Fed Chair Powell Discusses Direction of Policy-Setting Framework
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the economy may be entering a period of 'more frequent' supply shocks.
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News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Copper's flying under the radar, but long-term thinkers are betting on the red metal
Copper has flown under the radar in 2025, despite prices sitting at historically high levels The long-term outlook has miners investing in future production growth wherever they can find it CuFe's Mark Hancock says a bullish price outlook will support smaller, higher grade assets like its Tennant Creek project Copper has flown under the radar for investors this year as gold stocks have gained admirers and battery metals have faded into the background. But the red metal, which is both tied into broader themes around economic growth and the electrification narrative that has reshaped the mining world, has flown under the radar for much of 2025. That is despite its continued run at historically high levels. LME prices cracked US$10,000/t (on a cash basis) earlier this week, with three month futures on the key base metals exchange sitting at US$9712.50/t on Wednesday. That's 10% higher than the end of 2024. But the real action is in the US, where Comex futures are close to US$5/lb (equivalent to around US$11,000/t), levels hovering around all time highs. There are two phenomena at play here: An arbitrage in the US market and backwardation in London, indicating demand for physical metal is acute and there are immediate shortages if you want copper today. A lot of this is tied into concerns the US Government will issue tariffs on copper imports, something the Department of Commerce is actively investigating – highly distorting given the US has just two primary copper smelters and produced just 1.1Mt of mined copper in 2024. Apparent use domestically was around 1.8Mt according to the US Geological Survey. "Tariff-induced anxieties have pushed the US to import large volumes of copper both due to front-loading supply but also due to the related LME/CME arbitrage it has created," Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analysts said in their latest copper brieifing. "However, the latest broadening of the spreads seems to be less fundamentally driven, judging both by the speed with which it appeared and due to its extreme size." Miners get on board Even so, the enormous investment miners are making in new copper supply, even in relatively small producer Australia, shows how strong the long-term outlook for the metal is. BHP (ASX:BHP) suggests demand will rise 70% to more than 50Mtpa by 2050, driven by urbanisation, electric vehicles and renewables. BloombergNEF thinks US$2.1tn will need to be spend on raw materials supply by then to meet net zero targets, with BHP anticipating the industry will need to inject US$250bn on copper supply alone. It's put its money where its mouth is in South Australia, a potential 500,000tpa+ copper district by the mid-2030s, with a $1.5bn investment announced to transition its copper concentrate movements from the Olympic Dam, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill mines from road to rail in a partnership with Aurizon Holdings (ASX:AZJ). At the same time, Harmony Gold is spending $1.6bn to acquire MAC Copper (ASX:MAC), AIC Mines (ASX:A1M) raised $55m from investors to expand its Eloise copper plant in Queensland from ~12,500tpa to 20,000tpa as it develops the Jericho mine. And Aussie companies overseas are drawing strong interest from corporates, with Kinterra Capital launching a 5.7c per share off-market takeover offer for New World Resources (ASX:NWC) in an effort to interlope on its 5.5c per share sale to Central Asia Metals. Watching from afar, it's giving exploration companies the confidence that the smart money is focused on the long-term outlook for the commodity. "A lot of forecasts have got a reasonably firm run up in price over the next few years. The supply is a slower responder than some commodities, in terms of what's required to bring it to market," Mark Hancock, the executive director of junior explorer CuFe (ASX:CUF) says. "You've got significant grade drops across most of those bigger projects. "Every day, there's a new article coming out talking about shortness of supply into the copper market. So that's very much an opportunity that we see and hopefully can help to play a small part in filling." Speed to market CuFe is an example of the kind of company that could benefit as supply fails to meet demand. The necessary new mines to bring prices under check are typically large, deep porphyries, with long lead times to get into production, low grades, high capex bills and complex environmental and social approval processes. Many of them are in South America, where production has been stalling amid declining grades and political unrest. But smaller, higher grade deposits could be in a sweet spot. Projects like those CuFe holds in the Northern Territory could benefit from increased prices caused by copper shortages, without taking years (or even decades) to bring into production. It holds a resource in the Tennant Creek district of 10.35Mt at 1.53% copper and 0.92g/t gold for 160,000t copper and 302,000oz gold, a sizeable resource in which CUF boasts the majority 55% stake. The centrepiece of that inventory, subject to a processing alliance with fellow NT explorers Emmerson Resources (ASX:ERM) and Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS), is the Orlando deposit. It contains 5.95Mt at 1.16% copper and 1.5g/t gold for 68,800t Cu and 287,000oz Au, or 579,100oz on a gold equivalent basis. Most importantly, Orlando is not a greenfields opportunity requiring a large capital outlay to uncover the orebody. Rather it's an open pit ripe to be cutback, having closed with copper prices under US$1/lb back in the 1990s under the auspices of Normandy Gold. Previously, the mine had operated as an underground operation until 1975, producing 121,282oz of gold and 4852t of copper. That's before considering another previously mined deposit within the Tennant Creek JV called Gecko. "Even though it's been mined previously, we do need to still get some further approvals," Hancock said. "But in terms of the complexity of construction and in our case in particular, being a cutback of an existing open pit, the lead times on that should be pretty short once we can get all those necessary approvals in place." The surge in the gold price to over $3300/oz this year will dramatically improve the outlook for the project as well, with a scoping study in the works on processing the various deposits controlled by CUF, ERM and TMS via a central hub. "Originally, the revenue was heavily weighted towards copper, whereas in the economics we're looking at now, we're seeing a material revenue contribution from the gold given the strength in gold prices and the additional gold that we've identified," Hancock said.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Elon Musk takes back ownership of Gene Wilder's former home
Elon Musk has taken back ownership of Gene Wilder's former Los Angeles home after the nephew of the late star received a loan from the billionaire to buy the property According to property records, the SpaceX founder reclaimed the Bel-Air residence through an LLC company after a foreclosure sales process began last year. The tech mogul, 53, first bought the three-bedroom dwelling for $US6.75 million ($A9.9 million) in 2013, Realtor reports. However, he made a move to offload the property in 2020, when he announced plans to sell 'almost all his physical possessions,' including Wilder's former home. Still, the Tesla founder made clear his enduring connection to the property. He posted on X that, while he planned to 'own no house,' any person or persons who took ownership of the Wilder property would be barred from demolishing it or making any major changes to its design. 'Gene Wilder's old house … cannot be [torn] down or lose any [of] its soul,' he stipulated. Months later, Musk had found the perfect person to take control of the dwelling — Wilder's own nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman. Walker-Pearlman and his wife, Elizabeth Hunter, purchased the home from the businessman for $US7 million ($A10.3 million) that same year. At the time, Musk was hailed for his generosity after it was reported that he had not only sold the home to the couple for under its estimated market value, but had also loaned them a hefty $US6.7 million ($A9.9 million) to help them with its purchase. However, the sweet scenario quickly turned sour four years later, when Walker-Pearlman and Hunter fell behind on their loan payments, leading to Musk filing a notice of default. That original default notice, which was dated July 29, 2024, stated that the property 'may be sold without court action' if the owners had fallen behind in their payments. At the same time, Walker-Pearlman and Hunter tried to offload the home themselves, before it could be put up for auction, initially listing it for $US12.95 million ($A19 million) the following month. That price was quickly slashed to $US9.5 million ($A14.5 million) in November 2024. That same month, a notice of trustee's sale under deed of trust was filed — informing Walker-Pearlman and Hunter that the dwelling would be sold at a public auction on December 3 2024. It noted that the unpaid balance of the loan, as well as 'reasonable estimated costs, expenses, and advances,' was set at $US7,512,523.10 ($A11,518,035.14) The auction was scheduled to take place 'behind the fountain located in Civic Center Plaza' in Pomona, California. Bidders were warned that the property was being sold subject to a restrictive covenant that prevents the home from being demolished or razed. It is unclear whether the auction was attended by other bidders. However, a trustee's deed upon sale that was filed in January 2025 indicates that the property was purchased by the same LLC through which Musk originally purchased the home. Records indicate that the full unpaid debt paid by the buyer came to $US7,587,143.06 ($A11,632,886.49). The home was officially taken off the market in February 2025. It's not known what Musk plans to do with the property — having seemingly purchased it the first time around more as a trophy home than an actual residence. Since selling off many of his properties in 2020, Musk has become increasingly secretive about his real estate deals. Multiple reports have suggested that he's amassed quite an impressive collection of homes in and around Austin, Texas, where Tesla is based. The only home that Musk has publicly confirmed he lives in is a quaint ranch-style dwelling in the Brownsville, Texas, neighbourhood of Boca Chica. The property is located mere steps away from the SpaceX headquarters, which he claimed in 2021 that he was renting from his own company. 'My primary home is literally a ~$50K house in Boca Chica/Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It's kinda awesome though,' he wrote in a post on X. However, in 2025, it was revealed that Musk had purchased a $US6 million ($A9.2 million) mansion in the upscale Austin neighbourhood of West Lake Hills in 2022 — after neighbours began complaining about the chaos that was being caused by his presence in the community. According to the New York Times, multiple complaints were filed by locals over an unauthorised 16-foot chain-link fence that had been erected around the home, for which Musk and his team had failed to obtain permits. The outlet reports that the erection of the fence and gate violated six city ordinances. Another complaint, lodged via a letter sent to the Zoning and Planning Commission by local resident Paul Hemmer, stated that the comings and goings at the Musk property were wreaking havoc on their otherwise 'quiet streets.' 'Transporting service employees to other houses, leaving their cars on our quiet streets, hauling laundry to and fro to other houses has to stop,' he wrote. The Times also reported that Musk had since purchased two other properties in the same area to create a 'compound' in which to house many of his children and their mothers. Musk is alleged to have fathered 14 children by four different women in the past 20 years — although he is estranged from at least one of them. He welcomed his first child, son Nevada Alexander, with then-wife Justin Wilson in 2002. Sadly, the baby died at just 10 weeks of age from sudden infant death syndrome. Musk and Wilson went on to welcome five more kids: transgender daughter Vivian, from whom Musk is estranged, and her twin, Griffin; and triplets Saxon, Damian, and Kai. From 2020 to 2022, he welcomed three children with the singer Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher: X Æ A-Xii, who is known as X; Exa Dark Sideræl, who is known as Y; and Techno Mechanicus, who goes by Tau. During that same time, he also fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his Neuralink company, with whom he now shares four children: twins Strider and Azure, born in 2021; daughter Arcadia, born in 2024; and son Seldon Lycrugus, whose birth date is not known. In February 2025 — the same month that Musk and Zilis announced the news about their fourth child — a conservative influencer named Ashley St. Clair came forward to claim that she had also welcomed a child with the billionaire, a son named Romulus. Musk has never publicly confirmed he is the father of the child, although he stated in a post on X that he had agreed to give St. Clair $US2.5 million ($A3.8 million), as well as annual payments of $US500,000 ($A767,000). Although she later claimed that he had withdrawn that child support to 'punish' her for going public with the birth.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Titanium's almost magical properties fuel growth trajectory
Titanium's light weight, strength and other properties make it valuable for a range of applications The metal is seeing increased demand from the aerospace, automotive, medical, and industrial sectors Demand for titanium is growing at a steady pace, but new supply sources are limited Often described as a magic metal thanks to its wealth of properties, titanium is seeing growing demand from the aerospace, automotive, medical and industrial sectors. But just what makes titanium so valuable? For starters, the lustrous, silver-grey metal has higher strength compared with steel and yet is about 40% stronger. It has excellent corrosion resistance, a high melting-point, and is non-toxic. While the lion's share of titanium is used as a pigment in the form of titanium dioxide, a growing percentage of global demand relates to titanium metal, which requires TiO2 to be converted into titanium tetrachloride before it is reduced via the energy-intensive Kroll process to produce titanium sponge. In the aerospace sector, titanium's light-weight strength – particularly when combined with steel – makes it invaluable for aircraft frames and engine components. Highlighting this, titanium makes up a third of the weight of an advanced F-35 multi-role combat aircraft. The metal is also used widely in the medical sector for hip and knee replacements, dental implants and various surgical instruments due to its biocompatibility, strength, and corrosion resistance. Given the range of applications, it is no surprise the US, European Union, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan all classify titanium as a critical mineral. Titanium market As demand rises, the titanium market is projected to grow from US$27-30bn in 2024-25 to $37-53bn by 2029-34. It faces supply disruptions and regional deficits due to geopolitical challenges, with Chinese dominance of the pigment sector driving supply deficits of high value titanium dioxide minerals such as rutile. Rutile is the rarest, highest grade and most valuable source of titanium. Petratherm (ASX:PTR) chief executive officer Peter Reid told Stockhead that while titanium prices are relatively stable at the moment, demand is still growing at a reasonable rate of 4-5% per annum. 'And we are starting to see a shortage of future supply. There aren't a lot of new heavy mineral sands projects being developed globally,' he added. 'Pricing is forecast to increase due to the increased demand and the shortage of local supply, particularly with high-end products such as rutile as there's been diminished supply and increased demand.' Exciting discovery This forecast is welcome for Petratherm, which is progressing the Rosewood heavy mineral sands discovery within its Muckanippie project in South Australia. 'We've completed two rounds of drilling and identified heavy mineralisation over a 20km2 area that's continuous with exceptional grades,' Reid said. 'There are two distinct lobes, or two strandline systems, to that mineralisation that we see with Rosewood East being the better looking system at this point of time. 'At Rosewood East, we've got a straight line system that's currently 3.6km long and about 2km wide where we're getting on average more than 10% heavy minerals over 10m." This combination of scale and grade has Reid thinking the company is in a good position to bring the project online quickly. 'We think we've got two premium ores there that we can sell into the market as a heavy mineral concentrate,' he added. A large part of the mineralisation consists of leucoxene – a titanium-rich mineral derived from the alteration of other titanium-bearing minerals like ilmenite – that runs around 70-75% titanium. Some portions might have up to 90% titanium. One unique point about Rosewood is its mineralisation – all titanium-bearing minerals without the zircon and monazite seen in other heavy mineral sands projects. 'It is sourced from a nearby titanium rock source that was eroded and washed down into this ancient shoreline system and so it's all titanium minerals,' he notes. 'It is just a clean sand with titanium in it and we think it's going to be very favourable in terms of processing a good clean ore.' Petratherm is now on the verge of starting another round of drilling at Rosewood. This will extend several kilometres to the north, the results of which Reid is looking forward to because some of the best assays received to date have been on the northern edge of the existing drill grid. Reid also thinks that Rosewood has great size potential and that recent results clearly indicate the company is right on the money – or possibly conservative – with its exploration target of between 250-350Mt. 'We have really only explored a quarter of that so a big part of what we're doing now is drilling out to the north to expand the current mineralisation, but also test other targets on our Muckanippie licence area for titanium,' he said. 'We'll have another phase of exploration drilling, which we're doing now. And in the spring, probably September-October, we'll go into it and start drilling for our initial resource.' Other titanium plays Petratherm is far from being the only titanium play on the ASX. There are several companies at varying stages of exploration and development who are also betting on the future of the magic metal. DY6 Metals (ASX:DY6) has been uncovering broad zones of heavy minerals at its Douala Basin project in Cameroon, with the company noting in late June 2025 that reconnaissance auger and channel sampling identified thick zones of heavy minerals along with rutile. Samples from this initial exploration program are currently being prepped for dispatch to the company's laboratory for analysis in South Africa with results expected in the September 2025 quarter. Douala Basin consists of three granted exploration permits and three permits under application that cover a total area of 2580km2, just 50km from the deepwater port city of Douala. Thick, preserved sequences of sandy material are known to exist across the tenement package and these are thought to represent palaeo-placer coastline dune deposits. Historical drilling by French multinational Eramet intersected thick sequences of sands and confirmed the presence of rutile and zircon within the valuable heavy mineral assemblage. Meanwhile, Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) Kasiya rutile and graphite project is one of the most advanced projects on the ASX with a definitive feasibility study due in Q4 2025. In January this year, it released an optimised pre-feasibility study with technical aid from Rio Tinto that highlighted a large-scale, long-life project capable of delivering net present value and internal rate of return – both measures of profitability – of US$2.3bn ($3.67bn) and 27% respectively. Kasiya is expected to generate total revenue of US$16.4bn over its initial 25-year mine life with capex to first production estimated at US$665m (increasing to US$1.13bn over the life of mine) and opex at US$423 per tonne of product. It will have average annual production of 222,000t of rutile and 233,000t of 96% TGC graphite. Sovereign is already on the watchlist of the majors, with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) on board as its top, near 20% shareholder. Over in Sri Lanka, Titanium Sands (ASX:TSL) continues to progress its Mannar heavy mineral sands project, which has a resource of 318Mt at 4.17% total heavy minerals (THM) containing ilmenite. Under a scoping study completed in 2023, a stage 1 development at Mannar will be capable of delivering NPV of $545m and IRR of 52% for a low capex of $122m and payback period of just under two years. The 4Mtpa operation will produce globally competitive ilmenite over a mine life of 20 years. The company has already received the terms of reference to progress environmental studies, retention licences for the high-grade zone, finalisation of corporate funding solutions with its largest shareholders and progress of environmental studies. Terra Metals' (ASX:TM1) Dante project in WA's West Musgrave region differs from its other titanium projects in key aspects with its multi-commodity nature. The project encompasses titanium, copper, gold, vanadium and platinum, and sits in hard rock mineralisation rather than the typical heavy mineral sands. The Dante Reefs are a series of gently dipping, laterally extensive mineralised layers which outcrop from surface and run for at least 42km, believed to mirror the Bushveld province of South Africa, which houses some of the world's largest, longest running and most profitable PGE, copper, nickel and gold operations. Recent Phase 1 metallurgical testwork using simple and low-cost processing techniques (flotation and magnetic separation) demonstrated that Dante Reefs could become a reliable source of critical minerals in three high-grade concentrates – copper-gold-PGM, vanadium-magnetite and titanium-ilmenite. Earlier in June 2025, it secured $4m in funding from two strategic investors with extensive operational expertise and long-term commitment to resource development. This will fund an upcoming drill program to continue exploration and development work.
