Iluka backs Lindian rare earths play in Malawi with $32M
Emerging junior Lindian Resources has unveiled a multi-pronged, multi-million-dollar major offtake agreement, cornerstone funding and strategic partnership with global critical minerals heavyweight Iluka Resources to push its world-class Kangankunde project in Malawi towards first production.
The seismic deal for the company cements Kangankunde as one of the pre-eminent rare earths developments on the planet, as Iluka scrambles to lock in its strategic rare earths supply for Australia's future.
The news has set the market abuzz with Lindian's share price soaring by as much as 60 per cent in early trading this morning, as investors piled into the stock on the back of the US$20 million (A$32 million) partnership.
Under the agreement, Iluka will front a US$20 million construction loan, accompanied by a 15-year offtake deal for 90,000 tonnes of Kangankunde's premium monazite concentrate, weighing in at a stellar 55 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO).
'The funding and offtake agreements represent a major de-risking milestone for Stage 1 of our Kangankunde rare earths project, providing increased confidence for all our stakeholders by showing a clear pathway to production.'
Lindian Resources executive chairman Robert Martin
The concentrate is almost 20 per cent high-value neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) rare earths, which are critical for electric vehicle motors and renewable energy technologies.
Lindian is now firmly plugged into the Western world's push for a secure, non-Chinese rare earths supply chain.
The project's hefty 261-million-tonne resource grading some 2.19 per cent TREO with an ore reserve at a higher 2.9 per cent, had the company firmly on the radar of global players such as Iluka. The Australian producer has now jumped to lock in the emerging Lindian, as the federal government moves to replicate the United States and set a floor price for local rare earths production.
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The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
China's exports up 7.2 per cent amid US trade tensions
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Reaching an agreement with the United States - and with the European Union, which has accused China of producing and selling goods too cheaply - would give Chinese officials more room to advance their reform agenda. with DPA China's exports beat forecasts in July, as manufacturers made the most of a fragile tariff truce between Beijing and Washington to ship goods before tougher US duties targeting transhipments take effect. Global traders and investors are waiting to see whether the world's two largest economies can agree on a durable trade deal by August 12 or if global supply chains will again be upended by the return of import levies exceeding 100 per cent. US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of further tariffs, including a 40 per cent duty on goods rerouted to the US via transit hubs, that took effect on Thursday, as well as a 100 per cent levy on chips and pharmaceutical products, and an additional 25 per cent tax on goods from countries that buy Russian oil. 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Reaching an agreement with the United States - and with the European Union, which has accused China of producing and selling goods too cheaply - would give Chinese officials more room to advance their reform agenda. with DPA China's exports beat forecasts in July, as manufacturers made the most of a fragile tariff truce between Beijing and Washington to ship goods before tougher US duties targeting transhipments take effect. Global traders and investors are waiting to see whether the world's two largest economies can agree on a durable trade deal by August 12 or if global supply chains will again be upended by the return of import levies exceeding 100 per cent. US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of further tariffs, including a 40 per cent duty on goods rerouted to the US via transit hubs, that took effect on Thursday, as well as a 100 per cent levy on chips and pharmaceutical products, and an additional 25 per cent tax on goods from countries that buy Russian oil. 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Chinese government advisers are stepping up calls to make the household sector's contribution to broader economic growth a top priority at Beijing's upcoming five-year policy plan, as trade tensions and deflation threaten the outlook. And top leaders have vowed to step up regulation of aggressive price-cutting by Chinese companies that is pushing prices ever lower. But economists warn that reversing the current deflationary slump will be far more difficult than during the last round of supply-side reforms a decade ago, as the downturn now poses a broader threat to employment, which Chinese leaders have emphasised is a core component of social stability. Reaching an agreement with the United States - and with the European Union, which has accused China of producing and selling goods too cheaply - would give Chinese officials more room to advance their reform agenda. with DPA
West Australian
4 hours ago
- West Australian
WA-developed Soluna apples debut in United States
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Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Trump's tariff strike on India plays into China's hands
Singapore: When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Shanghai later this month, as leaked reports suggest he will, it will mark the first time in seven years he has met Chinese President Xi Jinping on his home turf. It will also send an unmistakable signal of the growing détente between Asia's two heavyweight nuclear powers after a period of escalating tensions and border conflict. If US President Donald Trump makes good on Wednesday's vow to double tariffs on Indian exports into America, Modi would arrive in China for the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation on August 31 with his relationship with Beijing's chief rival under newfound strain. At 50 per cent, the tariff would be among the highest the Trump administration has imposed on its trading partners. Half of that figure is in retaliation for India's purchases of Russian oil. Notably, China, the world's largest buyer of Russia's fossil fuels, has so far escaped a similarly punitive measure. Tightening the screws on Russia by strangling its wartime economy has been a key tool of the United States and its allies to try to force Vladimir Putin to abandon his ambitions to annex Ukraine. But Trump's surprise decision to single out India for punishment – and his confrontational approach to trade negotiations, including disparaging India's economy as 'dead' – is a high-risk gamble that undermines years of US-led efforts to build trust with India. Loading On the world stage, India plays a careful hand, wary of being pulled too closely into either China's or America's orbit. It is a member of both the Chinese-dominated BRICS forum, which was set up as an alternative to US-led institutions, and the Quad security dialogue with the United States, Australia, and Japan. For more than two decades, the US has courted India as a strategic ally, efforts that have escalated in recent years as America and its allies have increasingly seen India as a counterweight to China's growing assertiveness in the region. 'China would be pleased to see this going on,' says Dr Lavina Lee, director of foreign policy and defence at the United States Studies Centre in Sydney.
