Page 73 - Minesite 2011

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Does your executive and board team have
a particular style of decision-making?
Fortunately, the Western Areas management team is not that
large, so we can make decisions rapidly. As a board we all get
along very well, and to be honest, although there is a high level of
professionalism, some decisions are made over lunch. We have a
highly skilled and experienced workforce, and the board has a lot
of trust in these guys. They really know what they’re doing.
What have been some of the hardest
challenges you’ve faced?
Trying to keep yourself in exploration and mining when there’s
a real downturn. Downturns tend to run for two or three years,
and suddenly geologists are back to driving taxis. My wife and I
started collecting, picking and selling flowers, just to keep money
coming in the door. It’s surprisingly lucrative actually!
We managed to tick along in the downturns. The biggest
downturn was in the late 90s when there was nothing around. I
worked at TAFE teaching field, bush and 4WD skills. This was just
before we formed Western Areas. That downturn lasted a couple
of years and there were hundreds of unemployed geologists in
Western Australia at that time. Some very fine people organised
sessions down at the pub on a Friday night to talk about what
ideas and opportunities were around. As a result of the downturn,
geology enrolments at UWA collapsed, so even now 12 years later
you’re seeing a shortage of experienced geologists in the industry.
What lessons have you learned that might
assist aspiring leaders?
Always employ people smarter than yourself! And I guess,
if you are running a public company – keep your share-
holders happy.
We have a wonderful team of people. Western Areas employs
around 700 people including staff, consultants and contractors.
We try to keep a very transparent and open culture in the
company. If you don’t achieve that, I believe you will struggle with
people from day one.
Our board has also been a very stable group. Terry Streeter,
David Cooper and myself are the original board members.
Our Finance Director, Craig Oliver, passed away last year.
It took a long time to get over that loss and it was challenging for
Western Areas because Craig was a key part of the team and a
huge life force.
The other thing is that we’re all very focused on nickel only.
Western Areas also has global ambitions. The company is listed
in Toronto and has some very interesting exploration assets up in
Canada and in Finland as well.
What skills do leaders in the resources sector
need, and are these different to other industries?
I like to see people who are very driven and are also lateral
thinkers. It helps if they have a global perspective. You can’t just
look at Australia, you have to look at other markets and who you
are competing with around the world.
The resource sector is probably no different from other
industries – mining is still a business. If you push the excitement
of exploration to one side, a resource company is only there to find
a mine and operate a business, produce a product to sell and make
money. We try and keep that in our minds all the time.
Which is your biggest driver in business?
I still get a kick out of exploration – very much so. We employ about
25 geologists and they try to lock me out of the room sometimes
because I say, “Why aren’t we drilling here? What about testing
this? etc, etc”. I do tend to intrude.
How do you balance work and social life,
and how do you unwind?
Work does require a fair bit of travel, which I am trying to wind
back. Fortunately my wife enjoys travelling too, so if there’s
a conference, or some reason to be somewhere, I try to get her
involved. Work for a public company operates at all hours
of the day.
My wife and I have a 10-acre horse property in the foothills,
so I just love being on the end of a chainsaw or putting in fencing,
or building stuff. I’m also an avid collector of all sorts of things.
What do you collect nowadays?
I mainly collect early 19th century military campaign furniture,
which I source all over the world. It’s usually made of mahogany
and brass, it was designed to take on ships or on the back of a
camel and it’s simple and robust, but elegant. Someone once said,
“It’s the Ikea of yesteryear!”
I also enjoy working on the weekends on our property. My wife
has been riding since she was eight years old and life revolves
around horses, the kids and a couple of Labrador dogs! You have to
have these other interests for the weekends, where you can switch
off from work.
What does your future hold?
There is life beyond Western Areas. It is a wonderful job, but it
is still a job. My wife and I enjoy travelling. Who doesn’t? Getting
on a jet and going somewhere, then waking up and stepping off
in a foreign country is hard to beat.
Eventually I hope to get down to more grass roots activities,
keeping fit digging postholes and running a few sheep and having
a boat again. And fishing of course.
I also enjoy reading about history and I don’t think people do
enough of that now. I’ll probably get more involved in things other
than geology and mining. You have to look outside of your own
turf sometimes.
I would also like to get involved in sculptural scale casting
– bronzes and things like that. When I step down as Managing
Director of Western Areas in January 2012 – that’s what I’ll
probably take up as a hobby. That, and collecting.
That’s the wonderful thing
about exploration – people
are still making discoveries
out there in areas which
have been explored
many times before.
JULIAN HANNA
DIRECTORS RICK YEATES AND
JULIAN HANNA AT FIRST NICKEL SHIPMENT
MINESITE 2011
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