Kath and Kim, curries and dunnies: Some mining project names are pure comedy gold

Settling on a name for a mineral deposit isn’t quite as important as naming a child but it’s clear some choose to be more creative than others.

It’s common for deposits to be named after local landmarks, including mountains or bodies of water, or be given traditional Aboriginal names.

The large Olympic Dam mine in South Australia was apparently named after a local dam in 1956, the year of the Melbourne Olympics.

Others have a bit more fun with it.

From cocktails to curries

AngloGold Ashanti and Regis Resources’ (ASX:RRL) Tropicana gold mine has a cocktail theme, with deposits including Havana Nights and Boston Shaker, while the Waroonga underground mine at Gold Fields’ Agnew operation features orebodies named after Kath and Kim.

Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) Thunderbox mine in Western Australia is named after the Australian slang word for a toilet.

Mark Bennett, one of the geologists behind the 1999 discovery, told The West Australian in 2015 that the only toilet onsite was a 44-gallon drum placed over the top of an old drill hole.

“That drill hole was used for two years and I’d say it was pretty close to full,” he was quoted as saying.

“The underground decline at the Waterloo nickel mine went pretty close to hitting that hole as well, which could have been a messy situation.

“When we came up with Thunderbox one of the senior guys from [project co-owner] Dalrymple said, ‘you can’t name it that … what if it’s sh*thouse?’ At that point, our geologists decided to name every target after curries — we had Madras, Rogan Josh, etc — anything that could lead to the toilet.”

Woohoo! … D’oh!

Sandfire Resources’ now-defunct Monty copper mine in WA was actually part of Talisman Mining’s (ASX:TLM) broader Springfield project.

Other targets were also named after characters from The Simpsons, including Homer, Abraham and Lovejoy.

Apparently, farm-in partner Sandfire wasn’t overly keen on continuing the naming convention, though in the end it didn’t matter as nothing further was found. D’oh!

Thirsty work

One of the most high-profile projects on the ASX right now is Spartan Resources’ (ASX:SPR) Dalgaranga gold project.

Before managing director Simon Lawson arrived on the scene, the deposits at Dalgaranga were being named after gins, including Plymouth and Gilbeys.

New Zealand-born Lawson, a gin fan, was keen to continue the trend. He told Stockhead it was important to him that the gins be Australian after the place he’d called home for the past 23 years.

The high-grade million ounce Never Never gold discovery is named after the Never Never Distilling Co in McLaren Vale, SA.

“Never Never had a massive impact on me and I think as we’ve grown this resource and made it higher grade and more impressive, that we’ve named our deposits more interesting names,” Lawson said.

“They are still all gin names, but Never Never was the first major discovery – that was pretty tame – but there were a few people that kind of wondered, well, was it ever, ever going to be anything if you call it Never Never?”

The Pepper and Freak gold discoveries have followed.

Lawson said the decision to name Pepper was easy “because it’s spicy and it’s a great gin”.

“But then Freak, we had a few options, but Freak is another Never Never gin, and I thought, well, let’s just call it that,” he said.

“Sure, it doesn’t have big banging grades on it just yet but why not? Let’s just continue to name it after Never Never gins because they have been underpinning everything we’ve done.”

Footy fever

Sport, specifically Australian rules football, is another popular theme for naming deposits.

Sierra Nevada Gold (ASX:SNX) executive chairman Peter Moore played 193 games for Collingwood in the AFL (as well as 51 games for Melbourne), was a two-time Brownlow medallist, captain and Collingwood Hall of Famer.

So it was a surprise to see several of the prospect names at the company’s Warrior gold project in Nevada – Stix, Jezza and Kouta – named after Carlton champions Stephen Kernahan, Alex Jesaulenko and Anthony Koutoufides respectively.

Moore told Stockhead the company’s chief geologist Brett Butlin is a Carlton supporter and came up with the names.

Someone at Toro Energy is clearly a Richmond supporter.

The company’s Dusty nickel project isn’t an obvious nod to three-time Norm Smith Medal-winner Dustin Martin, but the other prospects make it clear.

The Jumping Jack, Houli Douley and Dimma discoveries are an obvious nod to premiership players Jack Riewoldt and Bachar Houli and former coach Damien Hardwick.

Need for speed

Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) flagship Mandilla project near Kalgoorlie features deposits named after Greek goddesses, including Theia, Hestia, Iris and Eos.

At its nearby Feysville project, the deposits are named Kamperman, Rogan Josh and Think Big – after Melbourne Cup winners.

Astral managing director Marc Ducler told Stockhead he’d already been asked about naming the next discovery after 2024 winner Knight’s Choice.

Warriedar Resources owns the Golden Range project in WA, which already had a motorsport theme when it was acquired.

Managing director Amanda Buckingham said the project has the Silverstone and Monaco deposits, named after iconic F1 tracks, as well as Eastern Creek, named after the Sydney racetrack that hosts V8 Supercars events.

The project also features the Ricciardo deposit, named after Australian F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Buckingham admitted she wasn’t an F1 aficionado so future potential discoveries may require some Googling.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Astral Resources, Sierra Nevada Gold and Spartan Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.