BHP, Rio chiefs offer firm evidence on China comeback story;...

BHP, Rio chiefs offer firm evidence on China comeback story; Catalyst acquires Plutonic - Barry FitzGerald | Livewire (livewiremarkets.com)


Barry Fitzgerald writes:

Catalyst:

Like father, like son. Robert Champion de Crespigny was the great consolidator of the Aussie gold sector in the 1990s, building his Normandy Mining into a gold powerhouse that Newmont was to acquire in 2002 for $5 billion.His son James is following in his footsteps, with Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) pulling in ownership of ASX-listed Vango (ASX:VAN) and Canadian-listed Superior Gold (TSXV:SGI) to take control of WA’s Plutonic-Marymia gold belt.Add in Catalyst’s ownership of the high-grade Henty mine in Tassie, and what could come from the exciting Four Eagles gold exploration project in Victoria, and Catalyst is on its way to creating a mid-cap gold producer.If he has a good dose of his father’s ambitions in the space, James won’t be stopping there.Catalyst has the backing of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting as both a major shareholder and a partner in Four Eagles. Having Hancock’s support is handy as completing the newest of the deals – the scrip takeover of Superior – requires Catalyst to raise $20m.Superior owns the Plutonic gold mine, acquired from Northern Star in 2015, and Vango (now in the compulsory acquisition phase) owns the Marymia project some 20-40km to the north-east.The Marymia project has a resource base of about 1m ounces while Superior’s Plutonic operation comes with a 5.9m ounce resource and critically, a 3Mtpa processing capacity which has been under-utilized because of COVID, labour shortages and other factors.A bigger and better Plutonic-Marymia belt emerges from Catalyst’s consolidation moves. Always a sensible thing to do, it didn’t happen until James came along. Like his father would say, the bigger-and-better Catalyst that emerges from the deal-making will be due for a market rerating for the newly achieved scale of operations and the synergies it can deliver.