Greetings Contrarian,

This is The Next Big Rush, your daily drop of mining/energy investing news. Where we come together and feel grateful.

Here are the highlights:

🤝 Newmont + Newcrest Deal

💪🏼 Australia Vs Nuclear

😁 Gladiator Finds Copper In Old Warehouse

🤝 Newmont + Newcrest Deal

US mining giant Newmont has put forward a A$29bn (US$19bn) offer to take over Australia's Newcrest Mining, a company Newmont originally started back in the '60s. Newmont's offer is structured as a share deal, where they're offering 0.4 of their own shares for every share of Newcrest.

Newmont first tried to buy Newcrest with an all-share offer in February but was turned down. They increased the bid to A$29.4bn in April, which got Newcrest's attention.

While the overall value of the deal has dipped due to a drop in Newmont's share price, it's still offering a more than 30% premium on Newcrest's share price before the first offer was made.

As part of the takeover agreement, Newcrest will pay a final dividend to its shareholders. The combined company will still be listed on Australia's stock exchange.

💪🏼 Australia Vs Nuclear

A Senate inquiry in Australia, considering whether the country's ban on nuclear energy should be lifted, has been informed that it could take between 10 to 15 years to get a nuclear power plant operational if the ban was lifted immediately.

This inquiry is part of the review of the Environment and Other Legislation Amendment (Removing Nuclear Energy Prohibitions) Bill 2022, which proposes changes to laws that currently prohibit nuclear power generation in Australia.

Dr Gillian Hirth, CEO of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, stated that a regulatory framework for private nuclear generation would be required.

She estimated that it could take up to 15 years to get a plant running, with regulatory reviews taking 3-5 years, and a further 10 years to develop the facilities. Yadda, yadda, yadda…

The final report from the inquiry is expected to be released on June 15.

Bet you they said that 15 years ago as well.

Meanwhile in China….

😁 Gladiator Finds Copper In Old Warehouse

Gladiator Metals Corp., a mineral exploration company focused on high-grade copper prospects in Canada's Whitehorse Copper Belt, has announced new results from the Cowley Park prospect at the Whitehorse Copper Project.

Get this: The company received assay results from two additional drill holes, part of approximately 10,000m of historic drill core that was previously unlogged and unassayed (go figure).

Highlights:

• Hole 19-CP-01: 32.92m @ 2.08% Cu from 73.76m (including: 8.11m @ 5.35% Cu from 80.16m) and another section of 34.75m @ 0.94% Cu from 117.65m

• Hole 19-CP-10: 19.08m @ 1.45% Cu from 108.94m within a larger section of 81.26m @ 0.55% Cu from 108.94m

• Hole 19-CP-05: 27m @ 0.68% Cu and 0.23% Mo from 97m

That’s luck.

Is there more?

Happy Speculating!

The Editor

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.