Companies roundup: Anglo explosion & Petrofac

Miner Anglo American (AAL) has reported the second explosion in four years at the Grosvenor coal mine in Queensland, Australia. No one was injured in the “underground coal gas ignition incident” on Saturday. 

In 2020, five workers suffered extensive burns after an explosion at the same mine. “The mine team is working with specialist teams from the Queensland Mines Rescue Service and the regulatory authorities to extinguish the underground fire, prior to being able to assess the steps towards a safe re-entry into the mine,” Anglo said. “These procedures are expected to take several months as a result of the likely damage underground.” 

This will knock out around a fifth of coal production. Anglo has put the mine up for sale, along with its other coking coal operations in Australia. The fire is likely to put a hold on this process. AH

Petrofac lenders push back legal action again

As Petrofac (PFC) scrambles to pull together a refinancing deal that will save the company from bankruptcy, some of its bondholders have once again agreed to hold fire on claiming unpaid interest for another month.

Lenders representing 47 per cent of its bonds have agreed to wait until after 25 July to “take any action in respect of the non-payment of the coupon”. These lenders have already pushed this deadline back several months, as the energy engineering and services company works with clients and lenders to stay in business. AH

Read more: Is Petrofac a bargain or a value trap?

Rainbow Rare Earths and Ecora team up

Rainbow Rare Earths (RBW) has sold off an 0.85 per cent royalty to Ecora Resources (ECOR) for $8.5mn in order to fund the final study before its Phalaborwa project in South Africa can reach production. Ecora will also become a shareholder through a $1.5mn equity injection.

Rainbow has already built a pilot plant at the site, but it will be another few years before full production. Using the previous study, Peel Hunt estimated the royalty could be worth $1.5mn in revenue a year for Ecora from 2027. The royalty company has seen earnings drop off significantly as its Kestrel coal royalty tails off. Peel Hunt further cut its earnings per share expectations on Monday, on the expectation that a nickel mine Ecora will help fund is delayed given the current weak market. This was a 24 per cent cut for 2026 to 14¢ a share, compared with the highs of 38¢ in 2022. 

Rainbow’s share price was up 7 per cent on the news, to 11p. Ecora climbed 2 per cent to 73p. AH

Read more: What American influence means to UK rare earth miners