MEEKATHARRA MINERALS NL(MKA)

Meekatharra Minerals NL was founded as a mining exploration company by Mr. D. J. O'Callaghan in January 1970. He listed the Company on the Sydney Stock Exchange later that same year.

Under his stewardship, and with the assistance of RANK Geological Services, (run by his long term associates, Australian consultant geologists, Rebecca and Norman Kennedy) the Company discovered and delineated over 10Bn tonnes of sub-bituminous coal in the Arckaringa Basin in South Australia; Over 660M tonnes of Lignite Coal in Ballymoney, County Antrim in his native country, Ireland; And, with the assistance of Dr. Michael Andrews, had assembled an array of gold, silver, copper exploration tenements in the Indonesian Archipelago which included the Way Linggo high grade epithermal gold silver discovery in southern Sumatra.

Along the way, Don O’ Callaghan inked deals with Majors such as Kumagai Gumi Co. Ltd., the Japanese construction company; Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP), Australia’s largest mining company; Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), the Swedish Swiss global industrial group and Canada’s Teck Corporation.

Upon his retirement from the positions of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of the Company in August 1998, positions that he had held continuously for almost three decades, Don O’ Callaghan remained the Company’s largest shareholder retaining an 11.7% stake in the Ordinary Share Capital of the Company he founded in 1970.

In 2009 the Chinese company, Yanzhou Coal Mining Company Limited, acquired the Company in what was, at that time and remains, the single largest acquisition by a Chinese company of any Australian company. The deal valued the Company, then renamed Felix Resources Limited, at a value in excess of Aus$3.5Bn.

Meekatharra Minerals NL was founded by Mr. Donald Joseph O'Callaghan of Darling Point, Sydney, NSW, (formerly, of Clárlougheske, Donegal, Ireland).  

Don O'Callaghan served as the Managing Director and Chairman of its Board of Directors until he retired from the Company in 1999.