Aussie man scores entire $30m Powerball jackpot
One Australian man has become a multimillionaire overnight after claiming the entire $30m Powerball jackpot.
The NSW man was the only division one winner in Thursday night's draw, pocketing the entire prize.
The Cessnock man was ecstatic when told of his winnings by The Lott, exclaiming 'holy s--t' and laughing uncontrollably.
'I don't think I'll get any sleep tonight now,' he said.
'I just had this ticket on the fridge. I was looking at it this afternoon and thought, 'Wouldn't it be lovely to win?'
'The ticket was there with all the bills. There will be no more worrying about bills now. I don't care if I get a bill now!'
The man said he had been through a 'rough trot' recently, but believed the win was a sign of good things to come for him and his family.
'For a start, I'll look at buying a new house and looking after the family. Then, I'll take it from there,' he said.
'I'm going to ring my kids right now and tell them the news!'
The Cessnock man's winning entry was purchased at Shell Aberdare Newsagency.
The winning numbers were 33, 32, 35, 14, 15, 7 and 34, and the Powerball number was 12.
The man joins the ranks of Australians who have scored enormous lotto winnings so far this year.
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News.com.au
35 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Broken Hill is being put back on the map by this emerging miner
Broken Hill Mines is planning a listing next month via a reverse takeover of Coolabah Metals It will bring the asset on which BHP was founded back to Australian retail investors for the first time in decades BHM head honcho Partick Walta says Broken Hill has years of life still in it On September 5, 1883, a German-born boundary rider known as Charles Rasp pegged the first block on what became known as the Broken Hill. Originally thought to be a mountain of tin, the intuition of the enterprising Kraut finally crystallised into revelation with the discovery of a rich vein of silver two years later. The result was the formation of BHP (ASX:BHP), now the world's richest mining company after trading in its New South Wales roots for iron ore in the Pilbara and copper in Chile. Yet what became of that original line of lode? It may surprise many investors to know it continues to be tapped to this day at the aptly named Rasp mine. But the project has been hidden in the bowels of Japanese zinc refiner Toho Zinc since 2010. As Toho sought to exit the Aussie mining business, with the 200 miners still working the operation facing the bread line, a white knight emerged. The reimagined Broken Hill Mines, led by Patrick Walta – a metallurgist who almost a decade ago breathed new life into the Century zinc mine in Queensland – acquired the distressed assets in October 2024. It plans to relist through the shell of Coolabah Metals in a reverse float that will include the injection of $15-20 million in fresh capital from investors. Following the launch of a replacement prospectus last Monday chasing that quantum at 35c per share, Walta says the miner has been swamped with interest. Much of it has come from investors drawn to the romance of Broken Hill. " It's pretty cool being able to say you're operating the mine that started BHP. We've literally got the first shaft that was sunk," Walta told Stockhead after the launch of the replacement prospectus this month. " Every single person you talk to says, 'my granddad worked there', or 'my auntie or my uncle was associated with Broken Hill'. " Everyone in the mining community has a history with Broken Hill. "It's such a revered mining town, and the mines there are so well known." The other major producer in the region is the Broken Hill operations mined by Chinese-owned Perilya. " Broken Hill as an orebody has been effectively owned by private Asian interests for a good couple of decades," Walta said. "And there's a lot of patriotism there where they see this as really a story of national significance as much as anything else, about Broken Hill getting back into Aussie hands, being publicly listed, being transparent." Multi-generational Broken Hill has many of the hallmarks of other great mining hubs that have been consolidated by Australian miners in recent decades. The Super Pit at one point had a potential three years in front of it under North American majors Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM) and Barrick before its acquisition by Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST). Now they are talking about Kalgoorlie's Golden Mile running well beyond the lifespan of anyone prospecting its workings. Cobar's CSA copper mine is heading back into international hands, being acquired by Harmony Gold in a $1.6bn deal after MAC Copper (ASX:MAC) pried it from the labyrinthine portfolio of Glencore. Now BHM is looking revitalise an underinvested asset by not just keeping the operations going but consolidating some of the key deposits around the region. "People are able to actually see what's going on there and it's drawing people back to the town as well," Walta said. "They're not seeing it as a mine that's about to shut down, they're seeing as a potential generational asset that can run for multiple decades. "There's a great saying in Broken Hill that the Broken Hill orebody has had an eight-year mine life since 1885," he added. "It's one of those classic, super orebodies where you keep drilling it, you keep investing, you keep giving it the love and it keeps returning." " The orebody currently stands (historically) at 300 million tonnes at 15% zinc and lead and 300g/t silver. " When Charles Rasp came across it as a rocky outcrop in 1883, it obviously wasn't a 300 million tonne orebody. " So it's had consistent discovery and growth over that 140-year life and there's no reason why that doesn't continue on." Scaling up Currently, the mine produces in the order of 25,000tpa of zinc equivalent metal. But it doesn't take long to figure out that there's plenty of opportunities to improve the outlook. Despite the Rasp plant's 750,000tpa capacity, the project has been campaign milled since 2020 and ore feed grades are currently around 6% ZnEq. There are immediate opportunities to upgrade that. "We bought an operating mine, a going concern, we've got 120 staff on day one and a hungry plant," Walta said. "The whole philosophy here is about utilisation of sunk capital. We have this beautiful plant that's really had 500 million bucks spent on it over the years and it's only about 12 years old. " It is only fed by one orebody and it's a relatively low-grade ore body by Broken Hill standards." That ore source – Western Mineralisation – runs at around 8.2% ZnEq, including 4.8% zinc, 3.1% lead and 38g/t silver. Yet the Main Lode grades an impressive 17.7% ZnEq, including some 870,000t of ore at 7.8% zinc, 7.6% lead and 151.7g/t silver. Walta says the mine still made $20 million in operating cashflow last year with a plant running at around 40% of its total capacity. When the Main Lode comes online it will introduce not just more ore, but ore running at 2.5x the grade. Not resting on its laurels, BHM has also struck a deal to share 70% of the profits by exploring and developing the Pinnacles mine some 15km to the southwest. Pinnacles is a true artefact, one of the last major operations in Australia to be run by a local family. First pegged in 1884, the Williams clan has mined the deposit since 1954, aided by a 30,000tpa processing plant. It hosts close to 6Mt of ore in its open pit and underground deposits at a 10.88% ZnEq grade. Drilling is expected to take place over the next two years to bring the mine up to commercial standards before tapping the rich stuff underground in 2027, though an open pit could be expanded to complement production from Rasp before then. "What they've done is nothing short of amazing. They've built up their own operation just through the sweat off their own back," Walta said. " They have a 40m deep open pit, four underground levels down to about 100m. They built their own processing plant. " No engineers, no consultants. This is hand-built stuff. It's very small by corporate standards, it's about 30,000 tonnes per annum. " We've managed to team up with the Williams family, we've got a 70-30 profit share JV over the Pinnacles mine with them, so ultimately we want to get Pinnacles back up and running." Opportunity beckons The company is aiming to return to listing under its new name next month, with demand for the IPO said to have run as much as three times the available shares on offer. Once listed the market cap will run at a pro forma $89-94 million. That's potentially bargain barrel material when similar base metals producers are taken into account. Polymetals Resources (ASX:POL), for instance, which is in the process of commissioning the Endeavor silver and zinc near Cobar has run ~150% higher over the past year to a market cap of ~$210m. Endeavor is an interesting comparison to Broken Hill, being the other NSW mine Toho Zinc acquired in its 2010 takeover of CBH Resources. "When you look at our value proposition, we're at $95m as a comp, Poly's at $200m, Aurelia Metals (ASX:AMI) is at $500, Develop Global's (ASX:DVP) at $1bn. "They've all got very good reasons why they're at those levels. (But) you don't have to do a lot more research to go, there's a bit of value here. "And we deliberately priced it that way. We wanted early stage investors to capture value and we obviously want it to perform well." There's a lot to like in the company's markets as well. Silver recently broke the back of long-term resistance at US$35/oz and is now worth US$36.50/oz, powered by investment demand and close to five years of deficits due to stagnant mine supply and its increasing use in solar panels. Zinc and lead may not have accelerated like copper, lithium, cobalt and rare earths did during the battery metals boom. But they remain large stable markets trading at levels that offer solid and predictable returns for operators of BHM's scale. Walta says the mix of industrial and precious metals also means the mine naturally hedges against different market conditions. "Zinc is a 70 or 80 billion dollar a year industry, lead's a 60 billion dollar a year industry," he said. " These are established industries of commodities that are essentially part of the makeup of every single person's life every day."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Mount Isa copper smelter's planned closure prompts fears production will move overseas
What would Queensland's "Stack City" be without its smoking stack? By 2030, the outback city of Mount Isa will find out. The famous candy-cane-striped copper smelter, or stack, gave the mining town of more than 18,000 residents its nickname. Swiss multinational Glencore has set a five-year deadline for its closure. However, if it is unable to receive government support to rebrick the smelter in 2026, that date could be brought forward. It comes after the mining giant announced it would shut the historic Mount Isa copper mine, which will finalise production next month. With the smelter and its closure date looming over Mount Isa's skyline, industry experts fear Australia's domestic copper production could be pushed to the brink. North West Queensland is one of the most mineral-rich regions in the world, and copper is arguably the star in the soil. The critical mineral is one of the most in-demand commodities in the world. Australia has two copper smelters, and Mount Isa's unique all-in-one facility comprising a mine, smelter and concentrator is a major investor drawcard. Copper from all over Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia is sent to the Mount Isa smelter. Mining analyst Gavin Wendt said that without the Mount Isa smelter, Australia's domestic copper processing industry could be headed offshore. "[The smelter] has potentially decades of life ahead of it, but it needs significant investment now," he said. Mr Wendt said another copper-producing country, such as China or the United States, would respond differently to a smelter closure of this magnitude. For example, China's government heavily subsidised its smelters, giving the country the upper hand, he said. "If we allow facilities like this to shut down across the Western world, it reinforces China's strategy, which is to subsidise its own infrastructure, subsidise its own production, to undercut Western-world production so that it closes, and then eventually China will raise the price of its products. "We will be paying more and [China] will be in a position of market dominance." Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told the ABC last week that losing the Mount Isa smelter would remove a major national capability. "There's a sovereign risk with not having that," he said. "Particularly how important copper is at the moment for some of the things we're looking to do, including in the renewable space." Mr Crisafulli said the closure would raise doubts about the future of surrounding mines that relied on the smelter's gas and would make the region a less attractive site for new mines. Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last said the government was working towards a solution. "I'm working collaboratively and urgently with Glencore on a path forward," he said. "We are working through several options to support its continued operations." Glencore interim chief operating officer Troy Wilson said the company's smelter could not survive in the international market without government help. The amount of bailout money the company has requested from state and federal governments has not been confirmed. However, it has acknowledged other industrial bailouts, including Whyalla Steelworks's $2.4 billion package in February this year. Independent corporate analyst and previous Mount Isa Mine worker Peter Strachan said a local smelter was a strategic asset and was irreplaceable in today's market. "To build a new smelter in Australia somewhere now would be a huge job from an environmental-permitting [and] land-rights point of view," Mr Strachan said. Even if approved, he said a replacement smelter would cost about $1.5 billion. "You can't replace those realistically in Australia," he said. Mr Strachan said the mineralisation from surrounding copper mines, including Ernest Henry and Duchess Copper Gold Project, could provide enough copper to keep the smelter working for the next 15 years. "But it really relies on being able to maintain those assets in a way that works economically and to ensure that the project keeps going," he said. Mr Strachan said the solution could come from mining companies with big pockets, but also governments and junior mining companies working together. "There needs to be a multi-party deal that includes the smaller miners who say they've got mineralisation in the ground, it's ready to dig, and there needs to be some sort of deal worked out to enable everyone to move forward in unison," he said.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
'Astounding' land sales at Queanebeyan Palerang Council auction to recoup unpaid rates
A forest farmer in rural New South Wales has paid $19,000 at auction to buy a tiny slice of his driveway that he always thought he owned, but actually belonged to a man who died 65 years ago. A legal bungle meant the driveway, which measures roughly four-metres wide by a couple of hundred metres long, was not technically part of the farm Peter Marshall bought in the 1990s. He has spent years transforming the property in the state's Southern Tablelands into an award-winning truffle and forest farm, with no idea that the rates on that tiny slice of land had gone unpaid for decades, racking up a debt of tens of thousands of dollars. "I wasn't informed by [the] council." Peter's slice of land was one of 24 properties auctioned off by the Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) in May as part of a crackdown on unpaid rates. Most were obscure rural lots, like Peter's, that had fallen through the cracks over generations, with no building entitlement, water, electricity connection, or proper access. For that reason, the auction was treated as a casual affair by the affected landholders, like Peter, who presumed they would be the only parties interested in bidding. Even the council — who is required by law to sell the properties via public auction before it can sell them privately — wasn't expecting much interest. "Normally the neighbour can come along … and there's no other interest, so that's generally how it has worked in the past," QPRC general manager Rebecca Ryan said. "But this was certainly a different experience," she said. On auction day, 87 bidders registered across all the properties. Peter Marshall was nervous — it was important he bought the driveway up for sale to ensure he'd maintain access to his property. "I couldn't have the conflict of having somebody I don't know owning a tiny fragment in the middle of my place," Mr Marshall said. "They'd have to trespass on me to get access to it, and then I'd have to trespass on them to get access to my tractor shed. But there was frenzied bidding. "It was quite terrifying," Ms Ryan said. "The bids were coming from everywhere and every direction and very fast. "There was a property in Mongarlowe, 400 square metres, we thought it might go for $1,000 or about $500. It went for $18,100." One group of bidders drew particular attention. "There was a group of people there who were bidding on almost everything, including landlocked pieces of land like this one which they could never have access to," Mr Marshall said. "They bid it up on $1,000 increments, and I had to bid back … and it ended up at $19,000." Some of his neighbours paid twice as much as that for similar parcels, while others couldn't afford to bid high enough to secure the blocks at all. "They're creating two really unhappy ratepayers — the people who bought it can't use it for anything, and the people who surround it now can't use their own land." Ms Ryan said similar auctions in other local governments in rural NSW also recorded a surge in interest. But the interest also sparked fears that nefarious actors were moving into the region. "We knew of two people who have been attending a lot of these auctions throughout NSW, particularly rural NSW," Ms Ryan said. "They go to the auctions, they'll purchase lots, and then use that purchase to then either try and sell it at a higher price or the deposit they pay falls through. Ms Ryan said she did not think those two people attended the auction, but she was not aware of whether their associates were there. The ABC has seen reports lodged by residents to NSW Police, who said they were aware of the Queanbeyan-Palerang auction, but were not investigating and would not comment further. Seven buyers who signed contracts for the lots at the auction have since reneged on their offers, forfeiting the deposits. In those cases, the council has negotiated with the adjoining landholder to buy the property through a private sale. But the bungled auction process has raised eyebrows among key stakeholders, including QPRC councillor Mareeta Grundy. "At the auction, the frenzied bidding that went on was so astounding to me that I did write to the general manager expressing my concerns about the auction and the bidding wars that went on," Ms Grundy said. "I've asked for an investigation and a review of proceedings on that day." She said the council needed to establish the identities and motivations of those bidding. "What transpires from here, it must pass the test of accountability and transparency," Ms Grundy said. Peter Marshall backed her calls for an investigation, particularly into the group of people who bid on most of the properties. "I'd really like for [the] council — who know these people because they've just sold property to them — to make enquiries about their intentions. "I can't know if there was criminal activity, but there was destructive and pointless activity … I would really like to see some investigation, possibly anti-corruption." The council said it would review the auction process. "The only way that these properties can be transferred is via public auction," Ms Ryan said. "It would be good to have a clause in there that says that if that little lot is part of a general farming area … we could go through the process of a private treaty." Ms Ryan said the council was considering putting forward a motion at a New South Wales conference of councils later in 2025 proposing the state government review the legislation.
