Lithium miners and mid-cap marvels headed for Australia’s Richest 250 list

Some little known stocks are surging in value, and the executives behind the companies are suddenly worth hundreds of millions.

Tim Goyder, with wife Linda Sullivan, is headed for the Richest 250 thanks to some big mining plays

They’re the unknown business names suddenly worth hundreds of millions thanks to surging demand for lithium amid a green revolution and increased global demand for electric vehicles.

Lithium mining stocks are surging on the ASX and have executives of many mid cap miners heading for the ranks of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 as their paper fortunes swell.

Some names are familiar; but they’re not the prominent family members that have long been in the family spotlight.

Take Ian Gandel, son of billionaire property magnate John Gandel. The elder Gandel is most famous for his ownership of shopping centres, including a half share of the giant Chadstone Shopping Centre in southeast Melbourne – the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere.

While Ian Gandel had a stint in the property game, he has also racked up a long career as a mining industry executive and investor.

He made his first foray into mining in 1994 and now is on the verge of joining his father on the Richest 250 for the first time given a string of his mining stocks that have surged in the past 12 months.

Gandel’s hottest stock is Australian Strategic Minerals, which has a mineral sands and rare earths project at Dubbo in western NSW. It is one of the best performers on the ASX All Ordinaries Index in the past 12 months, rising by more than 800 per cent and putting Gandel’s stake at about $376m.

Australian Strategic Minerals is one of three ASX-listed miners Gandel is chairman of, and he also holds and explores mining tenements in Western Australia in his own right.

Gandel also has about $20m in Alliance Resources shares and $150m worth of Alkane Resources stock. Combined, his mining shares are worth more than $500m on paper now, putting him above the $450m cut-off for the Richest 250 when it was published by The Australian earlier this year.

Meanwhile, two hot stocks have Tim Goyder – cousin of prominent company director Richard, chairman of Qantas, the AFL and Woodside – also on the verge of joining the wealthy elite after pegging his first tenement in his 20s.

Goyder’s shares in lithium play Liontown Resources have risen by more than 500 per cent in 12 months, making his stock worth about $281m. He is chairman of Liontown, which has a lithium project in WA and is planning a demerger of its non-lithium assets into a newly listed vehicle called Minerals 260.

Then there is Chalice Mining, which Goyder is also chairman of and which he holds almost $240m worth of shares in. Chalice has a nickel, copper and palladium project northeast of Perth.

Other mid-cap marvels include PPK Group, which designs and makes underground diesel equipment for the mining industry but also owns 44 per cent of the soon to be ASX-listed Li-S Energy.

Glenn Molloy formed PPK in 1979 and has watched that company’s share price surge by more than 400 per cent in 12 months and 200 per cent since January 1 alone. His stake is now worth more than $500m and he also has a shareholder in Li-S, which is developing a new lithium-sulphur battery in a joint venture with Deakin University scientists.

A little-known e-commerce entrepreneur is also another holder of shares worth more than $500m in the small and mid cap sector. Dean Mintz founded online luxury goods business Cettire in 2017 and listed it on the ASX last December after raising $65m for its float.

Cettire shares have since more than trebled in value, giving the 35-year-old Mintz a stake worth about $535m. Cettire’s market capitalisation is slightly more than $800m,

Meanwhile, corporate veteran Duncan Saville has a shareholding of almost $590m in non-bank lender Resimac. Its shares have almost doubled in the past 12 months.