I don't hold, but thought you guys might be interested in this...

I don't hold, but thought you guys might be interested in this article, which appeared in a quality SA newspaper:

......

SA's mining rock star

He's the South Australian mining industry's rainmaker.

The mine Derek Carter discovered at Prominent Hill looks like being almost as big as Broken Hill and it's on its way to providing SA with 400 permanent jobs (800 during construction) plus four times that number in transport, vehicles, fuel, food and supplies. Bill Nicholas reports.

PROMINENT Hill has been developed from a drilling success into a mine in the record time of fewer than five years. About 10 is the norm.

If you invested $2000 in Derek Carter's company, Minotaur Resources, back in 2000 and came up with another $5000 to convert options and take up an issue, you'd now own an investment worth around $170,000.

And there are plenty of Taylor Collison investors who put in a bit more than $2000 originally. No wonder Carter is popular at mining, geology and investment functions around the town.


The exhilaration of the Prominent Hill find in November 2001 spread like wildfire, with the director of one near-address hopeful saying he raised "$2 million before I got out of my dressing gown" on the day of the release. A wave of more than $100m in prospectuses for a wide range of projects leapt into life. Blood was suddenly back in the pale body of Australian exploration.

And off the back of this terrific success, Carter and his directors have spun off a uranium explorer, Toro Energy, a hot rocks prospect, Petratherm, and a nickel mining associate, Mithril Resources.

What's your story?

One of my early jobs was with Billiton, then Shell's minerals subsidiary, where I spent 16 years learning all about how to find minerals. I then moved to Adelaide where Norm Shierlaw hired me to join Burmine. We joint ventured to Prominent Hill which we drilled, but missed the rich orebody by just 200 metres.

After the Burmine experience I floated Minotaur Gold, then Minotaur Resources. By then Normandy had taken over the Prominent Hill tenement and after investing several million in exploration including gravity work, decided base metals wasn't for them. I managed to acquire the exploration rights and brought in BHP Billiton to help us with the heavy drilling costs.

It was the fourth of a six-drill hole program at Prominent Hill that came up with those wonderful words: "100 metres of 2 per cent copper" -- and "open at depth". Bonanza. Paydirt. But BHP decided it was too small for them so we successfully offered $8 million to get it back and then managed to attract Oxiana to finalise the feasibility and, hopefully, mine it. They took over Minotaur Resources in a share swap and their shares have climbed from 90 cents at the time to around $3 now. Minotaur shareholders have done pretty well.

So Oxiana are doing the mining and a new company, Minotaur Exploration, is back in the business we know best -- finding new orebodies.

So what are you doing for

an encore?

There's no reason why we can't find a few more Prominent Hills in South Australia. We're confident we can. And when you look at the success of Carrapateena, it just goes to show there's got to be more of these elephant-sized orebodies around. We're looking at about half a dozen Prominent Hill lookalikes right now. We're concentrating on copper-gold in the Gawler Craton, gold at Tunkillia and a Japanese-funded zinc play near Olary in the Curnamona Craton. Plus some other copper plays at Cloncurry and Gympie that look interesting.

What is your business?

People ask me that all the time and it's pretty weird saying we don't really have a profit generating business, we just spend money looking for stuff. But that's what we do and we're good at it. Our business model is to find economic mines and accelerate their development, just like Prominent Hill.

The market as we speak?

Despite the price of copper going up from 80c to $US3 a pound over the past five years, China's appetite for the metal looks like keeping up for years. Sure, the price will probably go down a bit but there are little new supplies emerging so we are not expecting it to fall back to 80 cents anytime soon.

Future trends?

It's getting expensive to open a mine. When we first started looking at the sums on Prominent Hill it looked like $300 million would cover it. When push came to shove, it's actually costing around $775 million. Costs are escalating worldwide so commodity prices need to stay up or there'll be no supply.

SA mining hotspots?

PeppinNini's deal with the Chinese Sinosteel to invest directly in the Crocker Well uranium project is an indication of the Chinese appetite for uranium. Then we have: Iluka's huge mineral sand deposits out Ceduna way; Havilah's work at Kalkaroo; Terramin's Strathalbyn Project and Hillgrove's Kanmantoo Mine -- but all of these pale into insignificance compared to the expansion at Roxby Downs. Now that's a hotspot.

What makes you angry?

When the Wallabies kick too much. Junior mining companies putting out statements that are not honest. Unforgiveable.

Do you bear grudges?

I've nothing like that on my mind.

What do you feel when you get back to Adelaide?

I'm a Sydney boy but I just love coming home here. We have raised our three girls in an open-plan home in the Hills overlooking the Onkaparinga Valley. It's better than a holiday resort. When I get in the door I can't help but relax.

What was your first job?

It always helps who you know. After doing geology, it was my rugby union experience as an outside centre with Sydney University that got me a job with John Fuller, a former Wallaby. He was looking for copper up in Queensland. My first week was outside Charters Towers, collecting soil and rock samples and testing for copper in mid summer.

What do you like about your

current role?

It's classic exploration. We have a team of good blokes, they know what they're doing and I'm very happy to be part of the team.

Why did you sell Prominent Hill

to Oxiana?

Mining is pretty boring. I'm more excited about doing the sleuthing work and then get somebody else to do the heavy lifting.

Is finding skilled people a problem?

That's an international problem. It's not peculiar to SA. The University of Adelaide's new mining engineering course supported by bursaries to attract the cream of students into the industry is a great move. We've put our hand up to finance some bursaries and we're looking forward to having access to some brilliant students.

Could the SA Government be

more helpful?

We appreciate the SA Government's initiative to accelerate the pace of exploration by subsidising the cost of drilling. It has been a serious stimulus. With Prominent Hill generating around 800 jobs and plenty more through the multiplier effect, the project deserves appropriate infrastructure -- like roads and water.

Your favorite fantasy?

To relive the Sydney Olympics. My family and I were there from the opening to the closing ceremonies and everything in between. We were there every second, for every sport. We loved it. It cost a fortune but I'd love to do it all again. It was great fun.

What words do you overuse?

Let's drill another hole.

What stimulants would you

recommend?

The Minotaur Resources annual report 2002 (which details the Prominent Hill discovery). Shaw & Smith sav blanc and McLaren Vale shiraz.

How would you like to die?

A chortling overdose at a Billy Connolly show.

....
www.independentweekly.com.au/?article_id=10223147&PHPSESSID=b0d7115a1107feac1a2775e04543b234