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expected of Australian companies operating abroad. “But it is just a case of waiting to see how it pans out for
“We do clearly have a winner with grade being king,” she them, economically; whether they’ll be able to get the right
said. “But you also have to have a great team around you, throughput, grades and make money.”
and [Hyde] has obviously created a really good team in that Ramelius Resources Ltd came in as a close second in the eyes
organisation. of this year’s judges. The miner turned out record production
“[Hyde] has trained up people well and has persisted in the from its Mt Magnet and Edna May operations and garnered
country for a long time. He has brought a whole team with him headlines for its quest to swallow Apollo Consolidated Ltd for
and through the entire process of building the project. They’ve $181 million cash and shares, after staving off a competing bid
got that mine up and running, they’ve produced what they said from Gold Road Resources Ltd.
they would produce, and they’ve done it in a record time during In 2020, Ramelius took home the Digger of the Year award
COVID-19.” and followed up in 2021 with record achievements in revenue
ChemX Materials Ltd chair Kristie Young was supportive of for $634.3 million via gold sales of 277,450oz, EBITDA of $341
Burnett’s mention for social governance, stressing the ‘S’ in million, NPAT of $126.8 million and net cash and bullion of
ESG and for the rest of the industry to take note of WAF’s $234 million as of the end of June.
performance abroad. Osborne shared his positive expectations of Newcrest Mining
“The uptick in ESG expectations over the last two years Ltd for its Red Chris gold-copper operation in Vancouver.
is especially significant,” Young said. “Such expectations Newcrest purchased a majority stake of the project in 2019 and
are undeniably huge when it comes to running a mining has since enacted a two-stage transformation at the operation
company. Australia is at an advantage in some respects, in with a PFS recently completed.
that regulation and governance expectations are higher than “Red Chris is a fantastic and massive opportunity for
in other jurisdictions such as Africa. Newcrest,” Osborne said. “No one else has been able to
“The S (social) in the ESG is becoming increasingly more extract the value out of it. Newcrest’s specialty is developing,
important. It is fair to say that institutional funds in the UK and effectively, large-scale block cave operations in low-grade
US are quite far ahead in their expectations around ESG more copper-gold deposits, like they have done at Cadia.
broadly, especially around the social and carbon footprint. Of “If they can translate such technical excellence and know-how
the companies nominated this year, it is interesting to note that to Red Chris, that can become a highly valuable and long-life
less than half have gender diversity on their board. Based on operation. They just have to prove they can do it now, and when
pressures coming from funds and investors, I would expect they do, they’ll be away with the horses. There’s probably no
that this shall change in coming years.” better company up for the job than Newcrest.”
Last year, it was deemed “too early” for WAF to take home
the miner’s prize, and much of the same was said this time for
Emerald Resources NL and Capricorn Metals Ltd (see page 30).
Kristie Young
Emerald has successfully built and
commissioned its Okvau mine in
Cambodia, producing 23,000oz in the
September quarter. Up to 30,000oz
was expected in the December quarter
at AISC of $US720-780/oz.
Meanwhile, Capricorn has begun
to make a name for itself with the
success of the Karlawinda operation,
expected to produce 125,000oz in
FY22. Karlawinda contributed $27.6
million in cash flow for the company’s
September quarter.
Carter made it clear praise was
warranted for the pair, but their
journeys had only just begun.
“I think they have both done really well
in getting their projects up and running
in that timeframe,” he said. “Especially
with Capricorn operating with a hard-hit
labour pool in a COVID-19 environment
and Emerald operating in Cambodia –
it’s a new mining jurisdiction.

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