Extension approved for Dartbrook mine

A major fire broke out at Viva Energy’s (ASX: VEA) Geelong oil refinery just after 11pm last night, with the blaze now contained to the area of origin.Fire Rescue Victoria says all emergency response personnel and Viva employees had been accounted for and there had been no reported injuries. The Country Fire Authority says the fire is still being fought by fire fighters but there is no threat to the public.Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the incident will impact petrol production, with diesel and jet fuel production continuing at the refinery.Minister Bowen told the ABC that the incident appears to be an accident and there were no suspicious circumstances, although the cause remains under investigation.Viva Energy said there was no immediate impact to fuel supply and the company expects to replace any lost production through its fuel import program. The refinery is now running on reduced production rates.The incident comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Brunei and Malaysia as part of the Federal Government’s efforts to secure more fuel amid a global fuel crisis.At normal rates of consumption, Australia had 38 days of gasoline, 28 days of kerosene and 31 days of diesel as of April 7.WA has also moved to secure its own fuel security, with the WA Government striking a deal with Cambridge Gulf to purchase and store 4 million litres of diesel. The stockpile will be owned and controlled by the WA Government.

BHP backs Chinese $1.69b SolGold takeover bid Major SolGold shareholders — including BHP (ASX: BHP) and Newmont (ASX: NEM) — have vowed to support a takeover from China-based Jiangxi Copper (JCC) for the right price. If JCC, SolGold’s largest shareholder, can formalise an offer of 56c (£0.28) per London stock exchange-listed share, the other major shareholders have agreed to hand over the keys to SolGold’s crown jewel — the Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador. Hosting the high-grade Alpala deposit, the Cascabel project is positioned to emerge as a significant global copper and gold mine. Both BHP and Newmont, who each hold a 10.3% stake, have provided a letter of intent to JCC indicating their support of the revises possible offer. Max Capital and Nichola Mather, who hold 5.1% and 2.8% respectively, have also issued letters of intent. JCC has been a significant shareholder in SolGold since December 2022 and owns 12.2% of the issued share capital of SolGold which, combined with the letters of intent, represents 40.7% of the issued share capital of SolGold. SolGold’s board of directors have indicated to JCC that if an offer that meets the terms is made, they would be minded to recommend the offer to shareholders. 

Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) has delivered strong H1 FY26 results, with net profit after tax more than doubling to $766.6m from the year before as the gold price surged through Q2. Underlying profit after tax hit a record $785.2m, while earnings per share rose 107% to 37.96c, reflecting the strong gold price environment. Consistent operational performance delivered gold and copper production of 365,000oz and 36,000t, in line with guidance.  Evolution says it is on track to deliver 710,000-780,000oz of gold but is expecting to come in towards the lower end of its copper guidance due to a Q2 weather event at Ernest Henry. Off the back of these results, Evolution Mining has updated its Northparkes streaming deal with Triple Flag Precious Metals, securing an additional $120m refundable deposit due December 15. The revised deal also cuts the stream rate over the E44 deposit, reducing Triple Flag’s take to 25% of payable gold and 37.5% of payable silver. Evolution managing director and chief executive Lawrie Conway says this marks a major milestone for the Northparkes operation, where the miner has now established a pathway to unlock even more value.  “To achieve this, we needed to have full alignment with Triple Flag on how this value can be realised,” he said. “Triple Flag has demonstrated throughout our discussions, a commitment to jointly work on unlocking this potential.” Triple Flag chief executive and director Sheldon Vanderkooy says the gold potential of the Northparkes land package in this higher gold price environment is immense. “I want to congratulate the Evolution team for the significant value they have created at Northparkes through approval of the E22 block cave, commencement of a pre-feasibility study to evaluate the potential of a material expansion of Northparkes mill processing capacity, and the potential development of the E44 gold open pit,” he said. “We are pleased to provide additional development funding to Evolution for guaranteed minimum gold and silver deliveries from the gold-dominant E44 deposit, which will create value for the shareholders of both Evolution and Triple Flag.” The Evolution board has approved the development of the E22 block cave with a capital investment of $545m. The miner expects the operation to generate a rate of return of 28% at base case metal prices or 38% at upside metal prices. 

Core Lithium (ASX: CXO) will begin open pit mining and ore production at its Grants deposit in May as it advances the restart of its Finniss lithium operation in the Northern Territory.The restart has been supported by the award of a $50m surface mining services contract to NRW (ASX: NWH), alongside the start of the BP33 box cut and civil infrastructure site works.Core Lithium managing director Paul Brown says the award of the Grants open pit mining contract marks a key step in the restart of the Finniss lithium operation.“Grants provides a low risk, near term source of ore using existing infrastructure, enabling a rapid and capital efficient pathway back into production,” he said.“With mobilisation commencing immediately, this contract underpins our restart schedule and near term cash generation objectives.“With final investment decision approval and funding now in place, our focus is firmly on delivery. This contract positions Finniss to deliver the first spodumene concentrate in the December quarter.“We are making strong progress across the balance of our restart workstreams, and we expect to finalise additional key contracts in the near-term as we bring Finniss back into production.”The November 2025 updated mine plan increased ore reserves for Grants by 33% to 1.53mt at 1.42% lithium oxide, lifting contained lithium oxide by 44%.The Grants open pit is expected to supply near term ore feed for the Finniss processing plant, enabling an accelerated production timeline at a lower initial capital cost, according to Core.Core expects the BP33 underground development to support the operation’s transition to long-life, high-margin underground operations.