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Menzies nickel could shine
By Cortlan Bennett
14nov04

FROM diamond diving in the crocodile-infested Kimberley to mapping the jungles of New Guinea, Great Australian Resources managing director Tony Gates has always mixed the bush with the boardroom.

It's a philosophy that not only has dominated the 62-year-old geologist's global career but also continues to pay dividends.
Just months after listing in March, Great Australian Resources announced it had doubled its gold findings at Corboys in the Mid-West, and hit nickel at its Menzies gold project 130km north of Kalgoorlie.

"We've come up with some very good numbers for Corboys since our last announcement, which also shows we've possibly doubled the amount of gold in our first program from 60,000 ounces to 120,000 ounces," Mr Gates said.

"We must find at least 250,000 ounces before we start looking at a mine. But once we do, Corboys is 30km from Bronzewing (the former Newmont mine now owned by View Resources), so there's a possibility of linking up and pushing through their plant."

With cost-savings from a potential link-up, Corboys could be even more viable.

"I don't think we'll be able to drill before Christmas, but if we can we will drill for gold," Mr Gates said. "We're trying to get a Christmas present out for the shareholders."

Gold may glister but it is the nickel deposit at Menzies that has Mr Gates really excited.

In 1987 he floated Capricorn Resources on a large, low-grade nickel deposit 150km west of Norseman that is now the Emily Ann mine, owned by LionOre Mining.

The immediate future for Great Australian Resources will be to start geophysical work on the nickel deposit. Once a better idea of the resource is known, the company will seek a joint- venture partner to exploit it.

"Emily Ann took about four years and $16 million expenditure on exploration, so it could be three years before we see a nickel mine at Menzies," Mr Gates said.

In the meantime the geologist who has explored the earth from Australia, Africa and Asia to the frozen tundra of Greenland will take to the bush at least once a month in his quest for commodities.

"I do enjoy getting out in the bush, meeting people and finding ore deposits," he said. "Just about everywhere in the world has been mapped now – but it doesn't mean ore bodies are any easier to find.

"It just gets to the stage where you've done so much field work that you're using your past experiences to see and analyse reports that someone else has written and maybe didn't know what they were looking at."

As for the good old days of mining exploration that turned up such gems as the Bow River diamond mine in the Kimberley in 1979 . . .

"I do bump into my old colleagues every now and then, but most of them now sit behind a desk," he said.



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