Full of confidence

Following is an article published in the West Australian on Wednesday the 24 September 2014. IRON MAN TOLL BUYS STRAW HATS IN WINTER. By Nick Evans Joining the Royal Resources board is likely buying a straw hat in winter, according to Gordon Toll. With sentiment for Australia's iron ore hopefuls in the doldrums, it's not the obvious time to push a South Australian magnetite play. But it's cheap and the market will turn around again, according to Toll. And he should know. The 40 year old veteran of the iron ore industry has worked virtually every iron ore major. He was BHP's chief production engineer and played a role in the early development of the company's ore body 29 mine, claimed by BHP as the first commercial development of a Marra Mamba orebody in the Pilbara. He was with Texasgulf when it was developing Marandoo, now in Rio Tinto stable, and spent six years as senior executive, working across the Pilbara, Brazil and India. He worked with Robert Friedland in the late 1990's claiming bragging rights for picking up Tasmania's Savage River iron ore mine for free from Tasmanian Govt in 1997 and turning it into Australia's only profitable magnetite mine. And he left Friedland in 2005 to join Fortescue Metals Group as a director, chairing the company for a frenetic two years until 2007 as the company put together funding for its Pilbara iron ore projects. The point being that Toll knows his iron ore, and he believes that South Australian magnetite projects will have their day, despite the fact heavy losses at Karara and Sino Iron have badly hurt Australia's image as a magnetite destination, and few want a bar or iron ore in any case. But Toll now based in London doesn't care. He already owns 22.5 per cent of Royal shares, has been instrumental in putting together the companies infrastructure planning and joining the Royal board yesterday. "The tendency of our short term human brain is to think that when times are bad they're never going to get good, and when they're good they're never going to turn bad," he says. "But my English friends have a saying about buying straw hats in winter; because that's the best time to get them cheap." Toll says the softer ore and better metallurgy promised by South Australian magnetite promises far cheaper production than the multibillion dollar WA developments that have damaged the image of the commodity here and overseas. Toll say's investors will need patience. It will take time to develop Royals $1.2 billion Razorback magnetite project but he has no doubt the demand for high quality iron ore will support its development. "I think steelmakers will be happy to pay a premium for something that has higher value in use than a lot of the garbage that's coming out of Pilbara at the moment." He says. "The phosphorous is getting higher, alumina is getting higher. Some of it no respecting blast furnace owner would use if there was an alternative." END OF ARTICLE.