A great read about our Chairman.
talktome
Source:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...sundances-rescue/story-e6frg8zx-1225939880308
RESOURCES industry stalwart George Jones' rise to the top of the corporate ladder isn't your typical mining fairytale.
He grew up in an orphanage, moving between 12 different schools in the nine years of education he received, before entering the army, with the world of mining not even entering his thoughts.
But it has been the prospective industry that has given him his fortune and seen him take on the role as the "godfather of junior miners", a role he takes seriously because he lacked a mentor when he was young.
His passion for the sector, and especially the people, was never more evident than his rapid response to the Sundance Resources tragedy, which saw its entire board killed in a plane crash in Africa in June.
Jones has enormous guilt for the lives lost, having employed each of them when he was chairman of the company.
He had retired from the sector last year, after he was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease (an inner ear disorder), which saw him in rehabilitation for six months. But the responsibility the 66-year-old felt towards the company saw him step back into the chairman's role at the junior iron ore miner and also take on the same role at Gindalbie Metals, a role he had previously stepped down from.
"I was phoned during the night (the plane was reported missing). They are all friends of mine and I appointed them and if it hadn't been for me stepping down, I would've been on that plane," Jones says.
Those killed included mining billionaire Ken Talbot, chief executive Don Lewis, company secretary John Carr-Gregg and directors Geoff Wedlock, John Jones and Craig Oliver. The group was visiting the junior's Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon, near Congo.
Jones said he was determined from the outset to help Sundance survive the tragedy, because he has memories of a plane crash in Western Australia's Goldfields region in 1980, where the entire board of a junior miner was killed and the company folded.
"There was no one prepared to step up and as a result creditors and banks wound the whole group up, everyone lost their jobs and projects shut down and it was a financial disaster," he recalls.
"That is still in my memory. I immediately thought to myself, we cannot let that happen (with Sundance)."
Jones says he was the logical person to step up and see the emerging miner through the tragedy, but he also felt a personal responsibility to resume his previous chairman's role.
"They were all friends of mine and it's not stuff you learn in the rule books -- you just experience how to go about it," he says.
"In that first four weeks, I had more sleepless nights than I had in my life, where I just didn't get to bed because I was trying to do stuff.
"With the families, that was tough. I knew a lot of them. One of the wives I've known since she was 10 years old. Talking to them through that and through the media, trying to ensure it was dealt with sympathetically was hard. I made the decision that every time I had a couple of hours to sit and think, I'd get melancholy, so the best way to deal with it was to keep going."
Since the plane crash, Jones has been back to Africa three times and says the team, new and old, has not refused to fly to the project. "Nobody has stepped back. It is an amazing example of Australian tenacity, stoicism and bravery," he says.
Knowing Jones' background, it's not hard to see where he gets his bravery from and he has pushed and challenged himself out of a difficult childhood to become the success he is today.
"I got off to a very slow start and then joined the Australian army for six years and served in Vietnam and did a trade as a bulldozer mechanic," Jones says.
"I found that wasn't what I thought my talents best suited, so I started studying while I was in the army and after I left that I joined the ANZ bank and finished a commerce degree and while at the bank worked in financing mining projects."
At the age of 36, Jones started on his next venture, leaving the bank and setting up his own business advising mining companies on how to deal with banks and then after 15 years in that role, he took his own advice and started investing in mining companies. "My modus operandi is to invest in companies and then get in and help them make it work," he says.
Jones is well known for his time as chairman at Portman Mining, which he was instrumental in driving from a junior explorer to a successful iron ore producer. He dramatically split with his board to reject an offer in 2005 from Cleveland-Cliffs, which won Portman for $677 million.
"I said no to Cliffs' offer because I had a firm view there would be a jump in iron ore prices," he says.
"They paid $677m (at $3.85 a share) and then three years later paid $21.50 for the remaining shares they didn't own. Cliffs paid nearly as much for the remaining 14 per cent as it did for the initial 80 per cent."
With his ability to read the China growth story and success at Portman, it is no surprise Jones is often sought for advice from aspiring iron ore miners and he is more than happy to help develop the sector. "I never had a mentor and always wished I had someone I could go and talk to," Jones says.
While he clearly has a passion for mining and enjoys the challenges it brings, his greatest passion is his family -- his wife, four daughters and nine grandchildren.
He is involved in charity work, with Parkerville Children and Youth Care, where he spent some time as a child and the Ear Science Institute, whose director operated on Jones for his ear disease.
"I grew up in Parkerville, so, the two charities, I have a strong affinity with both of them," he says.
"I believe Parkerville put me on the right track. Other members of my family have not been as successful as me."
Jones is hoping to take a small break and enjoy a cruise now that he has Sundance on track to become a producer, but don't expect this mining veteran to be bowing out again soon. "I enjoy what I do. The sector has been good to me financially but I do it each day because I enjoy it."