Monsters of Rock: Gold producers Westgold and Ramelius are fighting about a takeover or something, it’s a little unclear right now

Materials handily outperforms broader ASX with a gallant ~0.2% loss
A Takeover Panel release to the ASX today reveals gold producers Ramelius and Westgold entered confidential M&A talks November last year
Westgold subsequently announced acquisition of TSX-listed local miner Karora in a deal which could make it a 400,000ozpa producer
Ramelius is mad

In another tough day on the bourse – the ASX plunged -1.0% for the second time in four days – Materials handily outperformed with a gallant ~0.2% loss.

This is thanks to healthy base metals, gold, and iron ore prices, which were all up overnight despite flaring tensions in the Middle East.

Copper futures notably rebounded 2% “as the prospect of interest rate cuts, a weaker US dollar, and some robust industrial profits data from China encouraged buying”, says CommSec.

The year-to-date price chart now looks something like this:

Year-to-date 3mth copper price. Source: LME.

Some good news for critical minerals as well:

Australian miners of critical minerals, including Pilbara Minerals $PLS and Lynas Rare Earths $LYC, may get a boost on Wednesday after the nation and the EU struck an agreement to increase cooperation and investment in the sector. #ausecon #auspol

— CommSec (@CommSec) May 28, 2024

Both Pilbara (ASX:PLS) and Lynas (ASX:LYC) enjoyed small gains.

And its looks like WA gold producers Westgold (ASX:WGX) and Ramelius (ASX:RMS) are butting heads, with RMS shooting off a complaint to the Australian Government’s Takeover Panel.

A Takeover Panel release to the ASX today reveals ~280,000ozpa RMS and 230,000ozpa WGX entered confidential M&A talks November last year.

In April this year WGX announced the acquisition of TSX-listed local miner Karora in a deal which could make it a 400,000ozpa producer.

This appears to have rubbed RMS the wrong way, but the details are blurry. All we know is WGX has gained over 6% today, while RMS is down a similar amount. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile De Grey (ASX:DEG) wrapped up the retail component of its monster ~$600m raise, with punters tipping ~$85m in the gold developers pockets at $1.10/sh.

The equity raise is a key milestone towards debt funding development of its giant +10Moz, 530,000ozpa Hemi gold deposit. The cash will increase DEG’s cash balance to $919m which the company says is more than sufficient to fund the equity part of the mine development.

Approved term sheets from debt financiers remains on schedule for mid-2024, the company said earlier this month.