Reporting Season Highlights: A bumper day for mining stocks

There were so many mining stocks reporting today we couldn’t help but summarise, with gold, iron ore, coal and uranium all on the menu.

There's a lot to get through today. Pic: Getty Images

• ASX miners awaken from their slumber in monster day of reporting

• Northern Star, Ramelius, Catalyst, Vault, Bellevue among goldies facing analysts today

• MinRes, Fortescue also report, while Whitehaven, Boss and Nickel Industries all draw positive reactions

It's a wild day for ASX miners, with some of the ASX's biggest gold, coal, iron ore and uranium stocks dropping their March quarter numbers in a frankly ludicrous day of reporting.

No doubt impacted by the multiple public holidays this month (give us that four-day work week Albo and Dutton) the jostling for space is a warzone today.

With that in mind we've picked out a few highlights to get you across this morning's data drops.

Goldies

Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) boss Stuart Tonkin said rising gold prices would not be a reason to change course from the long-term plans laid out by Australia's largest gold producer.

The company clipped its FY25 guidance from 1.65-1.8Moz to 1.63-1.66Moz, driven by a decrease at its Kalgoorlie operations, with all-in sustaining costs up from $1850-2100/oz to $2100-2200/oz.

Growth capex has also been lifted from $950m-1.02bn to $950m-1.1bn, with exploration up from $180-230m.

The latter has been driven by positive exploration results at Kalgoorlie, Jundee and Pogo, with NST ramping up drilling to prepare for underground platforms in the coming years.

It disappointed with 385,000oz of gold sold at an all in sustaining cost of $2246/oz in the March quarter, 7% below and 9% above forecasts from broker Argonaut, respectively. That was driven heavily by delays accessing high-grade ore in the Golden Pike area of the Super Pit, which NST has spent years fixing a wall slip to access.

While exploration spending has been ramping up and hedges are rolling off, Tonkin said the current gold price of over US$3300/oz (+$5100/oz) wouldn't change its long-term strategy, with construction of the Hemi gold mine acquired in its soon to be formally completed takeover of De Grey Mining also on the horizon.

"It doesn't change investment decisions under any gold price environment. They were all working to try to get our unit costs down, economy of scales up, and they absolutely get enhanced to survive those decisions at a higher gold price," he said.

"Albeit, the high gold price, as we see across the sector, drags up costs. So that's the part, plus the tariff turmoil, those are the things that we have more focus and understanding of protection against than gold price."

NST shares were down close to 6% on the guidance downgrade, despite delivering $201m of underlying free cash flow.

Storming gold prices have meant plenty of cash generation lower down in the sector, though.

Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) was up 1% after confirming its full year gold output was projected to end up at the upper end of its guidance range, in a band of 290,000-300,000oz.

That confidence was driven by outperformance in the upper levels of its Cue satellite deposit for the Mt Magnet operations, which helped power the key asset to a production level of 67,464oz at AISC of $1226/oz. The retiring Edna May ops delivered 12,991oz at $2802/oz, with overall production at 80,455oz at $1492/oz.

So far this year Ramelius, which is sitting on $657.1m in cash ahead of its merger with Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR), has produced 228,210oz at $1622/oz. With Spartan's Dalgaranga project to plug into Mt Magnet later this year, it is aiming to lift output to over 500,000ozpa by 2030.

The company churned out what it calls 'sector leading' underlying free cash flow of $223m in the March quarter.

Vault Minerals (ASX:VAU) meanwhile produced 87,110oz and sold 89,827oz of gold at AISC of $2553/oz and a realised sale price of $3812/oz.

VAU, which owns the King of the Hills, Mt Monger and Deflector operations in WA, is expecting a stronger fourth quarter to power it to FY25 guidance of 390,000-410,000oz at $2250-2450/oz, with $624.5m of cash in the bank and $51.7m of underlying free cash flow for the quarter.

It is yet to see the full value of record gold prices thanks to a hedge book which will send 169,589oz out over the next 18 months well below market price at an average forward price of $2854/oz.

39,615oz has been sold into the hedge book at $2782/oz this year so far, YTD sales of 289,256oz coming at an average price of $3506/oz and all in sustaining cost of $2344/oz.

VAU shares were unchanged, despite the result coming in short of some analysts' expectations, with some positives on growth projects. An expansion of the King of the Hills process plant to 6Mtpa could be added to by a stage 2 expantion to 7-8Mtpa, to capture upside from a larger open pit and economies of scale.

Also on the gold reporting carousel, Plutonic gold mine owner Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) fell short of expectations, dropping 5% as the $1.4bn miner reported production of 24,500oz for the March quarter.

That was 14% lower QoQ, with Plutonic delivering 18,300oz at $2587/oz. Its Henty mine in Tasmania, in the process of being sold to Kaiser Reef (ASX:KAU), delivered 6100oz.

Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) was up slightly, having pre-reported the bad news of its multi-year guidance downgrade earlier in the month.

Iron ore giants

Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) CFO Mark Wilson is confident the miner can hit costs in the $40s for its Onslow Iron operation despite a string of early setbacks that included another FY25 guidance downgrade today.

The costs of building and ramping up the $3bn project, which included an additional $215m this year to asphalt a troublesome and weather-stricken haul road, have combined with weak lithium prices to place MinRes in a difficult financial position.

Wilson noted the company, which has been engulfed by governance issues surrounding MD and major shareholder Chris Ellison and saw the quickfire resignation of three board members in recent weeks, can raise liquidity without a dilutive equity raising as a key date to refinance its debt comes up in May.

A first US$700m 8.125% bond mature on May 2027, but can be refinanced at a no-prepayment premium from next month.

The firm revealed today it had cut some 1740 roles across its head office and sites as commodity markets turned on the miner.

MinRes shares surged over 14% as any equity raise was rule out, despite reducing its guidance range slightly at the Pilbara operations from 8.8-9.3Mt to 8.5-8.7Mt with costs at the upper end of its $60-70/t guidance range. MinRes continues to say a 35Mtpa rate will be hit in Q1 FY26.

3.6Mt was shipped in the March quarter at US$89/dmt (86% of the IODEX, up 6% QoQ).

Total iron ore production at its Pilbara mines came to 6Mt (wmt). MinRes shipped 127,000t dmt of spodumene in the quarter, upping its guidance for its half-share of the Wodgina mine to 185-200,000t (SC6) from 150-170,000t SC6.

The weighted average price of US$844/dmt SC6 was 2% higher QoQ, with mixed grade prices of US$685/dmt down 2% QoQ. Costs came in at $708/t for Mt Marion and $775/t for Wodgina on an SC6 basis, with Wilson saying the mines were cashflow positive in the month of March despite weak lithium pricing.

MinRes finished the quarter with $1.25bn in liquidity including ~$450m cash and $800m in an undrawn revolving credit facility.

Fortescue (ASX:FMG), meanwhile, was up 2.7% after shipping 46.1Mt of iron ore (including Iron Bridge) from its Pilbara operations in the March quarter, putting Andrew Forrest's miner on track to hit guidance.

The 143.2Mt shipped through the first nine months of FY25 is a record, with costs of US$17.53/wmt down 4% QoQ. Prices clocked in at US$87/dmt, 84% of the Platts IODEX, with Iron Bridge shipping 1.5Mt at a price of US$117/t.

Iron Bridge has shipped 4.7Mt so far this year, with FMG expected to complete a review of its 22Mtpa nameplate run rate this quarter.

Cost performance reflected a favourable exchange rate, lower strip ratio and strong operational performance, FMG said.

FMG closed the quarter with US$3.3bn in cash, largely unchanged from December 31 thanks to US$1bn in dividend payments and US$1bn in capex and investments, with net debt up from US$2bn to US$2.1bn.

FY25 guidance was set at 190-200Mt including 5-9Mt from Iron Bridge, with C1 costs of US$18.50-19.75/wmt. The clouds over the report came from the green energy division, where a shift to the right in the US and uncertainty in Australia have seen the company reassess development timeframes for its first green hydrogen projects in Arizona and Gladstone.

"We are also continuing to assess the timelines of our Green Energy project pipeline to reflect global market conditions and policy settings," Fortescue Energy chief Mark Hutchinson said.

Coal miners

Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) swung from a $1bn net debt to $300m net cash position on March 31 immediately before making its first deferred US$500m payment for the BMA assets it acquired from BHP (ASX:BHP) in 2024.

WHC was up over 5% in early trade despite a 5% drop in ROM coal production to 9.2Mt and 20% fall in equity sales to 6.3Mt, which it put down to expected seasonality.

Boss Paul Flynn said the company remains on track to hit the upper end of guidance and low end of full-year costs for FY25.

“Whitehaven reported continued solid production and sales in the March quarter, including 4.5Mt of ROM production from our Queensland mines and 4.7Mt from our New South Wales mines, despite seasonal weather impacts on Queensland sales and slower than planned progress at Narrabri," he said.

“Both Queensland and New South Wales production and sales volumes continue to track well on a year-to-date basis. We remain on course to deliver in the upper half of FY25 production and sales guidance, and at the low end of full-year cost guidance range."

At a time of weak coal prices, the company was buffeted by the receipt of US$1.08bn from the 30% sell down of its Blackwater mine to a pair of Japanese steel makers, offset by a $363m stamp duty payment.

The production result, while down QoQ, beat analyst expectations, which had been downbeat due to the wet season.

WHC expects to produce 35-39.5Mt of ROM coal at the lower end of costs of $140-155/t, and pulled realised coking coal prices of US$142/t and thermal coal of US$113/t in the March quarter.

Fellow Queensland coal miner Stanmore Coal (ASX:SMR) was up as well after delivering a 5% QoQ lift in ROM coal output to 4.3Mt, with saleable coal up 1% to 3.3Mt.

Sales of 3.4Mt were in line with the previous quarter, driven by outperformance at the South Walker Creek and especially Poitrel mine, where FY25 guidance has been lifted from 4.5-4.7Mt to 4.7-4.9Mt.

Cash costs ex-royalties are tracking below the guidance range of US$89-94/t, resulting in a trim to US$85-90/t, with capex also reduced from US$100-115m to US$80-90m in a weak coal price environment. Overall production guidance has been maintained at 13.8-14.4Mt.

FID on the Eagle Downs mine has also been delayed until at least 2026 thanks to timid coal prices.

Bossin' it

The biggest outperformance from the reporters came from uranium digger Boss Energy (ASX:BOE), which surged ~9% to $3.05 after a 116% lift in drummed U3O8 production to 295,819lb.

The heavily shorted miner is also performing above and beyond a timid spot price environment, receiving US$84/lb ($133/lb) for 268,000lb of sales.

That led to a maiden quarter of positive free cash flow from its Honeymoon uranium mine.

Another 98,000lb was produced at enCore Energy's Alta Mesa mill in Texas, where Boss holds a 30% stake.

Boss finished the quarter with $229m of cash and liquid assets on hand alingside 1.21Mlb of drummed uranium inventory.

"Importantly, we generated robust margins at current prices, demonstrating the strength of Honeymoon in the current market and the project’s immense upside on the back of future increases in the uranium price as the market tightens," Boss' MD Duncan Craib said.

Uranium sentiment has been dulled due to the uncertain macroeconomic environment and a collapse in spot pricing to US$64.50/lb. But term pricing, based off contracts reported to trade pubs, are running at a more enticing US$80/lb, reflecting the prices utilities are willing to pay to secure longer term supply from miners.

Indonesian-focused Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC) meanwhile lifted 5% after the company deferred US$253m in payments for its Excelsior nickel-cobalt project, currently under construction, to preserve cash in a weak nickel market.

The company delivered US$97.3m in adjusted EBITDA after lifting HPAL production from 2099t to 2118t (cash cost US$7197/t) and seeing RKEF production drop 3% to 31,793t.

Its RKEF operations enjoyed a 6% decline in cash cost to US$9896/t due to lower nickel ore prices, powering the strong EBITDA result despite nickel prices trundling along at the bottom of the cycle at US$15,530/t in the first quarter.

The black mark on the report was a 21% drop in production from the Hengjaya mine.

Originally published as Reporting Season Highlights: A bumper day for mining stocks