Potash Archives - Page 7 of 61

(Reuters) – BHP Group, the world's largest listed miner, on Wednesday said it raised $3 billion through an issue of senior unsecured bonds in the United States.

The bonds will be issued in three tranches by BHP's subsidiary in the United States and will be guaranteed by the miner. It will use the proceeds from the bonds for general corporate purposes, BHP said.

The principal amounts on the three tranches range from $750 million to $1.25 billion with a tenor ranging from five years to a decade. It will pay a fixed coupon rate between 5.0% and 5.30% on the bonds.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

BHP Group BHP reported underlying attributable profit from continuing operations of around $5.1 billion in the first half of fiscal 2025 (ended Dec. 31, 2024). The figure was 23% lower than a year ago, reflecting BHP’s productivity initiatives and cost discipline, and higher copper prices offset by lower iron ore and steelmaking coal prices as well as labor costs. Underlying earnings per share were $1.00 in the first half of fiscal 2025 compared with $1.30 in the prior-year period. Earnings per American Depositary Share (ADS) were $2.00 for the first half of fiscal 2025 compared with $2.59 in the first half of the previous fiscal. BHP’s ADS represents two fully-paid ordinary shares.

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In the period under discussion, BHP’s attributable profit (for total operations) surged 376% year over year to $4.4 billion, driven by disciplined cost control and strong operational performance. The company had reported an attributable profit of $927 million in the first half of fiscal 2024. The figure included an exceptional item of around $2.9 billion.

Low Iron Ore Prices Hurt BHP’s 1H25 Revenues

Revenues in the first half of fiscal 2025 totaled $25.18 billion, down 8% year over year. This reflected lower iron ore and steelmaking coal prices, partially offset by higher realized copper prices.

The Iron ore segment’s revenues were down 18.2% year over year to $11.5 billion, due to lower iron ore prices. The Copper segment reported revenues of $10.27 billion, up 18.6% year over year on higher copper prices.

Revenues in the Coal segment slumped 26% year over year to $2.8 billion, reflecting lower Steelmaking coal prices.

BHP’s Underlying EBITDA Down 11%

Profit from operations was $9.1 billion in the first half of fiscal 2025 compared with $4.8 billion in the last fiscal year’s comparable period.

Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) declined 11% year over year to $12.36 billion owing to lower revenues. The underlying EBITDA margin was 49.1% compared with 51% in last year’s comparable period.

For the Iron ore segment, underlying EBITDA slumped 25.6% year on year to $7.2 billion. The Copper segment’s underlying EBITDA was up 44.3% to $5 billion on higher sales and volumes. The Coal segment’s underlying EBITDA was $0.57 billion, which marked a substantial drop from $0.98 billion in the first half of fiscal 2024.

BHP’s Financial Position

As of Dec. 31, 2024, BHP Group had cash and cash equivalents of $9.56 billion, down from $12.4 billion as of June 30, 2024. In the half year ended Dec. 31, 2024, the company generated $11.8 billion of net operating cash flow, lower than the $12.4 billion recorded in the prior-year comparable period. The decline was due to lower realized prices, particularly in iron ore.

Free cash flow for the period under discussion was $2.6 billion.Net debt was $11.8 billion at the end of the first half of fiscal 2025, lower than $12.6 billion at the end of the first half of fiscal 2024.BHP’s board has announced an interim dividend of 50 cents per share, which is equivalent to a total payout of $2.5 billion (payout ratio of 50%).Capital and exploration spending was $5.2 billion in the first half of fiscal 2025, which was 10% higher year over year. BHP has earmarked capital and exploration expenditures of $10 billion for fiscal 2025 and $11 billion for fiscal 2026.

BHP’s FY25 Production Guidance

BHP’s iron ore production guidance for fiscal 2025 is 255-265.5 Mt. WAIO's production is expected in the band of 250-260 Mt (282-294 Mt on a 100% basis).

The company expects copper production to be within the range of 1,845-2,045 kt in fiscal 2025.

Steelmaking coal production in fiscal 2025 is now expected to be in the upper half of the range of 16.5-19 Mt (33 -38 Mt on a 100% basis). Energy coal production is also expected to be in the upper half of the company’s range of 13 – 15 Mt.

BHP’s Cost Guidance for FY25

Unit cost guidance for WAIO is in the range of $18.00-$19.50 per ton. Escondida unit cost is estimated to be in the band of $1.30-$1.60 per pound. Spence unit costs are expected to be between $2.00 and $2.30 per pound. Copper South Australia’s unit cost is anticipated to be between $1.30 and $1.80 per pound. BMA unit cost is expected to be between $112 and $124 per ton.

BHP’s Price Performance

BHP Group's shares have lost 14.6% over the past year compared with the industry’s 8.7% decline.

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BHP’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

BHP currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Recent Earnings Performances of BHP’s Peers

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. FCX recorded net income of $274 million or 19 cents per share for fourth-quarter 2024, down around 29.3% from $388 million or 27 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenues declined nearly 3.1% year over year to $5,720 million. The figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5,921.9 million. The company witnessed lower copper sales in the reported quarter.

Southern Copper Corporation SCCO reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings of $1.01 per share, which marginally missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.02. The bottom line, however, marked a 74% surge from the year-ago quarter. Results were driven by higher sales volumes for copper, zinc and silver as well as improved prices. SCCO’s fourth-quarter performance was partially hurt by a decline in the molybdenum sales volume.

The company posted sales of $2.784 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $2.780 billion. The top line increased 21.3% year over year.

BHP’s Peer Awaiting Results

Vale S.A VALE is set to report fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 19, after market close. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vale’s sales is pegged at $10.08 billion, indicating a 23% decrease from the year-ago quarter's figure. The consensus mark for earnings has moved down 13% over the past 60 days to 53 cents per share. The figure indicates a 5.4% year-over-year decline.

VALE's earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters and beat the mark in the other two, delivering an average negative surprise of 0.98%.

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Nvidia (NVDA)

Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) was in focus on Tuesday, after South Korea announced it was looking to secure 10,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) this year for its national AI computing centre.

In a statement on Monday, South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok said: "As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems."

Nvidia (NVDA) holds around an 80% share of the global GPU market, according to Reuters.

Shares in the chipmaker were flat in pre-market trading on Tuesday, with US markets set to re-open later in the day after a closure on Monday for President's Day.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said that South Korea's announcement "should be seen as another proof point that Nvidia’s (NVDA) demand extends well beyond the giant US tech companies.

"We’ve now seen several countries express an appetite for building their own computing clusters, with the massive US Stargate project grabbing the most headlines," he said. "This is supportive to the Nvidia investment case and presents a relatively new and scalable demand avenue for its market leading chips."

Tesla (TSLA)

Investors were also keeping an eye on Tesla (TSLA) stock after the Financial Times reported on Monday that the company was bracing for a potential delay in getting approval for its autonomous driving technology in China.

The electric vehicle maker has reportedly been told there is no set timetable for regulators in China to approve a licence for it to start training its "full-self-driving" technology. The FT's report said this was despite an earlier suggestion that it could get approval in the second quarter of this year.

The news comes as trade tensions escalate between the US and China, with president Donald Trump having imposed a 10% tariff on the latter's imports and Beijing announcing retaliatory duties.

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is a close adviser to Trump, and China is a key market for the EV maker.

Spokespeople for Tesla (TSLA), and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.

Oatly Group (OTLY)

Share in dairy-alternatives producer Oatly (OTLY) rocketed on Friday, after the release of its latest results, though the stock is still down nearly 60% over the past year.

The oat drink maker posted revenue of $824m (£653m) for 2024, up from $783m for the previous year. Oatly also reported a larger gross margin of 29% and a lower adjusted loss of $35m.

However, Oatly said it expected to drive its first full year of profitable growth in 2025. The company guided to revenue growth of 2% to 4% and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $5m to $15m.

In addition, Oatly said it would look to continue "aggressively" pursuing cost efficiencies this year to simplify its business and generate fuel for additional investments.

BHP Group (BHP.L)

Miner BHP Group (BHP.L) posted a 23% fall in underlying attributable profit to $5.1bn in the first half of its fiscal year, in results released on Tuesday.

The company also reduced its interim dividend to $0.50 per share, down from $0.72 for the same period last year.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell (AJB.L), said: "BHP has reminded the market why miners are not reliable dividend payers.

“The mining sector historically ploughed spare cash into acquisitions, but the narrative changed in 2013 when the commodities cycle went into a downturn."

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"Miners leant on dividends to keep shareholders happy, effectively paying them to wait for the rebound in commodity prices," he added. "Unfortunately for these companies, investors got too accustomed to those juicy dividends, and the mining sector became a popular source of high yields.

"Fundamentally, that’s the last thing miners wanted to happen as the cyclical nature of their industry meant they would ultimately disappoint on dividends down the line."

Mould said that commodity prices had been particularly volatile in recent years, seeing miners cut back on dividend payments. He said this latest cut from BHP (BHP.L) came after the miner suffered lower iron ore and coking coal prices.

Despite this update from the company, shares in BHP (BHP.L) were trading less than 1% in the red on Tuesday morning.

BT Group (BT-A.L)

British telecoms company BT (BT-A.L) slumped to the bottom of the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Tuesday, with shares down 6% in morning trading.

Shares were down after it emerged that US investment bank Morgan Stanley had cut its stake in the business.

This comes just a few weeks after BT (BT-A.L) issued a third quarter trading update, in which it posted a 3% dip in adjusted revenue to £5.2bn ($6.55bn). Reported profit before tax rose just 1% to £427m in the third quarter.

However, BT reconfirmed its financial outlook for the 2025 fiscal year and its mid-term guidance. BT said it was aiming for a cash flow inflection of around £2bn in 2027 and around £3bn by the end of the decade.

Other companies in the news on Tuesday 18 February:

Glencore (GLEN.L)

InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L)

Baidu (9888.HK)

Capgemini cap.pa (CAP.PA)

Kerry Group (KRZ.IR)

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(Bloomberg) — Anglo American Plc said it’s agreed to sell its nickel business in Brazil to MMG Ltd. for as much as $500 million.

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The deal is part of a wider restructuring used to fend off an unsolicited $49 billion takeover proposal by BHP Group Ltd. Anglo plans to focus on copper while keeping iron ore and fertilizer assets in its portfolio. The company is exiting diamond, platinum, nickel and coal mining.

“The sale of our nickel business after a highly competitive process marks a further important milestone towards simplifying our portfolio to create a more highly valued copper, premium iron ore, and crop nutrients business,” Anglo Chief Executive Officer Duncan Wanblad said in a statement on Tuesday.

The transaction involves an upfront cash payment of $350 million at completion, plus the potential for up to $100 million in a price-linked earnout and a further $50 million depending on future investment projects.

MMG is Hong Kong-listed but its controlling shareholder is state-owned mining-to-trading giant China Minmetals Corp. The acquisition of the Anglo business reinforces the strong grip of Chinese companies over global nickel supply.

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Underlying EBITDA: $12.4 billion with a margin of 51%.
Underlying Attributable Profit: $5.1 billion.
Return on Capital: 20%.
Interim Dividend: USD0.50 per share, payout ratio of 50%.
Net Operating Cash Flow: Over $8 billion for the half-year.
Net Debt: $11.8 billion.
Iron Ore EBITDA Margin: More than 60% for Western Australia iron ore.
Copper EBITDA Margin: 54% with a 22% increase in volumes at Escondida.
C1 Cost for Iron Ore: USD17.50 per ton for Western Australia iron ore.
Capital and Exploration Expenditure: $5.2 billion for the half-year.

Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Signs with ASX:CGF.

Release Date: February 17, 2025

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Positive Points

BHP Group Ltd (NYSE:BHP) delivered a strong operational and financial performance for the first half of the 2025 financial year, with a focus on operational excellence and capital discipline.
The company achieved an underlying EBITDA of $12.4 billion with a healthy margin of 51%, maintaining industry-leading performance.
Copper production grew by 10% this half, contributing to a 24% growth over a three-year period, with significant advancements in copper and potash projects.
BHP Group Ltd (NYSE:BHP) maintained strong cost control, achieving a 4% reduction in unit costs at major assets despite inflationary pressures.
The company declared an interim dividend of USD0.50 per share, reflecting a payout ratio of 50%, supported by strong cash generation and a resilient balance sheet.

Negative Points

BHP Group Ltd (NYSE:BHP) experienced an 11% decline in EBITDA due to external factors, including a significant drop in iron ore and steelmaking coal prices.
Labor costs have been impacted by inflation, with lingering tightness in the labor market expected to affect the cost base for the rest of the financial year.
The company faced unforeseen external challenges, including a weather-related power outage affecting Olympic Dam’s operations.
Realized prices for Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) were weaker than expected, attributed to quality variability and timing issues.
The net debt is expected to increase towards the top end of the target range by the end of the financial year, raising concerns about capital allocation amidst growth opportunities.

Q & A Highlights

Q: Can you provide details on the capital intensity for the copper growth projects, particularly in South Australia? A: Mike Henry, CEO, stated that while specific numbers for capital intensity are not yet available, BHP is pleased with the progress in developing attractive growth options in both Australia and South America. The projects will compete within BHP’s capital allocation framework, and those offering the best returns will be prioritized.

Q: How is BHP managing net debt and capital allocation in light of recent external challenges like the tropical cyclone at Port Hedland? A: Vandita Pant, CFO, explained that BHP’s capital allocation framework is designed to handle volatility, ensuring balance sheet resilience. Despite recent challenges, BHP maintains its guidance and is confident in managing impacts. The balance sheet remains conservative, with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.4 times, allowing for growth and shareholder returns.

Q: With significant growth opportunities ahead, how does BHP plan to manage its net debt range and dividend policy? A: Vandita Pant emphasized that BHP is comfortable with its net debt range and does not see it as a constraint. The company prioritizes projects that compete well within its capital allocation framework. BHP is open to adjusting its net debt range for attractive opportunities while maintaining shareholder returns.

Q: How is BHP addressing potential supply-side reforms in China and their impact on iron ore pricing? A: Mike Henry noted that BHP has improved the average quality of its iron ore products and remains the lowest-cost producer globally. The company is well-positioned to handle market disruptions due to its strong cost position and focus on operational excellence.

Q: What is BHP’s stance on potential large-scale M&A, specifically regarding Anglo American? A: Mike Henry stated that while BHP occasionally evaluates opportunities, the focus remains on advancing its attractive organic growth projects in copper and potash. The company is committed to increasing shareholder value and is currently concentrating on its own growth opportunities.

Q: Can you provide more details on the development plans for the Vicuna joint venture in Argentina? A: Mike Henry mentioned that more information will be released in the coming months, including resource updates and development milestones. The long-term development will likely require desalination, and BHP is exploring various options for this.

Q: How does BHP plan to manage its decarbonization efforts and related capital expenditures? A: Mike Henry explained that decarbonization capital competes for allocation within BHP, and the company seeks positive returns from these investments. BHP is on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction targets, and future capital deployment will depend on equipment manufacturers’ progress.

Q: What are BHP’s plans for shareholder returns given the current dividend payout ratio? A: Vandita Pant highlighted that BHP focuses on operational and capital productivity to enhance shareholder returns. The company is committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet while exploring options for capital recycling and other value-driven initiatives.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

(Bloomberg) — BHP Group Ltd. said first-half profit slumped 23% as China’s faltering economy dampened demand for iron ore, prompting the miner to trim its interim dividend to an eight-year low.

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The biggest miner posted underlying attributable profit for the six months to Dec. 31 of $5.08 billion, it reported Tuesday. That was below analyst estimates of $5.39 billion. Steelmaking ingredient iron ore remains the company’s biggest earner — but only just — with copper now accounting for 44% of its revenue.

BHP’s move to cut its dividend to 50 cents a share, down from 72 cents the year before, will reinforce speculation the board has a renewed focus on capital management as it pursues growth. Analysts were anticipating a dividend of 53.3 cents.

The slip in profits continues a trend for BHP since it posted record earnings of $33.1 billion for the year to June 2022 as iron ore demand soared. Annual profits have since more than halved, with declining capital returns and rising capital expenditure weighing on its shares.

Still, Chief Executive Officer Mike Henry struck a positive tone in Tuesday’s statement. “The demand for BHP products remains strong despite global economic and trade uncertainties, with early signs of recovery in China, resilient economic performance in the US and strong growth in India,” he said.

BHP’s shares in Sydney were up 0.2% at 3:18 p.m. local time.

Benchmark iron ore prices dipped 5% during the reporting period, while copper fell 9%.

The mining giant’s iron ore mines in Western Australia’s Pilbara were hit by Tropical Cyclone Zelia last week. The company said that while it was maintaining its forecast output of the steelmaking material from the region of between 282 million tons and 294 million tons for the year to June 30, it no longer expects production to be in the upper half of the range due to the impact of the storm.

Analysts from Citigroup Inc. and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. have flagged that this year will be one where major miners’ primary focus will be on capital allocation, with a particular emphasis on expanding portfolios of commodities central to the energy transition, such as copper.

Ongoing capital expenditure pressures will be a key focus of incoming chairman Ross McEwan, who will succeed outgoing Ken MacKenzie after he served in the role since September 2017.

During MacKenzie’s tenure, BHP focused on higher investor returns to ensure investor confidence, overseeing the divestment of a vast oil and gas portfolio and a large chunk of the company’s coal business. More recently, he steered the company back to inorganic growth with the acquisition of Australian copper play OZ Minerals Ltd. in 2022 and last year’s failed $49 billion takeover attempt of Anglo American Plc.

Adding pressure to the iron ore business are ongoing macroeconomic challenges in China. Despite attempts by Beijing to stabilize its debt-ridden property sector, the nation’s economic recovery remains brittle.

The top metals consumer is also yet to feel the sting of tariffs leveled by the US. Just two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed executive orders imposing tariffs of 10% across the board on all imports from China.

“There have been some overall economic challenges and headwinds in China, but the sectors of the economy that are important to BHP’s commodity demand, for the most part, have been performing strongly,” Henry said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

Meanwhile, India continues to be a “bright spot” for commodity demand, BHP said in the statement.

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BHP sees copper as one of its most important growth areas, along with potash used to manufacture fertilizer, as China’s demand for steelmaking material iron ore plateaus.

During the reporting period, BHP announced it would spend at least $10 billion to maintain and grow copper production across its Chilean portfolio over the next decade and a half. It will spend at least $4 billion at its Escondida copper mine alone.

Mines such as Escondida, where BHP has an operational 57.5% interest alongside Rio Tinto Group, are aging and deposits of such size and scale are rare. In January, BHP completed its acquisition of Filo Corp. with partner Lundin Mining Corp., which owns the Filo Del Sol mine in Chile. BHP’s 50% stake in Filo cost around $2.1 billion.

“BHP will never be reliant on acquisitions or external opportunities,” Henry told Bloomberg TV when questioned about the company’s appetite for inorganic growth. “In the current market, it has become increasingly difficult for companies to pursue large-scale M&A for value.”

–With assistance from Andy Clarke and Haidi Lun.

(Updates with comments from Mike Henry interview with Bloomberg TV)

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TSMC (TSM, 2330.TW)

Shares in TSMC (TSM, 2330.TW) rose more than 2% on Monday, after it was reported that the chipmaker was considering taking a controlling stake in Intel's (INTC) US factories.

Bloomberg reported late on Friday that this had come at the request of officials from US president Donald Trump's administration.

Officials reportedly raised the idea in recent meetings, with talks said to be in very early stages, and come after a challenging period for Intel (INTC).

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported separately on Sunday that chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO) was considering making a bid for Intel's chip-design and marketing business.

Spokespeople for TSMC (TSM, 2330.TW), Broadcom (AVGO) and Intel (INTC) had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.

Tencent (0700.HK)

Shares in Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent (0700.HK) surged to their highest point since July 2021, after the company launched a beta test for search using DeepSeek in its Weixin messaging app.

The test is allowing some users of the messaging app to search via DeepSeek's artificial intelligence model.

Tencent (0700.HK) is looking at integrating DeepSeek with other products, including Tencent Cloud AI Code Assistant and Tencent Yuanbao.

Fellow Chinese tech firm Baidu (9888.HK) reportedly said separately that it would connect its search engine to DeepSeek.

These latest developments come just a few weeks after DeepSeek's release of a lower-cost AI model rattled markets, as it sparked concerns about the level of spending by major US tech companies in this space.

Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA)

Another Chinese tech firm in focus on Monday morning was Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA), after the company's co-founder Jack Ma was among the top executives spotted meeting China's leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Other tech executives said to be in attendance at the meeting included Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, and BYD (1211.HK) CEO Wang Chuanfu.

The rare meeting with business leaders suggested that the government could be steering towards a more supportive approach to the tech sector, as China faces escalating trade tensions with the US.

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Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) shares are already up nearly 48% since the start of the year, as investors have cheered the company's AI push.

Last week, Alibaba's (9988.HK, BABA) chairman Joseph Tsai confirmed reports that the company was partnering with Apple (AAPL) to bring AI to iPhones in China.

Investors will be looking to Alibaba's (9988.HK, BABA) third quarter results on Thursday, for further information how its AI-related product business is faring.

GSK (GSK.L)

Pharmaceuticals giant GSK (GSK.L) said on Saturday that its five-in-one meningococcal vaccine, Penmenvy, had been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "While this approval is a solid win for GSK, it also signals broader optimism for the industry, despite some lingering nerves around pending approvals given the shakeup that’s expected under the Trump administration, including layoffs at the FDA.

"Recent developments at GSK have significantly reduced key risks," he said. "But with forecasts largely unchanged, the valuation pressures look overdone, and this could present an attractive entry point for an impressive business trading at a 42% discount to the sector."

Despite this news, shares dipped more than 1% on Monday morning, following reports that the world's most profitable hedge fund had built a short position in GSK.

The Times reported on Friday that Citadel had built a net short position equating to 0.51% of GSK's issued share capital. A spokesperson for Citadel had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.

BAE Systems (BA.L)

Aerospace and defence company BAE Systems (BA.L) was the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Monday morning, with shares surging 6%, on expectations of greater defence spending.

"Comments by secretary general Mark Rutte that NATO members will have to boost their defence spending by 'considerably more than 3%' of GDP put a rocket underneath defence stocks," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell (AJB.L).

"Shares in defence companies had already rallied hard since Russia invaded Ukraine as investors took the view that the shocking events would spur governments around the world to fortify their own defences," he said.

"Rutte’s comments effectively confirm this line of thinking and have acted as another share price catalyst, even though markets had already priced in a stronger earnings environment for the sector. That Donald Trump is keen for European allies to spend as much as 5% of GDP on defence adds to the narrative supporting the sector."

Chemring Group (CHG.L) was another UK-listed defence firm on the rise on Monday morning, up 5%. French firm Thales (HO.PA) and Italy's Leonardo (LDO.MI) were also trading more than 5% in the green.

Other companies in the news on Monday 17 February:

Wilmington (WIL.L)

BHP (BHP.L)

Transocean (RIG)

Anglo American Platinum (AGPPF)

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By Melanie Burton and Sameer Manekar

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -BHP sees signs of economic recovery in China and central bank rate cuts reviving demand for steel and copper but flagged risks to global growth from potential trade tensions, as it logged its lowest first-half profit in six years.

After scrapping a $49 billion bid to acquire Anglo American, which last year rebuffed its bigger rival's effort to snare control of prized copper assets in Latin America, BHP CEO Mike Henry said the company was not looking at acquisitions now.

"Our current focus is 100% on organic growth options," Henry told reporters.

The world's largest listed miner on Tuesday reported an underlying attributable profit of $5.08 billion for the six months ending December 2024, down 23% from a year earlier but slightly ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $5.01 billion. Its shares eased 0.3 % in line with other major miners.

It declared an interim dividend of 50 cents per share, its lowest since 2017, down from 72 cents per share a year earlier but in line with consensus at the bottom end of the miner's payout policy.

"The in-line results and dividend exceeded our expectations," said Macquarie analyst Rob Stein in a note.

For the first-half, underlying operating earnings from iron ore, its biggest profit-generating commodity, declined 26% to $7.2 billion as the average realised price fell to $81.11 per wet metric ton from $103.7 a year ago.

Following a string of cyclones that have hit Australia's west coast and snarled iron ore shipments, BHP warned its full-year iron ore output from Western Australia would no longer be in the upper half of the expected range of between 282 million and 294 million metric tons.

However, the miner pointed to global monetary easing potentially reviving demand prospects for its two main products, steel ingredient iron ore, and copper, which has grown to account for nearly half of its profits.

"Central banks' ongoing rate cuts are expected to translate into a recovery for steel and copper demand across the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in the near term," it said.

"However, potential trade tensions present a risk to the recovery in developed economies and across the globe."

Henry said BHP's exposure to U.S. tariffs was muted given the market accounts for only 3% of its revenue.

"To the extent there is a constraint on Canadian potash into the U.S. … then we would expect to see the global market reorder," he said on an earnings call. BHP expects to start shipping the fertiliser at the end of next year.

Demand for BHP's products remained strong despite global economic and trade uncertainties, with early signs of recovery in China, resilient economic performance in the U.S. and strong growth in India, Henry said.

BHP's copper operations earned $5 billion over the first half, growing by 44% as tight fundamentals, Chinese stimulus plans and interest rate cuts in the United States kept copper prices elevated.

It expects to spend $4.7 billion in fiscal 2025 on expanding its copper operations, which by June will have grown by 24% or some 300,000 tonnes over the past three years.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru and Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sonali Paul)

By Sameer Manekar and Melanie Burton

(Reuters) -BHP sees signs of economic recovery in China and central bank rate cuts reviving demand for steel and copper but flagged risks to global growth from potential trade tensions, as it logged its lowest first-half profit in six years.

"Our current focus is 100% on organic growth options," Henry told reporters.

It declared an interim dividend of 50 cents per share, its lowest since 2017, down from 72 cents per share a year earlier but in line with consensus at the bottom end of the miner's payout policy.

BHP warned its full-year iron ore production from Western Australia operations would no longer be in the upper half of the expected range of between 282 million and 294 million metric tons due to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Zelia which hit the Pilbara region earlier this month.

Underlying operating earnings from iron ore, its biggest profit-generating commodity, declined 26% to $7.2 billion as the average realised price fell to $81.11 per wet metric ton from $103.7 a year ago.

"However, potential trade tensions present a risk to the recovery in developed economies and across the globe."

Demand for BHP products remained strong despite global economic and trade uncertainties, with early signs of recovery in China, resilient economic performance in the U.S. and strong growth in India, Chief Executive Officer Mike Henry said.

BHP's copper operations earned $5 billion over the first half, growing by 44% as tight fundamentals, Chinese stimulus plans and interest rate cuts in the United States kept copper prices elevated.

It expects to spend $4.7 billion in fiscal 2025 on expanding its copper operations.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru, Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sonali Paul)

We recently published a list of 10 Best Mineral Stocks to Buy Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) stands against other best mineral stocks to buy right now.

At the heart of industrial growth lies the global mineral market, as there is a strong demand for essential metals in technology, clean energy, and infrastructure. The global mineral market is projected to grow from $2,260 billion in 2024 to $2,402 billion in 2025, demonstrating a CAGR of 6.2%, according to The Business Research Company. Lithium, cobalt, and copper are leading the market with their essential roles in battery storage and electrification, while gold and silver, on the other hand, remain key assets for hedging against inflation and economic uncertainty.

At the heart of industrial growth lies the global mineral market, as there is a strong demand for essential metals in technology, clean energy, and infrastructure. The global mineral market is projected to grow from $2,260 billion in 2024 to $2,402 billion in 2025, demonstrating a CAGR of 6.2%, according to The Business Research Company. For investors looking to capitalize on this growing sector, opportunities to buy mineral rights offer a strategic way to gain exposure to valuable resources and long-term revenue streams.

The U.S. mineral market, which generated $106 billion worth of mineral production in 2024, is experiencing stable demand for industrial minerals such as crushed stone, sand, and cement, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. These industrial minerals accounted for 68% of the total production of minerals in the U.S. in 2024, while crushed stone accounted for 24% of the total production, indicating a high demand for the category. Recycling activity was also strong, with $48 billion worth of metals and minerals recycled, signaling an increasing focus on sustainability.

On the other hand, rising investor and industrial demand have pushed gold and silver prices to record highs in 2024, a year that marked a 9% increase in the United States gold production, according to the USGS.Gov. Gold prices have risen by 19.7% over the past six months, reaching $2,888.3 on February 6, 2025. Moreover, silver prices have increased by 25% in 2024 due to an increased demand for solar panels and electronics. Furthermore, continued central bank purchases and inflationary concerns mean gold and silver prices will be on an upward trend in 2025 as well.

Lithium experienced a challenging 2024, as its prices fell by 22% in 2024 due to oversupply and weakened demand, as discussed in our recent article. As production cuts are made, and the market stabilizes, analysts project lithium’s surplus decreasing from 84,000 metric tons in 2024 to 33,000 metric tons in 2025. Nevertheless, the lithium market’s long-term growth prospects are still bright and clear with analysts projecting it to grow and reach $134.02 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 22.1%.

Similarly, cobalt, another key battery raw material, is suffering from decreasing prices due to oversupply in the market, especially from China. However, its long-term prospects are strong as the global cobalt market is projected to grow from $10.8 billion in 2023 to $24.9 billion by 2030. This potential growth is tied to increasing demand for energy storage solutions and tighter supply chain regulations.

Another key component of the mineral market is copper, which is a highly sought-after metal in the renewable energy sector. The metal’s demand is attributed to rising adoption of renewables across the globe. In the U.S., the imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports could affect copper prices in the U.S., and could also increase investment in the exploration sector.

Thus, 2025 is expected to be an eventful year for the copper market as well as the mining sector overall, according to analysts. China controls over 90% of global rare earth metals, putting the U.S. in a vulnerable state, especially as China imposes export controls on 25 metal products. Instead of relying on China, the U.S. is turning toward alternative sources like Ukraine, which has access to 22 out of 50 critical minerals identified by the U.S., including graphite, lithium, and Uranium. In exchange for offering military support, the U.S. is seeking Ukraine’s mineral deposits to strengthen the U.S. mineral supply landscape. Thus, this deal has a tremendous potential to benefit local miners in the U.S. in accelerating the growth of critical minerals like graphite and lithium in the future.

As discussed, the minerals sector is at the heart of the global economy. Thus, we must shed light on the top players in the mineral sector. With this, let’s now move on to our list of the 10 Best Mineral Stocks to Buy Right Now.

Methodology

To compile the list of the 10 Best Mineral Stocks to Buy Right Now, we used the Yahoo Finance stock screener. Using the screener we compiled a list of mineral stocks sorted by market capitalization. Next, we ranked these stocks based on the number of hedge fund holders as per Insider Monkey’s third-quarter 2024 database.

Why do we care about what hedge funds do? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Is BHP Group (BHP) the Best Mineral Stock to Buy Right Now?

An aerial view of a mining operation in action, with large trucks and yellow diggers.

BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 22

BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) is a leading global miner that operates within the segments of iron ore, copper, steelmaking coal, energy coal, and nickel. The company maintains leadership in iron ore whilst strategically expanding into commodities like copper. This strategy perfectly aligns with BHP Group’s plan for long-term success. It is one of the best material stocks on our list.

For the year ending June 30, 2024, BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) reported an impressive revenue of $55.7 billion. This was a 3% increase from last year’s revenue of $53.8 billion. The increase in revenue was mainly attributable to high prices of iron ore and copper. However, lower energy coal and nickel prices led to a massive decline in profits. Accordingly, attributable profit dropped sharply by almost 39%, from $12.9 billion in 2023 to $7.9 billion in 2024.

As for the first half of 2025, BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) has experienced busy operations. Copper production increased by 10% year-over-year and iron ore production improved by 2% quarter-over-quarter. Higher production of iron ore was aided by enhanced supply chain management; however, weaker demand from China remains a prominent concern. In contrast to improved copper and iron ore production, production for nickel took a hit due to the temporary suspension of operations. This temporary suspension was a result of an oversupply of nickel in the market.

Despite a few temporary setbacks, BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) is poised for continued growth. The company’s copper operations, especially the Vicuña Corp project, are gaining momentum. This will help the company establish a strong presence in the growing and high-demand sector. Moreover, the Jansen Stage 1 potash project is expected to begin production in late 2026. This will further help BHP unlock significant long-term value. Despite a major hit to the company’s profits, BHP’s stock has climbed 6.14% year-to-date. Analysts expect a further increase of 2.6% with a 12-month target price of $53.2.

Overall, BHP ranks 10th on our list of best mineral stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of BHP, our conviction lies in the belief that certain AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BHP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

Trade tariffs and economic data continue to capture much of the market's attention, there are also a number of company earnings due out in the coming week.

Alibaba (BABA) is due to release its latest quarterly results, with investors focused on growth in its cloud business, in light of recent developments around the company's artificial intelligence (AI) push.

Quarterly results from retailer Walmart (WMT) will offer investors some insight into shopper sentiment, as inflation ticks up in the US.

In the UK, earnings releases from major banks continue with HSBC (HSBA.L) on Wednesday, with investors looking out for more details on the new CEO's restructuring plans.

Earnings from FTSE-listed (^FTSE) miners will also be in focus this week, with Rio Tinto (RIO.L) among those due to report.

Lloyds (LLOY.L) is another major UK-listed bank set to report this week, though analysts are expecting a fall in pre-tax income.

Here's more on what to look out for:

Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) – Releases third quarter results on Thursday 20 February

Shares in Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) have already surged nearly 50% since the start of the year, as investors cheer the company's drive in AI.

Alibaba's chairman Joseph Tsai confirmed reports on Thursday that the company was partnering with Apple (AAPL) to bring AI to iPhones in China.

"Apple has been very selective. They talked to a number of companies in China, and in the end they choose to do business with us," Tsai reportedly said in an an interview at the World Government Summit in Dubai. "They want to use our AI to power their phones."

Earlier this week, it was reported that Alibaba had denied rumours that it planned to invest in Chinese AI developer DeepSeek. The reports came after Alibaba recently released a new version of its AI-model Qwen 2.5, claiming that it surpassed the DeepSeek-V3 model.

In the second quarter, Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) said that AI-related product revenue within its cloud business grew at triple-digits year-on-year for the fifth consecutive quarter. Overall revenue for this part of the business grew 7% year-on-year to 29.6 billion Chinese yuan (£3.2bn).

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Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The cloud business hasn’t quite reached the heights of its American peers but saw strong profit growth last quarter."

"AI is a key driver of cloud consumption and the emergence of Chinese wannabe, DeepSeek, has caused quite a stir," he said. "The company’s denied its intention to take a stake in the start-up but has also released its own updated AI-engine alongside some punchy performance claims. Against this backdrop, investor sentiment has strengthened materially, so there is some pressure to deliver."

Nathan said that Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) is expected to report revenue growth of 9% in the cloud business for the third quarter.

Alibaba's total revenue in the second quarter rose 5% year-on-year to 236.5 billion Chinese yuan (£25.8bn) and Nathan said this figure is expected to have grown by 7% to 280 billion Chinese yuan in the third quarter.

"Markets find out next week how the eCommerce giant’s core business has performed against a background of strengthening Chinese retail sales," he said.

Walmart (WMT) – Releases fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday 20 February

As one of the world's largest retailers by sales, Walmart's (WMT) results are closely watched on Wall Street, particularly as inflationary pressures persist.

Data released on Wednesday showed that US inflation grew by more than expected in January, with the consumer price index (CPI) rising 3% year-on-year compared to economist estimates of 2.9%.

Investors will, therefore, be looking to Walmart's results to get an idea of consumer health in the US.

Shares closed Thursday's session at a fresh all-time high of $105.05 (£83.25) per share, with the stock up 86% over the past year.

In the third quarter, Walmart posted sales of $169.59bn, besting estimates of $167.5bn. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.58 also beat expectations of $0.53.

Foot traffic grew by 3.1% in the third quarter, compared to estimates of 2.82% and e-commerce sales were up 22%, which was much higher than expectations of 2.22%.

On the back of these strong results, Walmart raised its guidance for the full-year, saying it now expected net sales to grow by between 4.8% and 5.1%.

The retailer guided to adjusted earnings per share of between $2.42 and $2.47, which was up from previous estimates in the range of $2.35 and $2.43.

HSBC (HSBA.L) – Releases full-year results on Wednesday 19 February

Georges Elhedery unveiled an overhaul of HSBC's (HSBA.L) structure in October, shortly after taking over as the bank's CEO.

The restructure divided the bank into four businesses as of the start of the year: Hong Kong, UK, corporate and institutional banking, as well as international wealth and premier banking.

HSBC (HSBA.L) said this was aimed at reducing the "duplication of processes and decision making" in the business.

Investors will be looking for more details on the changes when the bank releases its full-year results on Wednesday.

The Financial Times reported on Friday that the bank was preparing to unveil $1.5bn of annual cost savings from the restructuring in this week's results.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that HSBC (HSBA.L) was planning to start a new round of job cuts at its investment bank this week.

A spokesperson for HSBC (HSBA.L) had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.

In the third quarter, HSBC posted a 10% jump in quarterly pre-tax profits to $8.5bn and announced an additional $3bn share buyback plan.

However, the bank's net interest income (NII) — the gap between what it pays out to savers and borrowers in interest — fell 17% compared to the same quarter last year and its net interest margin declined by 1.46%.

Looking to the upcoming results, Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said: "Deposit trends are worth keeping in mind, savers have been easing off their transition to longer term accounts, but HSBC is more sensitive to migration than its peers.

"Loan defaults will also be a hot topic with HSBC seeing its market leading credit quality slip a little of late."

"To the 2024 numbers, $65.2bn in net operating income is expected to generate around $31.7bn of profit before tax," he added.

Rio Tinto (RIO.L) – Releases full-year results on Wednesday 19 February

Rio Tinto (RIO.L) is one of three major FTSE-listing (^FTSE) mining companies reporting this week, along with Antofagasta (ANTO.L) and Glencore (GLEN.L).

AJ Bell's investment experts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth said that concerns around China's economy and its demand for raw materials, as well as cost price inflation and mixed commodity prices have weighed on the mining sector over the past year.

"Rio Tinto’s biggest earner is iron ore where the price is down by nearly a fifth in the past 12 months, a trend that swamps gains in its other key metals of aluminium and copper," they said.

One story that has been in focus for investors recently has been reports that Rio Tinto and Glencore had held talks about a potential merger, though it was said discussions did not progress.

AJ Bell's Mould, Hewson and Coatsworth said: "Rio Tinto’s management will doubtless be keen to keep any such advances at more than an arm’s length … and shareholders seem happier for miners to keep a tight rein on spending and mergers and acquisitions, even after the substantial reductions in debt and improvements in balance sheets of the past decade or so."

That said, investors will be looking for an update on how Rio Tinto's $6.7bn acquisition of Arcadium Lithium is progressing.

As for company performance, AJ Bell's investment experts said that Rio Tinto's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2024 and 2025 is expected to come in broadly flat at $23bn to $24bn. Meanwhile, the miner's full-year dividend for last year is expected to fall to $3.86, which would be its lowest level since 2018.

"No increase is expected in 2025 either, as Rio digests Arcadium and works on several major projects, including Pilbara, the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, the Simandou iron ore venture in Guinea and expansion at the Argentinian Rincon lithium mine, where first production began last November and Rio’s board has approved a $2.5bn budget to ramp up production to 60,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year," they said.

"As a final point, Palliser Capital has been agitating for Rio Tinto to shift its primary stock market listing to New York, they added. "Little has come of this campaign, but it will be interesting to see if [CEO Jakob] Stausholm acknowledges it in his commentary."

Lloyds (LLOY.L) – Releases full-year results on Thursday 20 February

Barclays (BARC.L) and NatWest (NWG.L) both beat expectations with their results this week, though share price falls following their releases suggest this wasn't enough to impress investors.

Investor attention now turning to Lloyds, which is expected to report a fall in pre-tax income for the year to £6.4bn ($8.07bn), down from £7.5bn in 2023, with a further drop to £5.5bn forecast for 2025.

AJ Bell's Mould, Hewson and Coatsworth said the expected fall is "thanks in part to a decline in net interest margins (as the Bank of England slowly cuts headline rates) and provisions relating to the Financial Conduct Authority’s investigation into the car financing market."

They said that analysts believe NII for the year will come in at £12.8bn, which would be down from £13.8bn in 2023 and expect Lloyds to report a figure of £13.4bn for 2025.

"Litigation and conduct costs have also been minimal in 2024, but analysts and investors will be on the look-out here for any comments on the car financing market, where Lloyds took a £450m provision in the final period of 2023," they said. "The government has sought to intervene to cap any fine, but the Supreme Court will sit in judgement here in early April."

"Analysts expect another hit in 2025, when conduct costs are seen rising to £1.5bn from £440m in 2024 and £675m in 2023," they added.

As for cash returns, analysts are expecting Lloyds to declare a total dividend of 3.09p for 2024, which would be up from 2.65p in 2023, as well as a £2bn buyback.

"Such bumper cash returns, with the prospect of more to come in 2025, may be the biggest reason of all behind the storming share price performance across all of the FTSE 100’s (^FTSE) Big Five banks, although it will be interesting to see if the torrent of buybacks abates now the shares are no longer as cheap as they were," they said.

Other companies reporting this week include:

Monday 17 February

Wilmington (WIL.L)

BHP (BHP.L)

Transocean (RIG)

Anglo American Platinum (AGPPF)

Tuesday 18 February

Glencore (GLEN.L)

InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L)

Springfield Properties (SPR.L)

Baidu (9888.HK)

Capgemini cap.pa (CAP.PA)

Kerry Group (KRZ.IR)

Medtronic (MDT)

Cadence Design (CDNS)

Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

Toll Brothers (TOL)

Wednesday 19 February

BAE Systems (BA.L)

Philips (PHIA.AS)

Tenaris (TEN.MI)

Hochtief (HOT.DE)

Carrefour (CA.PA)

Analog Devices (ADI)

Carvana (CVNA)

CF Industries (CF)

AngloGold Ashanti (AU)

Alamos Gold (AGI)

Bausch & Lomb (BLCO)

Thursday 20 February

Centrica (CNA.L)

Mondi (MNDI.L)

Indivior (INDV.L)

Safestore (SAFE.L)

Lenovo (0992.HK)

Singapore Airlines (SIA1.SG)

Telstra (TLS.AX)

Schneider (SU.PA)

Airbus (AIR.PA)

Zurich (ZURN.SW)

Mercedes Benz (MBG.DE)

Renault (RNO.PA)

Repsol (REP.MC)

Accor (AC.PA)

Aegon (AGN.AS)

BE Semiconductor (BESI.AS)

Krones (KRN.DE)

Mercado Libre (MELI)

Nu (NU)

Newmont (NEM)

Cameco (CCJ)

Rivian (RIVN)

Baxter (BAX)

Life Nation (LYV)

Birkenstock (BIRK)

Dropbox (DBX)

Hasbro (HAS)

Shake Shack (SHAK)

Friday 21 February

Standard Chartered (STAN.L)

Air Liquide (AI.PA)

EDF (EDF)

Sika (SKFOF)

Kingspan (KGSPF)

Constellation Energy (CEG)

You can read Yahoo Finance's full calendar here.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.

We recently published a list of 10 Best Mineral Stocks to Buy Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) stands against other best mineral stocks to buy right now.

Methodology

Is Compass Minerals International, Inc. (CMP) the Best Mineral Stock to Buy Right Now?

A close up of an essential mineral being extracted from a large rock wall.

Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 24

A producer of essential minerals, Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP), specializes in salt and plant nutrition products. Major assets operated by the company include the Goderich mine in Ontario, which is the world’s largest underground salt mine, and the Ogden facility in Utah, which is North America’s top producer of sulfate of potash.

For Q4 ended September 30, 2024, Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) reported an 11% year-over-year decline in revenue. Due to mild winter conditions that reduced salt demand and prefill activity, the company’s revenue fell to $208.8 million, and adjusted EBITDA came in at $15.6 million for the quarter. However, for the full year, despite weather challenges, the salt segment saw a 10% increase in revenue per ton. This brought the full-year revenue to $1.1 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose to $228 million.

Aside from reduced salt demand, a major reason for the depressed financial performance in 2024 was the termination of the company’s lithium project. Even though the decision for a strategic shift allowed the company to refocus on its core business, it also incurred associated costs and impairments.

For the year 2025, Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) plans to increase sales volume by 9%. The company has projected adjusted EBITDA to range between $225 million and $250 million. Cash flows would also be improved through the company’s efforts to restore the Ogden Plant Nutrition complex. This will improve SOP production consistency and lower all-in product costs. Additionally, to strengthen cash flow during mild winter conditions, the company is exploring debt refinancing and a more flexible covenant structure.

Overall, CMP ranks 9th on our list of best mineral stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of CMP, our conviction lies in the belief that certain AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CMP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Here are three stocks added to the Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) List today:

ASGN Incorporated ASGN provides IT services. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings has been revised 7.2% downward over the last 60 days.

BHP Group Limited BHP is a resources company that operates in Petroleum, Copper, Iron Ore, and Coal segments. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings has been revised 13.4% downward over the last 60 days.

Cimpress plc CMPR is a mass customizer of printing and related products. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings has been revised 13.4% downward over the last 60 days.

View the entire Zacks Rank #5 List.

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Zacks Investment Research

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -BHP, the world's biggest listed mining company, said on Wednesday that former National Australia Bank CEO Ross McEwan would be its new chairman, replacing Ken MacKenzie, who will step down on March 31.

In his new role, McEwan is expected to be tasked with overseeing the selection of BHP's next CEO and will need to consider whether the company resurrects plans to buy rival Anglo American after a $49 billion offer failed last year.

McEwan has been a non-executive director at BHP since April 2024 after five years running NAB, Australia's second-largest bank, and its biggest business lender. He has also held the top job at Royal Bank of Scotland.

The New Zealand-born banker was installed as CEO of NAB after a damaging royal commission inquiry into poor business practices in 2019, and was widely seen as reviving the bank’s standing with investors with a simplification programme.

He is currently a director of defence technology company QinetiQ Group and Australian plumbing and bathroom products supplier Reece.

McEwan is likely to oversee the process of finding a replacement for CEO Mike Henry who is entering his fifth year at the helm of BHP, where tenure in the top job averages about six years.

MacKenzie was with BHP for nine years and has been chair for the last eight. He oversaw BHP's failed offer for Anglo, its recovery from the Samarco dam disaster in Brazil, the unification of its structure to a single Australian listing, the approval of major investments in Canadian potash and a workforce that is approaching gender equity.

"I think he’s done a really good job over that time," said Andy Forster of Argo Investments in Sydney. “He brought in a lot of operational discipline, really focused on returns and capital allocation."

MacKenzie's decision to step down probably lowered the chances of BHP making another tilt at Anglo, said two other investors who were not authorised to speak to media.

MacKenzie told the company's annual general meeting on October 30 that BHP had "moved on" from pursuing Anglo, although the company subsequently backtracked in a filing to regulators.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne. Additional reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Jamie Freed)

(Bloomberg) — BHP Group has appointed Ross McEwan as chairman, replacing Ken MacKenzie who will retire from the board at the end of next month.

Most Read from Bloomberg

MacKenzie has led BHP’s board since September 2017, when he replaced former Ford Motor Co boss Jac Nasser, a veteran executive who spent a tumultuous seven years in the position. MacKenzie focused on lifting investor returns, repairing investor confidence and, later, overseeing a cautious return to growth.

His tenure included the divestment of the company’s vast oil and gas portfolio, but also its return to acquisitions and the audacious bid for Anglo American Plc.

MacKenzie’s retirement leaves decisions on future purchases to McEwan, who will also likely be the one to help select an eventual successor for BHP’s chief executive, Mike Henry, who has been in the role since early 2020.

McEwan, a former chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Scotland and National Australia Bank Ltd., has been a non-executive director on BHP’s board since April 2024.

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Participants

Brent Collins; Vice President – Investor Relations; Compass Minerals International Inc

Edward Dowling; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Compass Minerals International Inc

Presentation

Operator

Hello and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Compass Minerals first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instruction) I would now like to turn the conference over to Brent Collins, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Brent Collins

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to the Compass Minerals fiscal 2025 first quarter earnings conference call. Today we will discuss our recent results and update our outlook for fiscal 2025. We will begin with prepared remarks from our President and CEO Edward Dowling and our CFO, Peter Fjellman. Joining in for the question-and-answer portion of the call will be Ben Nichols, our Chief Sales Officer, and Jenny Hood, chief supply chain officer. Before we get started, I will remind everyone that the remarks we make today reflect financial and operational outlooks as of today's date February 11, 2025. These outlooks entail assumptions and expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially. The discussion of these risks can be found in our SEC filings located online at investors.compassminerals.com. Our remarks today also include certain non-gap financial measures. You can find reconciliations of these items in our earnings release or in our presentation, both of which are also available online. I will now turn the call over to Ed.

Edward Dowling

Thank you, Brent. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our call today. Before I begin, I want to make a few comments about the senior leadership petitions we announced a couple of weeks ago. An important aspect of executing on our back to basic strategy is operational discipline and intense focus on continuous improvement. The appointments of Pat Maron and Peter Feldman as COO and CFO respectively, bring two executives to Compass Minerals with proven track records of leading teams and building cultures focused on disciplined operational management. That will join the company officially in early March. Peter's been with the company a short time and is quickly getting up to speed. He's with us on the call today. I am excited about these auditions and these two leaders to our core team and look forward to their contributions to the company. Peter is succeeding Jeff Cathy, who stepped down for personal reasons, though we will continue to benefit from his knowledge as he serves in a consulting room for the next several months. Jeff first served as a Chief Accounting Officer and then as CFO, and he was instrumental in leading the finance and accounting organization through a number of important matters. On behalf of Compass Minerals, I want to thank Jeff for his many contributions to the company, and I wish him well in his future endeavors. I'll start with making a few comments on the business, beginning with our salt business. Consistent with prior comments we've made, one important area of focus this year has been the flexibly manage the business and to reduce our absolute inventory levels of highway deicing salt. You'll recall that this was a key driver in a decision to curtail production at Godrich mine in 2024. Reducing inventory obviously has the benefit of freeing cash that is hung up in working capital. It also helps remove supply demand balance in the market that is long on supply following last year's weak winter. Salt is like any other commodity. When there's too much of it in the system, it will weigh on price, all things being equal. We're making good progress in reducing our inventory volumes with North American highway deicing inventory volume down approximately 10% year over year, and that is despite the fact that winter began slower than we'd hoped in October and November. We typically see both prefill activity and replenishment early. In the fiscal first quarter generated by early snow events. Unfortunately, we really didn't see any weather in our certain markets early in the quarter to drive our orders, given that large parts of our customer base had adequate inventory following last year's exceptionally mild winter. December saw an increase in winter weather that was consistent with the 10 year average in our sort of markets and it's significantly above what we saw last year. Looking outside the quarter, we saw winter weather further strengthened in January, which allowed us to claw back some of the shortfall from the first quarter. We'll see how the rest of winter deicing season progresses, and that will inform our production plans for the coming year. One new factor that could influence production plan is the tariff on Canadian imports that the US administration announced and then quickly paused last week. And the impact that this would have on both salt and SOP produced in Canada and sold in the US should the tariff eventually be implemented. There's obviously a lot of details to work through, but I'll share a few of our initial thoughts regarding our highway deicing business. We don't expect the tariff would materially impact the current year deicing season as the inventory is largely forward deployed and available for our customers. It does have the potential impact next year as we will need to produce and then move salt across our deep network. We're evaluating options to minimize the more immediate impacts such as tariffs could have on our CNI chemical, and yard served SOP business. As we see, this matter will likely be very dynamic for some time, and we'll continue to monitor it closely. As the situation continues to evolve and settle out, we will update the investment community as appropriate. In the plant nutrition business, we've talked in the past about the goal of restoring the pond complex at Ogden. This is a multi-year process that we engaged with for several years, and focus is improving consistency of the grade of SOP raw materials going to the plant. Acknowledging that this has not been a quick recovery process, there are beginning to see positive results from these efforts which are having an impact on our cost structure. The site has been focused on finding opportunities to improve operational efficiency. While pricing in the quarter was a little weaker than expected. We had stronger sales volumes and lower costs that allowed us to exceed forecast. In this turns enabling us to increase guidance for this segment. At Ports, we continue to evaluate all options for the business, including ongoing discussions with the US Forest Service regarding the evaluation and testing of the company's conditionally qualified technical grade orthophosphate-based aerial fire-retardant cola. With respect to guidance, we're moving the range for a total adjusted EBITDA down by roughly $15 million. The main driver of this change is a lighter start in sales and our salt business tribunal to the mild weather in October and November I mentioned earlier. Again, January came in better than forecast. We included some of that outperformance into our revised guidance. Plant nutrition is up by about $4 million based on the factors previously mentioned. Corporate even is even unchanged from what we guided in December. To offset this reduction in adjusted EBITDA, the company is reducing the range of capital gains by approximately $25 million. When we laid out our guidance for the year in the last earnings call, we noted that we had sculpted the CapEx program such that we could modify our spend to adjust to how the deicing season shaped up, and we're pulling that lever as a vision. I'll note that the operational initiatives are underway to improve reliability and lower costs, which will have a positive impact on CapEx over time. We're already seeing benefits for some of that work. Respect to the balance sheet, our plan remains to refinance our debt stack this year with the intention of restructuring in a way that better aligns with our current strategy. We believe that we'll be able to move forward with a structure that provides more flexibility around our covenants. Our vision for compost minerals remains unchanged. To build a company that generates free cash flow, even mild winters, strong free cash flow during normal winters and outstanding cash flow and strong winners. We have more work to do to get there, but the company's made important strides over the past several quarters for improving areas that we have the most ability to influence. So differently, we're doing a better job at controlling the controllables. I'll expect our progress on this front to continue and accelerate with the arrival of Pat and Peter. Remain focused on delivering on our back to basic strategy. I'm excited about the progress we're making in the organization to execute on that goal. With that, I'll turn the call over to Peter.

Thanks, Ed. Good morning to everyone. I'm extremely excited to be joining Compass Minerals and working with the team here. My background and skill set align well with the back to basic strategy that the company has embarked on. I want to echo the sentiments shared by Ed earlier about Jeff. He's been incredibly helpful and generous with his time and knowledge as we transition the role. I'll comment briefly on the financial results for the quarter before turning the call over for Q&A. For the first quarter, consolidated revenue was $307 million down 10% year over year. It's important to remember that the fiscal first quarter of 2024 included contribution related to Fortress from the US Forest Service contract we had in that year. From an operating earnings perspective, we essentially broke even in the current quarter. Consolidated net loss was $24 million and adjusted EBITDA was approximately $32 million for the quarter. Drilling down into the segment results in the salt business, revenue in the first quarter was $242 million compared to $274 million a year ago. Pricing was up 1% year over year to approximately $97 per ton, with volumes down 13% compared to the prior year period. Net revenue per ton, which accounts for distribution costs, increased 3% to over $68. On a per ton basis, operating earnings came in lower year over year at $11.79 per ton, down 34%. While adjusted EBITDA per ton decreased 17% to $19.17. The decrease in margin reflects the increase in production cost per ton due to the curtailment of production at Goddard's mine last year. In the plant nutrition business, revenue for the first quarter was $61 million which is up 24% year over year from $50 million. Sales volumes were up 36% from prior year periods while pricing was down 9%. Distribution costs per ton decreased 2% to around $91.50 per ton, and all in production costs per ton decreased 10%. At quarter end, we had liquidity of $126 million comprised of $46 million of cash and a revolver capacity of around $80 million. At quarter end, the consolidated net leverage ratio was 5.9 times within the company's net leverage covenant of 6.5 times. Last week, the company had approximately $195 million of liquidity with $65 million of cash and $130 million of revolver capacity. With that, I'll turn the call over for questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We kindly ask that you limit your questions to one and one follow up. We'll take our first question from the line of David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. Ed, given the recent, winter weather activity, can you kind of frame the outlook for highway the icing volumes, in both Q2 as well as the full year?

Edward Dowling

Well, we're in the February now. January was, I mean, as we said, October, November were not good months for us. The winter really didn't materialize in our sort of markets. December was a really solid month for us, really being relatively equal to our 10 year average. January was really great and A really mainly in our southern markets, the storm tracks, largely in the south, and of course now what we've been seeing more recently, the storm tracks are really into our core serve markets and you know we hope that sort of continues. The, we'll see, so February is looking pretty good so far. We'll have to see how March, lays out and we'll, and have that effect on inventory. We'll do our production planning, based on really how we sort of wrap up the season kind of at the end of. March.

Very good. And just on fortress, when you say conditionally qualified, what does that actually Mean?

Edward Dowling

There is several steps that the Forest Service uses to prove products. The first step is sort of a lab-based product to conditionally qualify it. There's several, really things that go into that. Once that is conditionally qualified, which it is, then you take it into the field through what's called the operational field evaluation OFE and that's what we're talking to the [forest] right now. Jenny, you want to add anything to that?

I'll just as part of the field evaluation, the OFE [that just mentioned] during that process, they'll also be doing integration testing with the legacy retardants that are in the market. Thanks.

And is this, does this mean you've solved the corrosion issues you highlighted last year, what they highlighted Last year?

Edward Dowling

It's a different base chemistry, initially the chemistry was a magnesium chloride based chemistry, and that's where, we were all surprised about this time last year to learn when we were very close to having a contract that inspection of the airplanes found the corrosion. That investigation's still going on, we can't comment on it because it's going on within the [NTSB]. What we're talking about with [Quela], it is a different chemistry based on a phosphate type chemistry, and it's been through the testing and evaluation, which is obviously getting a lot more scrutiny given where we ended up last year. So, Jenny anything you want to add to that?

No, thanks Ed.

Operator

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. I'm fixing a call head and team. First question Surprised that you lowered your full year of volume guidance, and it is snowing a fair bit. I live in Toronto, as I'm shopping a lot. We're all hoping a lot and talking about it. American rock salts have issue with production, right? It seems like there's some shortages in western New York. Understand that we started light the beginning of the winter in December, but I'm surprised that you lowered your volume guidance considering everything going on. Can you talk about that?

Edward Dowling

Well, it's just what we've done is, we're not weather forecasters and can't project going forward. What we're doing, in the past, you'll recall we were using more of a distributed approach to guidance. What we're doing is, as we have talked about in the past, a little different approach to it now where we're given the shortfall in the first quarter. We're really, we've taken that, we have added a little bit back in January, and that's kind of what we're saying right now. Now, if we have knock out February and knockout March, we'll probably adjust it back up. But we're just being careful. About it.

Okay, my second question can be two parts. The first part we following up on that, but you gave guidance in the middle of December, and it's only snowed very strongly since then. That's why I'm surprised you lowered your volume, guide. And the second question is, Ed, talk about what you're doing on [SGNA] because that's been a big focus of yours when you came in about a year or 15 months ago, and [SGNA] in the first quarter was extremely flat with [SGNA]and fiscal quarter of 2024. So what progress are you making and can you make on [SGNA]?

Edward Dowling

Yeah, we are, we have made progress at [SGNA], if you think about the sort of the headcount, we're down, probably about 80% running with a team of about 80% of the number of people that we had here not too distant past. The what's been offsetting us are things. Like legal costs associated with some of the class action lawsuits and things like that has been all setting sort of [SGNA]. It remains a really important focus for. It's a very active discussion going on with management as we speak.

And just (Multiple speakers)

Edward Dowling

Yeah, I was just going to say in the middle of December to kind of follow up on that, we really was, we did that in mid-December, we would only closed in October. Before that, right?

Okay, thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Zajkaowshi with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Can you talk about what's going on in your accounts receivable line? And you know where you expect that to go? And likewise, do you have targets for where you want to bring your inventories down to?

Edward Dowling

Yeah, well, we can tell you that we talked inventories a lot. We are bringing them down, we'll bring them down to lower than historical norms, that liberate the casts associated with that. Brent, you want to add anything to that?

Brent Collins

I think that's right Ed, just where the winner is tracking all things being equal and if you kind of take the midpoint of our guidance, you know that's relative to last year, that's roughly half million tons alone on the demand profile. So, we're also taking actions at the mine that you've seen published and we anticipate to draw the inventories down.

Edward Dowling

Significantly.

Yes, we continue to run Godrich at the curtailed rate. And we won't ramp it back up until we've got a better, level on our inventory. You want to talk to AR.

Brent Collins

Yeah, Jeffrey. So, AR that's just sales. So, as we talked about in the remarks, October and November were pretty light, but December was a strong month. So that's just the cash conversion cycle of things coming out of inventory, going up into accounts receivable, and then we'll start collecting that here in the 2nd quarter.

Okay, and then it looks like you're I don't know if you're deferring $25 million in CapEx or canceling $25million in CapEx. Okay, can you talk about what it is that you're not spending and whether You will see that in the Future

The, let me remind everybody that we last year we installed a more disciplined approach to capital where we rank projects based on really the risk associated with kind of not doing the project and we're not going to cut environmental health or safety. Let's just say that. And we do get emergency capital requests that come through that we have to have a provision for. What we're talking about are projects that we've ranked from kind of higher risk to lower risk that are in the capital plan for 2025. And what we're planning at this point is not doing about $25 million worth of that with the lower end of those projects which would have scored lower in terms of that risk profile. Now they'll probably show back up in 2026 and we'll go through that process again. So, we put the process in place last year, what we've done this year is organize our capital plan so that we could ramp it up or ramp it down depending on how the year went. Given the first quarter was behind plan, we have ramped it down accordingly.

Great. Thank you.

Brent Collins

Hey, Jeff, this is Brent. I did want to clarify one thing on the accounts receivable that I was, I think about. So, on the product recall that we announced that was disclosed last quarter, the way the accounting for that works is that you, we expect that to be covered by insurance. The way that you have to handle that from an accounting perspective is you have to do a gross-up of the claim and then the receivable. So that could be something that you're seeing there is that there's just a gross up on the balance sheet to reflect that.

How much is that?

Brent Collins

$35 million grossed up

Okay, thanks.

Operator

Our final question will come from the line of David C. Silver with C.L. King & Associates. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, thank you. I do have a couple of questions. So, the first one would be about your managing your salt business through the balance of the winter season. In reading through the Press release a couple of words that I don't usually see their toggle and tariffs. And when I think about it, I'm guessing officially the tariffs would not kick in until, I don't know, March 3rd or 4th in a worst-case scenario. And in the meantime, I'm guessing that you are leveraging, the code blanche production to kind of meet the needs in your target market area, marketing radius to the greatest extent possible, but could you just kind of talk through, why would the tariffs, at least for this winter. Be an issue in kind of a worst-case scenario. In other words, between now and March 4th, you can produce and position and then you can run code blanche or toggle, I guess running code blanche a little harder and moving product up the river, but between the toggles and the tariffs, what is kind of a, what do you fear, I guess, at least in terms of The current winter season, through March 31st or April, my assumption is you should be able to get through unscathed, but is there kind of a worst case scenario there? Thank you.

Edward Dowling

Yeah, thanks. David C, in terms of the highway day icing, we don't really see much risk associated with tariffs for this fiscal year. As we said, most of our inventory is already forward, from Godrich in Canada, is already forward deployed so that the customers can access it this year. We're going to have to see what happens with an [N and F] the tariffs are reinstated here in a month or so you need to be prepared for that. You mentioned one potential contingency, and this would be really more for next year, not this year, but some flexibility associated with Cote blanche to serve some of our historical markets. And but there would be over time a reordering that would happen within the serve markets for all the salt producers. We just have to see what happens and there's many potential scenarios that come out of that. We did mention that products made from like our SOP product and and CNI product made in Canada and imported into the US. Could be affected through tariffs this year and there's scenarios where that could be both negative, obviously, but it could, ironically it could end up being positive for SOP produced in Utah. So we'll just have to see how it goes.

Okay, thank you for that. Next question would be, maybe a follow up to on a certain extent to the CapEx question, but then also, about your SOP business in particular so. The wording in the press release indicated that I don't know, remediation or repair efforts, and I apologize, I forget the exact term, but you're doing things with the SOP ponds and what not that are, generating some better results. You also talked about, optimizing the use of KCL. So, I'm kind of scratching my head, but within the context of knocking or taking $25 million out of the CapEx budget. I mean, are the efforts or are the steps you're taking at Ogden on the SOP business, are those capital projects or is the spending that you're doing there actually flowing through the income statement by quarter? So just, maybe a comment on what most recently you've done at Ogden and the SOP ponds that are generating better results and then how does that kind of play into the capital budget that you've established, as of this quarter.

Edward Dowling

[Jake], thanks for the question. We've been working for some time to restore the, that's the word we're using, restore the health of the ponds that we mine, basically scrape up the material and to really control the brine chemistry more properly, along with a prudent use of KCL which does help that restoration. That's really the first step in terms of restoring this business to its historical level of business performance. And what we're really pointing out is after a year of work, and of course remember this is a multi-year cycle, we're seeing the benefits of that. What we're seeing is what we expected to see is higher grade SOP in the material that we mine and send to the plant. Now there's two plants. There's a wet plant, where we separate SOP from magnesium chloride. Then the SOP then goes over to the dry plant. There will be some capital projects in that dry plant in the future to get the water, really the moisture in the SOP right for compaction when operating that plant for some period of time in a less than optimal a process in terms of the moisture feeding compaction. And we suffer losses associated with that. So, we are seeing benefits now, the operating costs just by managing our business better. That's more just operating costs. In the future, we will have capital costs, and this is not something that we want to defer. There are really two really critical sort of business projects that we want to do on the capital side. One, as I mentioned, the dry plant at Ogden, which will help us reduce our costs even more. The second, which is really a sustainability project, is the relocation at Godrich mine, which will occur probably in 2027. So, we're preparing to do those projects, doing the engineering right and We are spending capital on those, but those projects themselves will be coming in the future.

Operator

And that will conclude our question-and-answer session and with that I'll turn the call back over to Ed Dowling for closing remarks.

Edward Dowling

Okay, thank you for your interest in Compass Minerals. Please don't hesitate to reach out to Brent if you have any follow up questions. We look forward to speaking to you. In the next quarter. Thanks very much.

Operator

That will conclude today's call. Thank you all for joining and you may now disconnect.

Consolidated Revenue: $307 million, down 10% year over year.
Net Loss: $24 million for the quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA: Approximately $32 million for the quarter.
Salt Business Revenue: $242 million, compared to $274 million a year ago.
Salt Business Pricing: Up 1% year over year to approximately $97 per ton.
Salt Business Volumes: Down 13% compared to the prior year period.
Salt Business Operating Earnings per Ton: $11.79, down 34% year over year.
Salt Business Adjusted EBITDA per Ton: $19.17, down 17% year over year.
Plant Nutrition Revenue: $61 million, up 24% year over year.
Plant Nutrition Sales Volumes: Up 36% from prior year periods.
Plant Nutrition Pricing: Down 9% year over year.
Liquidity at Quarter End: $126 million, with $46 million in cash and $80 million in revolver capacity.
Net Leverage Ratio: 5.9 times, within the covenant of 6.5 times.

Warning! GuruFocus has detected 9 Warning Signs with CMP.

Release Date: February 11, 2025

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Positive Points

Compass Minerals International Inc (NYSE:CMP) successfully reduced North American highway deicing inventory volumes by approximately 10% year over year, freeing up cash and improving supply-demand balance.
The company reported stronger sales volumes and lower costs in the plant nutrition business, allowing them to exceed forecasts and increase guidance for this segment.
CMP is making progress in restoring the pond complex at Ogden, which is beginning to show positive results and impact on cost structure.
The company is implementing a disciplined approach to capital expenditure, allowing flexibility to adjust spending based on seasonal performance.
CMP is focused on improving operational efficiency and reliability, which is expected to have a positive impact on capital expenditure over time.

Negative Points

Consolidated revenue for the first quarter was down 10% year over year, primarily due to a lighter start in sales in the salt business attributed to mild weather in October and November.
The company reported a consolidated net loss of $24 million for the quarter, with adjusted EBITDA at approximately $32 million.
Salt business revenue decreased to $242 million from $274 million a year ago, with volumes down 13% compared to the prior year period.
Pricing in the plant nutrition business was weaker than expected, despite stronger sales volumes.
CMP lowered its full-year volume guidance due to a slow start to the winter season, despite recent strong snow activity.

Q & A Highlights

Q: Given the recent winter weather activity, can you frame the outlook for highway deicing volumes in both Q2 and the full year? A: Edward Dowling, CEO: January was strong, especially in southern markets, and February is looking promising. We’ll assess inventory and production plans based on how the season concludes in March.

Q: What does “conditionally qualified” mean for Fortress? A: Edward Dowling, CEO: It refers to the initial lab-based approval by the Forest Service. The next step is the operational field evaluation, which includes integration testing with existing retardants.

Q: Why did you lower your full-year volume guidance despite recent snow activity? A: Edward Dowling, CEO: We are cautious with guidance due to the slow start in October and November. If February and March perform well, we may adjust guidance upwards.

Q: Can you discuss the accounts receivable line and inventory targets? A: Edward Dowling, CEO: We aim to reduce inventories below historical norms to free up cash. Brent Collins, VP of Investor Relations, added that accounts receivable reflects sales timing and a $35 million insurance-related gross-up.

Q: Are you deferring or canceling $25 million in CapEx, and what projects are affected? A: Peter Fjellman, CFO: We are deferring lower-risk projects from the 2025 capital plan. These may reappear in 2026, depending on the year’s performance.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

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Compass Minerals (CMP) came out with a quarterly loss of $0.55 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $0.05. This compares to earnings of $0.05 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -1,000%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this minerals producer would post a loss of $0.46 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.77, delivering a surprise of -67.39%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once.

Compass , which belongs to the Zacks Chemical – Diversified industry, posted revenues of $307.2 million for the quarter ended December 2024, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.53%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $341.7 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Compass shares have added about 7.1% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 2.5%.

What's Next for Compass?

While Compass has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Compass: mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.33 on $397 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.33 on $1.15 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Chemical – Diversified is currently in the bottom 7% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Another stock from the same industry, Stepan Co. (SCL), has yet to report results for the quarter ended December 2024. The results are expected to be released on February 19.

This specialty chemicals company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.35 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +6.1%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 20% lower over the last 30 days to the current level.

Stepan Co.'s revenues are expected to be $512.55 million, down 3.7% from the year-ago quarter.

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Zacks Investment Research

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Compass Minerals International Inc. (CMP) on Monday reported a loss of $23.6 million in its fiscal first quarter.

The Overland Park, Kansas-based company said it had a loss of 57 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 55 cents per share.

The minerals producer posted revenue of $307.2 million in the period.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CMP at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CMP

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., February 10, 2025–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP), a leading global provider of essential minerals, today reported fiscal 2025 first-quarter results.

Unless otherwise noted, it should be assumed that time periods referenced below are on a fiscal-year basis.

MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY

"This quarter we began to see results from our back-to-basics strategy and initiatives to reduce inventory volumes, improve our cost structure, and enhance profitability. Our efforts are expected to further strengthen our future financial performance, leveraging our exceptional set of unique assets that are virtually irreplaceable, enjoy durable competitive advantages and have strong leadership positions in their respective marketplaces," said Edward C. Dowling Jr., president and CEO.

"We made good progress on our goals of reducing our North American salt inventory volumes and improving the cost structure in our Plant Nutrition business. Despite a slow start to the winter deicing season, we saw salt inventory volumes decline 10% year over year through December and we still have a significant portion of the deicing season in front of us. We're well positioned to continue to reduce inventory levels in coming months, and our ability to toggle production at Goderich and Cote Blanche mines provides the flexibility to adjust production to meet increased demand next year if we see a stronger winter season. In Plant Nutrition, the efforts we are making to manage costs are taking root, which is enabling us to increase adjusted EBITDA guidance for the segment despite a decline in expected pricing due to softness in the MOP market. We will continue to focus on systems and processes where we can improve profitability and financial performance."

"We have a number of cost reduction initiatives underway to continue to drive down operating, capital, and general and administrative costs. Through operational and financial discipline and a commitment to continuous improvement, I'm confident we will improve the cash generation capability and unlock the intrinsic value embedded in our business."

QUARTERLY FINANCIAL RESULTS

(in millions, except per share data)	Three Months EndedDec. 31, 2024			Three Months EndedDec. 31, 2023
Revenue	$	307.2		$	341.7
Operating earnings (loss)		0.5			(53.6	)
Adjusted operating earnings*		1.4			24.8
Adjusted EBITDA*		32.1			62.2
Net loss		(23.6	)		(75.3	)
Net loss per diluted share		(0.57	)		(1.83	)
Adjusted net (loss) earnings*		(22.9	)		3.1
Adjusted net (loss) earnings* per diluted share		(0.55	)		0.07
*Non-GAAP financial measure. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure are provided in tables at the end of this press release.

SALT BUSINESS COMMENTARY

Reducing North American highway deicing salt inventory volumes has been a focus for Compass Minerals, which led to the company's decision to curtail production at Goderich mine and to a lesser extent Cote Blanche mine in 2024. The company is gaining traction on this initiative with North American highway deicing inventory volumes down 10% year over year despite a delayed start to the winter deicing season. The curtailment of production at Goderich mine resulted in higher cost production per ton, due to lower fixed cost absorption, being inventoried throughout 2024. As the company begins to sell this higher cost 2024 inventory, there is an impact to cost per ton that is reflected in the results below. Compass Minerals' view is the benefits to the company from reducing excess inventory, including harvesting working capital tied up inventory and contributing to a rebalancing of supply across the market, outweigh the transient production cost per ton impacts from curtailing production.

Winter weather was late in arriving in the first quarter, with minimal snow event activity occurring in the company's served markets in October and November. With customer inventories full following last year's exceptionally mild deicing season, the slow start to winter weather resulted in lower sales volumes during the first quarter of fiscal 2025 compared to prior year.

The factors above contributed to operating earnings declining 42% year over year to $29.4 million and adjusted EBITDA decreasing to $47.8 million, down 28% from the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA per ton declined 17% to $19.17.

Salt revenue totaled $242.2 million and was down 12% year over year, driven by a 13% year-over-year sales volume decline, partially offset by a 1% increase in average sales price. In the highway deicing business, the company's disciplined approach to pricing throughout the 2025 deicing bid season resulted in only a 1% decrease in average highway deicing selling price despite high inventory levels across the broader market following two mild winters, including one of the mildest winters in the company's served markets in nearly a quarter century. Sales volumes declined 12% due to a combination of low pre-fill activity and mild weather in October and November. Consumer and industrial (C&I) pricing rose 6% year over year to approximately $206 per ton, while sales volumes declined by 14%, primarily due to lower retail deicing demand reflecting the aforementioned mild weather across the company's served markets.

Distribution costs per ton decreased 2% year over year, while all-in product costs (defined at the segment level as sales to external customers less distribution costs less operating earnings) per ton rose 16% from the comparable prior-year quarter due to the production cost dynamics for 2024-produced salt described above.

PLANT NUTRITION BUSINESS COMMENTARY

In Plant Nutrition, the company has been working predominantly on improving the cost structure of the segment. In particular, the ongoing restoration of the pond complex at Ogden is expected to allow for an improvement in the consistency and grade of sulfate of potash (SOP) raw materials going to the plant. Recent results from our pond restoration activities suggest that these initiatives are having a positive impact on the ponds, which is a critical step in improving the Plant Nutrition business. Additional opportunities to improve productivity and increase process efficiencies are also being evaluated and pursued. Results from these actions are beginning to take effect, which is reflected in the quarterly results below.

Plant Nutrition revenue for the quarter totaled $61.4 million, up 24% year over year on strong sales volume. This was led by improved sales volumes, which grew by 27 thousand tons, a 36% improvement year over year. The average segment sales price for the quarter was down 9% year over year to approximately $603 per ton, reflecting supply conditions of potassium-based fertilizers globally. Per-unit distribution costs for the quarter decreased 2% year over year, largely due to increased sales rates absorbing fixed rail transport costs. All-in product costs per ton decreased 10% year over year.

Operating loss per ton in the Plant Nutrition business improved by 1% year over year. This, combined with the increase in sales volumes between periods, resulted in a slight increase in operating loss to $3.1 million for the quarter, compared to operating loss of $2.3 million in the prior-year quarter. Absolute adjusted EBITDA declined to $4.4 million versus $7.2 million last year due to a decline in per-unit adjusted EBITDA attributable to a decrease in DD&A per sales ton.

FORTRESS NORTH AMERICA COMMENTARY

Compass Minerals continues to evaluate various alternatives regarding the path forward for Fortress North America (Fortress). Discussions are ongoing with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) regarding the evaluation and testing of the company's conditionally qualified technical grade orthophosphate-based aerial fire retardant, Qela.

CASH FLOW AND FINANCIAL POSITION

Net cash used in operating activities amounted to $4.1 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, compared to $52.3 million in the prior year. Despite a weaker start to the winter deicing season, reduction to inventory levels contributed to an improvement in working capital year over year.

Net cash used in investing activities was $22.2 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, down $27.1 million year over year principally driven by lower capital spending. Total capital spending for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024 was $21.8 million.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $53.1 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, which included net borrowings of $57.5 million. In the prior year, net cash provided by financing activities reflected net borrowings of $108.1 million.

The company ended the quarter with $126.3 million of liquidity, comprised of $45.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and $80.5 million of availability under its $325 million revolving credit facility.

UPDATED FISCAL 2025 OUTLOOK

Given the quickly evolving dynamics surrounding potential tariffs on products imported to the United States from the company's Canadian operations, the company has not included any potential impacts related to tariffs into the guidance below. For fiscal 2025, any impact to adjusted EBITDA is expected to be negligible for the North American highway deicing business as salt for the 2024/2025 season has already been imported and deployed across the company's depot network. Compass Minerals is evaluating the potential impact to the C&I and Plant Nutrition businesses resulting from any potential tariff actions.

Salt Segment
	2025 Range1
Highway deicing sales volumes (thousands of tons)	7,600 – 8,500
Consumer and industrial sales volumes (thousands of tons)	1,800 – 1,950
Total salt sales volumes (thousands of tons)	9,400 – 10,450

Revenue (in millions)	$900 – $1,000
Adj. EBITDA (in millions)	$205 – $230

(1)

Range for fiscal 2025 reflects the company's committed book of business for the period and assumes an average historical sales-to-commitment outcomes.

As described above, mild winter weather for the first two months of the quarter contributed to a softer quarter than had been assumed in the company's original forecast. January saw strong winter weather across portions of the company's served markets and preliminary results for the month suggest the company may be able to partially offset the weather-driven shortfall from the first quarter.

Plant Nutrition Segment
	2025 Range
Sales volumes (thousands of tons)	295 – 315
Revenue (in millions)	$180 – $200
Adj. EBITDA (in millions)	$17 – $24

Plant Nutrition guidance is being increased to reflect revised market and operational conditions and assumptions that could impact the business, with expected pressure in global potash pricing being more than offset by higher sales expectations and lower forecasted production costs for the year.

Corporate
	2025 Range
	Total1
Adj. EBITDA (in millions)	($70) – ($61)

(1)

Includes $3 to $5 million in cash expenses related to Fortress.

Projected Corporate segment results in the table above, which are unchanged from the company's initial guidance provided in December of 2024, include corporate expenses in support of the company's core businesses, Fortress financial results, and the results of DeepStore, the company's records and management services business in the U.K.

Total Compass Minerals
	2025 Adjusted EBITDA
	Salt	Plant Nutrition	Corporate1	Total
Adj. EBITDA (in millions)	$205 – $230	$17 – $24	($70) – ($61)	$152 – $193

	2025 Capital Expenditures
				Total
Capital expenditures (in millions)				$75 – $85

(1)

Includes financial contribution from DeepStore and Fortress.

Total planned capital expenditures for the company in fiscal 2025 have been reduced and are now expected to be within a range of $75 million to $85 million, down from a range of $100 million to $110 million provided in the company's original guidance. The company is committed to managing capital expenditures so that they align with the cash generation performance of the business.

Other Assumptions
($ in millions)	2025 Range
Depreciation, depletion and amortization	$105 – $115
Interest expense, net	$67 – $72
Effective income tax rate (excl. valuation allowance)	0% – 5%

Guidance for the 2025 effective income tax rate reflects the income mix by country with income recognized in foreign jurisdictions offset by losses recognized in the U.S.

CONFERENCE CALL

Compass Minerals will discuss its results on a conference call tomorrow morning, Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 9:30 a.m. ET (8:30 a.m. CT). To access the conference call, please visit the company’s website at investors.compassminerals.com or dial 800-715-9871. Callers must provide the conference ID number 7896827. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, callers may dial 646-307-1963. Replays of the call will be available on the company’s website.

A supporting corporate presentation with 2025 first-quarter results is available at investors.compassminerals.com.

About Compass Minerals

Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) is a leading global provider of essential minerals focused on safely delivering where and when it matters to help solve nature’s challenges for customers and communities. The company’s salt products help keep roadways safe during winter weather and are used in numerous other consumer, industrial, chemical and agricultural applications. Its plant nutrition products help improve the quality and yield of crops, while supporting sustainable agriculture. Additionally, it is working to develop a long-term fire-retardant business. Compass Minerals operates 12 production and packaging facilities with nearly 1,900 employees throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Visit compassminerals.com for more information about the company and its products.

Forward-Looking Statements and Other Disclaimers

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements about reduction of salt inventory volumes, improvement in Plant Nutrition costs, cash generation capability, the future of Fortress, including ongoing discussions with the USFS, the company's ability to meet or exceed its plan for January or the remainder of fiscal 2025, SOP prices, and the company's outlook for 2025, including its expectations regarding sales volumes, revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, depreciation, depletion, and amortization, interest expense, tax rates, and capital expenditures. Forward-looking statements are those that predict or describe future events or trends and that do not relate solely to historical matters. The company uses words such as "may," "would," "could," "should," "will," "likely," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "plan," "forecast," "outlook," "project," "estimate" and similar expressions suggesting future outcomes or events to identify forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. These statements are based on the company’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially. The differences could be caused by a number of factors, including without limitation (i) weather conditions, (ii) inflation, the cost and availability of transportation for the distribution of the company’s products and foreign exchange rates, (iii) pressure on prices and impact from competitive products, (iv) any inability by the company to successfully implement its strategic priorities or its cost-saving or enterprise optimization initiatives, and (v) the risk that the company may not realize the expected financial or other benefits from its ownership of Fortress North America. For further information on these and other risks and uncertainties that may affect the company’s business, see the "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the company’s Amended Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended Sept. 30, 2024, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024, filed or to be filed with the SEC, as well as the company's other SEC filings. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect future events or developments, except as required by law. Because it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, this list cannot be considered a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.

Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") financial measures, management uses a variety of non-GAAP financial measures described below to evaluate the company’s and its operating segments’ performance. While the consolidated financial statements provide an understanding of the company’s overall results of operations, financial condition and cash flows, management analyzes components of the consolidated financial statements to identify certain trends and evaluate specific performance areas.

Management uses EBITDA, EBITDA adjusted for items which management believes are not indicative of the company’s ongoing operating performance ("Adjusted EBITDA") and EBITDA margin to evaluate the operating performance of the company’s core business operations because its resource allocation, financing methods and cost of capital, and income tax positions are managed at a corporate level, apart from the activities of the operating segments, and the operating facilities are located in different taxing jurisdictions, which can cause considerable variation in net earnings. Management also uses adjusted operating earnings, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net earnings, and adjusted net earnings per diluted share, which eliminate the impact of certain items that management does not consider indicative of underlying operating performance. The presentation of these measures should not be construed as an inference that future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide management and investors with additional information that is helpful when evaluating underlying performance. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA exclude interest expense, income taxes and depreciation, depletion and amortization, each of which are an essential element of the company’s cost structure and cannot be eliminated. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin exclude certain cash and non-cash items, including stock-based compensation, impairment charges and certain restructuring charges. Consequently, any measure that excludes these elements has material limitations. The non-GAAP financial measures used by management should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net earnings, operating earnings, cash flows or other financial data prepared in accordance with GAAP or as a measure of overall profitability or liquidity. These measures are not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies due to potential inconsistencies in the method of calculation. The calculation of non-GAAP financial measures as used by management is set forth in the following tables. All margin numbers are defined as the relevant measure divided by sales. The company does not provide a reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and reported in accordance with GAAP, as the company is unable to estimate significant non-recurring, unusual items and/or distinct non-core initiatives without unreasonable effort. The amounts and timing of these items are uncertain and could be material to the company’s results.

Adjusted operating earnings, adjusted operating earnings margin, adjusted net earnings (loss), and adjusted net earnings (loss) per diluted share are presented as supplemental measures of the company’s performance. Management believes these measures provide management and investors with additional information that is helpful when evaluating underlying performance and comparing results on a year-over-year normalized basis. These measures eliminate the impact of certain items that management does not consider indicative of underlying operating performance. These adjustments are itemized below. Adjusted net earnings (loss) per diluted share is adjusted net earnings (loss) divided by weighted average diluted shares outstanding. You are encouraged to evaluate the adjustments itemized above and the reasons management considers them appropriate for supplemental analysis. In evaluating these measures you should be aware that in the future the company may incur expenses that are the same as or similar to some of the adjustments presented below.

Special Items Impacting the Three Months Ended Dec. 31, 2024 (unaudited, in millions, except per share data)
Item Description	Segment	Line Item	Amount		Tax Effect(1)			After Tax		EPS Impact
Product recall costs	Salt	Product cost and Other operating expense	$	0.9	$	(0.2	)	$	0.7	$	0.02
Total			$	0.9	$	(0.2	)	$	0.7	$	0.02

Special Items Impacting the Three Months Ended Dec. 31, 2023 (unaudited, in millions, except per share data)
Item Description	Segment	Line Item	Amount		Tax Effect(1)		After Tax		EPS Impact
Restructuring charges(2)	Corporate and Other	Other operating expense	$	2.5	$	—	$	2.5	$	0.06
Restructuring charges(2)	Plant Nutrition	Other operating expense		1.1		—		1.1		0.02
Impairments	Corporate and Other	Loss on impairments		74.8		—		74.8		1.82
Total			$	78.4	$	—	$	78.4	$	1.90

(1)		There were no substantial income tax benefits related to these items given the U.S. valuation allowances on deferred tax assets. Applicable product recall costs reflect an impact from Canadian taxes.
(2)		Restructuring charges do not include certain reductions in stock-based compensation associated with forfeitures stemming from the restructuring activities.

Reconciliation for Adjusted Operating Earnings (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Operating earnings (loss)	$	0.5		$	(53.6	)
Product recall costs(1)		0.9			—
Restructuring charges(2)		—			3.6
Loss on impairments(2)		—			74.8
Adjusted operating earnings	$	1.4		$	24.8
Sales		307.2			341.7
Operating margin		0.2	%		(15.7	)%
Adjusted operating margin		0.5	%		7.3	%

(1)		The company recognized costs related to a recall related to food-grade salt produced at its Goderich Plant.
(2)		In connection with the termination of the company's lithium development project, the company incurred severance and related charges for a reduction in workforce and a loss on impairment of long-lived assets, which were determined to be no longer probable of recovery.

Reconciliation for Adjusted Net (Loss) Earnings (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Net loss	$	(23.6	)	$	(75.3	)
Product recall costs(1)		0.9			—
Restructuring charges(2)		—			3.6
Loss on impairments(2)		—			74.8
Income tax effect		(0.2	)		—
Adjusted net (loss) earnings	$	(22.9	)	$	3.1

Net loss per diluted share	$	(0.57	)	$	(1.83	)
Adjusted net (loss) earnings per diluted share	$	(0.55	)	$	0.07
Weighted-average common shares outstanding (in thousands):
Diluted		41,441			41,205

(1)		The company recognized costs related to a recall related to food-grade salt produced at its Goderich Plant. Charges for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024 were $0.9 million ($0.7 million net of tax).
(2)		In connection with the termination of the company's lithium development project, the company incurred severance and related charges for a reduction in workforce and a loss on impairment of long-lived assets, which were determined to be no longer probable of recovery.

Reconciliation for EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months Ended Dec. 31,
		2024			2023
Net loss	$	(23.6	)	$	(75.3	)
Interest expense		16.9			15.9
Income tax expense		9.7			3.6
Depreciation, depletion and amortization		26.8			25.5
EBITDA		29.8			(30.3	)
Adjustments to EBITDA:
Stock-based compensation – non-cash		3.9			11.9
Interest income		(0.4	)		(0.4	)
(Gain) loss on foreign exchange		(5.2	)		1.9
Product recall costs(1)		0.9			—
Restructuring charges(2)		—			3.6
Loss on impairments(2)		—			74.8
Other expense, net		3.1			0.7
Adjusted EBITDA	$	32.1		$	62.2

(1)		The company recognized costs related to a recall related to food-grade salt produced at its Goderich Plant.
(2)		In connection with the termination of the company's lithium development project, the company incurred severance and related charges for a reduction in workforce and a loss on impairment of long-lived assets, which were determined to be no longer probable of recovery.

Salt Segment Performance (unaudited, in millions, except for sales volumes and prices per short ton)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Sales	$	242.2		$	274.3
Operating earnings	$	29.4		$	50.9
Operating margin		12.1	%		18.6	%
Adjusted operating earnings(1)	$	30.3		$	50.9
Adjusted operating margin(1)		12.5	%		18.6	%
EBITDA(1)	$	46.9		$	66.1
EBITDA(1) margin		19.4	%		24.1	%
Adjusted EBITDA(1)	$	47.8		$	66.1
Adjusted EBITDA(1) margin		19.7	%		24.1	%
Sales volumes (in thousands of tons):
Highway deicing		1,987			2,266
Consumer and industrial		506			589
Total Salt.		2,493			2,855
Average prices (per ton):
Highway deicing	$	69.50		$	70.36
Consumer and industrial	$	205.74		$	194.94
Total Salt.	$	97.16		$	96.08

(1)

Non-GAAP financial measure. Reconciliations follow in these tables.

Reconciliation for Salt Segment Adjusted Operating Earnings (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Reported GAAP segment operating earnings	$	29.4		$	50.9
Product recall costs(1)		0.9			—
Segment adjusted operating earnings	$	30.3		$	50.9
Segment sales		242.2			274.3
Segment operating margin		12.1	%		18.6	%
Segment adjusted operating margin		12.5	%		18.6	%

(1) The company incurred costs related to a product recall.

Reconciliation for Salt Segment EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months Ended Dec. 31,
	2024			2023
Reported GAAP segment operating earnings	$	29.4		$	50.9
Depreciation, depletion and amortization		17.5			15.2
Segment EBITDA	$	46.9		$	66.1
Product recall costs(1)		0.9			—
Segment adjusted EBITDA	$	47.8		$	66.1
Segment sales		242.2			274.3
Segment EBITDA margin		19.4	%		24.1	%
Segment adjusted EBITDA margin		19.7	%		24.1	%

(1)

The company incurred costs related to a product recall.

Plant Nutrition Segment Performance (unaudited, dollars in millions, except for sales volumes and prices per short ton)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Sales	$	61.4		$	49.7
Operating loss	$	(3.1	)	$	(2.3	)
Operating margin		(5.0	)%		(4.6	)%
Adjusted operating loss(1)	$	(3.1	)	$	(1.2	)
Adjusted operating margin(1)		(5.0	)%		(2.4	)%
EBITDA(1)	$	4.4		$	6.1
EBITDA(1) margin		7.2	%		12.3	%
Adjusted EBITDA(1)	$	4.4		$	7.2
Adjusted EBITDA(1) margin		7.2	%		14.5	%
Sales volumes (in thousands of tons)		102			75
Average price (per ton)	$	602.86		$	660.41

(1)

Non-GAAP financial measure. Reconciliations follow in these tables.

Reconciliation for Plant Nutrition Segment Adjusted Operating Loss (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Reported GAAP segment operating loss	$	(3.1	)	$	(2.3	)
Restructuring charges(1)		—			1.1
Segment adjusted operating loss	$	(3.1	)	$	(1.2	)
Segment sales		61.4			49.7
Segment operating margin		(5.0	)%		(4.6	)%
Segment adjusted operating margin		(5.0	)%		(2.4	)%

(1)

The company incurred severance and related charges related to a reduction of its workforce.

Reconciliation for Plant Nutrition Segment EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Reported GAAP segment operating loss	$	(3.1	)	$	(2.3	)
Depreciation, depletion and amortization		7.5			8.4
Segment EBITDA	$	4.4		$	6.1
Restructuring charges(1)		—			1.1
Segment adjusted EBITDA	$	4.4		$	7.2
Segment sales		61.4			49.7
Segment EBITDA margin		7.2	%		12.3	%
Segment adjusted EBITDA margin		7.2	%		14.5	%

(1)

The company incurred severance and related charges related to a reduction of its workforce.

COMPASS MINERALS INTERNATIONAL, INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (unaudited, in millions, except share and per-share data)
	Three Months EndedDec. 31,
	2024			2023
Sales	$	307.2		$	341.7
Shipping and handling cost		80.6			91.3
Product cost		192.3			179.3
Gross profit.		34.3			71.1
Selling, general and administrative expenses		33.3			45.7
Loss on impairments		—			74.8
Other operating expense		0.5			4.2
Operating earnings (loss)		0.5			(53.6	)
Other (income) expense:
Interest income		(0.4	)		(0.4	)
Interest expense		16.9			15.9
(Gain) loss on foreign exchange		(5.2	)		1.9
Other expense, net		3.1			0.7
Loss before income taxes		(13.9	)		(71.7	)
Income tax expense		9.7			3.6
Net loss	$	(23.6	)	$	(75.3	)

Basic net loss per common share	$	(0.57	)	$	(1.83	)
Diluted net loss per common share	$	(0.57	)	$	(1.83	)
Weighted-average common shares outstanding (in thousands):(1)
Basic		41,441			41,205
Diluted		41,441			41,205

(1)

Weighted participating securities include RSUs and PSUs that receive non-forfeitable dividends and consist of 1,116,000 weighted participating securities for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, and 777,000 weighted participating securities for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2023.

COMPASS MINERALS INTERNATIONAL, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (unaudited, in millions)

	Dec. 31,		Sept. 30,
	2024		2024
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents	$	45.8	$	20.2
Receivables, net		261.7		126.1
Inventories, net		367.1		414.1
Other current assets		23.0		26.9
Property, plant and equipment, net		778.6		806.5
Intangible and other noncurrent assets		244.7		246.3
Total assets	$	1,720.9	$	1,640.1

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current portion of long-term debt	$	8.7	$	7.5
Other current liabilities		286.1		209.5
Long-term debt, net of current portion		965.7		910.0
Deferred income taxes and other noncurrent liabilities		197.4		196.5
Total stockholders' equity		263.0		316.6
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity	$	1,720.9	$	1,640.1

COMPASS MINERALS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(unaudited, in millions)
	Three Months Ended Dec. 31,
	2024			2023
Net cash used in operating activities	$	(4.1	)	$	(52.3	)

Cash flows from investing activities:
Capital expenditures		(21.8	)		(48.6	)
Other, net		(0.4	)		(0.7	)

Net cash used in investing activities		(22.2	)		(49.3	)

Cash flows from financing activities:
Proceeds from revolving credit facility borrowings		140.3			102.4
Principal payments on revolving credit facility borrowings		(100.8	)		(31.5	)
Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt		19.6			38.4
Principal payments on long-term debt		(1.6	)		(1.2	)
Dividends paid		—			(6.4	)
Deferred financing costs		(2.4	)		—
Shares withheld to satisfy employee tax obligations		(0.4	)		(0.8	)
Other, net		(1.6	)		—

Net cash provided by financing activities		53.1			100.9
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents		(1.2	)		0.3
Net change in cash and cash equivalents		25.6			(0.4	)
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the year		20.2			38.7

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period	$	45.8		$	38.3

COMPASS MINERALS INTERNATIONAL, INC. SEGMENT INFORMATION (unaudited, in millions)

Three Months Ended Dec. 31, 2024	Salt		Plant Nutrition			Corporate& Other(1)			Total
Sales to external customers	$	242.2	$	61.4		$	3.6		$	307.2
Intersegment sales		—		3.2			(3.2	)		—
Shipping and handling cost		71.3		9.3			—			80.6
Operating earnings (loss)(2)		29.4		(3.1	)		(25.8	)		0.5
Depreciation, depletion and amortization		17.5		7.5			1.8			26.8
Total assets (as of end of period)		1,092.4		388.1			240.4			1,720.9

Three Months Ended Dec. 31, 2023	Salt		Plant Nutrition			Corporate& Other(1)			Total
Sales to external customers	$	274.3	$	49.7		$	17.7		$	341.7
Intersegment sales		—		3.1			(3.1	)		—
Shipping and handling cost		83.7		7.0			0.6			91.3
Operating earnings (loss)(2)(3)		50.9		(2.3	)		(102.2	)		(53.6	)
Depreciation, depletion and amortization		15.2		8.4			1.9			25.5
Total assets (as of end of period)		1,056.6		469.7			278.9			1,805.2

(1)		Corporate and other includes corporate entities, records management operations, the Fortress fire retardant business, equity method investments and other incidental operations and eliminations. Operating earnings (loss) for corporate and other includes indirect corporate overhead, including costs for general corporate governance and oversight, as well as costs for the human resources, information technology, legal and finance functions.
(2)		Corporate operating results include costs related to a product recall of $0.9 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024. Corporate operating results were also impacted by a net loss of $1.6 million related to an increase in the valuation of the Fortress contingent consideration for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2023.
(3)		As a result of the company’s decision to cease the pursuit of the lithium development, the company recognized an impairment of long-lived assets of $74.8 million. The company also recognized restructuring costs of $3.6 million, which impacted operating results for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2023.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250210528573/en/

Contacts

Investor Contact Brent CollinsVice President, Treasurer & Investor Relations+1.913.344.9111InvestorRelations@compassminerals.com

Media Contact Rick AxthelmChief Public Affairs and Sustainability Officer+1.913.344.9198MediaRelations@compassminerals.com

VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 31, 2025 /CNW/ – (TSX: LUN) (Nasdaq Stockholm: LUMI) Lundin Mining Corporation ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") reports the following updated share capital and voting rights, in accordance with the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act:

The number of issued and outstanding shares of the Company has increased by 93,674,455 to 867,777,426 common shares with voting rights as of January 31, 2025. The increase in the number of issued and outstanding shares from January 1, 2025 to date is the result of shares issued in connection with the Filo Corp. acquisition (see press release dated January 15, 2025 entitled "Lundin Mining Completes Joint Acquisition of Filo with BHP and 50% Sale of Josemaria to Form Vicuña Corp."), and the exercise of employee stock options or the vesting of employee share units, offset by any share buy backs completed under the normal course issuer bid.

About Lundin Mining

Lundin Mining is a diversified Canadian base metals mining company with operations or projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States of America, primarily producing copper, gold and nickel. In December 2024 the Company announced the sale of its European assets to Boliden. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2025 subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.

The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out below on January 31, 2025 at 14:30 Pacific Time.

Lundin Mining Announces Updated Share Capital and Voting Rights (CNW Group/Lundin Mining Corporation)

SOURCE Lundin Mining Corporation

Cision

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Investing.com — Bernstein downgraded Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) to “Market-Perform” citing a more balanced risk-reward profile after BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) withdrew its interest in acquiring the miner.

The “BHP Put,” called a safety net by brokerage for Anglo’s shareholders, is no longer in play, reducing the margin of safety underpinning its prior “Outperform” rating.

BHP’s decision was attributed to valuation divergences according to media reports. BHP shares have underperformed Anglo by over 30% since April 2024, making an all-share deal expensive. Alternative financing options, including raising debt or equity, would either stretch BHP’s balance sheet or signal a desperate need for acquisitions, analysts said.

“The BHP Put was part of our belts and braces Outperform thesis as it gives Anglo’s shareholders a safety net, in case the current management disappoint,” analyst said.

While Bernstein praised Anglo’s 2024 progress, including its met coal demerger and cost-saving efforts, the lack of the BHP backstop shifts focus to management’s ability to deliver sustainable improvements. The brokerage maintained its price target for Anglo at GBP26 per share.

Bernstein downgrades Anglo American after BHP exit

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Patrick Merrin named Chief Operations Officer and Peter Fjellman named Chief Financial Officer

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., January 28, 2025–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP), a leading global provider of essential minerals, today announced the appointment of Patrick Merrin, a seasoned operating executive in the mining industry, as the company’s new chief operations officer (COO) and Peter Fjellman, who has decades of experience in senior finance roles, as its new chief financial officer (CFO). Merrin’s appointment is effective March 3 and fills the COO position which has been open since June 2024. Fjellman, whose appointment is effective immediately, succeeds Jeff Cathey who has decided to depart Compass Minerals due to personal reasons. Cathey has agreed to serve the company in a consulting capacity for a period of three months to help ensure a smooth transition.

As COO, Merrin will be responsible for the primary operational management of the company’s 12 production and packaging facilities across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. He joins Compass Minerals from Lundin Mining Corporation (LUN.TO), a diversified Canadian base metals miner, where he served as executive vice president of technical services.

Fjellman has spent more than 30 years leading finance teams across diverse industrial, manufacturing and logistics sectors, most recently serving as senior vice president of finance, Americas and Asia Pacific for GXO Logistics (NYSE: GXO), a spinoff of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO). As CFO of Compass Minerals, Fjellman will be responsible for all aspects of financial management for the company, including accounting, reporting, tax, internal audit, treasury, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations.

"Pat and Peter bring more than six decades of collective leadership experience with multi-national, private and publicly traded companies across the mining and industrial manufacturing industries, respectively," said Edward C. Dowling Jr., president and CEO. "Operating safely and efficiently, while aggressively managing our balance sheet to maximize the value of our advantaged assets, are foundational in how we strive to run our company. I look forward to the additive contributions that Pat and Peter will bring to Compass Minerals as we continue our focused efforts on consistent performance and continuous improvement across our business."

"I also want to thank Jeff for his many contributions first as chief accounting officer and ultimately CFO of Compass Minerals. I’m deeply grateful for his expertise and leadership through recent changes to our business and strategy," added Dowling.

About Patrick Merrin

Patrick Merrin’s extensive operating experience in the mining industry spans three decades. Prior to Lundin, he was appointed chief executive officer at Copper Mountain Mining Corporation (CMMC.TO), a copper mining company. Previous roles include COO of mining at Washington Companies, a diversified holding company in the transportation, mining, construction, and shipbuilding industries; and senior vice president of Canadian operations at Newcrest Mining (NCM.TO) and Goldcorp (G.TO), both gold mining companies acquired by Newmont Corporation. Merrin earned a Bachelor of Engineering in chemical engineering from McGill University and a Master of Business Administration from University of Toronto.

About Peter Fjellman

Fjellman has spent more than 30 years leading finance teams across diverse industrial, manufacturing and logistics sectors. Prior to GXO Logistics, Fjellman’s roles included CFO, Americas for ABB (SWX: ABBN), a global power and automation products manufacturer; vice president, finance, North America at Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR), a global life sciences and diagnostics company; and positions of increasing responsibility at Newell Rubbermaid Corporation (NAS: NWL), a global consumer goods manufacturer. Fjellman began his career on the audit team at KPMG after earning a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Southwest Baptist University.

About Compass Minerals

Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) is a leading global provider of essential minerals focused on safely delivering where and when it matters to help solve nature’s challenges for customers and communities. The company’s salt products help keep roadways safe during winter weather and are used in numerous other consumer, industrial, chemical and agricultural applications. Its plant nutrition products help improve the quality and yield of crops while supporting sustainable agriculture. Additionally, it is working to develop a long-term fire-retardant business. Compass Minerals operates 12 production and packaging facilities with approximately 1,900 employees throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Visit compassminerals.com for more information about the company and its products.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding performance and improvement. These statements are based on the company’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially. The differences could be caused by a number of factors including those factors identified in the "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the company’s Annual and Quarterly Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, including any amendments, as well as the company’s other SEC filings. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect future events or developments, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250127527808/en/

Contacts

Media Contact Rick AxthelmChief Public Affairs and Sustainability Officer+1.913.344.9198MediaRelations@compassminerals.com

Investor Contact Brent CollinsVice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations+1.913.344.9111InvestorRelations@compassminerals.com

We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Australian Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) stands against other best Australian stocks to buy now.

According to a report by Vanguard published on January 24, Australia’s economy is expected to experience a gradual recovery in 2025, following its slowest growth in 32 years in 2024. The report forecasts an economic growth of 2% year over year by the end of 2025, with trimmed mean inflation, a core measure that excludes items at the extremes, expected to reach 2.5% year over year. However, the report notes that low productivity growth and higher unit labor costs will keep core inflation from falling sustainably to the midpoint of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2%–3% target range until later in 2025.

The RBA has left its policy rate target unchanged at 4.35% since December 10, but has softened its language around future policy decisions, noting that it is “gaining some confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward the target.” Despite this, Vanguard expects the RBA to remain patient and not initiate rate cuts until the second quarter of 2025, due to a tight labor market.

In an interview on January 19, Lochlan Halloway, Market Strategist at Morningstar Australia, pointed out that the premium to fair value of large-cap stocks in the Australian market is abnormally high, trading at around 20% above fair value. According to Halloway, this is a concern as 20 companies account for about 60% of the ASX 100.

In terms of value opportunities, Halloway identified the energy sector, particularly companies that are trading at significant discounts to their fair value. He also noted that small-cap companies, which were largely left behind in the market rally may offer value, although investors need to be judicious in selecting quality companies. Additionally, sectors such as consumer defensives appear close to fair value or even cheap.

As the Australian economy gradually recovers in 2025, opportunities lie in undervalued sectors such as energy and consumer defensives, as well as among small-cap companies that have yet to catch up with the broader market rally.

Is BHP Group Limited (BHP) the Best Australian Stock to Buy Now?

An aerial view of a mining operation in action, with large trucks and yellow diggers.

Our Methodology

To compile our list of the 10 best Australian stocks to buy now, we used Finviz and Yahoo stock screeners to identify Australian companies. We then used Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund database to rank 10 stocks according to the largest number of hedge fund holders, as of Q3 2024. The list is sorted in ascending order of hedge fund sentiment.

BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP)

Number of Hedge Fund Holdings: 22

BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) is a global resources company that extracts and processes commodities such as iron ore, copper, and coal. The company has a strong portfolio of assets and supplies raw materials essential for global infrastructure and energy needs to industrial manufacturers and governments.

BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) is actively pursuing growth opportunities in the copper market, which is expected to experience significant demand growth over the coming decades. In South Australia, BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) is expanding its Olympic Dam operation, with plans to increase production to over 500,000 tons per year by the early 2030s. The company is also progressing a number of other copper projects in Chile, including the Escondida mine, where it is planning to invest in new leaching technology to increase production and extend the life of the mine. Additionally, BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) has recently announced a joint venture with Lundin Mining to develop the Filo del Sol and Josemaria copper projects in Argentina and Chile, which have the potential to become major new copper producers.

Another key area of growth for BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) is its potash business, where the company is investing in the Jansen project in Canada. The Jansen project is a world-class potash asset that is expected to become one of the largest potash producers in the world. BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) is currently constructing the first stage of the project, which is expected to produce around 4.3 million tons of potash per year. The company is also planning to expand the project in future stages, with the potential to increase production to over 16 million tons per year.

Overall BHP ranks 2nd on our list of the best Australian stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of BHP as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BHP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Forget the gold rush….

The real opportunity lies in the metals that will power the 21st century.

As the world electrifies, demand for critical minerals like nickel, copper, PGMs, and gold is skyrocketing.

While many are focused on single-commodity projects, one Canadian miner is developing a polymetallic asset that could deliver a diversified supply of these essential resources.

Power Nickel: A Polymetallic Powerhouse

The world is demanding critical minerals, and it needs them now. But traditional mining is struggling to keep pace.

Declining ore grades, aging mines, and the environmental toll of extraction are all contributing to a supply crunch that threatens to derail the electric revolution.

This is where Power Nickel (TSX-V: PNPN, OTC: PNPNF) comes in. They're a solution provider, a critical player in securing the metals needed to power a sustainable future. And their flagship Nisk project in Quebec, Canada, is their answer to this global crisis.

Power Nickel isn't chasing low-grade deposits. They're focused on high-grade mineralization that can deliver maximum impact. The Nisk project, with its impressive grades of nickel, copper, and PGMs, is a prime example of its commitment to quality over quantity.

As domestic production becomes increasingly critical, they are now aggressively exploring Nisk with a massive 30,000-meter drill program. Rigs are running around the clock, delineating the extent of the deposit and uncovering new zones of mineralization.

Downhole electromagnetic surveys and advanced geochemical analysis are helping them pinpoint the richest deposits, ensuring that every drill hole counts. And the location of the project, in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with strong environmental regulations, only makes it more ideal.

The Lion Roars: A Polymetalic Discovery That Could Reshape the Market

Power Nickel's (TSX-V: PNPN, OTC: PNPNF) recent discovery of the Lion Zone, a high-grade nickel-copper PGM, gold, and silver deposit, has sent shockwaves through the mining world. Initial drilling results have been nothing short of spectacular, with multiple intercepts of massive sulfide mineralization.

And the best part?

The Lion Zone is open in all directions, hinting at a truly colossal deposit.

Here’s a breakdown of what they’ve done so far:

Drill hole 72: Intersected a massive 19.6 meters of mineralization grading 1.27 g/t gold, 20.30 g/t silver, 2.53% copper, 1.01 g/t palladium, 2.42 g/t platinum, and 0.15% nickel. That's not just nickel; it's a polymetallic treasure trove.
Drill hole 74: Even better, with 23.55 meters of high-grade mineralization.
Drill hole 75: Another solid hit, with 19.2 meters of mineralization, confirming the lateral continuity of this incredible zone.

And this is just from the summer drill program.

Power Nickel is also ramping up exploration with a 30,000-meter drill program, utilizing 150-meter step-outs to aggressively expand the known boundaries of the Lion Zone.

And deploying downhole EM surveys in every hole, giving them a 200-meter radius of insight and accelerating the delineation of this massive deposit.

But Power Nickel isn't putting all their eggs in the Lion Zone basket.

They're also advancing the original Nisk discovery zone, which boasts significant nickel-copper-PGM mineralization of its own. This two-pronged approach de-risks the project and sets the stage for Nisk to become a major polymetallic mine, supplying the critical metals that will fuel the electric revolution.

(Source: Power Nickel investor presentation)

And to sharpen their focus, Power Nickel (TSX-V: PNPN, OTC: PNPNF) is making a strategic move, spinning out its non-core assets in British Columbia and Chile into a separate company, Chilean Metals.

By divesting their Golden Ivan and Chilean projects, Power Nickel can concentrate all their resources and expertise on the Nisk project. This means more drilling, more exploration, and a faster path to production for this critical asset.

The Golden Ivan property, located in British Columbia's prolific Golden Triangle, is a gold-rich region with staggering potential. And the Chilean projects, including the Zulema and Tierra de Oro, offer exposure to copper and gold in a mining-friendly jurisdiction. By spinning these assets out into Chilean Metals, Power Nickel is giving investors a direct stake in these promising projects, allowing them to realize their full value.

Finally, Power Nickel believes this spin-out will also help combat naked short selling, a practice that can artificially depress a company's share price. By creating two separate entities, Power Nickel is making it more difficult for short sellers to manipulate the market.

This move is a real win-win for investors. They get to participate in the revolution through Power Nickel's focused efforts at Nisk, while also gaining exposure to the gold and copper potential of Chilean Metals.

It's a testament to the company’s commitment to maximizing shareholder value and delivering on the promise of the electric revolution.

Analysts See 130% Upside from Current Levels

The critical minerals train is leaving the station, and Power Nickel is primed to take advantage.

With a world-class asset like Nisk, an aggressive exploration strategy, and a top-tier management team, Power Nickel is poised to become a major player in the metals market.

Analysts are already taking notice, with Hannam & Partners projecting a target valuation of C$1.70 per share and that's based on the current understanding of the Lion Zone and the original Nisk discovery.

The world may be facing a critical minerals crisis, but the work is already under way to ensure new supply rises to meet demand – and nowhere is that more clear than with this little-known miner.

Other resource and mining companies to keep an eye on:

Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) is a Brazilian multinational corporation and one of the world's largest producers of iron ore and nickel. Iron ore is a key ingredient in steelmaking, while nickel is a crucial component in stainless steel and various alloys used in aerospace, defense, and other high-performance applications. Vale operates globally, with significant mining and production facilities in Brazil, Canada, and other countries.

This company is important because they are a major player in the global mining and metals industry, providing essential raw materials for various sectors, including the defense industry. Vale's production of iron ore and nickel contributes to the global supply of these critical minerals, which are essential for the manufacturing of military equipment, infrastructure, and advanced technologies.

Vale's commitment to sustainable mining practices and social responsibility is also noteworthy. The company has implemented various initiatives to reduce its environmental impact, promote biodiversity, and support local communities. This commitment is crucial for ensuring the responsible sourcing of critical minerals and minimizing the environmental footprint of mining operations, which is particularly important for national security.

SQM (NYSE: SQM) is a Chilean chemical company and one of the world's largest producers of lithium, a critical component in batteries used in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and increasingly, military applications. From powering advanced communication systems to enabling the operation of unmanned vehicles and drones, lithium-ion batteries are essential to modern military operations. SQM's production capacity and access to vast lithium reserves in the Atacama Desert make it a strategically important player in the global lithium supply chain.

Securing a reliable and stable supply of lithium is crucial for countries like the United States that are heavily reliant on advanced technology. By sourcing lithium from SQM, nations can reduce their dependence on potentially unstable or adversarial nations for this critical material.

Furthermore, SQM's commitment to sustainable lithium extraction practices aligns with the growing emphasis on responsible sourcing of critical minerals. As nations strive to reduce their environmental impact and promote ethical supply chains, SQM's efforts to minimize its footprint in the Atacama Desert become increasingly important. This ensures that the production of lithium for tech applications is conducted in a manner that is both environmentally responsible and socially conscious.

United States Steel (NYSE: X) is an integrated steel producer with major operations in the United States and Central Europe. As a major supplier of steel to various industries, including the automotive, appliance, construction, and energy sectors, U.S. Steel plays a vital role in supporting the overall health of the U.S. economy. A strong domestic steel industry is essential for maintaining a robust manufacturing base, which in turn contributes to national security by ensuring the ability to produce critical equipment and infrastructure in times of need.

U.S. Steel's production capacity and its focus on research and development are crucial for meeting the evolving demands of global industry. The company's ability to produce advanced high-strength steels and other specialized steel products is essential for the construction of modern military vehicles, ships, and infrastructure. By providing these critical materials, U.S. Steel contributes to the technological advancement and readiness of the U.S. military.

Moreover, U.S. Steel's commitment to investing in its workforce and communities is important for maintaining a skilled labor pool and supporting the domestic manufacturing base. By providing good-paying jobs and contributing to the economic well-being of communities, U.S. Steel helps to ensure the long-term viability of the U.S. steel industry and its ability to support national security needs.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) is a large metals service center company that provides a wide range of metal processing and distribution services to customers in various industries, including aerospace, defense, and infrastructure. The company's ability to source and process a diverse range of metals makes it a valuable partner to the defense industry, which relies on specialized metals for the production of advanced tech systems and equipment.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum's extensive network of service centers across North America provides a reliable and efficient supply chain for defense contractors. The company's ability to deliver the right materials at the right time is essential for maintaining the production schedules of critical defense programs. This ensures that the U.S. military has access to the equipment and weapons systems it needs to fulfill its missions and protect national security.

Furthermore, Reliance Steel & Aluminum's focus on value-added processing services, such as cutting, forming, and machining, helps defense contractors reduce their manufacturing costs and improve efficiency. This contributes to the affordability and competitiveness of U.S. defense systems in the global market. By providing these essential services, Reliance Steel & Aluminum plays a vital role in supporting the strength and readiness of the U.S. military.

BHP Group's (NYSE: BHP) expansive operations encompass a diverse range of mining assets. In Australia, the company operates major iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which account for a significant portion of global iron ore production. BHP also has copper, coal, and nickel operations in Australia, as well as substantial energy assets, including oil and gas fields. In North and South America, the company has copper and iron ore mines in Chile, Peru, and Colombia, as well as coal operations in the United States. BHP's global reach and diversified portfolio of commodities allow it to meet the demands of customers around the world and contribute to the global supply of essential resources.

BHP Group is committed to operating in a responsible and sustainable manner. The company recognizes the importance of environmental protection and has implemented various initiatives to reduce its environmental impact. BHP has set ambitious targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and has invested in technologies to improve water usage efficiency. The company also works closely with local communities to minimize the social and environmental impacts of its operations. BHP's commitment to sustainability has been recognized by various organizations, including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which has ranked BHP as a global leader in sustainability for several consecutive years.

BHP Group's focus on sustainability is not only beneficial for the environment but also aligns with growing consumer and investor demand for ethically sourced and environmentally friendly products. By prioritizing sustainability, BHP is positioning itself as a leader in the mining industry and demonstrating its commitment to long-term value creation for its stakeholders. The company's commitment to sustainability is a key differentiator and a source of competitive advantage in an industry that is increasingly focused on environmental and social responsibility.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd (TSX:FM) is a Canadian-based mining and metals company with a focus on copper, nickel, gold, and zinc production. The company operates mines and projects in various countries, including Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Argentina, and Peru.

First Quantum Minerals is a significant player in the global mining industry, with a track record of successful exploration, development, and operation of mining projects. The company's operations contribute to the economic development of the countries in which it operates, creating jobs and generating tax revenue. First Quantum Minerals also maintains a strong commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable practices, implementing various initiatives to minimize the environmental impact of its operations.

The company's focus on copper, nickel, gold, and zinc production is driven by the increasing global demand for these metals. Copper is a vital component in electrical and electronic products, while nickel is used in the production of stainless steel and other alloys. Gold is a precious metal with a long history of use in jewelry and as a store of value, and zinc is used in a wide range of applications, including galvanizing steel, producing batteries, and manufacturing rubber. First Quantum Minerals' production of these metals plays a crucial role in meeting the global demand for these essential materials.

Teck Resources Limited (TSX:TECK) is a diversified mining company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. It is one of the world's largest producers of zinc and copper and also produces other commodities such as coal, lead, and silver. Teck operates mines and processing facilities in Canada, the United States, Chile, and Peru.

Teck's zinc operations are located in Canada, the United States, and Peru. The company is the world's second-largest producer of zinc, with a production capacity of over 800,000 tonnes per year. Teck's zinc is used in a variety of applications, including galvanized steel, batteries, and chemicals.

Teck's operations are also significant for their contribution to the global supply of battery metals. Zinc is a key component of many types of batteries, including lead-acid batteries and nickel-zinc batteries. Teck's zinc production is therefore essential for the growing demand for batteries in electric vehicles and other applications.

Neo Performance Materials (TSX: NEO)

Neo Performance Materials is a leading global company engaged in the production and processing of advanced industrial materials, with a focus on rare earth and rare metal-based functional materials. They operate in three main segments: Magnequench, Chemicals & Oxides, and Rare Metals. Magnequench produces magnetic powders used in high-performance magnets for applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. Chemicals & Oxides manufactures and distributes advanced industrial materials for various uses, including catalysts, electronics, and water treatment. Rare Metals focuses on the production of specialty metals like tantalum, niobium, and gallium, which are critical for aerospace, defense, and electronics applications.

Neo Performance Materials plays a vital role in supporting national security by providing essential materials for defense and high-tech industries. Their expertise in rare earth and rare metal processing contributes to the development and production of advanced technologies used in other applications, such as guidance systems, lasers, and communication equipment. By ensuring a reliable supply of these critical materials, Neo Performance Materials helps to reduce reliance on foreign sources.

Champion Iron (TSX: CIA)

Champion Iron is a leading iron ore producer focused on developing its significant iron ore resources in the Labrador Trough in Quebec, Canada. Their flagship asset is the Bloom Lake Mining Complex, a high-grade iron ore mine with a long operating life. Champion Iron is committed to producing high-quality iron ore products, primarily for the global steel industry, while maintaining a strong focus on environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Champion Iron contributes to national security by supporting the domestic production of iron ore, a critical ingredient in steelmaking. Steel is a foundational material for various industries, including infrastructure, manufacturing, and more. By producing high-quality iron ore in Canada, Champion Iron contributes to the security and stability of the North American steel supply chain, reducing reliance on foreign sources and supporting the domestic manufacturing base, which is crucial for national security and economic competitiveness.

Aclara Resources (TSX: ARA) is a development-stage rare earth mineral resource company focused on its Penco Module project in Chile. This project has the potential to be a significant source of heavy rare earth elements, which are critical for various high-tech applications, including permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and other technologies. Aclara is committed to developing the Penco Module project in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner, using a unique ionic clay adsorption process that minimizes environmental impact.

Aclara Resources contributes to national security by diversifying the global supply of heavy rare earth elements. These elements are essential for the production of advanced technologies used in defense applications, such as guidance systems, lasers, and communication equipment. By developing a new source of these critical minerals outside of China, which currently dominates the rare earth market, Aclara Resources helps to reduce reliance on a single supplier.

By. Michael Kern

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The world’s biggest miner ramped up production at its massive Escondida copper mine in Chile by 33% in the three months to Dec. 31, and extracted higher-grade ores of the metal that’s increasingly vital to the energy transition. That helped offset declines at its South Australian projects, which were shuttered for weeks after an electrical storm cut power supply.

Meanwhile, iron ore output rose just 1% in the period. While the commodity still accounts for about two-thirds of BHP’s revenue, it sees long-term demand for the steelmaking material being pressured by a bleaker outlook for China’s economy and languishing property market, and in recent years has bolstered its expansion strategy in other materials.

The company’s thirst to grow its exposure to copper drove management’s $49 billion attempt to acquire Anglo American Plc last year. When that failed, BHP launched a takeover of Filo Corp. alongside partner Lundin Mining Corp., giving it access to copper projects straddling the Argentina-Chile border that are yet to be developed. That transaction closed this month.

BHP Chief Executive Mike Henry said the Filo assets were “one of the most significant global copper discoveries in decades.”

Iron ore output was 66.2 million tons in the three months to Dec. 31. Full-year guidance for those operations was maintained at 255 to 265.5 million tons, with the miner keeping forecasts unchanged for all its commodities.

Meanwhile, steelmaking-coal production slumped 23% in the three-month period, while energy coal dipped 4%. Copper output totaled 510,700 tons.

“Our flagship copper, iron ore and steelmaking coal assets delivered particularly strong production in the period,” Henry said in the statement. “We made further progress on our growth pathways in future-facing commodities.”

From current heights of around 1 billion tons per annum, Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts predict annual China steel consumption could fall below 800 million tons by the end of this decade.

Iron ore was one of 2024’s worst performing commodities, slumping 28%. That included an 8% decline in the year’s final quarter.

(Updates with details about copper strategy throughout.)

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(Bloomberg) — When Glencore Plc proposed a combination with Rio Tinto Group a decade ago, the larger company turned it down after just a few days. News this week that the two spent several months in negotiations in the second half of last year shows how the sands have shifted, just as mega-deal fever sweeps the global mining industry.

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Rio’s firm and immediate rejection in 2014 of what would have been the largest ever deal in the global mining industry kicked off a months-long public feud that made painfully clear a vast gulf between the two companies’ cultures. Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg accused Rio of misunderstanding the iron ore market, while his counterpart at Rio criticized Glencore’s traders as short-termist.

But when Glencore reached out about a deal last year, it met with a very different reception. This time, Rio was open to talk. What followed was a prolonged period of exploratory discussions at the top level of both companies, according to people familiar with the matter. The circle was kept very small, they said, but Rio Chief Executive Officer Jakob Stausholm and Glencore’s Gary Nagle had conversations over multiple months, starting in the autumn. Rio Chairman Dominic Barton was also directly involved, some of the people said.

The discussions are not currently active, and it’s not clear whether they could still resume. Neither company has commented on the situation, and both declined to comment for this story. People familiar with the matter said that Glencore had insisted on a hefty premium even as its share price slid.

Still, Rio’s willingness to engage in extended discussions demonstrates how the situation has changed.

After more than a decade of sitting on the sidelines, the biggest miners have made an enthusiastic return to dealmaking as they jostle for position and rush to bulk up in energy transition metals like copper and lithium. For Rio, the key moment came when its biggest rival, BHP Group, last year sent shockwaves through the industry with a proposal to buy Anglo American Plc.

The bid started a chain reaction across the mining world, as boards and CEOs came to terms with a new era of mega deals. Industry insiders describe a frenzy of conversations behind the scenes, as rivals scope out potential targets or merger partners and game out each others’ next moves.

Yet so far, they have been largely unsuccessful. BHP couldn’t persuade Anglo to support its proposal, and ultimately walked away. A year earlier, Glencore tried to buy Teck Resources Ltd. but had to settle for the smaller company’s coal business.

“The whole industry has been talking about how the majors consolidate for several years now,” said George Cheveley, a portfolio manager at Ninety One UK Ltd. “People haven’t worked out quite how to do it yet.”

The recent discussions between Rio and Glencore were catalyzed by BHP’s move, according to people familiar with the matter, but they also took place against the backdrop of huge changes within the two companies and across the wider industry.

Rio has finally moved past the fear of big deals that has haunted it since its disastrous 2007 purchase of Canadian aluminum maker Alcan, and Chairman Barton has been a key driver of the shift in approach. The former Canadian diplomat and McKinsey & Co. global managing partner has insisted the company be more open-minded when it comes to deals, saying publicly its reluctance has led to missed opportunities.

Glencore has also changed, becoming more like a traditional miner as it moves away from its high-stakes commodity trading roots.

Crucially, the world and the commodities it consumes are also changing. Both Rio and Glencore have grown rich on the bulk commodities — iron ore and coal — that fueled China’s industrialization. As that process now slows, mining executives and their shareholders increasingly want copper, the crucial metal needed to fuel the decarbonization of the global economy, putting BHP and Rio under pressure to diversify from their main profit driver of iron ore.

For Rio, the company’s willingness to talk with Glencore signals a meaningful change to how the second-biggest miner sees deals.

For more than a decade, big M&A has been a taboo subject, the legacy of its disastrous Alcan purchase. Often described as the worst deal in mining history, it soured as aluminum demand slid during the global financial crisis and Chinese supply flooded the market. It forced Rio to take almost $30 billion in writedowns and ultimately cost the CEO at the time his job.

Rio was already emerging from that shadow before BHP’s approach for Anglo. The company has completed a series of smaller takeovers in recent years, adding more copper and lithium, and rebuilding its dealmaking muscles.

But BHP’s bold move created a nervousness about what Rio’s beefed up rival would look like, as well as driving home the message that sitting on the sidelines was no longer an option.

Glencore has also changed in the past decade.

The firm’s emphasis on swashbuckling trading has decreased, making it look more and more like any other mining company. It’s an evolution that began many years earlier, when Glasenberg started loading up on coal, copper, zinc and chrome mines, and doubled down on the bet by buying sister company Xstrata in 2013.

But the shift has accelerated in recent years. A series of investigations into corruption in countries across Africa and Latin America cost the company more than $1.7 billion and forced a push to clean up its trading culture.

Some Glencore veterans say the company is now hard to recognize — with what they say is less of an entrepreneurial culture, a lower appetite for risk, and a greater deference to the company’s in-house lawyers.

Crucially, the company has also signaled its willingness to separate its giant coal mining business, long seen as an impediment to a deal with rivals such as Rio who have exited the fuel.

While Glencore’s investors decided against spinning off the highly profitable business last year, the company’s preparedness to do so makes it a much more attractive target. The discussions with Rio included the potential to spin off the coal unit, one of the people said.

Rio has long coveted Collahuasi, the major copper mine in Chile in which Glencore has a 44% stake. But its interest in its smaller rival was wider than just that, with Barton, the chairman, pushing the company to be ambitious and creative, some of the people said.

Neither company has made a statement on the talks, allowing them to keep their options open should they want to resume negotiations in the future. Under UK takeover rules, making a statement about the deal would generally require a potential buyer to make an offer within a month or walk away for six months.

Whatever happens next, news of the discussions has only fueled anticipation that a wave of big deals is just around the corner in mining. Of all the big miners, the one whose shares rose most on Friday was potential BHP target Anglo.

The news of Glencore and Rio’s discussions “has turned up the temperature on an already simmering M&A environment,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ben Davis.

–With assistance from Simon Casey, Michelle F. Davis and Ryan Gould.

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First Potash Academy cohort outside BHP's Discovery Lodge.

HUMBOLDT, Saskatchewan, Jan. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BHP and Carlton Trail College are pleased to announce the launch of BHP Potash Academy and its inaugural cohort of trainees.

The first intake of 13 trainees is already participating in on-site orientation at the Jansen mine site this week and will hit the classroom at BHP Potash Academy at Carlton Trail College in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, on January 20.

This eight-month paid traineeship is designed to equip those new to the mining industry with essential skills required for production or maintenance technician roles at the Jansen mine site in Saskatchewan.

The program includes a mix of classroom and theory learning, as well as practical workshop training for hands-on experience. At the end of the program, trainees will earn a Certificate in Mining Essentials, an Applied Certificate in Industrial Mechanics and permanent, full-time employment at the Jansen mine site to contribute to the operation’s long-term success.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Carlton Trail and are thrilled to welcome the Potash Academy’s first cohort. The launch of Potash Academy is an important milestone that will support the long-term success of Jansen and economic growth and participation in the region. We look forward to working with this great group of trainees who bring diverse experience that they can apply to BHP and the mining industry,” said Graham Reynolds, General Manager of Operations, BHP.

“With the launch of this new partnership between our College and BHP, we are bridging the gap between workforce need, classroom learning and the real-world application of skills,” said Amy Yeager, Carlton Trail College President and CEO. “We look forward to delivering this unique initiative that will shape the future of both training and industry.”

“BHP is a strong partner that supports Carlton Trail College and other post-secondary institutions in developing a skilled and representative workforce,” said Minister of Advanced Education Ken Cheveldayoff. “This partnership is a clear demonstration of the success that comes from Saskatchewan post-secondary institutions working with key industry partners to create training opportunities that meet the needs of students and employers in the region.”

The BHP Potash Academy, officially formed in July 2024 by BHP and Carlton Trail College, was created to help kickstart additional career pathways to the mining industry in Saskatchewan. It is an extension of a long-term partnership between BHP and Carlton Trail College that previously delivered pre-apprenticeship and related industry training.

BHP anticipates approximately 5,500 workforce opportunities during construction of the Jansen mine and 900 long-term jobs once operational.

More information on Potash Academy and how to apply can be found at career8.successfactors.com.

About BHP

BHP is a global resources company with its Canadian operational headquarters in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and global business development headquarters in Toronto. BHP has a global workforce of approximately 90,000 people working in locations across Canada, Australia, Asia, the UK, US and Latin America. BHP produces commodities essential for global decarbonization, economic development and food security including copper, nickel, iron ore, steelmaking coal and is developing the Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan, Canada. Further information on BHP can be found at: bhp.com

About Carlton Trail College

Carlton Trail College is a leading post-secondary institution committed to delivering high-quality education and training that prepares students for success. Emphasizing innovation, collaboration, and community engagement, the College offers a range of academic programs, workforce training, and educational services. With a strong focus on growth, the College is expanding its offerings through the development of a state-of-the-art trades training facility, further enhancing its ability to support the development of skilled professionals for today’s evolving workforce. Further information about Carlton Trail College can be found at: carltontrailcollege.com.

For media inquiries, contact:

Megan Hjulfors, BHPMedia RelationsTel (403) 605-2314

Jennifer Brooks, Carlton Trail CollegeAdvancement and External AffairsTel (306) 682-6851

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/899d5af1-99d4-4ce1-a260-ded8d8947f63

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