April 14, 2007 12:00am Article from: Herald-Sun http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21552440-664,00.html
THERE are few geologists in Australia who can claim to have had a hand in more than one major greenfields discovery. Ed Eshuys needs two hands to count the big finds he has played a role in.
His successes as Joseph Gutnick's exploration director are well known. In the late 1980s and early '90s, he led the teams that discovered the Plutonic, Bronzewing and Jundee gold deposits, and the Cawse nickel project -- all of which were developed.
Lesser known is his involvement in the Maggie Hays and Mariners nickel discoveries, and his early work at Marvel Loch.
As the chief of exploration in Western Australia for Belgian company Union Miniere in the 1970s, Eshuys drilled the first holes that intersected nickel sulphides at Maggie Hays, now owned by LionOre, and the first holes at what is now Mincor's Mariners mine.
He also supervised preliminary drilling into the historic Marvel Loch goldfield before Union Miniere packed him off to Kalgoorlie.
"I guess it's ironic that I'm back there now," he says.
Eshuys is about to clock up his third year as head of gold miner St Barbara.
The company has been mining at Marvel Loch since it bought the gold assets of the collapsed Sons of Gwalia in early 2005, and is making a success of what then appeared to be an out and out failure.
When Sons of Gwalia called in administrators in August 2004, its Southern Cross operations at Marvel Loch were thought to have little more than a year of production left.
But under St Barbara's control, Southern Cross has continued to produce at a rate of about 170,000 ounces a year, and by the end of this year the company expects to have a mine plan mapped out for the next five years.
St Barbara has also extended the resource at Sons of Gwalia's namesake mine near Leonora, and recently approved the $110 million Gwalia Deeps development.
The company has big ambitions. It produced 166,000 ounces of gold in the year to June 30, 2006, but is aiming to be a 1 million ounce producer by 2010.
"Our existing assets, I think, will get us to about 600,000 (ounces) in that time frame," Eshuys says.
"To get the other 400,000 we'll either need to make a discovery and/or an acquisition."
A GEOLOGIST by training, Eshuys has always taken a practical approach to his craft.
"As you can imagine, there are geologists who just love geology and they love their terms . . . and some of them are very good at that and you certainly need those people," he says.
"My interest was always to use geological knowledge for commercial benefit."
Eshuys, a Dutch immigrant, grew up in Morwell but studied geology at the University of Tasmania after a failed start to a teaching degree in Melbourne.
"I failed second year. I didn't do enough work. It's that simple," he says.
He graduated in 1969, just as the infamous Poseidon nickel boom was taking off, and of course, went west.
After nine years with Union Miniere, the company gave up on Australia and Eshuys found himself without a job.
"They didn't understand what exploration was really about," he says.
"The Belgians were used to being in the Congo where the local people would show them where the indigenous people had been mining for hundreds of years and they'd just drill into that. Simple."
He returned to Melbourne and joined Mobil Energy Minerals' hunt for uranium in the Northern Territory, but saw Mobil retreating from Australia as well, so resigned within a year.
Eshuys headed Victor Petroleum's foray into thermal coal in Tasmania after that, but the company was defeated by an environmental movement that was gathering steam.
Soon after, he made the call that would lead to one of the most successful partnerships in Australian mining history.
Eshuys teamed up with Melbourne magnate Joseph Gutnick in late 1986.
Their first big find, Plutonic, netted them $50 million and dragged Gutnick and his companies out of the quagmire of the 1987 stock market meltdown.
Bronzewing followed in 1992, hitting gold on the 64th hole of a 65-hole drilling program, and the two hit paydirt at Jundee not long after.
They also consolidated and then developed the Lady Bountiful/Mt Pleasant gold operations and brought the Cawse nickel project into production -- though it later brought Gutnick's Centaur Mining undone.
The partnership ended in 1999 after Gutnick sold Great Central Mines to Robert Champion de Crespigny's Normandy Mining.
At the time, Gutnick told the Herald Sun the split was amicable.
E SHUYS says he left because there was little scope for him after the Normandy deal was done, but admits now there was some animosity.
"It was mainly to do with the fact that de Crespigny came in and I didn't agree with the price that de Crespigny was paying," he says.
Eshuys and Gutnick have not remained in touch.
Reflecting on the partnership, Eshuys says: "I always say it was a joint effort. I think in the end, Joseph thought that maybe more of it was due to him than me, but I wasn't fussed by that".
"I had tremendous experience and being successful gives you the confidence to do other things."
After a few years in the west -- where he attracted attention for two high-profile board stoushes -- Eshuys has recently returned to Melbourne.
He splits his time between a small apartment in Collins St and the family's sprawling heritage-listed property at Mt Macedon.
Eshuys and his wife Marj bought the property, Alton, about 10 years ago, and have been restoring it to its 1870s glory.
The 10ha farm includes a 4ha botanical garden, noted specifically for its trees.
"We do a bit of weeding," says Eshuys of his contribution.
The decision to return to Melbourne has as much to do with Eshuys' ambitions for St Barbara as it does with his personal ties.
"To actually make acquisitions and to develop the company we'll need access to capital," he says.
"We're a company that's growing and you actually need to be part of corporate Melbourne or corporate Sydney to do that. You can't actually do it from Perth."
Eshuys is tight-lipped about which assets the company might be sizing up, but all eyes in Melbourne are on its stake in troubled gold explorer Bendigo Mining.
St Barbara snatched 10 per cent of Bendigo in the bloodbath that followed its decision to halt production and return to exploration.
Difficulties measuring the nuggety gold in the Bendigo district were blamed, but Eshuys is not convinced the style of gold is the problem.
"There's clearly geological control to the gold at Bendigo. Once you know what controls the gold then you have a much better understanding of what the high values and low values are in terms of your assays," he says.
However, he dismisses the suggestions he might have knowledge to share with the Bendigo team.
"We wouldn't even attempt to have any say other than as a shareholder, which means you can give gratuitous advice or you can protest," he says.
"I think they're on the right track now. The issue will be what they do with the results they get."
St Barbara's sale recently of a parcel of shares in gold explorer Saracen prompted speculation the company was cashing up for a full takeover.
But Eshuys is giving little away about the company's strategy.
"We'll see what happens," he says.
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