News

May 21, 2008

The World According To Harry Dobson

By Alastair Ford

“We might be quite good at running fairly small operations”, speculates Harry Dobson modestly, about his team at nickel miner Belvedere Resources. They might indeed. Sitting at the top of the tree is a man who’s proved time and again that he’s a dab hand at “small operations” - the old master Harry himself, a serial mining and resources investor, a man who’s been around the block once or twice, and seen plenty of busts as well as booms.

His first mine came into production well over budget. That hasn’t happened often since. Following on from that, as chairman of American Pacific Mining back in the 1980s, Mr Dobson successfully reopened the El Mochito zinc and silver mine in Honduras. He paid US$5 million for it, and within a couple of years had sold it on again for US$100 million. It’s still in production.

Later he gambled big on diamonds in Canada, although he’s still waiting for a real pay-off on that one. But Harry’s a big...