:/ That’s a useful headline, but no mention of the next door...

:/

That’s a useful headline, but no mention of the next door neighbour who is up there for the second year, nor of vanadium at all here.
That space remains vexingly vacant despite recent publicity elsewhere :/

…. Maybe next year?


cheers
https://thewest.com.au/business/min...r-first-time-at-mining-conference--c-11466927
Diggers & Dealers 2023: Battery metals speakers overtake gold bosses for first time at mining conference

Danielle Le MessurierThe West Australian
Fri, 4 August 2023 2:58PM



Diggers & Dealers chairman Jim Walker opens the 2020 conference in Kalgoorlie. Credit: Tom Zaunmayr/Kalgoorlie Miner

Battery metals bosses for the first time will have a larger official representation than those of gold miners at Kalgoorlie’s annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum, as the industry seeks products to power the energy transition.

Delegates attending the three-day event, set to kick off on Monday, will hear from 37 battery metals presenters including Liontown Resources’ Tony Ottaviano, Pilbara Minerals’ Dale Henderson and Patriot Battery Metals’ Ken Brinsden.
That compares with 28 gold bosses presenting who will be represented by the likes of Evolution Mining’s Jake Klein, Northern Star Resources chief development officer Simon Jessop and Genesis Minerals’ Raleigh Finlayson.

Lynas chief Amanda Lacaze is also slated to speak on the increasingly hot market for rare earths — used in renewable technologies including wind turbines, hybrid and electric vehicles — while Strandline Resources CEO Luke Graham is expected to talk on demand for mineral sands.

Forum chairman Jim Walker said it was the first time in the 32-year history of the event that the number of gold companies on the presenter programme had been surpassed by miners of battery metals and other minerals.

There are 990 companies registered for the event in total and around 2600 delegates booked in.
About half of those attending are miners, 35 per cent are mining contractors and suppliers and 15 per cent are brokers, finance investors and fund managers.
“Thirty-two years ago it was dominated all by gold and then we had nickel come in after that, then we had a bit of iron ore, and now we’ve got all these other minerals coming on too,” Mr Walker said.
The former boss of WesTrac said the appetite for mergers and acquisitions was still healthy despite industry-wide cost pressures driven by the high cost of labour and inflation.

The recent flurry of lithium deals in particular has been the silver lining in an otherwise depressed market for initial public offerings.

In the latest deal announced this week, Patriot revealed US lithium giant Albemarle was paying $123 million for a 5 per cent stake after it unveiled a 109.2 million tonne maiden resource at its Corvette project in Canada.

Develop Global is also set to take over lithium junior Essential Metals after the $153m deal last month received the blessing of major shareholder Chris Ellison, who leads Mineral Resources.
“There’s a fair bit going on out there and a lot of the companies who have done very well with their returns these days, so I’m sure there’s going to be some things happening you and I won’t know about,” Mr Walker said.
“The cost pressures are always there, that never goes away, but the prices are holding up for the metals as well too.”

HLB Mann Judd’s latest IPO Watch report revealed battery metals and rare earths companies were propping up the IPO market, which attracted just 14 ASX listings in the six months to the end of June.

Delegates attending the forum on Monday will be provided with an outlook on the global economy and trends affecting the mining industry from leading economist Dr Linda Yueh, who is this year’s keynote speaker.