Diggers Diary: When Mark Creasy was man who fell on his feet
Given Elon Musk has been begging someone, anyone, to go build some more lithium mines, he might want to pay a bit of attention to Western Australia’s rich mining history.
Given Elon Musk has been begging someone, anyone, to go build some more lithium mines, he might want to pay a bit of attention to Western Australia’s rich mining history.
News that space junk that crashed to Earth in the Snowy Mountains in early July came from Musk’s SpaceX missions sparked a few wry smiles around Diggers on Wednesday.
The last time a major hunt for crashed space debris took hold in Australia was in 1979, when Skylab fell to Earth along WA’s southern coast.
It was the search for Skylab pieces that famously led legendary prospector Mark Creasy to the Fraser Ranges, which he subsequently identified as a major prospect for nickel and base metals – eventually leading to the discovery of the Nova nickel mine, now owned by IGO.
Creasy is a fair bit older now – and a new father, if gossip around Diggers is to be believed – and probably unlikely to repeat his trek to find SpaceX debris. Mind you, even if Musk’s acolytes were minded to try to repeat Creasy’s feat in the search for raw materials for Tesla batteries, they’d probably need to have moved fast.
Creasy Group is a bit more sophisticated than it used to be when the prospector was younger; had anyone from the group noticed the debris streaking through the sky, there’s every chance an application for the ground could have been lodged before it even hit Earth.
Dinner dance disturbance
A last note on the airline dramas dogging Diggers this year.
You have to feel for those delegates who tried to get out of Kalgoorlie on Tuesday night, ahead of the last-day rush. The closure of Perth airport forced the cancellation of the flight for most of them – a major drama for some, given many had already given up the keys to their hotel rooms.
Rumours have it that the Diggers organisers even gave some thought to sourcing camp cots and sleeping bags to turn the Diggers marquee into a crisis shelter for those without an alternative – though matters ultimately resolved themselves without the need.
But the final twist came in the morning, when gale-force winds were forecast for Kalgoorlie. That put the annual Diggers gala dinner at risk – first on safety concerns, then because the jets that ferry in the entire dinner’s infrastructure. Food, tables, staff, the lot were unable to get into the air.
Fortunately for all, the wind did not blow quite as hard as forecast, and the planes were later able to get into the air, allowing the annual dinner bash to get under way as originally planned.
Digger and Dealer head-scratcher
The highlight of the dinner is the annual awards, particularly “Digger, Dealer and Emerging Company” to the mining industry, plus a media award and the GJ Stokes Memorial award from a person “who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the mining industry”.
There’s rarely any true consensus ahead of the event, but this year’s set caused more head-scratching than usual.
Digger went to Lynas Rare Earths, whose Mt Weld mine is only the starting point for its operations, with most of the value delivered from its Malaysian refinery.
Capricorn Metals was the hot tip for Digger of the Year, after a stellar performance from its Karlawinda operations. Instead, the company took out Dealer, for the $40m acquisition of the 2.1m ounce Mt Gibson gold project – certainly a bargain, but not a transaction on the radar of most tipsters.
And the Emerging Company gong, which recognises “the venture that has the greatest potential to develop into a substantial project”, went to lithium play Liontown Resources. Given Liontown is capitalised at $2.9bn, and has already made a final investment decision on its Kathleen Valley project, there’s an argument to suggest the company has already emerged pretty thoroughly.
No arguments about the last two, though, with Kalgoorlie-based ABC reporter Jarrod Lucas and mining entrepreneur Tim Goyder both worthy winners of their respective awards.
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