Northern Star primed to deliver

Heading into Kalgoorlie-Boulder's Diggers and Dealers this time last year, Northern Star Resources was a one-mine com- pany, though managing director Bill Beament had made no secret that he wanted new assets.

A year on and Northern Star is the second-biggest Australian gold miner by production, flagging output of up to 600,000 ounces this financial year. It follows the quick-fire acquisition of Barrick's Plutonic, Kanowna and Kundana mines, and most recently, Newmont Mining's Jundee operation.

The big question now is whether Mr Beament's management team can scale up their success at the Paulsens gold mine across a broader suite of assets.

That was partly answered a few weeks ago with strong production figures. Today's full quarterly report is likely to show whether it has also been able to keep costs under control.

"People are loyal to the mine they are working at, not the shirt they're wearing," Mr Beament said yesterday during his first investor tour of Jundee. That gave them the opportunity to take ownership of the asset, he said, and run it the way they think it works best and the results would follow.

It is a strategy that appears to have caught the imagination of the workforce, at least at Jundee. Northern Star took ownership of the mine this month.

Not that there was criticism of the previous regime. But the sense on site was that Newmont's global management structure lacked the ability to make quick decisions needed to chase down every thread of the narrow high-grade gold veins underground and wring every dollar possible from the operation.

Northern Star flagged production of about 200,000oz from Jundee over the next year. But talk during yesterday's tour was how missed opportunities could be revisited, new ones found and Jundee's 6 million-ounce legacy extended far into the future.

The miner yesterday extended Jundee's reserves and resources after rejigging the figures based on drilling conducted by Newmont. The next round of exploration will be to drill out further extensions, based on a new half-million ounce exploration target also announced yesterday.

Then there is the plan to re-examine the 8 million metres of drilling conducted by Newmont, much of which has never been fully assayed, in the hope the next 6 million ounces has already been found.

The reporter travelled to Jundee as a guest of Northern Star Resources.