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Developing committed $10 million to a resource and aid the decarbonisation of the in-
dustry.
upgrade drilling programme at Sul-
From Beament’s perspective, this is
phur Springs and as Beament ex-
Bill plained the orebody boasted the where the “mines of the future” need to
be developed.
“clean, green” elements needed to
“There is a massive shift going under
decarbonise.
way now globally on this [decarbonisa-
The major change in direction is
Beament the underground mining services tion] thematic and that’s not changing,”
he said. “I’ve had a bit of experience in
offering. In essence, Develop is
following its major shareholder,
markets and it’s very evident where the
Mineral Resources Ltd, establish- the last month just tapping the global
ing a contracting arm to run along- weight of money is going.
side its own operating assets. “All these companies have already
he biggest talking point of “It’s MinRes’ business model committed to decarbonisation, they’ve
Tthe conference was the but underground effectively, but committed to energy targets, that is
done [but] they’re going to need the
in the right commodities, the right
unveiling of Bill Beament’s thematic,” Beament told media fol- mining industry. We’re going to need
newest venture, Develop. lowing his Diggers presentation. those critical elements to be able to
achieve what everyone has committed
Beament cut his teeth in under-
ground contracting during his time to.”
at Barminco – now part of Perenti A clear challenge standing in front of
n the lead-up to Diggers, Beament was Global Ltd – and he believes under- Beament and his fellow Develop direc-
Iformally instated as the new managing ground operations will be key to im- tors Mick McMullen, Shirley In’t Veld
director of Venturex Resources Ltd fol- proving emission levels. and Michael Blakiston is the ability to
lowing his official departure as chairman attract people and find additional pro-
of Northern Star Resources Ltd on July 1. jects, neither of which are expected to
When the Venturex booth remained come cheap.
vacant throughout the opening morning, Beament was quick to brush off
whispers began to circulate among del- those concerns, especially when the
egates of a major rebrand for Venturex. challenge of navigating the ongoing
Appearing after lunch in Elon Musk- pandemic is factored in.
style jeans and untucked collared “Since I stepped out [of Northern
shirt, the sense of entrepreneurial- Star] I’ve been swamped by the
ism was in the air. Beament told a who’s who of the industry wanting
packed auditorium Venturex would to partner on different stuff, so I’ve
be changing its name to Develop got no shortage of pipeline things in
and that the new company planned the future,” he said.
to “utilise the power of people to pro- Having built Northern Star into a
duce clean metals and help decarbon- top 10 global gold producer, it ap-
ise the world”. pears Beament is not ready to ditch
“Our flagship asset in Develop is our the precious metal in favour of com-
world-class underground DNA that is built modities with a “green” tinge.
purely on people,” Beament explained. know the commodities that we need for
“Gold’s not green,” he said. “We
through underground mining. “ I’ve had a bit of think the mining industry in those met-
“We know the mines of the future are
the future and they’re well televised. I
going to be underground. We have to
lower our carbon intensity footprint, we
als, we’ve got a real selling point. But I
have to lower our emissions per tonne
experience in the
think the mining industry in other met-
of ore mined and we have to reduce our
als, has got a real problem.”
footprint of what we’ve got on surface –
last month just tapping
The main challenge – as is begin-
and what better way of achieving this than
western governments – is sourcing ad-
“One thing Develop is going to do ad- the global markets and ning to dawn on car manufacturers and
ditional to its business is offer industry it’s very evident where equate supplies of metals such as cop-
a turnkey solution on world-class under- the weight of money per, nickel, lithium and cobalt.
ground capability that can help others de- “We want to decarbonise, we want
liver on their promises.” is going. lower emissions, we need these critical
For many delegates, the business ingredients to achieve that,” Beament
strategy for Develop was initially a dif- said. “I don’t know where it’s all going
ficult one to unpack with the question of “We’re going to help all parts of in- to come from in 2025 onwards because
the company’s longstanding flagship as- dustry be more efficient and produc- that’s when all the big commitments
set, the undeveloped Sulphur Springs tive,” he said. start rolling out all the new models.”
copper-zinc-silver project in the Pilbara, By making underground operations
left hanging. more efficient, Develop would improve
Prior to the conference, Venturex had productivity, hence lower emissions

Page 22 SePTeMBeR 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT