Ian Smith joins White Rock Minerals board

The former Orica and Newcrest managing director is returning to the boardroom of a publicly listed company.

Former Orica and Newcrest managing director Ian Smith is dipping his toe back into the world of publicly-listed companies, becoming a non-executive director at Ballarat-based minnow White Rock Minerals.

Mr Smith left Orica in 2015 after an aggressive outburst at a senior executive and stepped down from the board of Transurban later that year.

Shares in White Rock, which owns the Mount Carrington gold and silver project in northern New South Wales, were up 0.2c, or 14 per cent, at 1.6c in midafternoon trade on Friday, giving the company a market value of $12m.

It’s rare that such a wealth of experience lands on the board of such a small company, with White Rock benefiting from the controversy that surrounded Mr Smith’s Orica exit.

Mr Smith is also a past president of the Minerals Council of Australia and has held senior roles in Rio Tinto and WMC.

“White Rock has an exciting future ahead and I am looking forward to being part of its transformation as it delivers on its growth strategy,” Mr Smith said.

He has also taken $100,000 worth of shares in White Rock at 1.5c each, the same price as a recent entitlement offer.

According to White Rock, Mt Carrington, 170km south of Brisbane, is expected to only cost about $24m to develop, thanks to infrastructure left behind by previous gold mining operations, and will have a 10 month payback.

Over its seven-year life, it will generate $100m of free cashflow (at a gold price of $1600 an ounce) from 111,000 ounces of gold and 6.7 million ounces of silver, at cash costs of $754 an ounce for its gold and $10.40 an ounce for its silver.

The current plan to fund the operation is through a streaming deal with private equity group Cartesian Capital. In return for 20 per cent of the gold and silver in the initial seven years of production Cartesian will stump up financing of $US19m to make it all happen.