TMH Market Update: Liontown shares fall as Kathleen Valley expansion deferred amid price woes

The ASX200 has performed better than expected, gaining well over half a per cent – and with most sectors making ground.

The week begins with more bad news for nickel… excess supply from Indonesia and depressed pricing are now impacting bigger players including Andrew Forrest’s private company Wyloo Metals.

Its Kambalda Cassini mine operations attained through the $750 million acquisition of Mincor Resources barely six months ago will be in care and maintenance from the end of May. 

When Wyloo made the acquisition it bullishly discussed acquiring more nickel projects.

The Wyloo mines have been supplying BHP Group’s (ASX:BHP) Kambalda concentrator, so this decision is likely to have an impact there too.

BHP is holding up just in the green today.

In this bulletin, we’ll also discuss Lynas Rare Earths, Liontown Resources, Zip Co, as well as Dreadnought Resources which has struck high-grade gold at its Star of Mangaroon project, and Raiden Resources.

Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) has been trading down more than 1.5 per cent after production dropped by more than half from the September quarter to the end of December.

A temporary shutdown of its Malaysian separation plant is blamed for the result which then saw sales revenue down by $15.6 million.

LYC has been trading at $5.85.

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) has shed more than 20 per cent – on news it’s deferring its plans to expand the Kathleen Valley lithium project.

Liontown Resources claims it can still produce lithium this year, but the move will reduce near-term funding requirements and preserve capital, given the recent decline in spodumene pricing.

LTR has been trading at 93 cents.

And payment provider Zip Co (ASX:ZIP) has gained more than 12.5 per cent on its first half and December quarter results.

For Q2 of FY24, Zip’s transaction volume was up 8.5 per cent from the previous corresponding period – to total $2.8 billion.

The group’s revenue for the December quarter reached $225.6 million –up 26.1 per cent on the same quarter last year.

Across its Australian market, Zip launched a new product to existing customers, “Zip Plus”.

ZIP has been trading at 71.5 cents.

And Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE) is up 3.7 per cent after reporting a high-grade gold intercept at the Star of Mangaroon project in Western Australia. 

Assay results from diamond drilling included 1.4 metres at 87.9 grams of gold per tonne (g/t).

DRE has been trading at 2.8 cents. 

Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN) has kicked off a soil sampling campaign at its Mt Sholl lithium project in Western Australia to define the potential lithium mineralisation more closely in the area.

Raiden geotechs will also be collecting samples on behalf of First Quantum across zones of nickel-copper soil anomalism on Mt Sholl.

RDN has been trading at 2.6 cents.