Diggers & Dealers 2026: All the latest news from Day 3 of the annual mining forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Emerald Resources’ MD Morgan Hart is now up and is touting the gold miner’s organic growth prospects in Cambodia and Australia.

Its producing Okvau gold mine in Cambodia has turned out 410,000 ounces to June 2025 since commissioning in September 2021 - with 100,000oz over thelast financial year - and it is now looking for firm up its Dingo Range project in the far northern Goldfields.

It also has a new high-grade prospect in Cambodia.

“We’ve turned (Dingo range) into 1.4 million ounces of resources,” Hart said.

“We’re now currently calculating reserves on those, while expanding those resources.

“At the same time, that project’s fully licensed for development. We’ve already built the camp. We’ve broken ground on the mill. It’s on its way, and it’ll be in production over the next 12 to 14 months.

“In Cambodia, we found a second project from the Okvau mine, very similar, the Memot gold project. It’s 1.7moz of resources we’ve calculated there or discovered there over the last two and a half years, and we expect that to expand again.”

Emerald last month awarded a $562.5 million contract to Thiess subsidiary MACA Mining for the development of Dingo Range north-east of Leinster.

The company said the contract for Dingo Range was for more than six years — 74 months — and involved drill and blast, load and haul, run-of-mine crusher feed, mine development, ancillary mining services and associated services.

The development of Dingo Range is part of Emerald’s push to become a multi-mine gold producer of more than 300,000oz a year.

“We’ve got the right producing asset at Okvau to underpin our growth,” Hart told delegates.

“We’ve got a great organic growth story of the two projects we’ve currently got into development, and clearly with a billion dollars worth of free cash flow which comes out of those, we can grow the company further.”

BlackRock is Emerald’s biggest shareholder, with a 9.5 per cent stake.

Hart owes 6 per cent, with other directors also hold a near 6 pe rcent piece of the $3.7 billiob listed company.

Lithium is an incredibly exciting industry. New new growth sectors, new growth markets, but it’s incredibly volatile. 

That was the start of Dale Henderson’s closing remarks this morning for PLS at Diggers.

“Now to navigate that, we have to move from resources to reliable suppliers about quality assets, execution economics, and alignment,” he said.

“That is the playbook, and that is the strategy PLS has been pursuing. That’s what’s delivered our strong track record, and that’s what we’re pursuing as we move forward.”

Henderson said PLS was now in study mode, with more details to come in the December quarter.

PLS hopes a feasibility study to push Pilgangoora’s production capacity to 2 million tonnes a year — by constructing a new concentrator adjacent to the existing Pilgan processing facility — would be released by the end of 2026.

“If it’s anything like the first level of study that we did on June 24, we’re looking for hopefully an exciting set of outcomes.

“The June 24 study not only demonstrated a much larger operation, it demonstrated a lower operating cost and an exciting set of economic returns.”

It is targeting 2027 financial year production of between 1.03Mt and 1.1Mt.

PLS’s Dale Henderson was keen for delegates to keep an ey on one slide from his presentation.

“This is the slide I’d like you to remember,” he said.

“What you see here is the pricing curve, the wiggly line, and the columns are our cash margin generated from the operating platform.

“So you can see for the quarter of June, those 12 weeks, the business cleared over $500 million, half a billion in cash operating margin, one quarter alone.”

“And bear in mind that yield of circa $500m of cash operating margin for June quarter alone, that was at a headline realised price lower than the $US2465 a tonne, the $US2465 long-term price benchmark.

“So, when you consider this, the mind boggles in terms of the cash-generating potential of this business, depending on what price outlook you want to pick”.

Taking the stage first this morning will be Dale Henderson from lithum major PLS.

A bumper June quarter saw the Pilbara lithium miner boost production of spodumene concentrate 17 per cent from the previous year to 879,500 tonnes — 10,000t above its full-year forecast.

The recovery in lithium prices over the past year more than doubled revenue to $1.7 billion, growing PLS’ cash on hand from $974 million to $2.3 billion as it also booked $US600m from the issue of a senior note due in 2031.

But Henderson said he was not keen to whip out the company’s bulging wallet for an acquisition anytime soon.

We’ll hear more about expansion plans at PLS’s Pilgangoora production hub near Port hedland shortly.

Gold experts have told hundreds of mining industry leaders why the precious metal is so important in Australia.

Industry specialists Cameron Alexander, Nicholas Frappell and Courtney Libby shared their knowledge at a Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum breakfast event hosted by Gold Industry Group at Kalgoorlie Town Hall on Tuesday.

The three panellists were asked why the Australian gold industry was so valuable and how it could be strengthened globally.

Mr Alexander, general manager at the Perth Mint, said Australia’s integrated gold industry strengthened the nation’s reputation as a trusted gold producer.

“Despite the recent downturn in gold prices, global demand for Australian gold has remained steady . . . generating an estimated $68 billion in export earnings in the 2025-26 financial year and overtaking coal as Australia’s second-most valuable commodity after iron ore,” he said.

“Over its 175-year history, Australian gold has earned an international reputation built on quality, integrity and consistency through world-class refining standards, rigorous certification, and a commitment to responsible production.

“Combined with Australia’s mining expertise, these strengths have created a fully integrated gold value chain that continues to meet the needs of investors, central banks and markets around the world.”

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Engineering contractor Mondelphous has booked $200 million worth of work with BHP to help The Big Australian ease bottlenecking at its Pilbara port.

The Victoria Park-based firm will install and commission all structural, mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation activities associated with the construction of the new Car Dumper 6 and its supporting materials handling facilities at the Nelson Point port facility in Port Hedland

Work will start immediately and is expected to be completed in 2028.

Diggers & Dealers is in full force and officially past the half way mark.

Here’s what happened, and didn’t, on the sidelines of Australia’s best-known mining shindig.

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It was a huge second day at Diggers, with delegates finding plenty to chew over after hearing from the likes of Ramelius Resources, Astral Resources, Capricorn Metals, West African Resources, Alkane Resources, Black Cat Syndicate, Medallion Metals, Hastings Technology Metals and Boss Energy.

In case you missed it, check out our full coverage from yesterday ...