News

September 22, 2008

Cast Prejudice Out Of The Window And Take A Close Look At Norseman Gold

By Charles Wyatt

“It’s not easy to please all the people all the time” runs an old political saw trotted out by every political party from time to time. In the case of Norseman Gold it must have been a thought that has gone round and round in the mind of Barry Cahill, the company’s chief executive. The idea of putting Barry in charge of Norseman when it listed on Aim was that this was a man with proven experience in operating high grade thin vein mines – he’d run many such operations throughout Australia. Norseman, though, was always going to be something of a challenge. It may be Australia’s longest continuously running gold mining operation, having produced over 5.5 million ounces of gold across 65 years, but while it was in the hands of Croesus Mining, the previous operator, it mined itself into a real mess.

Barry Cahill does not want to be drawn into criticising the Croesus team, but does point out that they were explorationists rather than narrow vein miners. “High grade is the key,” he explains. “In these two mines at Norseman you can identify the ore from the country rock so you follow it and get it out as efficiently as possible.” Sounds simple, but the best operators stick to a simple plan because they know it works, like Johnny Wilkinson kicking his goals. Simple also means that you do not...