Alumni recall peak in nickel trough

Former Western Mining Corporation general manager Doug Marshall reflected on the heady days of the Kambalda nickel boom yesterday as the Goldfields town limps on amid a lengthy downturn.

Kalgoorlie-born Mr Marshall was among five WA School of Mines alumni from the class of 1966 — the same year nickel was discovered near Kambalda — to be honoured at last night’s graduation ceremony.

The first intersection of massive sulphide ore was discovered in drill hole number KD1 on January 28, 1966.

Jack Lunnon was the driller in charge of the rig and in what became something of a tradition, the ore body was named the Lunnon Shoot.

“I was there the day the core was coming in from Kambalda . . . it was a pretty exciting place to be,” Mr Marshall said of his time as a cadet at WMC’s Mac-Donald Street headquarters in Kalgoorlie.

The practice of naming new ore bodies after drillers, including Ted Otter, Mick Lanfranchi, Stan McMahon and Jim Hunt, continued at Kambalda as more nickel was discovered.

WMC built the Kambalda concentrator within 17 months of the find and WA’s first nickel boom had officially begun.

Today, the concentrator is starved of ore with the closure of mines by Mincor Resources and Panoramic Resources, while Independence Group has wound back development at its Long operations.

The result has been more than 200 job losses in the past year for the tight-knit community of Kambalda, where 67 houses are listed for sale by real estate agency Ray White.

Output from the Beta Hunt gold and nickel mine — between 3500 tonnes and 4500t this year — is understood to represent between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the ore being delivered to the Kambalda concentrator, which is now owned by BHP Billiton.

The nickel price also shows no sign of climbing off the canvas this year and was yesterday trading near five-year lows.

“I’ve seen the Goldfields through the peaks and troughs, Mr Marshall said. “I jumped in a taxi and went on the grand tour of Kalgoorlie and it’s obviously pretty quiet out there. But it always picks up again. It never stays down for long.”

Mr Marshall recalled working as a construction engineer for the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, which opened in April 1973.

He also headed up WMC’s $1.9 billion Olympic Dam build as project manager between 1985 and 1988, and was involved in the development of the Mt Keith nickel mine near Leinster.

“We built the smelter, the water pipeline, railway from Kambalda and 14 houses in Kalgoorlie, all for $28 million,” he said. “Just think what that might cost these days.”

The 50-year graduates also included Malcolm Wills, Brian Philips, Dennis Sands and Kalgoorlie-born mechanical engineer John Kelly.

Mr Kelly followed his dad onto the Golden Mile, where both worked for Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie before heading to the growing Mt Isa fields in Queensland for most of the 1970s.

Last night’s WASM class of 39 graduates included 11 mining engineers, seven geologists, six surveyors and four metallurgists among various other Curtin University degrees.

Source: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/31539490/alumni-recall-peak-in-nickel-trough/

Acting Director of WASM Dr Sam Spearing Speaks From The Heart

HEARD ON HANNAN
Professor Sam Spearing could make a decent living as a stand-up comedian if Friday’s graduation ceremony for the WA School of Mines’ class of 2016 is anything to go by.
Speaking at his first graduation ceremony since taking up the director’s post last year, Professor Spearing’s 10-minute address was notable for two reasons — the obvious passion he brings to the
role, and the comic relief. He opened by suggesting family members could treat his speech as “intermission” during the 90- minute ceremony and should enjoy a nap, but nobody nodded off.
Among the array of mining graduates at Friday’s ceremony was ABC Goldfields-Esperance reporter Rhiannon Shine and former Kalgoorlie Miner scribe Tyne Logan, who both received their
Bachelor of Arts degrees in journalism. “If you hate my speech it was written by the two journalists,” Professor Spearing joked. They were not the only targets in his sights, and soon it was US Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Professor Spearing told graduates their degree was the second biggest investment they would make besides a house, adding they had the professional skills to take them forward, but would need to develop people skills. “Graduates come out of university and don’t know how to play in the sand pit,” he said. “They’ve forgotten how to deal with teams and how to communicate with people.
“It’s something that you’re going to have to learn very quickly. “If you look at the people who do succeed, perhaps with the exception of Donald Trump — I’m American so I’m allowed to say that —
your communication skills are important.” Professor Spearing touched on ethics and themes such as forgiveness, recalling an anecdote where his children sang in the choir at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as South African president — the crowd that day included Mandela’s white jailer.
He warned graduates of the perils of social media “which can come back and bite you” and discussed what the future might hold, including the need for more skills with traditional jobs disappearing. “The good news is in your careers, it’s very difficult to get computers to do them — computers have more sense — they don’t want to go underground,” he joked. Global crises with a lack of electricity, food and water are among the challenges graduates face in the future. “We helped mess up the world because we wanted you people to be gainfully employed and give
you some challenges,” he said.