News

April 21, 2008

Silver Lake: A Reflection Of The Original WMC

By Our Man in Oz

Investors with memories that stretch back to 1933, and that’s not many, will recall that this was the year when the once-great Western Mining Corporation was founded as a small gold explorer with an assortment of claims in Western Australia. Roll forward 75 years and you might be seeing a repeat of history. Silver Lake Resources is the name of the new business, and while WMC itself has disappeared inside BHP Billiton, the people behind the new company have WMC stamped all over them. As do the location of the goldmines being worked, and the simplicity of the business plan. “Drill. Define. Mine.” - that’s the motto of Silver Lake’s managing director, Les Davis, a 25 year WMC veteran who has embarked on a perfectly-timed career change – along with everyone else working at Silver Lake who served time with WMC, arguably the most successful Australian miner of the mid 20th century.

The starter project for Silver Lake is the Daisy Milano mine, located 50 kilometres south east of Kalgoorlie. It came with the acquisition of the gold division of Perilya, which Perilya sold last to focus on Broken Hill base metals and merging with CBH. Integrated with Daisy Milano is the Lakewood processing plant, acquired in a separate deal. Quickly refurbished, Lakewood poured its first gold on 8th April. The target is produce between 10,000 and 15,000 ounces of gold by 30th June, rising to...