Develop has a “unique” business model, combining mine ownership with a mining services division.

The only other company with the same model is Mineral Resources, which is also Develop’s second-largest shareholder.

“Some people call us the mini-MinRes but I’d say we are probably the mini-IGO but with MinRes capability,” Beament told a Resources Rising Stars event in Perth last night.

People and capability are key to Develop’s business model.

“We’ve recruited the who’s who in tech services and operational in underground, so these are the people that have built a chunk of underground mines domestically and also offshore,” he said.

“But we’ve recruited deliberately and selectively and we’ve basically taken the top 5% best talent out of the underground sector.

“It is fair to say that everyone does hate Develop in an underground mine that’s not working for us or involved with us because we have taken some amazing talent out of the sector and that’s pissed a lot of people off.”

Beament described the underground mining landscape as “horrendous” with not enough skilled people to work on existing mines.

“I don’t even know how committed projects that are already signed off and executing now are actually going to get built,” he said, pointing to projects including the Fimiston underground, Kathleen Valley and Havieron.

“There is no one out there, full stop.

“I did not want to get held ransom by the mining industry in the underground services industry.

“We need the capability ourselves because we will now have three underground mines in this business in the coming years.”

Beament said offshore companies were also seeking Australian underground expertise.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole career where I’ve got a mining services division because it’s just carnage out there,” he said.

“If you’re a mine owner and you don’t have the capability, there’s nothing you can do.”

Essential deal

Shareholders of Essential Metals will next week vote on a scrip takeover offer from Develop.

Despite an independent expert deeming the offer as not fair, but reasonable, Beament said the deal was compelling.

“There is not often you see deals where one plus one can equal five and I think this is one of those deals that we can actually create a hell of a lot of value for our combined shareholder vote,” he said.

If it goes through, the deal will give Develop ownership of the Pioneer Dome lithium project, an asset that was envisaged as an open pit but which Develop plans to build as an underground.

“We want to have this shovel ready by mid-next year,” Beament said.

Rebound coming

Beament noted the world was in turmoil, even more so since conflict broke out in Israel on the weekend.

“But when the world does normalise and stops thinking about cost of living, interest rates, and all the stuff that goes with that, and it wants to grow again and it starts going risk-on, holy hell, hang on to your hats because the commodities are going to rebound and they’re going to rebound extremely hard,” he said.

“I’m talking about the core building blocks that we need to transition the world’s energy networks and they are zinc, they are copper, they are lithium, they are rare earths, they are cobalt, they are nickel.

Develop is aiming to produce more than 50,000tpa of copper equivalent from Woodlawn in New South Wales, Pioneer Dome and Sulphur Springs in Western Australia.

“We’ve been heads down, bums up just doing all the technical heavy lifting on these projects,” Beament said of the past 12 months.

“We want to wrap them all up in a bow so that when we do kick them in the guts, one, we know they won’t fail, two, we know the parameters and three, we can make a great return out of them.”

Beament, who has put nearly A$46 million of his own money into Develop, said the company was already testing the debt market for financing for Woodlawn, which will be the first cab off the ranks.

The restart capital for Woodlawn is just $32 million and the project will take six months to get into production from the time of a final investment decision, expected in March next year.

“Like every company, we’re all going to say we’re undervalued,” Beament said.

“But I just want to emphasise, what we’ve put together, the portfolio and having mining services that pays the bills and means we don’t have to come back to the equity markets … when this world rebounds, mark my words, Develop is going to be front and centre of all the institutions in Australia and abroad and I think we’ll produce one of the best returns on the ASX when that does happen.”