Glencore objects to Fortescue pegging Twiggy’s old stomping ground amid secret Goldfields exploration push

A local exploration campaign shrouded in mystery has pitted Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue against the owner of Western Australia’s last nickel hope. Global mining titan Glencore is trying to block Fortescue from grabbing two adjoining parcels of land that together span roughly 10 kilometres in width and 12 kilometres in length. The two contested mining tenements are a relatively short drive south of Leonora and one spreads over the Goldfields Highway. The tenemenets’ asymmetrical boundaries overlap a big chunk of territory under Glencore’s control. Glencore’s 27,000-hectare tenure forms part of its sprawling Murrin Murrin nickel and cobalt operation, which two decades ago was owned by Mr Forrest’s Anaconda Nickel in an ill-fated venture. Murrin Murrin’s main mining and processing centre is about 70km north-east of the two disputed tenements. The fate of the tenements could be decided by a Wardens Court next month, with Glencore’s objection set to be heard on July 15. Glencore and Fortescue both declined to comment on the matter. Fortescue is keeping the Wardens Court — WA’s judicial system for mining tenement disputes — busy with its recent Goldfields land grab. Fortescue and eight smaller mining companies have thrown their hats in the ring for exploration ground along the Goldfields Highway about 50km south from the site of Glencore and Fortescue’s stand-off. The Wardens Court next month will hold a ballot — essentially a lucky dip — to decide how the sought-after patch of dirt gets carved up. Fortescue has been active in the Goldfields since at least 2018, but its prospecting push in the region has become more aggressive since the start of this year. The iron ore producer and green energy aspirant so far in 2025 has pegged more than a dozen tenements dotted throughout the Goldfields, all hundreds or thousands of kilometres away from its Pilbara mining heartland. A Fortescue spokeswoman was tight-lipped when quizzed what particular commodity, or commodities, the company is searching for in the region. “Our company maintains a diverse tenement portfolio across Western Australia, spanning multiple commodities,” she said. “As part of our broader strategy, we continuously assess opportunities to ensure alignment with our objectives.” Copper appears to be the mineral Fortescue is keen on. “Fortescue has an exploration focus on copper, lithium and rare earths,” the company stated in 2023. Lithium is out of vogue and Fortescue is yet to show much appetite for a rare earths hunt, but copper has proven to pique its interest. Fortescue last year inked a joint venture deal with Magmatic Resources to look for copper in New South Wales and signed a similar agreement in 2019 with Carawine Resources to develop a copper project in the East Pilbara. The West Australian revealed last month that Canadian colossus Teck Resources had recently started a copper exploration drive across WA. One tenement cluster is located in the Goldfields about 300 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie, another 50km south of Lake Disappointment in the desolate Little Sandy Desert, and the third is about 100km south-west of Newman.