Commercial Supply Chain Specialist

Equus Energy finalises 10-year Alcoa supply deal for offshore WA gas project. Equus Energy seals binding 10-year WA gas deal with Alcoa (EQU, ASX): ~50 TJ/d from start, ~182 PJ over term, underpinning FID and FEED funding. In brief At-a-glance 4 takeaways * 0110-year GSA with Alcoa; Equus secures WA gas. * 02Alcoa takes ~50 TJ/d; ~182 PJ/term. * 03Alcoa up to US$30m for FEED/FID. * 04NW Shelf tie-back; domestic gas + LNG export. Equus Energy (ASX: EQU) has signed a binding conditional 10-year Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) with Alcoa of Australia, establishing the aluminium producer as the foundation domestic customer for its Equus gas project off Western Australia. Under the GSA, Equus will make about 50 terajoules per day of gas available to Alcoa following project start-up, equivalent to about 182 petajoules over the contract term and around 5% of the WA domestic gas market. The agreement sits within a broader gas sales and funding arrangement that gives Equus access to up to US$30 million from Alcoa to support front-end engineering design (FEED) and progress towards a final investment decision (FID). Equus has now moved into project partnering and commercialisation activities after the technical phase of pre-FEED confirmed a technically feasible and capital-efficient development concept. Foundation customer secured. Alcoa is WA's largest domestic gas user and its commitment provides Equus with a long-term foundation customer as the project moves through its next development stages. The GSA also satisfies the Equus project's domestic gas supply commitment under the state's Domestic Gas Reservation Policy, giving the proposed development a defined domestic market component alongside its broader commercial strategy. Equus plans to supply Alcoa from project start-up for the full 10-year term, with the contracted volume providing an anchor for a project designed to serve both domestic customers and LNG export markets. "The execution of this major GSA with Alcoa demonstrates the strategic importance of the Equus gas project as a large, proven, and vital gas resource that can meet the shortfalls in WA's domestic market and backfill spare LNG capacity on the North West Shelf," managing director Will Barker said. "With 100% ownership of the only independent, multi-trillion-cubic-feet gas resource on the North West Shelf, our focus is now on project partnering and commercialisation as we drive Equus to FID." Development path emerging. Pre-FEED work has supported a tie-back development using existing North West Shelf infrastructure, with Equus describing the concept as technically feasible, commercially robust and capital efficient. The development is intended to access spare LNG processing capacity while supplying the WA domestic market, allowing Equus to pursue both local gas sales and LNG exports into Asia. Equus owns 100% of the project, with the material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning its contingent resource estimates remaining unchanged. Using existing infrastructure is expected to reduce development costs and accelerate the pathway towards development while maximising utilisation of available processing capacity. Subscribe · daily wire Get the wire before the market opens. The ASX small-cap stories that matter, filed before 9am AEST. Curated by the Small Caps desk. Join 100,000+ investors. Unsubscribe anytime.

Alcoa dividend history supports AA's place among top metals and mining dividend stocks. By Joel Kornblau, Editor, Metals Channel, Thursday, August 13, 2026, 8:47 AM ET Alcoa Corporation (AA) has been identified as a Top 5 dividend-paying metals and mining stock by Dividend Channel in its weekly DividendRank report. The ranking highlights AA for a combination of valuation, profitability, and dividend history, placing the stock among a small group of metals and mining companies viewed as especially notable on income and fundamentals. That combination is central to the investment case. In cyclical industries such as aluminum and broader metals and mining, dividend analysis cannot rest on yield alone. Balance sheet resilience, earnings power across commodity cycles, and the durability of capital returns all matter. Dividend Channel said AA stood out on both attractive valuation metrics and strong profitability measures, while also pointing to the company's established quarterly dividend record and favorable long-term growth trends in key fundamentals. Why AA ranked highly. The report stated, "Dividend investors approaching investing from a value standpoint are generally most interested in researching the strongest most profitable companies, that also happen to be trading at an attractive valuation. That's what we aim to find using our proprietary DividendRank formula, which ranks the coverage universe based upon our various criteria for both profitability and valuation, to generate a list of the top most 'interesting' stocks, meant for investors as a source of ideas that merit further research." In practical terms, that framework emphasizes three factors that are particularly relevant for dividend stocks in the mining and metals sector: * Valuation: Whether the shares appear reasonably priced relative to earnings power, cash flow, or asset base. * Profitability: Whether the business is producing returns and operating results strong enough to support capital returns. * Dividend consistency: Whether the company has demonstrated a willingness and capacity to maintain a regular payout over time. For Alcoa, the significance of that ranking is less about headline yield and more about how the dividend fits within the company's broader financial profile. Metals producers are inherently exposed to commodity prices, energy costs, and industrial demand. A company that screens well on both profitability and valuation while also maintaining a recurring dividend can stand apart in a sector where cash generation often fluctuates sharply. Alcoa's dividend history in context. The annualized dividend paid by Alcoa Corporation is $0.40 per share, distributed in quarterly installments. Its most recent ex-dividend date was 08/11/2026. Dividend history remains a useful starting point when evaluating the stability of a payout, particularly in a cyclical business where earnings can move meaningfully from one period to the next. A long-term dividend history can help answer several key questions: * Has management maintained a regular dividend through different market environments? * Have payout levels been stable, growing, or volatile over time? * Does the dividend appear aligned with the company's underlying earnings and cash-flow profile? For income-oriented equity analysis, those questions matter because a dividend is not simply a yield figure. It is also a capital allocation signal. In a capital-intensive business such as aluminum production, sustaining dividends requires management to balance shareholder returns against operating investment, debt management, and cyclical swings in end-market demand. Why dividend stability matters in metals and mining. Dividend investing in metals and mining requires a different lens than in more defensive sectors. Producers are often tied to the economic cycle, and their margins can be affected by changes in aluminum prices, raw material inputs, refining economics, and energy markets. As a result, a company's dividend record can carry added analytical weight when it is accompanied by evidence of disciplined balance-sheet and operating management. That is one reason ranking systems focused on dividend quality tend to favor more than just current payout size. A high yield, by itself, may reflect a depressed share price rather than a secure distribution. By contrast, a company that combines a moderate dividend with credible profitability and value characteristics may present a more durable income profile. What investors often look for in a dividend stock like AA. When assessing AA as a dividend stock, several metrics typically matter more than yield in isolation: * Payout sustainability: The relationship between dividends, earnings, and free cash flow. * Cycle sensitivity: How exposed results are to changes in aluminum prices and industrial demand. * Capital intensity: The ongoing need to reinvest in operations, smelting, refining, and maintenance. * Balance sheet flexibility: The company's ability to absorb weaker pricing periods without jeopardizing shareholder returns. * Management discipline: Whether dividend policy appears consistent with long-term financial priorities. Dividend history does not guarantee future payments, but it can provide a useful record of how management has approached shareholder distributions across changing operating conditions. In the case of Alcoa, that history appears to be a meaningful factor behind its inclusion among the top-ranked dividend names in the sector. Bottom line. AA's placement in Dividend Channel's Top 5 metals and mining dividend stocks reflects a blend of valuation appeal, profitability, and an established dividend record. For Alcoa, the key takeaway is not simply that the company pays a dividend, but that its payout is being considered alongside the financial and operational characteristics that typically matter most in a cyclical commodity business.

Australian Vanadium to team with Alcoa on long-duration battery study. Australian Vanadium teams with Alcoa on a 50-80 MW vanadium flow battery study for WA refinery; 6-8 h storage, 18-month non-binding MoU. In brief At-a-glance 3 takeaways * 01AVL/VSUN & Alcoa sign MoU for 50-80MW, 6-8h VFB study. * 02Study targets refinery ops, peak demand, renewables. * 03Led by AVL/VSUN; covers design, costings, electrolyte. Australian Vanadium (ASX: AVL) and wholly owned subsidiary VSUN Energy have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Alcoa of Australia to jointly assess a vanadium flow battery (VFB) system for Alcoa's alumina refinery operations in Western Australia. The parties will undertake a scoping-level equivalent study for a system with nominal capacity of 50-80 megawatts and storage duration of six to eight hours, with the ability to extend beyond eight hours. The proposed system would be evaluated for its capacity to support refinery operations, optimise energy use during peak demand periods and increase the utilisation of renewable energy across Alcoa's operations. The collaboration will examine the role of long-duration energy storage in supporting industrial electrification and integrating renewable energy within energy-intensive industrial operations. The MoU has an 18-month term and is non-binding apart from customary provisions covering confidentiality and intellectual property, with neither party obliged to enter a future commercial agreement or proceed with further feasibility studies following completion of the initial study. Technical and financial case. Australian Vanadium and VSUN Energy will lead the study, covering VFB system design, technical specifications, costings, and the electrolyte supply considerations required for a potential large-scale deployment. The work will also examine project financing options and potential government funding opportunities, while Alcoa will provide support throughout the assessment process. Potential deployment locations include Alcoa's existing sites and associated landholdings in WA, allowing the parties to consider how the system could be integrated with the refiner's operations and site requirements. The study will test the financial and technical merits of using long-duration energy storage to improve operational flexibility, manage energy costs, and support greater renewable energy use during peak demand periods. A positive study outcome could lead to further feasibility work and discussions over commercial arrangements, including potential energy offtake agreements. Integrated battery strategy. Australian Vanadium expects the work to draw on its V-NOMAD electrolyte technology platform and VSUN Energy's Lumina utility-scale VFB development platform. The collaboration fits Australian Vanadium's strategy of participating across the vanadium value chain through vanadium production, electrolyte manufacturing, and VFB deployment via VSUN Energy. "Long-duration energy storage will play a critical role in enabling industrial electrification and increasing the utilisation of renewable energy, and VFB technology is particularly well suited to these applications," chief executive officer Graham Arvidson said. "Working with a globally recognised industrial operator such as Alcoa provides an opportunity to evaluate how long-duration energy storage can support operational flexibility, energy cost management and decarbonisation objectives." Australian Vanadium considers VFB technology particularly suited to utility-scale industrial applications because the proposed system would combine multi-hour storage with the potential to extend its duration beyond eight hours. Subscribe · daily wire Get the wire before the market opens. The ASX small-cap stories that matter, filed before 9am AEST. Curated by the Small Caps desk. Join 100,000+ investors. Unsubscribe anytime.