Pinned straw:
19th December 2025: Develop Global's business strategy is two-fold, to be both a miner who owns and operates their own mines and processing plants, and to also be a mining services contractor for other companies.
I don't mind the strategy, it's the same one Chris Ellison has used at MinRes (MIN), and it has been very successful there.
However DVP's Woodlawn Mine produces mostly base metals, primarily Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), and Lead (Pb), along with precious metals Silver (Ag) and Gold (Au), processed into saleable concentrates that are shipped to buyers like Trafigura, with a focus on clean energy metals. The mine is ramping up from older, lower-grade zones to the high-grade Kate Lens for increased production of these key metals.
That's their slide deck pitch however my concern is that Woodlawn is predicted to produce about three times as much zinc as copper, so it should really be viewed as a zinc mine that also produces copper plus smaller quantities of those other metals. And I'm not particularly bullish on zinc, and whenever I have briefly been bullish on zinc in prior years, I've always been wrong. Usually zinc stinks.
They have other projects sure, but Woodlawn is their only producing asset at this point in time.
And their mining services business has only one client, plus Woodlawn which they own themselves, and that one external client is Bellevue Gold which has done alright recently from a share price perspective, but has had a rough time of it with multiple production downgrades since they started producing, all with DVP as their mining contractor during that time. Bellevue's problems have been mostly grade control issues, dilution, and stope underperformance, however there have also been previous issues with development stopes taking longer to drill than anticipated because of both the rock being very hard and also a lack of basic infrastructure at times, like water supply, drainage and adequate ventilation.
In one "Hole Truth" interview that I watched a few months back Bill described the huge improvements that Bellevue (BGL, the company) had made in that area (underground infrastructure) which he said meant that there should be nothing now holding DVP back from getting on with the underground drilling at Bellevue (the underground mine; both the company and the mine are called Bellevue), which suggests that there had been plenty holding them back in prior quarters.
They also previously had a mining services contract at the high-grade Beta Hunt gold mine, which is now owned by Westgold (WGX) but was owned by TSX-listed Karora Resources Inc. (formerly RNC Minerals) when DVP were awarded that contract in 2024, then Westgold acquired Karora after outbidding Ramelius Resources (RMS) for the company, then DVP's contract at Beta Hunt finished in late November 2024. The official spin by DVP on that was:
DVP's mining services contract at Westgold's Beta Hunt Mine concluded in late November 2024, finishing as planned because the development scope was completed ahead of schedule, allowing DVP to redeploy its teams and equipment to other high-value projects like Bellevue Gold and Woodlawn.
Some additional facts are that Westgold (WGX) acquired Karora in August 2024 and Westgold tends to use their own teams and equipment for mining, so they have an owner/operator model, same as what Bill Beament himself established at Northern Star during his time building that company up from nothing to become Australia's largest gold miner. Ral Finlayson's Genesis Minerals (GMD) also employ an owner/operator model at all of their mines. Additionally, Westgold do use MLG Oz (MLG) for road haulage between some of their mines and their processing plants, but in terms of the actual mining at Beta Hunt, Westgold do that themselves, so it makes sense that DVP finished up at Beta Hunt 3 months after Westgold took ownership of the mine.
I asked Google, "How many mining services contracts have Develop Global had during their history and how many do they have right now?" and Google answered with:
Develop Global's Mining Services division has rapidly grown, achieving its 5-year plan target in 18 months and currently holding three major contracts, generating significant revenue, with projections for even more in FY2025, showing strong historical growth in contract numbers and revenue. While the total number of contracts throughout their entire history isn't specified, their recent performance highlights rapid expansion from fewer contracts to a strong portfolio.
That's not actually true today - the reference for that spiel was this: https://www.listcorp.com/asx/dvp/develop-global-limited/news/mining-services-set-to-generate-c-175m-revenue-3010001.html which was from March 2024.
DVP's own website (https://www.develop.com.au/) does not list their mining services contracts either current or historic, however my understanding is that they are only currently active on two sites, being Bellevue Gold (BGL) and DVP's own Woodlawn Zinc-Copper mine.
Until today's news:
Source: Develop-awarded-A$200m-contract-with-OceanaGold.PDF [19-Dec-2025]
While the market did appear to like this announcement, sending DVP's SP up +4% to $4.36 today, they remain below their $5.19 year-high achieved mid-year (in July).
DVP's chart has been choppy, and while this new mining services contract announcement is welcome news, the project is in New Zealand and is only a one-off mine development project rather than an ongoing mining contract. It's a A$200 million underground development contract to establish access tunnels at OceanaGold’s (OG's) Waihi North Project in NZ.
So not recurring revenue and I would suggest while it is certainly material, it isn't a game changer for them. It could be if it leads to ongoing work in NZ, but that is by no means guaranteed.
So for now, DVP have a number of irons in the fire, but they only have one advanced development project (Sulpher Springs, zinc, copper and silver) plus one producing mine (Woodlawn, zinc, copper, lead, silver and a little gold) where they are owner/operators, plus one external mining services contract (Bellevue Gold) and one external mine development contract (OceanaGold's Waihi North in NZ).
I like Bill Beament and greatly respect everything he achieved at Northern Star Resources (NST), but this isn't gold, and it hasn't got those gold tailwinds - except for Bellevue and the jury is still out on whether Bellevue has further production guidance downgrades or upgrades to come from here - it could go either way, except it doesn't really impact DVP either way because they are on a fixed price rates schedule there as I understand it, so as long as Bellevue keeps operating the mine and mill, there is still going to be contract mining work for DVP there, but DVP don't share in the higher gold price upside there because they're just the mining contractors, not the project owners.
OG's Waihi North is also a gold mine, but again, it's not owned by DVP, they're just providing $200m worth of services there during 2026 and probably into 2027 - until those access tunnels are completed. No gold price upside there for DVP.
Sure, DVP certainly do have copper exposure, but what concerns me is that both Woodlawn and Sulpher Springs are going to produce far more zinc than copper so the outlook for zinc does impact DVP, and in my opinion it probably matters more to them than price movements with copper or any other metal.
Disclosure: I have held DVP in the past. I do not hold them today. I look at them regularly, but I'm not sure they're worth over $4/share with what they've got right now in terms of their business, their assets and their direct commodity exposures.
If track records are important, and they are, Bill Beament has one of the best track records you could ever come across over at NST. But that was gold, and DVP is primarily a zinc producer right now. (IMO)
So they remain on my watchlist for now.
Additional: I forgot to mention MinRes' Mt Marion lithium mine where Develop Global have previously been the mining contractor for the underground development at Mt Marion, having won an 18-month, A$46 million contract in late 2023 to establish an exploration decline, with operations managed by joint venture owner Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes). MinRes managed all mining activities at Mt Marion, but Develop was handling the specific underground setup for future resource definition. That fixed price ($46m) Mine Development Contract was awarded by MIN to DVP in December 2023, for an early 2024 start, with an 18-month term, so it's well and truly completed now.
It also looks like while the open-pit operations are ongoing, the underground exploration development at Mt Marion was placed into care and maintenance in December 2024 in response to market conditions, so that DVP contract may have finished then, i.e. one year ago. There is certainly nothing that I have come across that suggests that DVP still have any ongoing work at Mt Marion or any other MinRes mine.
Point being that while DVP certainly do have significant underground mining and development experience and are well regarded in the industry, they only have two ongoing mining contracts, being the Bellevue gold mine owned by Bellevue Gold (BGL) and their own Woodlawn mine. They also have had some shorter term mine development contracts such at Beta Hunt, Mt Marion and now, as announced yesterday, another one over in NZ for OG (OceanaGold). While these development project wins are material, they are fixed term and have not as yet led to any further ongoing mining services work with the same clients. The Bellevue contract is much more material in that it is for ongoing mining, and while also a fixed term contract, it's a multi-year contract that can be rolled over again and again as long as both parties are happy with the arrangement, but the point I'm making is that Bellevue remains their only external mining services contract for actual mining as well as mine development rather than just shorter-term mine development contracts (like the one they announced yesterday), and that side of the business doesn't really rate a mention on DVP's own website beyond their "We get our hands dirty to produce clean metals" (source) which could equally apply to DVP's own mines such as Woodlawn and their most advanced development project Sulphur Springs.
If my memory serves, that slogan used to be "We get our hands dirty so you don't have to", which was much more aimed at potential clients of their mining services arm, but that memory of mine might not be completely accurate. Regardless, DVP is today positioned as a mine owner and operator who also do some limited mining services for other companies. And as I said in my straw last night, there's nothing wrong with that, it worked very well for MinRes (MIN), however MIN's earlier business model was that they were a mining services company that also dabbled in a bit of mine ownership, and Chris Ellison managed to position his CSI (MinRes' Crushing Services International) division as the leading crushing and hauling contractor for the major iron ore players in Australia - they had BHP, RIO and FMG as clients until FMG transitioned to an owner-operator model after the death of an electrician at one of MinRes' crushing plants highlighted MIN's coyboy approach to safety at that time. MIN's CSI still count BHP & RIO as key clients and they have plenty more, but the point is that MinRes had that strong backbone of mining services as their base business which allowed CE to dabble in his own iron ore mines, a little Manganese which didn't go far, then Lithium which MinRes did very well out of, always getting the better end of the deal with global majors like Albemarle and Jiangxi Ganfeng, but especially Albemarle when deals were made or splits were re-cut/adjusted in exchange for cash and/or other assets.
DVP has a similar business model but they're much, much earlier in the journey, just getting started really, and DVP have the mix tilted much more to having a larger mining business and a smaller mining services business, so a different mix to what MinRes were so successful with.
And that's why I believe that to assess DVP's value at this point in time, you really need to look at what metals they are producing at Woodlawn, and are likely to be producing when Sulphur Springs comes online, and it's going to predominantly be zinc at both Woodlawn and Sulphur Springs. And copper and some lead, silver and a little gold, but more zinc than anything else. So my own opinion is that DVP's near-term future upside will be impacted in no small part by what the zinc price does. Longer term it will be driven much more by the many brilliant deals that Bill Beament will no doubt do, just as he did back at NST, but for the next couple of years I'm thinking of DVP as a zinc miner who also produce copper and have a smaller mining services arm.
And that's not attractive to me right now, so I don't hold DVP. But they remain on my watchlist. For anyone who is bullish on zinc (I'm not), DVP could be an interesting play here.
Here's what DVP's Woodlawn Zinc-Copper Mine in NSW looks like (or did 6 months ago):
Image Source: https://www.miningnews.net/miners/news-analysis/4515805/minority-stake-develops-woodlawn-sale [25-June-2025]
And here's MinRes' Mt Marion lithium processing facility in WA (at night):
Image Source: https://www.mineralresources.com.au/our-business/lithium/mt-marion/