And I totally forgot to mention MinRes' Energy division: Energy - Mineral Resources

Plain text: https://www.mineralresources.com.au/our-business/energy/

It pays to note that back in the day, Chris Ellison did work in oil and gas in WA before getting into mining services, so he has some background in the sector and he not only wants to provide energy sources for MinRes' mines and plants, and also for their clients, but the plan is for MinRes' Energy division to be a profitable divison that makes money selling gas to anybody who wants to buy it. As part of the build out of this new Energy division, MinRes acquired Norwest Energy in the middle of this year.

Here's a link to some more background on Chris Ellison: https://www.mineralresources.com.au/about-us/our-board/chris-ellison/

And here's an article from the West Australian newspaper yesterday arvo about another lithium asset that MinRes has snapped up: https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/chris-ellisons-minres-snags-bald-hill-lithium-mine-for-260m-cementing-a-key-piece-of-goldfields-plan-c-12641062

Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources has struck a deal with Alita Resources’ administrators to take control of the Bald Hill lithium mine in the Goldfields for $260 million.

After putting down a $123.9m deposit on the mine at the start of the month, administrators McGrathNicol said an agreement with MinRes was settled on Tuesday. The miner will pay $173.9m and settle $86.1m of secured debt.

The Bald Hill mine was owned by a subsidiary of Alita, which was placed into administration in December 2020 after the first lithium price boom screeched to a halt.

The Australian Tax Office is still investigating a legacy offtake agreement involving Bald Hill’s previous owner and Hong Kong-based Yihe Cleantech Material. McGrathNicol said the uncertainty of the tax situation led independent expert Deloitte to put a valuation on Bald Hill between nil and $94.2m.

MinRes has been running Bald Hill since November 1 and Mr Ellison has previously asserted that the price of the acquisition was immaterial.

At MinRes’ annual general meeting last week Mr Ellison said the miner could double production at Bald Hill to 300,000 tonnes of spodumene a year within the space of a year.

For comparison, Liontown Resources’ flagship Kathleen Valley lithium project is set to produce between 500,000tpa and 700,000tpa of spodumene concentrate. Liontown was recently the subject of $6.6 billion bid by US chemicals giant Albemarle.

Bald Hill’s infrastructure is set to form a key piece of MinRes’ rapid consolidation of lithium assets in the Goldfields.

At MinRes’ AGM Mr Ellison said the Goldfields hosts the most prospective ground in the world for hard rock lithium.

“There’s certainly a lot [of lithium] down there to be found, it’s really well under-explored,” Mr Ellison said.

“All of the gold companies sort of sit on the ground down there and are really only interested in gold. About the middle of next year we will have probably wrapped up gathering up as much rock as we can.”

His comments followed a spree of moves by MinRes in the region, including acquiring the lithium rights to a Norseman gold project and grabbing a major stake in Delta Lithium.

Bald Hill is also near the Mt Marion operation, which MinRes owns in partnership with China’s Ganfeng.

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See also: Sale-of-Lithium-and-Base-Metal-Rights-for-up-to-$60M.PDF [PNR, Pantoro, 10-Nov-2023]

Also:

Chris Ellison sheds light on Mineral Resources’ big lithium plans and takes a swipe at Andrew Forrest’s FMG

by Adrian Rauso, The West Australian, Thu, 16 November 2023 6:06PM

Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison Credit: Andrew Ritchie/The West Australian

Chris Ellison is homing in on more lithium buys, says the SQM bid for Azure Minerals is “dead in the water”, and is looking to use Mineral Resources’ blitz on lithium explorers to pick up mining services contracts.

He has also labelled claims that other peers are doing more than his company to reduce emissions as “bulls...”.

At the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday, the MinRes boss freely delved into specific details about the resources giant’s future strategic direction and took the opportunity to have a couple of jabs at fellow mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group.

Lithium dominated the discussion, as shareholders and observers were keen to hear more about the rationale behind MinRes’ recent spate of investments in early-stage lithium hopefuls at seemingly premium prices, and if more similar purchases were on the way.

Away from mining, Mr Ellison says MinRes will not plow a significant sum into the Perth Basin unless the WA government does a u-turn on its domestic gas reservation policy.

Firing up gas pressure

Mr Ellison said unless the WA state government grants an exemption for MinRes to export gas, it will only develop its Lockyer Deep field into a small plant producing 30 terajoules a day instead of a larger 250tj-per-day facility.

The difference between the investment between the two scenarios could be well into the hundreds of millions, according to Mr Ellison.

“To bring that online at a decent size, 250tjs a day, it’s gonna cost us more than a billion dollars,” he said.

“If we do that, put it into the domestic market, there’s no real demand, and we just can’t afford to build the plant.

Mr Ellison is seeking a five-year exemption to export gas to pay back the cost of the bigger plant, before reverting back to domestic supply, saying the timing aligns with a projected gas deficit in the WA market.

“We’re saying that we can help you solve your gas shortage problem in 2030, but we need to be able to fund it.”

The company is set to make a final investment decision on the gas plant next year.

More lithium buys on the cards

MinRes’ rapid lithium land grab in WA looks set to continue and could spread abroad.

The MinRes boss said WA’s Goldfields region was the most prospective ground in the world for hard rock lithium.

“There’s certainly a lot [of lithium] down there to be found, it’s really well under-explored,” Mr Ellison said..

“All of the gold companies sort of sit on the ground down there and are really only interested in gold. About the middle of next year we will have probably wrapped up gathering up as much rock as we can.”

His comments follow a recent spree of lithium moves by MinRes in the region, including acquiring the lithium rights to a Norseman gold project, the purchase of the Bald Hill lithium mine from receivers, and grabbing a major stake in Delta Lithium — after which he dethroned David Flanagan as chairman.

Mr Ellison on Thursday said he took the chairmanship of Delta because he “didn’t like the direction it was going in”.

“Some of these companies don’t have any experience, they’re more interested in milking the share market than mining the deposit,” he said.

Mr Ellison also said MinRes was looking at a “couple of opportunities offshore” for brine lithium assets.

“Most of the opportunities are down around South America, in fact I’m meeting some people next week to talk a bit more about that . . . we are interested in brine just to have the mix.”

Azure Minerals takeover “dead in the water”

The Pilbara region has also been another key focus for MinRes in the lithium space. Most recently it splurged on shares in takeover target Azure, which holds a majority stake in the Andover lithium and nickel-copper-cobalt project in the West Pilbara.

Mr Ellison said he believed the $1.63 billion takeover offer from SQM for Azure is “dead in the water” but poured cold water on suggestions he is acting in concert with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting to gazump the Chilean lithium giant.

“I’d be very happy if I wind up with 12 to 15 per cent of the (Andover) orebody.”

MinRes currently has a 13.6 per cent stake in Azure, which controls 60 per cent of the Andover project. Billionaire prospector Mark Creasy has a 13.2 per cent stake in Azure and owns the other 40 per cent of Andover outright.

Mr Ellison instead indicated MinRes “would be very happy” to use its mining services arm to develop the suite of nascent lithium projects it now has exposure to.

“We’re probably the only mining company I know of that can put a lithium spodumene plant together,” he said. “We bring a lot of value to the table.”

FMG swipe and “bulls...” emissions talk

On the iron ore side of the MinRes business, Mr Ellison said the development of the Onslow iron ore project was progressing well despite “interference” from iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group.

“We’ve had a bit of interference from our friends at FMG, like we normally do,” he said, declining to elaborate further.

Fortescue has repeatedly touted its “industry-leading development” of green energy initiatives, particularly green hydrogen, to decarbonise its operations.

However, Mr Ellison said MinRes was not lagging behind any of its peers when quizzed by a shareholder on the company’s decarbonisation progress.

“Our first step to getting to half our emissions by 2035 is that we’re using gas, we’re using wind, we’re using solar, we’re using all of those things, and if anyone tells you they’re doing anything different or anything better than that, it’s bulls...”

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Chris can be a little bit off-the-cuff and informal in much of his commentary, and doesn't hold back on calling "Bullsh!t" when he thinks he sees it. He berated journalists and analysts in a recent earnings call for not getting their facts straight and publishing "utter rubbish" that he claims damaged not only MinRes' reputation but WA Mining in general. His zero-tolerance policy towards what he views as errors or sloppy work by journalists and analysts could definitely be one factor in why there are often quite divergent opinions across analysts and brokers as to the realistic current valuation/fair value and future outlook for MinRes, and why there is mixed reporting on Chris and the company as well at times. Twiggy Forrest has also had a go at fellow WA-based Billionaire Kerry Stokes who controls Channel 7 and West Australian News, the publisher of those two stories on MinRes and Chris Ellison above. Twiggy believes that the reporting in the media that Stokes controls is unfairly biased against FMG. It's a hard life being a billionaire... So many haters...

While Chris Ellison does get along very well with Bill Beament (of DVP) and seems to get along OK with Gina Rinehart as well, he doesn't often see eye-to-eye with Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest of FMG. Not sure what he thinks of Kerry Stokes, but the images that the Stokes-controlled West Australian newspaper publish of Ellison (such as those above) always seem to highlight Ellsion's combative and serious side, as does most of the reporting, making sure we get the message that he can be rude at times, and often a little vindictive and competitive, perhaps even causing offense at times to some people. It might just be me but I find the AFR coverage of Chris and MinRes a lot more balanced and professional.

Disclosure: I hold MIN and FMG shares.

P.S. If you haven't watched it already, do yourself a favour and watch the video of Chris Ellison's life in his own words - here. He does have a sense of humour - it's dry, but it's there.