable operation at the moment. But yes, it wasn't a wasn't screaming out as a like a a low risk play? No. But that's low risk from an operational standpoint, right? Yeah, yeah. So I guess they're two separate
issues in a way. Yeah. And even like financially, right as as you said JD, you know, I think a lot of people out in the market sort of discounted Mcfillimy's as a true growth option for for Regis on the on the basis of, you know, financials at least anyway. I mean consensus NAV for Mcfillimy's was about $0.20 or $150 million, which is about 12% of Regis's market cap. And you know finally that Regis Mcfeely contributes about 60% of
Regis's reserve. So, but I think there could be as as difficult as as A and shocking of the news as this is, you could see it as a silver lining for Regis. I mean, given the sort of the financial and the operational elements, you know, was it better for Regis to go, hey, we've done the work and we've actually got more interesting and attractive options over here.
So we're going to kill this one or have the government kill it for you to give, to give you a good sort of, you know, not excuse, but a reason to focus your attention elsewhere rather than making that call themselves. Yeah. And it's, it's a go, it's a gold price bet. Like, you know, if gold's bloody 4000 bucks an ounce by the time this is mined and they haven't got too much hedging commitments.
And you know, they probably would make good money out of it just because of the because of the scale of it. But it's like, you know, a billion dollars worth of CapEx to get it there. And and a lot of that CapEx is tied up in what the water pipeline to get the sufficient amount of water there to well, I think it was about 100 odd mil.
And then as I said, the ponds because of the 0 discharge the mill like that there was about 6 or 700 million just in that sort of key infrastructure to process it and maintain the site. So that's what the question is right. Is there any other option outside of this because this comes back to the hole. It sounds like it's freaking. It is becoming increasingly difficult, and in this case near impossible, to build and permit processing plant. Even if you do. It by the book in Australia.
So it's it's like the only one the only one near there is Cadia. It's about 40 or probably 5040 to 50 KS away. You know, big 36 million tonne per annum plant owned by Newmont. Look would could Regis bloody just they it sounds like they could mine this mine. They just can't put ATSF in there, which means you can't put a mill in. Could they actually mine it truck it bloody 50 KS. If you negate, you know, half a billion dollars worth of CapEx
to do that, would that work? I think with the sounds like they'd still have to put in a lot of that pond infrastructure 'cause it's a 0 discharge site, 1 gramme dirt tracking it 50 KS probably too small for a bloody Newmont to even consider. So it's probably just the economics just don't really add up. It just as I said before, it sounds like if this operation was gonna work, it has to be all in the same spot run efficiently on a big scale to actually bring
in the chalkies. So it's they're very they're essentially being they're on hold until there's a bloody either doesn't look like there's going to be a backflip on the decision from this government. They're literally be hoping for, like they said, they're going to go down the legal route with it. But it'd either have to be a change in government that would actually put this throat or something in the High Court to actually overturn it. Which gigs you'd be bloody.
That could take freaking years. Yeah. And I guess so. I mean, what's what's next? I mean, there was sort of a lot of questions on the call today with with Jim about sort of, you know, as how does you know, capital get reallocated potentially from, you know, Mcfillimmys to their other sites and things like that. But they're I think they're just trying to understand the situation themselves and get some sort of definitive plan and timing on what this actually means full of them.
But you know, of course we can, we can certainly speculate about what what that means for them next. I think my conclusion is it's pretty much put an L in the coffin for their growth project, whether you believed in it as a growth project or not. They are even more desperate for for something outside of you know, Dukeden and Tropicana. What it could be, I don't know. Is it, is it organic? Is it more work at, you know, Dukeden, you know, that is their
only asset that they operate. Tropicana they've got a non operating interest in. Do they do something inorganic? You know, do they buy something in and around their area or around that Laverton, Leonora region? Who knows? Yeah, God, that bloody God. They could buy a spa, but that's like fuck, that's like 1 1/2 billion dollars there. So and then you've got to put the capital in as well for the for the mill and everything.
So it's like, yeah, there, this is definitely the right, the right disco Cos this is not going to be a like if it did get overturned or whatever, like that's years down the road. Well, after the time they need the friggin gold. But even if it was overturned, you'd think like, what's the, what's the chance like something like this could happen again and not just within, you know, we'll probably touch on a bit more later, not just within regions portfolio, but other companies
portfolios as well. It does. It does make you a little nervous. Yeah. So it's like I think the whole. Even if you are trying to do the right. Thing what's been thrown around Gold Rd's, the one that keeps getting thrown around for Regis tying up with them. As I said, whether something around that Laverton district.
We run the ruler over Bloody Magnetic the other week and that doesn't look like the most that's that's two years away if someone decides to mine that 'cause it's hasn't even got a mining licence yet. No it doesn't. It needs a bit more work. So unless it's something L's pretty bloody left field. JDJBD you got any bloody punts on you? Well, Jim seemed pretty fed up with Australia and its entirety, so I wonder.
If you don't blame him. Looking overseas, the other thing I'd add to your comments earlier, Ali on the NAV, obviously you know consensus we're quoting there comes from the sell side calling it kind of 12% of the market cap for 150 million bucks. It's interesting to parallel
that with the share price today. It's it's flat the, you know, the buyers of the owners of the stock clearly didn't attribute too much value to Mcphillimy's. So you know, that kind of bodes with what we'd said about it in, you know, on the back of your analysis of all the undeveloped projects out there and then going back a little bit before that on the back of the DFS as well. Yes, on a on a more positive note, CRE insurance let's make that isn't positive, that's just
more positive. Holy snap and duck shit. I never thought I'd I'd think of Africa as a mining jurisdiction to be similar to Australia. It's bloody similar parallels today. Since Australia's becoming like Africa due to the police like CR ES, African insurance expertise is going to be bloody handy for this Australian mining industry going forward. Bloody JD, you heard about the offer? Mate inform me and all the money
miners please. Any of these mining companies out there that just just feel a bit bloody, they're a bit risky adverse, give a give bloody Dave Adam or Atari a bloody call from CRE. They'll do a free audit on your existing insurance that you have in place. So if you've got any gaps or exposures that you might not even know about, that's awesome for free. And you just take it and say cheers lads. That's the bloody mate. Caught up with them last week.
I've vetted them as JCS Jesus Christ, I know insurance. I've never been so interested in insurance in my life. I love it, love insurance. Oh, I got got a couple extra car policies last week. I'll just I've got the bug so in about to take a look for you phone numbers in the show notes and one of the owners picks up. Go. CRE Love it JD. Another interesting Regency style story. Silver Bonds. No, it's let's not keep the good times going.
The company, just the company. So SPL on the ASX, so similar like you say to, to Regis mate, also in New South Wales and also a kind of project that won't be going ahead anytime soon. We'll start this one up by flashing up the spark chart to people can get a feel. And here, you know, what you really notice straight away is a massive Candlestick down and the risk of being a single asset company. That's where Regis has a, you know, a bit of a saving grace.
So they have lost over 60% of their market cap in a couple months. They lost you know about 50% of that market cap in a couple days. So they're around a $250 million company just last week and they're now sort of 120 million ish market cap company. Yeah, right, buddy. So what's what's actually what's the sequence of events here, JD? So I'll give you a bit of the sort of legalese type first to talk through what's happened in the courts and then we'll give a bit of background on what's
actually happened. But essentially early last week, they came in saying we're going to get our, you know, an update on these proceedings that have been going on for a few months now. And on Friday they went into a trading halt and then came out with what had actually happened. So they've got this group called Bingman. They had essentially been challenging the development consent, which is essentially their right to get development
underway for the the project. Where in this project it's also down similar area is it JD? Down near Mudgee, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. So 30 KS from Mudgee, 260 odd KS from Sydney. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll, we'll Chuck up a map and people can, can have a look. Now, I said that IPC group, the Independent Planning Commission, before now they were involved here because that's who Bingman was challenging as well as, you know, silver mines in the same sort of process.
And you know, lo and behold, the appeal comes through and the court has upheld the challenge put forward by Bingman. And what this essentially means is that silver mines cannot develop the project. They need to go back to the drawing board. But to to get into the details of what has actually gone on here and what the kind of point of debate is, I think it's worth fleshing out what the project is
all about. Because similar to what we've just spoken about before with Regis, you're in, you're in farming country, you've got towns nearby. It's not like in the, in the Outback in WA, there's, there's a bit more to it. It's rolling kind of countryside and we're talking about a silver mine with a lead zinc byproduct.
So that lead byproduct was a a point of debate amongst the the local community there, although that isn't actually what you know, ultimately stops the the the project from going forward on Friday all. Right. So give us what's the what's been the timeline so far, how it's gone? So kind of like Mick Philomy's this has taken ages to you know go through all the steps in 2018 feasibility study came out, the EIS was completed and development application was submitted in mid 2020.
State approvals came through in April of 23, so last year and they were going to launch, you know their final investment decision later this year. So they were they were pretty far along. And then you get this appeal in in March and silver mines win that appeal to start with, although or they they win the initial proceedings and then Bingman come in and appeal it. And that's what's you know, Chuck to spanner in the works just on on Friday to give a bit of. Detail Who is actually this
Bingman group? Who are they? Thanks for breaking me up, Ali. They're, they're a group that came around in the in the 90s. They're, they're a group that's sort of local to the region there. And what they're kind of putting forward is that the, the potential environmental and, and health disasters that kind of relates to lead and all these, you know, other aspects of the mine dust and so on would hamper the, the farming nature of the region as well as the tourism in the region.
But it's, it's much more of like a kind of technicality on why the project isn't going forward. They put this environmental impact statement forward in, in 2020, like I said, but they didn't include this transmission line. So there's this 13 kilometre transmission line and that wasn't included in the assessment.
And then the the Supreme Court Justice has come out and said, you can't go forward with this because the plan of what you actually want to do doesn't include that transmission line. And one way or another, whether it's positive or negative, that transmission line is going to have an impact. So that previous ruling is, you know, to no effect. And here we are the the company's share price is halved. They're going to speak with their lawyers and all these
things. And then on the flip side, you've got the group that you just raised their alley talking about like, hey, this isn't really what we actually wanted, but we'll take the win. You know, and you know, to be clear, it's it's not done and dusted because these guys could potentially still look at other power options. But kind of like Jim was saying at Regis that that is a lengthy process. You know it takes ages to knuckle down on on what you want and the plan you want to put
forward. To ultimately decide and to reject that whole plan can take years. It's interesting. It's power lines, the things that have squashed it. Considering how many fucking power lines are going to go in for all these renewable plans, Sure, we have the bloody state through all these transmission corridors they've got to put in to make this whole renewable thing work. So it just completely contradicts that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I don't. Think this one.
Those haven't hit me up. Yet I, I don't think this one, Maddie is, is as grim as what you went through with Regis. I think there's, there's still options, but you're in a you're in a rock and a very hard place. They're picking between to pretty bad outcomes for for these mining companies. Yeah, I don't know the best. I like silver mines. What's that? Well, the best thing about mine and silver, it's the same colour as these. Check these out. That's a TSI.
Bolt a bloody DSI friction bolt and a DSI posi mix bolt but bloody sent to us. They're silver. They're silver in colour. These these look like some of the bolts I tried to put in like after. A back in the day get the. Fuck out of them and then snapped them off and there just wasn't much left. Bloody, bloody brilliant. If you think, if you think silver, you think DSI. You know why? What is that? Silver is like gold. It's a safe haven DSI. It is the safe haven for ground
support supply. Mate, do you know silver is also the best conductor of electricity as out of all the metals? Oh, better than copper, better than bloody aluminium. It is the best. Just like DSI is the best ground support supplier in the world. All exactly the same. Don't think Silver, think DSI. Think the best. Think the. Best cheers for the donation there. Love it. Oh God, we got to put some bloody. That's why we've got to have
bloody sponsors. We've got to bring some positivity to the mining industry. Fuck me dead God, that's that's what the economy's backed on. Hopefully the mining companies can bring the positivity next time, Maddie, But I think we should get into a bit of discussion. I've, I've spoken about, you know, enough what has actually happened specifically. But I think it's sort of time to to wrap the two together and have a bit of a yarn about what this kind of means.
And I know you've sort of spun up some thoughts about investment, you know, investor confidence in Australia. Would that be, you know, foreign direct investment or just local funds and whatnot, look into the mining industry. What have you sort of come to on on that front? Well, I think we'll probably quote old Warren Pearce from AMEC, who's obviously Amec do a bloody shit load for the mining industry and with this sort of stuff as the, I guess the, you'd
say, they're industry body. They're an industry body, the middleman. So they're bloody heavily involved in this and they do a lot of bloody good work. Forgive them for not giving us the award that at that ceremony they outweighed that boy getting involved in this. So this is what Warren Pierce said. So this is incredibly disappointing decision.
This is in regard to Regis incredibly disappointing decision that lacks reason and common sense and sets a truly terrible precedent for investment risk in Australia. If any project, no matter how thoroughly consulted, negotiated, supported NSS can be knocked over by the objections of only a few people and at the end of the process, then how can any company or investor have confidence to invest in
Australia? So as he said, like one like 1 government official in this case of Regis has contradicted the entire approval process buy and just put a foot down. And it arguably under parallels to friggin it feels like we're in North Korea or Congo or bloody Sierra Leone at the moment. Fuck me. Like to think that you'd, you'd class Australia to have sovereign risk due to like approvals and permits is friggin absurd. With mining's the like the biggest contributor to our economy.
It's it's just mad. Yeah, I just think it's friggin mad. So what do you what do you think, Jada? Mate, I, I couldn't agree more. I think talking about mining investment in, in Australia, in, in NSW specifically, I mean, there were so many fascinating call outs in the call put on by Regis. And it was interesting the, the concern they had about operating projects and it was very raw, you know, the, the core, it's obviously been a, a very busy weekend for the guys there.
But the, the concerns they had about projects already in operation, who knows? You know, like I said, they haven't got the official docs and all that sort of stuff. So maybe we'll sort of reserve our judgement on that front. But if this throws into risk projects that are operating that have been operating for a number of years, then I think it's a sort of serious cause for alarm. And I mean, we, we need to look
at this whole process. I think that's the the takeaway from our discussion today for both these sorts of companies like these are processes that take years and years and years already way too long. What gives anyone the the confidence to go forward with these once they receive the approvals and then they can still have the project or the, the approvals or the permits or whatever it might be. There's so many different angles to it pulled off them.
Who's going to come and and do business in Australia? Yeah, and and I'll just I'd hate to think that this like this on the back of the Jabiluka thing and how abrupt all that stuff was and the timing. I'd hate to think this is actual just political gamesmanship going into an election.
Like just. For. Strategy and I wouldn't fucking be surprised what these bloody clowns get up to and like, but the, the work that goes in by these mining companies, which is, you know, fucking funded by, you know, operations, but shareholder money as well. And the time that goes into these processes and then they friggin treat it like this is that fucking disrespectful and demeaning to the to the mining companies that fucking work
tirelessly. And they're coming from people that have got no friggin mining or business experience at all running the country. Drives me fucking nuts. What we spoke about Nimb ISM in, in the Western world and we spoke about it in the context of Serbia not too long ago and Canada before that. It's a, it's a similar story in, in so many different countries. And we've spoken about it with various guests on the show in every single nook of the, you know, the, the so called Western world.
And obviously every project shouldn't be developed. There should be a rigorous approvals process to get projects online, but you shouldn't have a small minority of people over ruling projects that have already received their approvals processes because it can shatter the investment confidence. And you know that that might
happen bit by bit. You might chip away at that investor confidence slowly, but all of a sudden, you know, you've wasted so much capital, so much human capital, so much energy and time from, from people that it just, you know, I'm a bit perplexed by the whole thing.
It's, it's super frustrating. And I think the pro, the processing approvals, you know, timeline needs a, a serious reassessment in Australia. I mean, look at, look at the, the NSW government royalties and, and what they've kind of done on that front. Mining brings in $6 billion in, in royalties in NSW alone. Now 90% of that comes from coal projects. And you know, they've again been increased from the 1st of July 2024. That's not specifically what I want to talk about here.
But the, the repercussions of this, you know, it, it shortens the life, it, it lifts them on the, the cost curve, it makes them a bit more uneconomic. And, you know, maybe it's, it's right to have them adjusted over time, you know, with inflation and all these short sort of things. But it gives a, a sugar hit to the government.
It, it gives a bit of a, a sugar hit, but it, it puts into question all the, the jobs, you know, 40,000 people in New South Wales are directly employed by mining, another 7000 people in the supply chain. And whilst I think some of these ministers think there isn't a serious repercussion or there isn't a repercussion beyond just the the company they're talking about, I think there actually is.
I think, you know, it's not just that company, it's not just Regis in this case, it's not just silver mines, but it is all the other, you know, the majors around in the world that might look to come and invest in the state and the thing and hang on, we might not do that. And that, you know, 6 billion of royalties, I know hits of it comes from coal. But sooner or later those projects will, will run out. And that's going to be a big hole.
And like we, we probably don't even need to get into the, the government debt that's exploded fourfold in NSW alone over the past few years. But it is a key source of revenue, royalties, taxation, income from the employees there that has heaps and heaps of flow on effects that I just feel haven't been totally taken into account in this scenario.
No, I agree with you, JD and even just Minister plebiscite's comments about, oh, well, they've identified, you know, 4 four other options for a, for a TSF to put there. So it's just move the TSFI think that's sort of what come across in that statement is a bit of ignorance. Oh, just move the TSF and it's sort of, it's, I'm not, you know, affecting the mind like it's fine.
It's sort of like, well, actually there's a lot more involved than just moving the TSF and for all the reasons Jim outlined in his call that it's not just that straightforward. There's just, I don't know, a bit of seems a bit of ignorance with respect to how this practically can impact a mine site or the mining industry more broadly. Yeah, complete ignorance. They wouldn't even know. They probably know they would never have worked on a mine
site. And speaking about royalties, JD, they need all the help they can get. Look at all the royalties the government aren't getting from the durries now since the vipes are coming. Like that's we need the mining industry to bring the royalties back because bloody champion Ruby ain't bloody getting sold like it used to be. That's mate. We could talk for hours about government debt, but I think we should steer clear of that one for today.
All right, bit of a random one to finish on this is saw this. Antimony. Yeah, antimony. Saw this article in the last week that China are placing an export ban on antimony. So antimony's widely used in ammunition and other military applications. I think it's flame retardant as well. It's on the Australia's critical minerals list and it sparked my attention because the first ever mine I worked at was the Hill Grove mine near Armadale, NSW. It's a gold antimony mine.
It's the largest antimony deposit deposit in Australia at this stage. And it recently got so I was there when it was Straits, which then I think Straits went into Eris got put on care and maintenance and sort of had a had a bit of a like a pilot plan he set up sort of thing. Recently got bought by Lavato resources who they that would explore them for lithium down in bloody South of WA.
Recently bought the hill Grove mine and it's had a few few people have a crack at this thing, but the antimony price, I'll bring up a chart has doubled in the past few months. So in La Voto, up 50% today on the news, they've got reserve grades of 1.2% Stibnite and then you've also got Southern Cross gold. That's the bolter, that's. Been dealing with. Expiration down in Victoria. So they've they're gold antimony as well. So their results today are .9% and 1.7% Stibnite.
So Stibnite is the antimony mineral. So it's amazing how one news article can come out and you start looking at the grade of antimony just like that. So no, that was interesting. Something that mineral that never gets talked about, but it's doubled. So and there's not many options for it in Australia. So that's fine. Very interesting. The only good news story come out of NSW. Oh, that was good. It was bloody.
God, of course I was literally that was the first ever joined on. So I'm walking around with two left feet as per usual and oh, it's bloody. Yes, I'll cause more harm than good there, no doubt. It's a fucking pain in the ass. Sorry to all those people that I worked with, shout out Jeremy Rowlands. You know that is a is a fun fact. The the Superintendent there, the foreman. He was part of the rescue crew for Beaconsfield.
Oh, the the trap miners, Yeah. Oh wow, he got he assisted getting the two guys out of there. What a legend he was on the he was overseeing putting the pilot hole in and everything. So. Yeah. So. Love getting a an insight into the young adulthood of Maddie Michael. Back in the day. Back is fucking. Cold there? Yeah. It's only an hour and a half from your hometown in Burrell. Oh, good on ya. Hmm, OK, I might go back to get it going. Sure, love. I'll get me on the jumbo there.
Go back down the D, Clyde. Oh, very good. Alright, that's bloody. Bit more of a downbeat episode to find something. So positive. It's good to talk about. Tomorrow, but we're yeah, it's downbeat, but we're fucking sticking up for the mining industry. We're sticking up for Australia too, mate, and Australia, hopefully things can sort of come to their senses. Don't like getting too political on the show and, you know, really want to talk about it
from a yeah. But you, you want to talk about it from a, you know, a non partisan sense. You want common sense in in government. I don't care who's who's in power for that. You just want, you know, policies and procedures that make the most of the the time and effort and capital that gets sunk into these things. You know what else is common sense, JD? Using access mining technology, Yeah. Pretty. Great segment, top of the show. They're pretty much the anti
government. That just makes sense. Yeah, yeah, that's it. A. Common sense. Who else makes sense to you, Jay? So ohh. Mineral mining services. That's, yeah, a lot of sense there. Verify obvious smack power and technology. Did that make much sense to you when you were getting? Explained. Initially no, but now yes. DSI earlier in the show, Silverstone CR insurance at the top of the show as well. Greenlands equipment K drill and you spark. Ohh Hodoro money miners. Hodoro.
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