Adrian Rauso

Gold Road Resources and Silver Lake Resources will join the S&P/ASX 200 index, while Seven West Media was among the losers in the indices reshuffle, as the quarterly rebalance of the S&P/ASX indices was announced today.

Wesfarmers is set to enter the crowded lithium market, after Kidman Resources shareholders backed the conglomerate’s $776 million takeover offer.

Claremont-based Geopacific Resources has appointed GR Engineering Services as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the processing plant at its Woodlark gold project in Papua New Guinea.

Pilbara Minerals has undertaken a $91.5 million capital raising, underpinned by China’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries, as it seeks to strengthen its balance sheet amid a downturn in the lithium sector.

Western Australia has bucked the national trend and recorded a 0.6 per cent rise in retail spend for July, underpinned by gains in the hospitality sector, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Total mineral exploration expenditure in Australia increased by 5.2 per cent to $629.6 million for the June quarter, with Western Australia underpinning the growth, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Investors have welcomed Flinders Mines entering into a non-binding agreement with the Balla Balla Infrastructure Group, which could deliver the infrastructure and funding needed to help get its stranded Pilbara iron ore project (PIOP) into production.

Galaxy Resources has confirmed interest in striking a downstream processing deal with Alita Resources’ offtake partner, just a day after placing the lithium miner into receivership, while Talison is reconsidering the timing of its $516 million stage three expansion project at Greenbushes.

Independence Group has reported a 44 per cent leap in full-year net profit on the back of strong production from its Nova nickel mine and Tropicana gold joint venture project.