Carey Group founder Daniel Tucker reflects on 30 years in gold industry

Daniel Tucker and AngloGold on the relationship that showed the way in the wake of Mabo and the Native Title Act: ‘The Federal government now spends billions of dollars now in Aboriginal businesses, goods and services. Before Tony Abbott, they did nothing.’

Carey Group founder Daniel Tucker and AngloGold's Andrea Maxey.

Daniel Tucker has hired and trained thousands of mine workers and likes to think his entrepreneurial spirit is part of the reason Australia now has thousands of Indigenous-run businesses.

Mr Tucker blazed a trial for Indigenous entrepreneurs and the mining industry when he founded the Carey Group in the wake of High Court’s Mabo decision and the introduction of the Native Title Act.

He’s celebrating 30 years running a business that has survived and at times thrived in the gold industry, where he cut his teeth after growing up on Mount Magnet mission near Laverton in Western Australia.

The 63-year-old said there were no Indigenous businesses or entrepreneurs in mining when he started out in the Goldfields in 1995.

A large part of his success is built on three decades of contract work at the Sunrise Dam mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti since 1999, but other clients include BHP and Lynas Rare Earths.

Mr Tucker recalls a lot of scaremongering from politicians like John Howard on the back of the 1992 Mabo decision and the passing of the Native Title Act the following year.

His family saw opportunity to work with Acacia Resources, which was trying to get the Sunrise Dam mine off the ground.

“Our family was saying, ‘what does this mean?’ There’s a change in the wind. ‘How do we get involved in doing something? How do we start a business?’” he said.

“We had no family history in business, had no exposure connection to business, all we had was an idea, a vision, a dream. And the mining company on their side of the table, had a project that they wanted to develop and was looking at how to move forward in uncertain times.”

Carey Group founder Daniel Tucker.

Mr Tucker, a Wongatha man, and his family lodged one of the first native title claims in Australia and broke new ground by setting up a mining contracting business as well as reaching an agreement with Acacia for compensation, jobs and training around the Sunrise mine.

Those kind of deals have evolved and become commonplace in Australian mining but there was no blueprint to follow 30 years ago.

“We did something totally different, totally new, in setting up a mining company. We went to the banks and borrowed money with support of the mining company to give us that leg up, and got involved with hardcore contracting. It was the beginning of Aboriginal people in business. In my view, that’s where it all started,” Mr Tucker said.

AngloGold gobbled up Acacia and Sunrise Dam in 1999 a takeover that also gave it a 33 per cent stake in the Boddington gold project, which it sold for $1.5bn in 2009.

The gold mining giant said the relationship with the Carey Group had influenced the way it interacted with traditional owners and Indigenous business relationships.

AngloGold changed its policies around procurement and awarding contracts so that smaller Indigenous-run businesses had a chance of winning more work. In Australia, this has helped the Carey Group, and Kai Rho Contracting pick up work on company’s Tropicana mine.

Andrea Maxey, AngloGold’s vice president of investor relations, communication and ESG, was a journalist in the 1990s and recalls the scaremongering about what a disaster native title would be for the mining industry.

“It’s a credit to both the Acacia executives at the time and to Daniel’s family that instead of seeing it as a problem, they looked at it as a mechanism to do something differently to benefit both parties,” she said.

“From an AngloGold perspective, it reflects our approach to social investment and community engagement globally.

“A lot of other companies don’t do it quite like this, but our supply chain and procurement team work hand-in-hand with our community team in terms of the way we do our procurement with local people and set up contracts in a way that enables smaller companies and Indigenous companies to participate.”

The relationship between Carey Group and AngloGold is the subject of a new World Gold Council documentary called “Gold: The Journey Continues – Australia”.

It is the third in a series produced by the council to promote responsible gold mining.

The council expects the strong support for gold – the $US price is up 28 per cent year-to-date and 42 per cent over the last 12 months to around $US3315 an ounce – to hold and provide impetus to rethink supply chains as well as new projects.

In this period of geopolitical uncertainty, mine sites in Australia and elsewhere are being revived as more economically viable and sustainable.

Mr Tucker said business was tough, irrespective of the gold price.

“Every day, every year it’s tough. There’s been a lot of ups and downs,” he said.

The group has three pillars – mining contracting, civil construction and training – and employs 450 people with a third of the workforce Indigenous. It provides training for about 3500 people a year in WA, South Australia and previously in the Northern Territory. The training includes work in prisons in WA and South Australia.

Mr Tucker ranks advising former prime minister Tony Abbott on the creation of Indigenous procurement policy as one of his major achievements. Mr Abbott asked him for advice based on the success of the Carey Group and its relationship with AngloGold.

“I told Tony (as a member of the Indigenous Advisory Council) that he needed to put in place opportunities because without opportunities, nothing will change. Out of those talks, they put in place Indigenous procurement policy,” he said.

“The Federal government now spends billions of dollars now in Aboriginal businesses, goods and services. Before Tony Abbott, they did nothing.

“So Sunrise Dam, the Carey Group, AngloGold, the story of the northeast Goldfields, had a ripple effect right around Australia. If it wasn’t for us and what we did 30 years ago, I don’t know where Aboriginal people would be in business today. I don’t think it would be where it is now.”

Originally published as Carey Group founder Daniel Tucker reflects on 30 years in gold industry