Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum blogDay two – Tuesday August...

Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum blog
Day two – Tuesday August 7

The dirty digger?

Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Mining Journal Editor

The upstairs meeting rooms at the Kalgoorlie art centre appear to be booked solid - more proof that most of the real action at Australia’s Diggers and Dealers mining forum goes on behind the scenes. Macquarie Bank has its own dedicated room, along with a handwritten “do not disturb” (underlined twice) note stuck on the door. Despite some hopefuls lingering in the hallway, there’s nothing to report about who has been inside (although there has been a rare public sighting leaving the exhibitors’ marquee: a Glencore executive).

So as the ubiquitous Powerpoint-supported presentations droned on downstairs, Australian mining identity and Territory Resources chief Michael Kiernan secured a half-hour slot in one of these meeting rooms to hold a remarkable media conference. Kiernan is the former Consolidated Minerals chief, and is described in Australian parlance as a “colourful character”. Both he and ex-BHP chief Brian Gilbertson are locked in an acrimonious battle to take control of ConsMin, a key Australian manganese miner.

With all the Australian mining media under the one roof, but nothing to tell them now he had cancelled a revised offer, Kiernan clearly decided that attack was the best form of defence. Accompanied by a lawyer to stop him getting sued for defamation, Kiernan began a carefully-staged character assassination of Brian Gilbertson at his 10.30am conference.

Kiernan had trawled the global mining media archives for the last five years. The results of this research formed a three-page `dirt file’ with sections helpfully highlighted, and from which he read for the first 12 minutes or so of the media conference.

The resulting attack on Gilbertson and the ConsMin board (who have recommended Gilbertson’s offer over his) contrasted sharply with the dry, fact-filled company presentations underway in the main auditorium. Kiernan drew on the unflattering media commentary to construct doubts about Gilbertson’s corporate governance standards, personal agenda and competency, and the board members’ motives in endorsing the Pallinghurst bid.

The better of these series of one-liners from his research (that won’t get Mining Journal sued) included: “Like Mohammed Ali, Gilbertson was great once”; Gilbertson had the “Midas touch for his own bank account” and an “ego the size of a planet”.

He even invoked good old-fashioned Australian parochialism, revealing a private conversation with Gilbertson in which he allegedly told of Pallinghurst plans to take ConsMin offshore, list it on the London Stock Exchange and run it from there.

Nevertheless, Kiernan’s openness and colour was a welcome relief from media-trained executives who are giving very little away. As usual, it was like pulling teeth to get anything from Barrick Gold. The president of the Australia Pacific operations declined to give even a hint of a gold forecast, nor provide individual production figures for its mines.

Strip away the sales patter, and even Oxiana’s showman, Owen Hegarty, gave a presentation and media conference yesterday that said very little.

Those seeking respite in the exhibitors’ marquee found junior miners in puddles of conversation about share options, the share market and who has made how much. As the afternoon wore on, the bar opened and alcohol began flowing, talk shifted to dinner this evening and who’s eating with who.

One thing is certain: we know who Kiernan’s dinner companions won’t be.