Resources Rising Stars, the national events division of investor relations consultancy Read Corporate, is taking its one-day mining conference to Adelaide on 4 April for a weekend of Aussie Rules football, resources investment and fine wine.
With more investor registrations flowing in, Resources Rising Stars (RRS) ‘Gather Round’ event at the National Wine Centre is set to showcase 26 junior, mid-tier and large cap companies presenting insights into their flagship projects and upcoming plans.
A panel of high-profile speakers – including AFL legend Chris Judd, Lion Selection Group’s Hedley Widdup, Bell Direct market analyst Grady Wulff and Acorn Capital senior analyst Karina Bader – will discuss the industry’s latest trends and outlooks for the short-to-medium term, providing retail investors with up-to-date information on new growth avenues and hot stock picks.
Coinciding with the AFL’s Gather Round four-day festival of footy, the one-day mining convention is anticipated to draw in large crowds off the back of a widespread uptick in market sentiment, as copper prices spike to 11-month highs.
Green shoots lifting market sentiment
There’re a few green shoots keeping investors interested, Read Corporate managing director and RRS organiser Nicholas Read says, with gold prices remaining steady and signs of the lithium market bottoming out.
“We’ve been on the road a couple of times this year already, and we’ve seen a positive uplift and great response from investors,” he says.
“In fact, we did a lunch series a couple weeks back over east in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and we were chocka block, we didn’t have a spare seat in the house.
“There seems to be a lot more interest and I think it’s helped by what’s happening in the copper space over the last few days.”
A regular fixture in mining investment calendar
While the event marks Read Corporate’s first in Adelaide, the South Australian state has a proud history of mining that dates to 1840 with the discovery of silver-lead ore at Mount Osmond in the Adelaide foothills.
Now a global copper producer, host to almost 70pc of Australia’s copper resources, the resources sector continues to be a pillar of South Australia’s economy, contributing $7bn in exports in 2023.
“It is ironic that we haven’t held an event in Adelaide before because it is a mining state, but a lot of these companies tend to bypass it, focusing on business in Melbourne or Sydney,” Read says.
“We’ve taken a long-term view of the conference in the hope that it will become a regular fixture in the mining investment calendar, so Adelaide gets its opportunity as well.
“The idea of linking it to Gather Round was a logical way to attract the South Australian market because it was such a success last year, it brings many people from interstate with every team there for the weekend.
“Like our Gold Coast event, we are aiming to build RRS Gather Round from the ground up with the support of local investors, share clubs, the shareholders’ association, companies and industry groups,” he says.
“We are also grateful for the continued support of our RRS event partner, Bell Direct.”
Who’s on the line-up?
Kicking the proceedings off will be one of the owners of Australia’s only three operating uranium mines, Boss Energy (ASX:BOE).
The $2bn capped company is expecting to produce its first drum of yellowcake this quarter from the Honeymoon uranium mine, which has been kicked into action for the first time since it was closed by previous owner UraniumOne in 2013.
Boss MD Duncan Craib, who has become one of the top cheerleaders for Australia’s uranium industry, has left much of its planned product uncontracted, anticipating the sharp rise in spot prices we have seen in recent months.
The project is now running around the clock, seven days a week, with the soon-to-be-producer flagging the potential to ramp up output to over 3Mlbpa.
Uranium junior Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE) is another presentation not to be missed, with its Samphire ISR project near Whyalla catching investors’ attention over the last few months.
Samphire was the subject of a scoping study released in 2023 that scoped a 1 million pounds a year project (Boss is bigger at 2.45M/lb annually) with an all-in sustaining cost estimate of $US30.20/lb.
Alligator is now working on project enhancements, most notably the potential to start out at higher rate of 1.2M/lbs annually which would have a dramatic impact on things like the internal rate of return and net present value metrics presented in the scoping study.
Tim Goyder’s DevEx Resources (ASX:DEV) has also just joined the speaker lineup, with MD Brendan Bradley to update investors on the company’s high-grade uranium exploration campaign at its flagship Nabarlek Project – where it has been delivering numerous standout results.
Gold, copper stocks
In the gold space, Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) – owners of WA’s newest gold mine – will take centre stage, as well as IPO stock Capella Metals.
Bellevue is on track to hit guidance for the second half of FY24 of 75,000-85,000oz, and while it hasn’t revealed its production costs yet, is expected to hit commercial production sometime in the June quarter.
Monthly production in February came in at over 13,000oz and at grades of 5.2g/t.
Meanwhile, Capella Metals is targeting proven copper, base metals and uranium prospectivity at the Surprise project – historically mined to depth of only 40m – across its 2,020km2 of prime tenure in Queensland’s prolific Mt Isa region.
The company plans to go deeper underground to test the multiple walk-up RC drill targets once it lists on the ASX in April under the code ‘CAP’.
Event details
The Resources Rising Stars Gather round event will take place in Adelaide on Thursday 4 April from 8.30am to 5pm at the National Wine Centre.
Attendance is free, but registration is essential.
Visit www.resourcesrisingstars.com.au/events to sign up for the event, or find details on how to watch the presentations online.
Attendees are also invited to purchase tickets to attend the ‘Winemakers & Minemakers Long Lunch’ at the Yalumba Vineyard in the Barossa Valley on Friday 5 April.
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