Category: International

In December 2019, Legend Mining (ASX: LEG) catapulted to a $200 million market capitalisation after exploration drilling revealed a nickel-sulphide discovery at its Rockford Project’s Mawson Prospect in the Fraser Range nickel belt in Western Australia. The stock doubled in price in a single day on speculation that the exploration drilling was the first sign of Mawson being the region’s “next Nova discovery”. Prior to this, the 2012 discovery of the Nova nickel deposit, also in the Fraser Range nickel belt, shot Sirius Resources to fame, returning shareholders a return of circa 10,000% in a matter of months and led to Sirius’ acquisition by Independence Group (ASX:IGO) for $1.8 billion. Located 50 kilometres along strike from Legend’s Mawson Prospect is…

Written by Trevor Hoey ALASKAN focused oil and gas group, 88 Energy Ltd (ASX:88E) provided a further update on Monday regarding the progress of the group’s Charlie-1 appraisal well on the North Slope of Alaska. With the rig mobilised and drilling to start this weekend there is the potential for near-term market moving news. 88 Energy has the support of Premier Oil Plc which sees the company fully carried up to US$23 million while still maintaining a 30% working interest. Charlie-1 will test multiple stacked targets in the March quarter assessed at 480 million barrels net to 88E. This will see the group step-out to Malguk-1, an historic discovery well drilled by BP in 1991. Consequently, the group is in…

By Meagan Evans A global shift in capital allocations is underway. Trillions of dollars are flowing into sustainable or green investments, as the, ‘environmental, social and governance’ (ESG) sector shakes off its image as simply a feel-good investment class. New evidence demonstrates that profitability and environmental footprint are not mutually exclusive — but that ESG performance does in fact correlate with good financial results. Corporate boards are cleaning up their operations and supply chains to be carbon neutral and environmentally friendly, while global fund managers are allocating to climate and eco-friendly companies, and increasingly refusing to back coal and fossil fuels. In fact, the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock — which manages nearly US$7 trillion in assets — is reengineering…

THE price of gold on international spot markets has risen above US$1600/oz, marking its highest level since March 2013, on gathering concerns about weakening economic conditions in China. Gold was trading at US$1601/oz at 11.30 am Western Standard Time, Wednesday, according to gold analysis website Kitco. Investor sentiment around gold turned bullish in early 2020, with the price of gold taking off from its US$1480/oz launchpad at Christmastime 2019. Iconic technology company Apple issued a business revenue warning during the US stock market’s Tuesday trading session. In a quarterly update to investors, the technology company said concerns around the Covid-19 virus outbreak in China is affecting business conditions there. “Work is starting to resume around the country [after China’s Lunar…

By Meagan Evans DUAL listed junior oil explorer 88 Energy Limited (AIM: 88E | ASX: 88E) is just weeks away from spudding its Charlie-1 appraisal well at Project Icewine on the North Slope of Alaska. The drilling event at Charlie-1, which is on track for a late February spud, will see 88 Energy — along with its farm-in partner Premier Oil (LON:PMO), target 1.6 billion barrels of gross mean prospective oil resource, of which 480MMBO is net to 88E. The drilling event will intersect seven stacked prospects and could see Charlie-1 emerge as one of the world’s biggest oil wells of the year. While it has a long history of successful oil discoveries, Alaska’s North Slope is now seeing renewed…

By Meagan Evans CHINA is set to see a massive lift in demand for natural gas with current usage rates set to more than triple over the next 15 years. This comes as the Chinese government pushes for a switch to cleaner energy sources from coal, implementing policies to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions and bring up the number of days with good air quality to 80%. To achieve this, it’s encouraging a switch from coal to natural gas, aiming for natural gas to account for 10% of energy consumption this year — a policy that is understandably driving significant growth in natural gas demand. China is not the only country increasing its use of natural gas. Global demand…

Meagan Evans HOME to multiple multi-billion barrel oil discoveries, including the 25 billon barrel Prudhoe Bay, US$250 million is being ploughed into the North Slope of Alaska for exploration drilling this year, led by ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) who is drilling eight wells. ASX oil junior, XCD Energy (ASX:XCD) — a new arrival on the North Slope, has a 100% working interest in one of the world’s newest, highly prospective onshore oil plays. Located on the highly prospective Nanushuk trend on the North Slope, XCD’s 100%-owned Peregrine Project is directly adjacent to ConocoPhillips’ large acreage position at its Willow discovery — a US$5 billion 450–800 MMBOE project with potential for 100,000 barrels of oil daily when it commences production in 2024-2025. Maiden…

CORONADO, the operator of the Curragh coking coal mine in Queensland, has announced it has sold two shipments of its Buchanan coal to China as trade tensions eased between China and the US. The Brisbane-based coal producer restarted shipments of its low-volatile Buchanan coking coal to China in November, concluding the deal for two cargoes in anticipation of a resolution to the China-US trade tensions. Hailing the recent signing of Phase One of the China-US trade deal which includes US metallurgical coal exports, Coronado said there is now a clear export pathway to China for Buchanan coal which is mined in Virginia. Buchanan mine realised coal sales of 0.8mt in the October-December 2019 quarter, down 21.7pc from 1mt in the…

AUSTRALIAN coal producer Whitehaven Coal sees a silver lining for global coal markets from the signing of the first phase of a trade deal between China and the US on Wednesday. Whitehaven Coal said in a production update to the ASX that the easing of China-US trade tensions should improve market conditions for metallurgical coal, a key ingredient in steel production in China, and for thermal coal used in power stations to generate electricity. “The metallurgical coal market recovered in late 2019 from the lows experienced mid-2019,” the company stated. “The dynamics of the steel market are impacted by the trade tensions between China and the US, so the signing of the Phase 1 trade deal should have a welcome…