ASX Announcements
This Month
$22b budget blowout; WFH is an ASX mess; The $3b Aussie wealth manager
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
BHP’s Samarco class action shrinks as Brazilians quit
Four municipalities have exited a $36 billion compensation claim against the mining giant in the British courts in favour of alternative compensation.
- Peter Ker and Hans van Leeuwen
- Opinion
- Mining
Critical minerals manufacturing dream tempered by harsh reality
Falling prices mean Australia’s ambitions to develop the industry and downstream processing are on pause. Is this a waiting game, or is it all over?
- Jennifer Hewett
Mining rivals join forces on green iron project
BHP, Rio Tinto and BlueScope have all agreed to develop Australia’s largest iron-making electric smelting furnace, the NeoSmelt pilot facility, in Western Australia.
- Tom Rabe and Peter Ker
Exploration drillers tighten belts as boom fades
Spending on mineral exploration is sliding and inflationary pressures mean each dollar delivers fewer metres drilled. But AI and data analysis might save the day.
- Peter Ker
Sexual harassment class action to target BHP, Rio
The big miners’ efforts to attract more female employees have suffered a setback with the launch of sexual harassment class actions.
- Peter Ker
China’s surprise pledge sends commodities soaring
BHP and Rio Tinto rallied with commodity prices after Beijing signalled bolder support for the world’s second-largest economy next year.
- Updated
- Joanne Tran
The Pilbara plots its path from diesel to clean, green mining
Port Hedland is bang in the middle of the country’s industrial engine. There are ambitious plans to decarbonise with miles of transmission and new generation.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
Australia’s 50 highest-paid CEOs in 2024 revealed
Macquarie Group’s Shemara Wikramanayake is Australia’s best-paid CEO for the fourth year in a row.
- Patrick Durkin
- Opinion
- The AFR View
The treasurer must ask what he can do for business
Jim Chalmers is asking business to dig Australia’s economy out of the hole. But he also needs to say what he is going to do to help businesses invest and lift the nation’s embarrassingly poor productivity.
- The AFR View
November
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
How Rio and BHP got caught in a three-way Trump squeeze
Rio Tinto and BHP maintain their relations in Beijing, buddy up to the new team in Washington and try to protect their interests in Canada. But it could just work out for the pair.
- James Thomson
Peabody in $5.8b Anglo American coal deal
Takeover target Anglo American has shored up its defences against BHP by selling its Queensland coal mines for up to $5.8 billion.
- Peter Ker
Ellison reveals ‘dark cloud’ in MinRes’ day of reckoning
The billionaire founder presented a mix of contrition and defiance over the company’s governance scandals at the shareholder meeting on Thursday.
- Mark Wembridge and Peter Ker
Anglo American’s coal sale turns into two-horse race; Mubadala lurks
The $US3 billion auction for Anglo American’s Queensland coal mines has narrowed down to two bidding consortiums, Peabody-BUMA and Stanmore-GEAR-M Resources.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Inside Project Spirit: Amcor’s $13b deal to become a global giant
The mega-merger with rival Berry Global is a transaction that will transform the Melbourne-founded group into a company with 75,000 employees and 400 production plants.
- Simon Evans
- Updated
- Workplace culture
Rio Tinto workers push back against its diversity efforts
Two years after a major review found the company had systemic bullying issues, employees of both sexes say they are uncomfortable about some changes.
- Updated
- Peter Ker
Sharemarket smashes record with ASX tipped to test 8600
While Morgan Stanley has upped its 2025 price target for the ASX 200 helped by rotation into BHP and Rio Tinto, there’s a good chance the market may get there sooner.
- Updated
- Alex Gluyas
Rio Tinto faces $400m bill amid Pilbara native title water squeeze
The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation has asked officials to limit groundwater extraction, forcing big miners and gas developers to scramble for more supply.
- Peter Ker
Craving copper? $502m miner Marimaca preps ASX listing
Sources said CEO Hayden Locke has been encouraged by TSX-listed $C7.5 billion Capstone Copper’s ASX listing earlier this year and sees it as a template for Marimaca.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Coal miners halt climate fund donations citing lack of projects
Australia’s cashed-up coal miners have put the brakes on contributions to an industry decarbonisation fund and the decision will be reviewed “periodically”.
- Peter Ker