Newmont Australia Limited (Newcrest) and the Telfer Discoverers' Hall of Fame
(....David Tyrwhitt, ..Just one of the numerous discoverers of Telfer?)


 
 
The key person, however, is David Tyrwhitt who joined the company last summer as exploration director. He was responsible for the discovery of the Telfer gold mine in 1972. <http://www.orchidcapital.net/articles/17February2005Minesite.pdf>

"This has the potential to be bigger than Telfer," says Tyrwhitt, the man credited with the discovery of Australia's richest goldmine. It is also hard to dispute what Tyrwhitt says: he is an elder statesmen[sic] of Australian mining, with Telfer his crowning achievement, albeit one made 32 years ago. <http://www.sharesmag.com.au/freefiles/20041001/22922.aspx>

...During this time he was responsible for the discovery of the Telfer gold mine in Western Australia and was Chief Executive Officer of Newmont Australia between 1984 - 1988. <http://www.qur.com.au/docs/f_QUR%20180299.html>

Dr Tyrwhitt was responsible for the discovery of the Telfer gold mine, one of Australia's largest, in 1972, and went on to become the founding CEO of Newmont Australia Ltd.- 20 May 2004 <http://www.minebox.com/story.asp?articleId=4213>

On 13/9/1999 Jean-PaulTurcaud sent a $10 international money order to John Howard to help pay for the series of medallions he believes should be struck to "honour" the numerous discoverers of Telfer.  His generous offer was of course rejected! (Sheppard, 2002, p.252)
Bronwyn Adcock: Do you think though Jean-Paul Turcaud deserves any credit for the discovery?

David Tyrwhitt: Not really the discovery. As a pioneer, he deserves recognition of course. The trouble is, with pioneers who go out and don't find commercial indications, is that their pioneering work is never recognised. So I mean I suppose if you want a simple answer to that, no, he doesn't deserve any credit for the Telfer discovery, if you want just a straightforward answer. But yes, I admire his pioneering
 

 spirit. The fact that most of that work was done alone. So I take my hat off to him in that respect, but tragically he didn't pick up the gold and therefore he did not play  a critical role in the discovery process.  .... If you don't recognise gold, you haven't discovered Telfer.   (B.A. Interview, ABC radio 1999)

 "This became the cornerstone of our quit claim argument with Jean-Paul"(D.G. p.24).

 
Note that the date of Tyrwhitt's comment in interview is 1999, nearly thirty years after Turcaud's discovery.  If Tyrwhitt was so emphatic about the importance of recognising gold being critical to the fact of discovery,  why then at the time were Newmont even bothered to get Turcaud to sign away his discovery of the mineralised outcrops of Pascale Hills (Telfer dome)?    Why didn't they (since they had pegged the claims) just ignore him?  Their pegging of the claims was perfectly legal was it not?  Well, ..not if what was (legally) done is based on lies and immorality, and Newmont knew that the reasons they advanced for pegging the ground (Thomson's priority to recognition of gold) were false, and that they had an immoral position in respect of Turcaud in that they had twice refused an approach by him to interest them in the prospect.  And if they maintain that they didn't know then about 'gold', then that is more a measure of their professional ineptitude, than it is of Turcaud's prospecting efforts.  Which might account for the reason why, twenty three years after the fact, Searls was still at pains to stress "honesty"


Extracts from Sheppard, 2002; and  B. Adcock, ABC Interview, 1999

Robert Searls: "...David Tyrwhitt quite properly acknowledges ....  the ultimate detection by Ronnie Thomson of significant gold occurences within the gossans of the Paterson Range.   However, the discovery, the elucidation, of what became the Telfer mine was made by David (Tyrwhitt) and the group of people he led." (R. Searls, Desert Gold, foreword,)
David Tyrwhitt:  Telfer came to me through Ronnie Thomson .... But I did stake the claim, so I suppose that literally is where it all started." (B.A., 1999)

"Ronnie Thomson Joined Day Dawn as exploration Manager in early 1971, whereupon: "The subconscious skills he had amassed came into play.  He examined geological maps of the country and formed hunches." ... "playing on another hunch, he followed up and had them checked for gold as well as the base metals he initially ordered."  (B.A. 1999)

Jean-Paul Turcaud: "Mr Thomson showed me a document from Newmont , which in substance said how Newmont were pleased with Mr Thomson having found for them the Paterson Range show.  Mr Thomson impressed on me how important this document was for him, in his actual conjecture of looking for employment."  (Sheppard, p.201)

"Phillipe Koehn is the first geologist from Day Dawn who actually went out to the area in the Paterson Ranges that is now Telfer. He also appears to be the first person who actually discovered gold.   Phillipe Koehn:  "...Well if you ask me, me. Yes. " (B.A. 1999)  'Discovered'?  (that word again)  Well, ...ok then,  ..we will (ask him)

"Ian Martin did not go out to the Paterson Range area himself. However he says he was instrumental in the planning of the trip. Ronnie Thomson told me that it was his idea to go out there, but Ian Martin says it wasn't Ronnie's idea, it was his. Ian Martin described in detail how he conceptualised the trip to what is now Telfer. He started by studying aerial photos that were on file in a government department." (B.A., 1999)

 
Tyrwhitt recounts:-
"Newmont never disputed that Turcaud and WMC had sampled the Telfer area, but we knew none then had assayed for gold. This for us was the central and key issue. Turcaud refused to sign."   (Tyrwhitt, 1994, Desert Gold, p.24)


And ten years later, a newsgroup posting dated 24th April 2004, which appears to be from Tyrwhitt (and in part citing the Bronwyn Adcock Interview) also appears to credit discovery to Turcaud:-

"...More like one of the stupidest, fancy not pegging your claim, telling everybody in the world and then expecting no one else to find it!
Turcaud didn't tell "everyone in the world" though, ..not at first at any rate.  He told Newmont, ..twice.   Yet in a letter to this writer a year later (14th July, 2005) Tyrwhitt again unambiguously credits himself with discovery of the deposit on the basis of pegging the ground:-
"Let me clearly state that as the person who staked out the original 21 mineral claims about 23rd May '72 over the bulk of the Telfer dome  I would claim to be the discoverer of that deposit for Newmont Mining Corp., as then exploration manager in WA."
So, on the strength of the administrative trouble of signing Thomson to the payroll and staking the tenements, Tyrwhitt claims 'discovery' of the deposit for Newmont, and denies Turcaud's prospecting efforts as in any way central to the discovery of the ore body.  The question of "discovery" according to Tyrwhitt is therefore one then of wordplay, rather than one an 'ordinary man' would understand by the term, for as Tyrwhitt well knew, Thomson was not the first to recognise gold in the samples from the Paterson Range, and neither (come to that) was Koehn, ...it was the 'unidentified expert' interviewed by Sheppard in 2000.

Neither is it true that Newmont never disputed Turcaud's claim to the discovery of the Telfer outcrops, for after a meeting with Newmont on the 10th September, 1972 Turcaud recounts:-

"...Mr Adamson was suspicious and not convinced that I had ever been to the Paterson Range.  After the meeting I took him to the Government Chemical Laboratories Mineral Collection and he saw the samples from Pascale Hills, Mt Balthazar and Parallel Range, and upon being given permission by the Conservator took a sample of Copper Gossan from the Parallel Range.  He asked me to describe Pascale Hills and point out the location where the gossan was the richest.  I did so convincingly."
However, just over one-and-a-half years later, by which time the preliminary drilling had been carried out to prove the ore body, Newmont most certainly did recognise Turcaud's claim to discovery, since the  Indenture that Newmont asked Turcaud to sign dated 21st May 1974 was written to specifically exclude him from any claim on the Pascale Hills (Telfer Dome) area.

(Turcaud contributes still more to the common wealth of Australia)
(For medallions - to be shared)
At the time of posting of this page (2005 June 1 ) David Tyrwhitt makes no mention of the discovery of Telfer in his Curriculum Vitae on the website of the Mineral Industry Consultants Association, whilst yet maintaining the titles of Director of Exploration and later CEO of Newmont Australia Limited.   However, later, in a letter to this writer dated 14th July, 2005,  he states:-  "In response to your observation that the Telfer discovery doesn't appear on the MICA register you have a valid point, since I do use it in all my company directorships.  I will therefore update this C.V. in the next addition of the register."
To date the Telfer gold mine has conservatively grossed in excess of $2b.