Attendees at last Thursday’s WA Mining Club luncheon would have noticed a number of changes to the September lunch. With regular MC Tim McMillan not available, we subbed in a different Tim, with the Gossage variety entertaining us with his trademark wit and energy, supported by media industry legend Babs McHugh in her fireside chat with Jim Beyer of Regis Resources. In the absence of President Dani Tamati and Vice President Barry Upton, the 450 strong crowd got to witness the bench strength of your committee, with newcomer Drew O’Sullivan taking to hosting duties like a duck to water and Jordan Pedley providing an eloquent update of progress with our Young Professionals initiatives. In a first for the Mining Club, we managed a very entertaining live cross from the field where other committee members Barry Upton (camp lead) and yours truly (ably assisted by Liesl Kemp – thanks very much for your help Liesl !) were chaperoning our 3rd ‘Get into Mining’ camp. The 4 day camp is intended to provide high school students with first hand insights into the career opportunities our industry can offer. We took almost 2 dozen high school students to a range of venues including Curtin University, Barminco training centre, Newmont’s Boddington Gold Mine, a lookout over the Premier Coal operation and Westrac’s Automation Centre in Collie, South 32’s Worsley Alumina Refinery, Tasman Safety’s HQ in Rockingham (thanks so much for sponsoring the camp) and finally the Roy Hill Remote Operations Centre before circling back to the Curtin Uni drop off point. Special thanks also to Ventia for not only providing food and catering staff to support the camp, but also having senior managers travel down from Perth to the Binningup Youth Camp to share their industry career journeys – much appreciated.
Following lunch, MD and CEO of Regis Resources Jim Beyer took the stage, complete with Brisbane Lions scarf and MIM Holdings tie in a nod to his Queensland heritage, with Babs cheekily reminding him that when the Lions won a flag back at the turn of the century, the gold price was around a tenth of what it is today.
Jim took us through a rapid fire update of the current state of play at Regis – with an out of the money hedge book paid off late last year and sustainable production of a tick under 400k oz PA going forward from their Duketon and Tropicana assets and at a healthy margin, the business is entering a cash build phase, likely sending many in the room scurrying to call their brokers with a buy order. If only the federal environment minister hadn’t kicked a national economic own goal in her rejection of the $1bn McPhillamy’s Gold Project near Blayney in NSW, it would have a ‘strong buy’. Plaudits to Jim for his candid, detailed and balanced explanation of the chronology and detail of processes that lead to the recent bewildering Section 10 notice at McPhillamy’s and hopefully we see common sense prevail with a reversal of the decision. For someone revered throughout the industry for their technical excellence, we were delightfully surprised to discover Jim’s wry and dry sense of humour, well received judging by the laughter in the room on the live feed. We enjoyed a whirlwind journey of what it is to be Jim, from graduating from Qld Uni to becoming an 80s fashion icon, to roles at MIM Holdings, Blackwater Coal, Newmont’s Pajingo and Boddington gold operations, Olympic Dam and Mt Gibson and finally heading up the team at Regis. During question time, we were reminded of the enormous contribution our industry makes to our nation’s prosperity, with $75bn paid in taxes and royalties last year alone, equivalent to 35 Fiona Stanley Hospitals. Jim also noted that invaluable industry support provided by groups such as AMEC and the Minerals Council of Australia for their tireless advocacy work in ensuring that state and federal governments are reminded of the immense importance of our industry and the fact that our environment and heritage stakeholder management sets the global benchmark.
Thanks Jim for a very informative and entertaining presentation – you mentioned that you quite enjoyed taking us for a trip down memory lane, but we reckon you possibly enjoyed Saturday afternoon even more with a 10 goal win to the Brissie Lions!
Thanks everyone for attending and hopefully you can back up for the last two Luncheons of the year, with Evolution Exec Chair Jake Klein taking the podium in October and Dale Elphinstone as our special St Barbara’s Day Luncheon guest in November. Check the WA Mining Club website for updates and details – look out also for the members only Friday night at the trots in early November and 2 further YP events later in the year.
