MINING LEGACY

www.miningaustralia.com.au14 May 2011 AustralianMining

Industry champion’s legacy inspiresA Western Australian gold and nickel exploration company is the

inaugural recipient of an award named after a man gone but not

forgotten. Australian Mining’s WA correspondent Jamie Wade writes.

Craig Oliver, a formerchief executive officerfor the Western Aus-

tralian mining company West-ern Areas NL, was one of sixboard members of SundanceResources Limited who weretragically killedin a plane crashin the Congo in June 2010.

He was 46.The loss of Craig left many

bereaved, but his legacy as aninspirational and passionatechampion for the mining in-dustry will live on through anaward named in his honour.

The Craig Oliver Awardwill be presented annually toan ‘all round’, small-to-midcap Australian mining com-pany which has excelled inseveral areas.

These include exploration,mining, corporate, environ-mental and community.

Independence Group man-aging director Chris Bonwickwas humbled to receive theinaugural award in a movingpresentation ceremony at anexplorers’ conference in Fre-mantle this year.

However, his acceptancespeech was overshadowed bythe recollections of the manwho touched many.

In presenting the award

alongside Craig’s family, indus-try peers and colleagues, West-ern Areas managing directorJulian Hanna reflected onCraig’s legacy.

“Craig was a wonderfuland enthusiastic characterwho made a really lasting con-tribution to the mining indus-try over his 20 year career,”Hanna said.

“He was an all-rounder,you couldn’t hold him back.

“He got involved in everyaspect of mining.

“If it was exploration, he’dbe out on the drill rig. If itwas mining, he’d be down inthe mine telling the operatorshow to operate an air leg orwhere the jumbo should bedrilling.

“In financing, he’d be rub-bing shoulders with the topfunds in New York; and indeveloping projects he’d betelling colleagues to ‘ramp upmill production’.

“He was just a wonder-ful enthusiast.”

As an advocate for the in-dustry, Craig was also remem-bered as one of the key peoplebehind the successful anti-resources tax rally in Perth inmid-2010.

“He really was quite a

political character as well anda driving force for axing themining tax,” Bonwick said.

“It was Craig who got allthose wonderful bannersprinted. It was Craig who gotGina Rinehart and AndrewForrest up on the truck. AndI think the truck itself camefrom Hampton Hill Stationwhich was part of his familyheartland in the goldfields.

“Craig was on the phoneworking politicians and weall know the results of thatcampaign. It was hugely effec-tive and certainly had Craig’sname written all over it.”

Companies were nomi-nated for the Craig OliverAward based on their ‘allround’ contribution to theresources sector in WA, encom-passing the key areas of explo-ration, development, mining,corporate or social activities.

In winning the award, In-dependence Group NL beata quality field of Western Aus-tralian resources companies,including Beadell ResourcesLtd, Magma Metals Ltd,Northern Star Resources Ltd,Sandfire Resources NL, SilverLake Resources Ltd, South-ern Gold Ltd as well as TanamiGold NL.

Independence Group’s flag-ship mine is the Long nickelmine in Kambalda, WesternAustralia. It also owns 30 percent of the AngloGold Ashanti-operated Tropicana gold pro-ject, also in Western Australia.

In accepting the trophymade of silver, titanium, copperand gold, Chris Bonwickpraised colleagues and themining industry.

“There’s probably been12 decent ore bodies foundin the last 12 months by variouscompanies. Not all of thoseare in Australia, but certainlyour industry here is strongand vibrant,” he said.

The award was judged byrepresentatives from each ofthe sponsoring companiesincluding prominent resourcesjournalist Ross Louthean. Hesaid Independence was adeserving winner.

“Independence has somereally talented geoscientistsin their team and been puttingruns on the board for years,”he told Australian Mining.

“I’ve followed Benambrafrom when Western Miningmade the original discoveryand there’s been technical

issues for a lot of companiesand I think Independence hasnutted them out. Time willtell. And their new discovery:the Bentley deposit – near theJaguar deposit – sounds reallyinteresting; the cash flow theyshould get from those oper-ations will be good.”

“They’ve picked up theWestern Mining database fordiamonds but also the DeBeers’ database for Australia;diamonds are also an indica-tor of minerals and that ledthem to the Tropicana discov-ery. Their databases also helpedthem with the work they weredoing on the joint venturewith Southern Boulder for theRosie Nickel Project.

“They’ve been makinggood cash flow out of theLong Nickel Mine and beenploughing it back into explo-ration-development – as wellas rewarding shareholders.”

The Craig Oliver awardwill be presented annually atthe RIU Explorers Confer-ence to an Australian companywhich has excelled in perform-ance during the last 12 monthsthrough their activities eitherwithin Australia or offshore.Drilling work being carried out at Independence Group’s Tropicanca deposit.

The late Craig Oliver, for whom the award is named.

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