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NEWGENGOLD

NewGenGold founder gets

official recognition

by Dominic Piper

old exploration legend and NewGenGold conference
Gfounder Keith Yates has been recognised in the
Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Alongside fellow industry identities Kate Stokes, Julie
Shuttleworth and Owen Hegarty, Yates was recognised for
his “significant service to the minerals and mining sector,
and to the community” by being appointed a Member (AM)
of the Order of Australia (General Division).
Yates told GMJ he was very humbled by the recognition
coming nearly six decades after he entered the mining
sector.
“You do your job, then you do some extra, but you never
expect something like this to come along,” Yates said.
Official recognition would’ve been farthest from the mind
of the teenage Yates when he chose geology as his final
subject during his first year of university.
“I was never a boy who collected rocks or anything like that,”
Yates recalled. “I knew I wanted to do science at uni and
had to choose a fourth subject after maths, physics and
chemistry. I didn’t know much about geology but thought I
should be willing to give it a go. I was soon hooked, attracted
by the stories these rocks told of millions of years of Earth’s
history.”
Hooked is an understatement. Yates’ subsequent career NewGenGold founder Keith Yates with Dr David Gellatly
took him across the world hunting for minerals in rocks on at the 2019 event
almost every continent.
However, it was on the domestic scene he had his greatest
discovery successes. In 1968, he played a major role in the The last two years have seen discoveries such as Havieron
definition of the Redross nickel orebody in Western Australia. (Greatland Gold plc/Newcrest Mining Ltd), Winu (Rio Tinto
“That was a really exciting time, working with Anaconda,” Ltd) and Hemi (De Grey Mining Ltd) in WA. All three will be
Yates said. “Redross was, of course, a gossan discovery featured on the NewGenGold programme in November.
made by the late Ross Kennedy. Mincor [Resources NL] has Yates started NewGenGold in 1995 with a view to providing
been mining that area for years now.” a forum for gold exploration geologists to discover the
Yates equates the nickel boom of the late-1960s with the “where, why and how” of the world’s most important recent
current state of the WA gold sector today. gold discoveries.
“We have had historically high gold prices for some time The case histories of each of the featured discoveries
now and that has pushed companies to spend lavishly on provide a rare and valuable insight into the successes (and
exploration and for investors to invest in juniors,” he said. setbacks) of gold exploration.
“It’s certainly an exploration boom and the drilling stats show “The thing I love about exploration is the ability to piece
that. Even the majors have the rigs turning which we haven’t together a story from the facts identified and test theories
been able to say for a while. The recent spate of discoveries to get substance,” Yates said. “It is always exciting to
has shown the gold has always been there, you just need to unravel the story and get a result. It is a way of marrying
do the work and I believe there is much more to come.” scientific observation to commercial activity. That’s what

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