James Cooper spent the 2000s commodities boom working up the exploration ranks from tiny players like Monax Mining, a little Adelaide-based rock hunter that traded for around 6 cents at one point…to bigger iron outfits like Crosslands Resources.

Eventually, he was headhunted by the exploration manager of a copper miner called Equinox Minerals. That took him to Zambia; managing rigs, soil sampling, scouring tenement packages, analysing data, and organising field crews.

James was a team leader in what grew into a huge resource development (pre-mining) operation…with around 20 rigs and 18 geologists, as well as a huge number of support staff. Around 100,000 metres of drilling…with a heap of logistics to get the program through the wet season.

James was there when Barrick Gold came knocking with an enormous $7.5 billion bid to take over Equinox. That was at the peak of the last resources cycle in 2012.
Soon after, mining wound down, and even Barrick shut down exploration across the globe, sold all its gold mines in Australia, and withered themselves down to a relatively small player in the industry. Later, he worked with Northern Star. This is the company that went on to buy up Barrick’s Australian assets for a fire sale price.

Then James moved to a miner called Dacian as the senior exploration geologist. This is very interesting…as they were looking for nickel, copper, and rare earth elements (REEs) in the mineral-rich grounds surrounding the small Western Australian township of Leonora, around a four-hour drive north of Kalgoorlie.

With his background as a geologist and finance professional, he brings entirely unique insight into the new resurgence in Aussie mining.