positive comment from mr jones, page-27

Gday All

Sorry if this has been posted. Another good write up for GJ and he mentions he is in good health.

Cheers.


Mining duo step into the breach
BARRY FITZGERALD
June 23, 2010

TWO old war horses, George Jones and Brian Gilbertson, are stepping in to fill the leadership vacuum left by the death of Geoff Wedlock, and 10 others, in the west African plane crash.

Mr Wedlock, a former BHP veteran, was chairman of iron ore group Gindalbie, manganese group Jupiter Mines and Cameron iron ore developer Sundance Resources, which lost its entire board.

Gindalbie is by the far the biggest of the three companies, with $850 million capitalisation, and has a board and management depth that will allow it eventually to find a replacement for the highly respected Mr Wedlock.

But the much smaller Sundance and Jupiter have had to move quickly to fill the void. Mr Jones, a Gindalbie non-executive director and until August last year Gindalbie and Sundance chairman, will take up the Sundance reins as replacement chairman. Mr Gilbertson, a former BHP chief executive, has become Jupiter's acting non-executive chairman.

Mr Jones has made his return as chairman of Sundance something of a personal crusade.

''I feel a responsibility to the company and to the people there, and the people that have been lost, that we continue,'' he said yesterday.

''I'm determined to rebuild the board,'' he told ABC Radio. ''I don't downplay the importance of the people we've lost, but the company must go on and this project can be made very successful.''

No one doubts Mr Jones is up to the job. He feels a deep sense of obligation to the friends he lost in the tragedy, most of whom he introduced to Sundance and its big iron-ore ambitions.

Mr Jones could well have been Sundance chairman and visiting the Cameron project himself had it not been for a battle with Meniere's disease, an inner-ear disorder that affects hearing and balance.

Surgery and a requisite 16-week rehabilitation period did not fit with his work ethic. But an early return to work meant his recovery was less than ideal, compromising the balance in one ear and ultimately forcing last year's decision to relinquish the chairmanships of Gindalbie and Sundance to concentrate on his health.

Mr Jones said yesterday he was now in good health and ready to rebuild the Sundance leadership team.

The son of alcoholic parents, Mr Jones spent from the age of five to 15 in and out of children's homes.

"Then at 15 they just let you go, you are sort of released, and told to find a job, " he said. "It wasn't easy. It wasn't a good start."

But it did give him a "reasonable education" and taught him some basic life skills, he said in a 2005 interview. Then came six years in the army, including a year in Vietnam.

A 10-year stint with ANZ followed before he made his name in mining by taking Portman Mining (coal in Queensland and later iron ore in Western Australia) from a $20 million company to the $675 million company that US group Cleveland-Cliffs took over.

Mr Gilbertson was BHP Billiton's chief executive officer for six months before his abrupt departure in 2003 because of differences with the board.

Source: The Age

http://www.watoday.com.au/business/mining-duo-step-into-the-breach-20100622-yvwk.html