Unity searches for assets, identity
March 21 - 27, 2012
THE company now known as Unity Mining is on the prowl for another significant asset, and with a sizeable and growing war chest, ready-made due diligence team and experienced M&A executive leading the venture, the indications are this is very much more than just another company in the sector espousing standard rhetoric while doing little beyond going through the motions.
The right man for the job
August 4 - 10, 2011
IBM’s loss was, as they say, Atlas Copco’s gain, though the man who has overseen Atlas Copco Australia’s spectacular growth of recent years was almost lost to the Swedish company too, more than 40 years ago.
Success the Simich way
July 7 - 13, 2011
IT IS almost two years ago to the day that the first diamond drill hole into the DeGrussa deposit transformed Sandfire Resources from a A10c stock into $A1 billion dollar plus copper developer. For managing director Karl Simich, Sandfire’s success is the culmination of a career that he can credit partly to a bad knee injury when he was 18.
Deep belief in shallow potash field
May 26 - June 1, 2011
LORRY Hughes is a man on a mission and that mission is to develop the world’s first major shallow potash mine in the small African nation of Eritrea.
African pioneer sees a sea of positives
March 17 - 23, 2011
THE first African mine Brad Marwood worked on was opened by none other than then-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Now, 20 years later, as the managing director of Tiger Resources, he is about to celebrate the commissioning of the Kipoi project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest success story from Australia’s growing love affair with Africa.
Gold junior’s new chief looks for answers
February 16 - 22, 2011
SOUTHERN Gold’s new managing director Nanette Anderson admits to questioning why more investors aren’t jumping aboard the gold explorer given the drilling results from its Bulong South project – the same results that prompted her to throw her lot in with the company late last year.
Africa move marks new Reed chapter
January 26 - February 1, 2011
LINDSAY Reed’s working career began at eight with an axe in-hand in the Victorian high country beside his faller (aka lumberjack) father, and it’s been a colourful career ever since for the mining engineer and managing director of Aviva Corp.
Familiar territory
January 19 - 25, 2011
AS ONE of the team that helped develop Gindalbie Metals’ Karara iron ore project in Western Australia, Andrew Munckton knows a thing or two about magnetite. That knowledge has been invaluable in his newest role at Avalon Minerals as the company’s Viscaria project in Sweden has evolved from straight copper play to something a little more complex.
Olsen’s big leap
December 1 - 7, 2010
REX Minerals’ managing director Steve Olsen spent the better part of his career dealing with the intricacies of high-grade, narrow-veined orebodies. Now he is approaching the development of almost the direct opposite at the large Hillside copper project in South Australia.
Greenland’s great hope
November 17 - 23, 2010
GREENLAND Minerals and Energy’s Rod McIllree is the man tasked with driving the development of the world’s largest rare earths project. And as if that wasn’t enough pressure, the project is also of vital importance to the Greenlandic economy as it moves towards independence from Denmark.
Powerful ambitions
November 3 - 9, 2010
ADVICE from his father-in-law saw chartered accountant Ian Murray decide to throw his lot in with the mining sector over a career in the insurance industry. Some 13 years later he is now the chairman of Eleckra Mines and seeking to convince the market the junior gold play has found something big.
Hitting the right note
October 27 - November 2, 2010
WHEN Ian Mulholland isn’t heading up exploration company Rox Resources, which just last week announced a joint venture with Canadian major Teck over its flagship Myrtle project, he can usually be found performing with one of three men’s vocal groups, including Australia’s top barbershop quartet.
A family affair
October 6 - 12, 2010
SARACEN Mineral Holding’s chief operating officer Raleigh Finlayson has a family history steeped in Australia’s gold industry, and now he is playing his role in building part of its future.
Third time lucky
September 29 - October 5, 2010
THE career of Horseshoe Metals managing director Neil Marston keeps coming back to the Horseshoe Lights copper project in Western Australia’s up and coming Peak Hill mineral field. His newly-listed company is now looking to resuscitate the copper project for the third time.
Home is where the project is for local crusader
September 8 - 14, 2010
MOST company managing directors with projects out of Australia resign themselves to racking up the frequent flyer points. For Crusader Resources managing director Rob Smakman the decision to live and work in Brazil, where his company’s projects are, makes much more sense than trying to run things from West Perth.
Price not right for the life aquatic
September 1 - 7, 2010
A DECISION to change tack at university, from marine biology to geology, has propelled Artemis Resources’ new general manager David Price several times around the world from the forests of Papua New Guinea to the Austrian alps, and now into the top job at a gold explorer sitting on some decent real estate.
60 seconds with David Price
September 1 - 7, 2010
HIGHGRADE: Three people who have most influenced you in your career/life?
Doray and the evolution of a gold prospect
August 4 - 10, 2010
THE initial successes of explorer Doray Minerals, which listed in February this year, have been a very welcome surprise for the company’s managing director Allan Kelly. With his background in exploration at Western Mining Corporation, he knew the company’s Murchison projects were prospective, but hitting grades as high as 125 grams per tonne gold less than two months after listing was certainly not part of the original plan.
60 seconds with Allan Kelly
August 4 - 10, 2010
WHO are three people who have most influenced you in your career/life, and why?
Time to get smart
December 8 - 14, 2008
NOV 24: ‘GET THE cow and we’ll talk some more’, sounds like a line out of an episode of popular 70s spy sitcom Get Smart. It’s basically the deal Phil Welten signed on for when he became managing director of Indo Mines early last year.

