who will replace wr?

A major part of my due diligence on BRM (or YML as it was back in 2007)was on management quality. Wayne's credentials were amongst the best I saw of all I/O juniors in 2007: ex BHP I/O Head etc. Looking back now Wayne added immense value to BRM in his 4+ years. He may or may not have had that rail deal, but he was a safe pair of hands on all aspects of the project. Will be interesting to see who Luk and Tee in their wisdom come up to replace him with.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/barry-fitzgerald/pilbara-old-hand-takes-helm-to-steer-yilgarns-iron-push/2007/07/08/1183833344243.html

Pilbara old hand takes helm to steer Yilgarn's iron push
Barry Fitzgerald
July 9, 2007

GARIMPEIRO

SUCCESS in the exploration game is as much about having the right people as it is about having the right project at the right location.

Iron ore and nickel hopeful Yilgarn Mining (ASX code YML) has long had the right sort of exploration properties. With the appointment of Wayne Richards as managing director, it can now boast it has the right people.

Securing the services of the 42-year-old metallurgist is something of a coup for Yilgarn. The former Townsville boy is due to start next month after clearing his desk as project integration and commissioning leader in the Pilbara for BHP Billiton's iron ore division.

Like Rio Tinto, BHP is spending money hand over fist to expand output in the Pilbara, with a lift in its production to as much as 300 million tonnes a year now on the cards.

All very exciting but not enough in itself to keep Richards within the fold. He wants some new challenges.

That's good news for Yilgarn because there is nothing about the Pilbara iron ore business that Richards doesn't know.

He has been pretty astute in picking Yilgarn as the boat to board in his professional sea change. The stock has performed well in the past couple of months but when stacked up against the stellar performance of peer iron ore hopefuls, it has some catching up to do.

While the group's Carr Boyd nickel project has some obvious upside value, it is the Marillana iron ore project in the Pilbara that will provide that catch-up in the months ahead.

First up will be establishing a compliant resource estimate for the north-west sector of the Marillana tenement of 30 million tonnes of iron ore, grading better than 58 per cent iron. That will be a good start but the real excitement will come when the potential of the four or five feeder drainage channels feeding in to the Fortescue Valley property from the iron-capped Hamersley Range are put to the test.

The company won't make any guesses but some Pilbara hands will tell you that they wouldn't be surprised if Marillana can shape up as 100 to 200 million tonnes, if not more.

And well it might. But Yilgarn will be left with the problem of getting the iron ore to market. On that score, it's worth pointing out that Marillana straddles BHP's railway to the coast. Third-party access to infrastructure in the Pilbara is still a sensitive issue but "win-win" deals will be done, if not with BHP then with the shiny infrastructure being put in place by Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Mines on the other side of the valley, 50 kilometres away.

As part of the iron push by Yilgarn, there will be a name change. Its shares closed on Friday at 54.5¢, down 1.5¢ a share, valuing the group ordinary shares at about $35 million.