Australian Metals & Mining Weekly: JunQ: miners cash balances rising. S32, LYC, NEM, BHP. Greenfields copper Vicuña.

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Australian Metals & Mining Weekly: JunQ: miners cash balances rising. S32, LYC, NEM, BHP. Greenfields copper Vicuña.

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Australian Metals & Mining Weekly

JunQ: miners cash balances rising. S32,

LYC, NEM, BHP. Greenfields copper Vicuña.

Price Objective Change

BHP Vicuña JV = greenfields complexity 27 July 2026

Recap of BHP-LUN Vicuna copper JV in Argentina ahead of expected Stage 1 (Josemaria)

EquityFID this CY. Capex $7-8bn. S2 (oxides) + S3 (Filo del sol) concepts early stage.

AustraliaChallenges: Altitude, scale, "double" leach, Arsenic, infrastructure. Greenfields projects

Metals & Mining(copper!) are hard. Josemaria would take our BHP CuEq growth to 4.1% (from 3.4%)

FY27-35e. Within we compare capital intensity, altitude, desalination requirements, Kate McCutcheon >>

copper grades etc for key South American copper projects. See: Vicuña JV: world class Research Analyst Merrill Lynch (Australia)

orebody with greenfields complexity +61 2 9226 5728

kate.mccutcheon@bofa.com

S32: JunQ more cash, lower Alcoa M2M Jason Fairclough >>

Research Analyst

FY26 production in line w BofA but 2% below cons. at group CuEq level. Cannington MLI (UK)

expected to beat FY26 costs by 10% (new). FY27 production guidance unchanged sans jason.fairclough@bofa.com

Aus. Manganese. Cost guidance due Aug 27. Key changes: M2M 17m Alcoa shares & Chen Jiang >>

increase our FY26 cash expectations. Retain Buy=base metals with growth. Newsflow: Merrill Lynch (Australia)

Cannington life extension update due by Feb results with an open cut FID targeted by chen_jiang@bofa.com

1HFY28, Hermosa September site visit. See: JunQ more cash, lower Alcoa M2M Elaine Faddis >>

LYC: rare earths processing is hard… Merrillelaine.faddis@bofa.comLynch (Australia)