Catalyst Metals: The Best Is Yet to Come
The first time I met Catalyst Metals CEO ‘James’ at a fancy London club a decade ago, I thought he was a ‘Toff’.
James probably thought I was a ‘Tosser’— which is totally fair.
A Golden Pedigree
James’ father, Robert Champion de Crespigny, founded Normandy Mining in 1985. I recall sitting next to Robert at a dinner in Kalgoorlie in the early 2000s, where he was the keynote speaker. He was both very charming and very clever.
Normandy acquired most of Australia’s biggest gold mines through the 1990s and eventually sold for US$2.8 billion—representing 51% of Newmont Mining, who also acquired Franco-Nevada in 2002 to become the world’s largest gold producer.
Robert Champion de Crespigny had few peers as a corporate dealmaker. He was the golden kingmaker of his generation.
What of James and Catalyst?
Having watched James and his team turn around the 30-year-old Plutonic Gold Mine in Western Australia over the past two years, I admit, I’m impressed.
Consensus Is Wrong
Most industry observers believe Plutonic is a tired old gold mine well past its best. After all, Tier One Aussie gold producer Northern Star sold Plutonic - and they know a thing or two about mining gold in West Australia.
But the consensus is wrong—just as I was wrong about James.
I visited the Plutonic gold camp in the middle of Western Australia on 1 May, one of dozens of mines I’ve visited globally in over three decades of advising and investing in mining companies.
Credit: https://resourceworld.com
It’s Always About People
What impressed me most at Plutonic - more than any other mine I’ve visited—was the people. They believe in their common purpose: that they’re making a difference.
I didn’t even meet Catalyst’s top bosses—they were busy that day. I always prefer speaking to the front-line guys anyway. They tell you the unvarnished truth.
(Below, you’ll ‘meet’ superstar ‘striker’ (aka Jumbo operator) John-Boy Appleby and 29-year Plutonic veteran Colin ‘Old Balls’ Irvine)
A Fair Price for a Great Asset?
I wish I’d bought Catalyst when James became CEO in December 2022—the shares were trading around A$1.00 versus roughly A$7.00 today (CYL:ASX).
I console myself with Charlie Munger’s philosophy:
“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
So, after a 7-fold increase in Catalyst’s share price, is this just a marginal asset turnaround boosted by record Aussie dollar gold prices - or is there more to it?
Plutonic: forty golden kilometres
Three things struck me on my site visit to Plutonic:
The sense of optimism and ‘can-do’ spirit in everyone I met
That Catalyst will outperform its conservative production guidance
That the 40km Plutonic Gold Belt has far more ounces to give
Western Australia: A Miner’s Paradise
Western Australia, my home, is as mining-focused as any place on Earth. Most of my mates either work in the industry or are connected to it through services, finance or investment. Even my long-suffering parents own shares in mining companies—Australia is a nation of gamblers. Amen.
The United States Geological Survey says there’s as much gold, iron ore and lithium in Western Australia (WA) as anywhere else on the planet.
Perth Airport (WA’s capital) is busiest between 5am and 7am every day. While most West Aussies are still asleep, the FIFO (Fly-In-Fly-Out) crowd is already en route to work.
Every few minutes before dawn, a plane lifts off from Perth Airport carrying blokes in high-vis safety gear to dozens of the world’s largest mines across the state.
WA’s iron ore, gold, nickel and lithium mines operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. FIFO crews typically spend one week on-site and one week at home.
They’re well paid. A first-year engineer or geologist earns over A$150,000 (US$100,000) annually. Underground “Jumbo” operators earn around A$2,000 per 12-hour shift—up to A$450,000 a year.
Wages are rising with commodity prices. Experienced Jumbo operators are reportedly being offered A$2,700 per shift to join new projects.
We discussed Australian versus Canadian mining salaries with Discovery Silver management in London recently 👉 READ IT HERE
The Missed Flight (Almost)
Back at Perth Airport on 1 May at 6:15am, my electronic boarding pass wouldn’t scan. I’d stupidly downloaded my return boarding pass, but not the outbound one.
The young lady at the gate was polite but firm - I wouldn’t be joining the waiting bus full of miners heading to Plutonic on the 6:30am flight.
Luckily, there was one other Catalyst employee behind me: Anthony Buckingham, Head of Mining Projects, overseeing Catalyst’s three new mines—currently being commissioned to double production for a miserly A$31 million.
“AB,” as he’s known, leaned in between me and the gate agent: “Is there a problem?” I’d been introduced to AB briefly 30 minutes earlier by Catalyst’s IR lead, Craig Dingley.
With the airline insisting they had to close the flight, AB looked me in the eye and said: “We’ll get you on.”
He dialled his boss—Catalyst Group Operations Manager, Mick Garbellini, had a ten-second chat, hung up, spun around, nodded, and walked off.
The young woman managing the gate ushered AB out to the bus on the tarmac, orange tail lights flashing as it pulled away into the pre-dawn dark.
It was 6:20am. I’d apparently missed my shot at seeing Plutonic.
Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) workers queuing for their ‘commute’ to work at Perth Airport.
The Catalyst Command Chain
Mick Garbellini, now Group Operations Manager overseeing Catalyst’s growing portfolio of gold mines across the 40km Plutonic Gold Camp, spent the past ten years managing 20,000 employees at Freeport’s Grasberg — Indonesia’s (and the world’s) most valuable mine. He also has 32 years of experience in the WA Gold Fields.
Anthony Buckingham, or AB, was previously Chief Operating Officer for 2.5 years and Head of Corporate Development for 6 years at Westgold.
Catalyst’s technical advisor Bruce Kay was previously Head of Worldwide Exploration at both Newmont and Normandy Mining.
James De Crespigny, 38, a Chartered Accountant like his father, has surrounded himself with a leadership team capable of building the next Northern Star—or Normandy Mining.
James isn’t exactly spending his days sipping tea at HQ, either. He’s at the Plutonic Mine every other week. Everyone I spoke to on site knew James personally—and respected their young boss.
So there I stood at 6:20am at Perth Airport on 1 May, beating myself up for missing my opportunity.
Then the phone rang at the check-in counter. The gate agent answered, listened, looked up at me—her expression shifting from stern authority to startled compliance.
“You must be really important,” she said.
“Not really,” I thought, as she handed me my boarding pass.
I’d just witnessed the Catalyst management machine first-hand: quick, decisive, effective. A military-style chain of command that gets things done.
Our flight took off on time at 6:30am into the lightening eastern sky. It was shaping up to be a beautiful, 28-degree, blue-sky day in the West Australian goldfields.
The Catalyst Way
Later that day, as we drove between Catalyst’s sites, AB explained:
“We run at the problem.”
“Catalyst is staged—with infrastructure already in place. We get in early… it’s about time and money. We get familiar with the geotech, the ground, the water. It’s a two-way door.”
“We don’t want to do a three-year study. If we enter a room and there’s risk in capital infrastructure, we can always step back.”
“We’ve got a flat structure. We meet twice weekly formally and once informally. James reviews the company’s key assets daily—asking questions so everyone’s on the same page.”
“The Plutonic Belt has gone unloved for 20 years, without a drill hole deeper than 100 metres. We could spend years trying to understand all 22 orebodies, but with a flat structure, we can respond as things arise.”
“I’ve got A$31 million and 18 months to deliver three new mines. It’s on the bedhead.”
As of May 2025, AB has delivered the Plutonic East Mine. Trident and K2 are next—just a 20-minute drive away.
8 drill rigs were turning at Trident when I visited
Trident & K2: The Future of Plutonic
The Trident 6,000-ounce open pit will begin commissioning mid-2025 at 1.5g/t, before transitioning to a 5–6g/t, 30-metre-thick underground orebody by mid-2026.
This compares with current remnant mining at Plutonic, which averages ~2.2g/t. As John-Boy, the Jumbo operator, explains in this article, remnant mining can be ~40% less productive than mining fresh stopes.
So what would a doubling of grade - and better productivity through an under-utilised mill—do for Catalyst’s cost base and production outlook?
K2: A Sleeping Giant
The K2 Mine was acquired in March 2023 for A$74 million in Catalyst shares, through the acquisition of Vango Mining. Previously known as the Marymia Mine under Resolute, K2 has history.
Resolute mined two 4g/t oxide open pits 2.5km apart, down to 150 metres, before walking away as they hit fresh rock.
They also blew up their balance sheet in the late 90’s with a failed bet on laterite nickel.
I remember the calls between my then boss, Andrew Frazer at Hartley Poynton, and Resolute’s CEO Michael Carrick, ringing every few months for another equity raise. Resolute was a great client - but a poor investment.
“In five years, you’ll come back and K2 will be bigger than Plutonic. I’ve got a carton on it. Structurally hosted. 3.6g/t reserve. 4.3g/t resource. Three train-track straight lodes,” said AB as we stood at the K2 portal.
Catalyst Metals, Group General Manager Projects, Anthony Buckingham in front of K2
Since Resolute discovered the 1.5Moz Timor Zone at 7.3g/t in 1999, drilling has been limited. Barrick lacked the focus. Vango lacked the funds. Now, with A$5,000 gold and Catalyst’s consolidation, the narrative has changed.
Catalyst currently has over ten rigs drilling more than 300,000 metres across the camp—proving up three new mines and testing regional upside.
The Plutonic gold camp has been under explored for the twenty years until 2025.
Miners, Dongers and Strikers
Matt Taylor, K2’s new Underground Manager, previously worked at Core Lithium, which folded just before Christmas 2024. When I visited, Matt had just received second-hand “dongers” (portable accommodation) from BHP—A$40,000 each, versus A$180,000 new.
Matt Taylor and Yours Truly at the K2 portal, 1 May 2025
Jumbo operators are to underground mines what strikers are to a football team. Without them, you can’t score, the team can’t win and and the bottom line suffers.
John-Boy, back at Plutonic after a stint under Northern Star, gave me an impromptu “interview” mid-shift.
🎥 Watch here as John-Boy mines live at Plutonic:
Key takeaways:
Remnant mining can be 40% slower than virgin ore
14 metres per shift = 28 per day
John’s eager to move to Trident and K2
Ground is tough, but solid—“hard rock, safe mine”
Colin ‘Old Balls’ Irvine: The Soul of Plutonic
Colin is Plutonic’s longest-serving employee. He arrived in 1996 as a contractor with Barminco, a year after the mine opened under Homestake (later acquired by Barrick).
He remembers when Aussie rock legend Jimmy Barnes played a gig on the mine’s tennis court and Plutonic was one of Australia’s top gold mines. Colin thinks the day will come again.
🎥 Watch Colin reflect on Plutonic’s past and future
The Plutonic camp produced 30,000 ounces of gold per month and had an 800-person camp in its heyday.
Today, Plutonic is a pleasant oasis in the West Australian desert—blessed with natural fresh water that sustains the numerous gum trees and keeps the process plant and equipment in good order.
Colin misses his wife, who sadly passed away last year, before their long-planned retirement holiday. Watching him with the young blokes on site, and hearing the respect in their voices as they ask for his opinion, it’s clear that Plutonic is his family.
Colin’s son, like John-Boy, is a Jumbo operator at Plutonic. In Colin’s view, these young blokes will witness a golden future at Plutonic—at least as rich as its past.
The collective belief, shared by young and old alike, in where Catalyst is going as an organisation, was uniquely impressive.
The team James Champion de Crespigny has assembled at Catalyst believe in themselves, each other - and in their captain.
The Numbers
Catalyst’s relative share price will be driven by its relative performance at Plutonic, which depends on the success of its four new mines: Plutonic East, Old Highway, Trident and K2.
Catalyst’s public guidance is that Plutonic will reach 200,000 ounces of annual gold production by 2027.
What I saw on site on 1 May tells me that this guidance—like Catalyst’s CEO James—is conservative. The real plan is far more ambitious.
Unlike, say, Bellevue, Catalyst is intent on under-promising and over-delivering.
Catalyst can double versus its peers as it delivers on the promise of Plutonic
The Mill Is The Bottleneck
Catalyst mill manager Ben Tulley spent 20 years at Ora Banda’s Davyhurst Mine and oversaw its recent expansion under CEO Luke Creagh.
I asked Ben why he came to Catalyst.
“Dave [Baumgartel, General Manager of the Plutonic Belt] rang me up and said, ‘I need someone to fix a mill, and I hear you’re the guy”
“Freedom and accountability — you get accountability, but not freedom, at other places.”
Ben explained that the currently underutilised Plutonic mill will soon become the bottleneck.
“Plutonic has two complete process plants: a 1.8 million tonne per year, three-stage crush, two-stage grind with gravity circuit and eight leach tanks. It can be pushed to 2.2 to 2.4 million tonnes per annum with new mill liners — the same ones I used at Davyhurst.”
There’s also an unused 1.2Mtpa oxide circuit, which might handle 1Mtpa of harder underground ores.
Plutonic has sufficient power and water to run both mills at a combined 3 million tonnes per year.
A review of Catalyst’s new mines — Trident, K2, Baltic Deeps, Timor Deeps and the recently acquired Old Highway orebody — shows they average around 4 grams per tonne.
These higher-grade orebodies should lift the overall grade from the current 2.2g/t (from remnant mining at Plutonic) to above 3.5g/t. With recoveries of 85% and throughput at 3Mtpa, the Plutonic Gold Camp has the potential to produce 300,000 ounces of gold per year by 2028 and beyond
Catalyst: More Than Just a Turnaround
Catalyst still has some wood to chop. James Champion de Crespigny, born in 1987, is on track to preside over one of Australia’s top ten gold mines before his 40th birthday. With Plutonic producing at full potential at a 300,000 ounces of gold per year it would be worth approximately double the ~US$1 billion enterprise value at which it trades today.
And I don’t think James will stop there.
The consolidation of the Plutonic Gold Camp, the calibre of the team he’s built, and the deliberate pace of execution all point to something bigger: a serious, diversified gold business in the making.
Backing people like James—alongside the operational firepower of the Catalyst team—is how long-term wealth is built.
The potential of the Plutonic gold camp offers a double to shareholders of Catalyst today at A$7.00 per share with the probability that James, like his father a generation ago will continue to add shareholder value with smart acquisitions.
