http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2008/01/10/9728_hpnews.html
The $100m fisho
TONY RAGGATT
10Jan08
IT wasn't so long ago that Terry Byrt was flying by the seat of his pants.
The former trawler fisherman was a timber boat builder when all the new boats were being made from steel.
Now, after setting himself up in the resources industry, he is flying high at the head of $100 million-plus exploration and contracting businesses.
And he's just lobbed in at No. 46 on Australia's resource rich list – alongside mining heiress Gina Rinehart.
The bizarre rags to riches story has come about through a mix of good timing, good luck and the resources boom speculation and stock market success of the public company floats Mr Byrt has been a part of.
``We started this business with $60,000 five years ago,'' the Ansett Resources Industries chief said.
``I bought up (mining exploration) tenements.
``When all the big players were shedding everything, Terry Byrt came along and took it all up.
``I was out at Mount Isa at the time.``It was good luck ... the luck was with me.''
Whatever it is, Terry Byrt, a resident of Townsville, is now named alongside some of Australia's richest people.
Mr Byrt, chairman of listed base metals explorer RMA Energy, is ranked number 46 on international resource publication's Australian Resources Rich List released yesterday alongside the likes of iron ore tycoons Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest.
His wealth is listed as $72 million – although is it more than that, at least on paper, it is more than $100 million.
RMA Energy, an exploration company aiming to develop a copper/tin project on the Coane Range 100km northwest of Townsville, was runner-up for the Float of 2007 award by resources publisher Aspermont.
The company listed at 25c and yesterday was trading at $1.77.
Mr Byrt has more than 34 million RMA shares – worth more than $60 million.
He is also executive chairman of another explorer, float East Energy Resources, and is planning the float of another public company, Ansett Mining Corporation, he claims will be worth `billions' within three years.
Mr Byrt's strategy has been secure exploration tenements over areas of known mineral rich areas and then either sell them off, with access and royalty payments, to companies such as Copperco or Aquila Resources.
Other tenements he is folding into the public companies.
"The Ansett Mining Corporation will hold inferred resources of one billion tonnes of coal and base metals as well," Mr Byrt said.
"It sounds crazy, I know.
"It will be a coal and base metals company."
It will be interesting to see whether the claims of resources rich territory come to pass.
There are plenty of people who, privately, question whether they will.
RMA claimed in a press release last year it was on track for production of up to 1000 tonnes of metal per annum with revenues of about $29 million from quarter four 2007.
Mr Byrt said the company was awaiting a mining lease to begin production and would deliver on its promises this year.
Meanwhile, his privately owned mining group is gearing up.
Mr Byrt's mining contractor Ansett Resources and Industries, has bought a large industrial property at the Bohle for $2.5 million, and is using the premises for its mining staff and to store its machinery – $1 million drill rigs, excavators, dump trucks, dozers and rigs to cart machinery.
RMA and Ansett are also leasing premises in the city.
Mr Byrt said people often looked twice at him, as if to question whether he was for real.
Mr Byrt's private partner, Townsville building certifier Robbie Kirkby, said many people tried to tell him it wasn't true.
But he knows better.
"There's nothing hidden," Mr Kirkby said.
"If you know where to look, you can verify the information."
Mr Kirkby said Terry Byrt had made a lot of money initially by selling the access rights to Copperco's Lady Loretta mine near Mount Isa.
After that, he said they both scraped together the money to fund the buying of exploration tenements.
"I used money that I had saved ... long-service leave payments," he said.
"We started out on a shoe string. He was the one doing all the investigation.
The hours of work he has put in leaves me in amazement."
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