Macro Metals: A new venture following the MinRes growth model

Over the last two years a new management team has quietly been transforming Macro Metals (ASX: M4M) into a fast-growth mining services and mine development venture in Western Australia.

Since April 2026, the company has signed an impressive series of gold, iron ore, and rehabilitation deals. 

The team is led by managing director Simon Rushton, who was previously executive general manager of Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN) (MinRes) for 12 years during the spectacular growth phase between 2007 and 2019 that took MinRes from being a small-cap mining services company to a multi-billion-dollar mining giant.

Can Rushton pursue a similar path at Macro, which currently has a market capitalisation of just $27m?

Late-Stage Projects

The stock has remained under the market radar while it has been assembling a slate of late-stage projects.

This week it also announced the sale of a non-core asset in Nigeria for a net $5m in cash that will provide a capital injection and is a financial keystone to the company’s first phase of growth.

“The proceeds of that sale will inject working capital into our business that we will apply to growing our mining services division,” Mr Ruston said, “as well as accelerating the development of our other West Australian assets and our mining services business in a way that's non-dilutive to our shareholders.”

MinRes Model Success

The growth strategy for Macro is based on Rushton’s career and contacts from his time at MinRes, where he worked closely with managing director Peter Wade and chair Chris Ellison.

“This was during a period of significant growth of the company from 2007 to 2019, which effectively laid the foundations for what is now, as you know, a multi-billion-dollar mining powerhouse.” Mr Rushton said.

“MinRes effectively pioneered the build and operate model, where you provide an off-balance sheet solution, you invest the money, you build the plant, and you charge the client and all in tonne rate.”

“We leveraged off our in-house mine services capability and we applied the revenue that we generated into acquiring interests in projects—it started in about 2010 with the takeover of Polaris Metals, which effectively saw MinRes transition from a mining services contractor into an owner operator of the Carina iron ore project in the Yilgarn region, and also involved MinRes becoming the operator of from pit, over rail and through to port.”

Internal Growth Strategy

MinRes famously achieved its rapid corporate expansion and multi-commodity growth primarily by using operational cash flow, debt markets, and monetising assets, rather than raising equity in the public markets.

Earnings from mine services and partnership deals funded mine development internally.

“We created profitability for the mining services division by being the exclusive provider of mining services at those projects, and we also gained direct exposure to commodity sale profits either as a part owner or a profit share partner. “ Mr Rushton explained.

“I think one of the key aspects of our business model is to enter into partnership arrangements with project owners. The idea being we don't want to take exploration risk. The existing owner effectively gets an almost dig ready project.”

“Our value-add proposition is that we come in, we perform all of the technical and operational activities required to get that last mile over the line, and bring it into production. We recover the capital that we invest, we recover our operating costs of doing so, and then we negotiate a fair and reasonable share of the profit from selling the underlying commodity. As you can probably recognise, there are stark similarities between what we did at MinRes to what I am now doing at Macro.”

Mine Services Provider

One of Macro’s first objectives was to quickly establish itself as a top-quality provider of mine services. 

In June 2026, the company announced it had been awarded a Tier One mining services contract by BHP (ASX: BHP) for civil and rehabilitation works at its Mount Goldsworthy site.

“I think the market doesn't necessarily understand that to go from an unknown mining service provider to winning and starting a contract with BHP inside 18 months of making a decision to pivot to mining services is a fast outcome.” Mr Rushton said. 

“People try for years to win a contract with a BHP or an Fortescue (ASX: FMG) or a Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) and they just don't succeed.” 

Framework Agreement

BHP has gone further by announcing a five-year framework agreement with Macro to provide an ongoing stream of services contracts with BHP over coming years.

“Since announcing that contract win, the amount of inbound inquiries from other tier one producers has really ramped up.” Mr Rushton said.

“We're being invited to more and more tenders, although much larger scale across civil, crushing and screening, and contract mining across the "Big Four", as I like to call them, which is a fantastic outcome for the team.”

The last few weeks has provided an inflection point for the company’s financial structure, both from a sizeable uptick in monthly earnings from the BHP services contract and others, turning the company cash flow positive for the first time, and the Abjara disposal in Nigeria providing a $5m capital injection. 

The combination of these will take care of near-term funding requirements, and the company’s strategy is also to pursue financial partnership deals at an operating level at its various projects, such as to raise off-take financing, debt or increase margins from mine gate sales, which like MinRes historically avoids share dilution.

Three Gold Partnerships

What deals has Macro negotiated so far? Over the past four months Rushton and his team have made remarkable progress.

Since April. the company has struck three new gold partnerships to create an entirely new gold division at Macro. 

Collectively these represent a new, and as yet unrecognised, gold play on the ASX.

The plays involve a combination of mine services and sharing commodity sales with Nexus Minerals (ASX: NXM) at its Crusader-Templar gold deposit, where key permitting and approvals are in place on an MRE of 304,000 ounces.

Macro has also partnered with Renegade Metals at its Gibraltar East and Coolgardie Mineral Field projects, each of which has high grade historical intercepts.

Lastly the company has entered into a deal to exploit the Paris Gold mine tailings and stockpiles, owned by Austral Pacific, which has strong drill, metallurgical, and bulk sampling results.

Macro will drive an MRE, and then take the assets into production by tolling or vat/heap leaching.

Emerging Iron Business

Macro has also been building up a significant iron division, last month entering into a deal to buy a substantial land package called Yandi South that lies adjacent to two major operating projects in the Pilbara: BHP’s Yandi project and Rio Tinto’s Yandicoogina project.

Both those projects are publicly known to be running low on good quality above water table feed for their dry processing plants, which puts Yandi South in a prime position.

Drilling in 2010 of a small portion of the land produced magnetite intercepts of around 150 meters spread along 4km of strike.

“The resource at Yandi South is a very marketable CID deposit product,” Mr Rushton said.

“It is around 56-57% iron with low alumina, and low phos—the kind of iron ore product that Rio out sends off to Japan and others, so it's a very attractive product.”

This adds to Macro’s two other iron projects: a 27.3% stake in Extension Iron, which has an existing 16Mt @ 54% Fe JORC (with exploration upside) and exclusive life of mine services; and Catho Well, a drill-ready CID target operated by Macro.

So is Macro a new MinRes in the making?  This company certainly has big ambitions.

 

Macro Metals (M4M) MD Simon Rushton was interviewed by James Whelan in a video for Small Caps, released on 17 April 2026. Watch the video here.