S32 may have entered the ring

Not entirely out of the question to draw a bow between S32 and our coking coal tenements.

Having regional representation is an important step before they would even consider looking at the project. He is talking about base metals, but steel - coking coal, is still needed regardless.

Australian mining major South32 sees its best prospects for future growth in the Americas, with the company set to relocate chief development officer Simon Collins to Vancouver to further its hunt for new projects.South32 (S32) stumped up $US1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) for Arizona Mining and its Hermosa base metals project in Arizona last year, and has exploration projects with a suite of partners across Alaska, Arizona, Mexico, Colombia and Peru.Mr Collins told the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie today that the Americas will be a prime focus of South32’s hunt for base metals and other new projects, with the company having already begun building a corporate base in Canada.READ NEXTQ&A RECAP‘Embarrassing for nation’SASCHA O’SULLIVANMr Collins told The Australian the company remained relatively agnostic about commodities, but said South32 saw base metals and other industrial metals as its best option for future returns.“We’re not going to get seduced by the idea of getting bigger for bigger’s sake, or getting more complex,” he said.“We’re going to be more exposed to base metals. It’s not copper-focused, or copper centric, but that broad suite of industrial metals. That’s really driven by the view that, whether you’re looking at electric vehicles or static storage, or broader electrification, base metals are drawn into a number of those,” he said.Mr Collins said nickel sulphides, copper and zinc — and polymetallic deposits such as its Cannington mine in Queensland, which also produces lead and silver — were of strongest interest.But like BHP Group, which has focused on nickel as its best way into the growing battery market, Mr Collins said South32 has little interest in lithium.The South32 development boss said the company had done “lots of work” on lithium as a growth strategy, but the numbers did not stack up.“I don’t know whether it’s a business for miners,” he said.“We looked when asset prices were high, when asset prices were low, we looked at it through an exploration lens and a development lens. It’s hard for us to see that’s a sustainable business for miners — you have to work yourselves down the value chain to claim as much value as possible. And when we looked at ourselves in the mirror, we’re probably not a company that’s going to do that.”Mr Collins said Hermosa fit South32’s project portfolio perfectly, as a high grade zinc, lead and silver project that came with a lot of potential without a huge initial capital cost.South32 expects to release a pre-feasibility project on Hermosa by the end of the year, and Mr Collins flagged a staged development of the mine with a relatively modest initial outlay.“It’s large without being immense, it has high quality optionality in that it’s just going to deliver for decades without there being a multi-billion price tag to break the back of the thing in the first place,” he said.“It will be one of those staged investments that will just continue to give. That’s our sweet spot.”Mr Collins said South32 was will looking for acquisitions, despite having medium-term development options at Hermosa and in the Eagle Downs metallurgical coal project in Queensland, but said fairly-valued opportunities were thin on the ground and the company would also continue to seek discoveries through the drill-bit, either on its own or through its expansive portfolio of partnerships with junior explorers.“We haven’t seen actionable opportunities of late. We’re very comfortable continuing to monitor, screen and engage — when we see something, we’ll go hard and fast,” he said.Mr Collins said that, while there were risks in operating in the Americas, both in the US and South America, but said his decision to relocate to Vancouver was a clear sign of the importance of the region to South32.