AN INTERVIEW WITH BILL BEAMENT OF NORTHERN STAR RESOURCES
What was your upbringing like, and what
things stood out about your early life?
I’m a born and bred Esperance boy. I grew up in the country,
out of the town. My dad is a mechanic by trade and he started
a very successful farm machinery business that he only sold
five years ago. My dad was a workaholic, and I’m the same.
It’s probably good, as it has created a great work ethic,
which has flowed right through Northern Star with some very
like-minded people.
I had a typical country boy lifestyle: riding motorbikes,
playing heaps of sport, growing up on the oceanside of
Esperance. I did well at school; well, maths and science were
good but English was terrible. I went off to boarding school in
Perth for my last three years of high school. From there I went
on to Kalgoorlie to the WA School of Mines (WASM).
I adapt pretty quickly to my surrounds. I loved boarding
school because I love my sport. I still play, and am very
competitive in it. My body is breaking down now and not as
capable as it used to be, but at boarding school I basically had a
football team around me every day of the week. I played every
sport imaginable, seven days a week.
Was there a significant event or person
that influenced your choice of career?
My dad used to buy, wreck and sell farm machinery parts:
tractors, loaders, harvesters, cranes and forklifts. I was
fortunate to be around that heavy gear from ever since I can
remember. I learned to drive all that heavy equipment from an
early age. I used to sit on pillows to be able to see over the
steering wheel and the dashboard. I love being around it, and
I guess that gave me a bit of an inkling about getting into
mining with big machinery and things constantly changing.
I was working there every weekend and after school, and
I think the old man found that what I really liked was driving
cranes. When I was about 13, there was a career expo in
Esperance. I was at a booth with something to do with cranes
when I got hit in the face by a laser light. I turned around and
it was a survey instrument with a laser on it, at the WA School
of Mines’ stand. The surveying and engineering side really
took my eye, and from that point on I wanted to be a mining
engineer. I went to boarding school and did the subjects to get
into that course, and the rest is history.
It’s a four-year Bachelor of Engineering degree at WASM,
but it took me five. I didn’t quite have the correct level of maths,
and I failed English at high school. I had to do some bridging
courses, which put me back a year. But the best thing about that
was that in my last year at school, I was working four 12-hour
shifts a week (full-time, 48 hours a week) at an underground
mine, and was also running the WASM tavern. I did enjoy that
final year!
What have been some of your
hardest challenges, and how have you
overcome them?
I think the hardest challenges are when you come to those career
crossroads and you’ve got to make a decision about which way
to go. I’ve had three or four of those. Some people go directly
into the office, and other people get hands-on experience with
the machines and mining, and then jump into the office side,
working their way up in the management structure. I made the
decision to stay a lot longer ‘on the tools’. Instead of two years,
I did four or five. I wanted to make sure I could do every single
job that any miner could do so that when I got into management,
I understood what they were doing, the challenges they face
and I knew how to operate as well as they did.
Then you come to a crossroad to get into the office side of
things. I was paid very well – twice what you are when you get
in to the office – so that’s a big decision. I’ve only worked for
four companies, and each time I’ve joined them I have taken a
pay cut, because it’s all about where you want to get to and the
steps you have to take to get there.
Once you go into the office, you’ve got to quickly make
the decision about whether you want to go into management.
When those positions came up, I jumped at them with both
hands. Some people said I was not ready for it, but I’m a sink
or swim type person. I do it now with my guys here. I’ve got a
very young management group in this company but I’ve tapped
them on the shoulder and said, “Sink or swim. I’ll give you the
opportunity to grab it or fail”. And touch wood, everyone has
done very well.
I took the step into management with Barminco – one of the
largest underground contractors in Australia, if not the world.
I was only 24 at the time, overseeing 150 miners. It was
interesting! I think I was the youngest person out of those
miners, and I was their boss. That was a hard career move, but
it paid off.
Then when I made the step out of Barminco into Northern
Star, it was a leap of faith into the unknown. I have always had
that ultimate goal of where I want to get to in my career, and
I’m still not quite there yet.
Where is that ultimate goal for you?
In years to come, in life after Northern Star, I will own my own
big chunk of a company. I’m a big shareholder of Northern Star,
Minesite 2013
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