MINERAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS
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COMING OUT ON TOP AFTER A LONG INDUSTRY DOWNTURN IN A CROWDED MARKET PLACE WRITTEN BY
DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY
RICHARD DEANE
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R S C M I N I N G & M I N E R A L E X P L O R AT I O N
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RSC MINING & MINERAL EXPLORATION HAS DELIVERED GEOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS FOR OVER A DECADE. MANAGING DIRECTOR RENÉ STERK REVEALS HOW THE COMPANY HAS GAINED TRACTION IN A CROWDED MARKET
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W
hen Managing Director René
Sterk. “I had a consulting offer on the
Sterk launched RSC back
table, but it needed a 24-hour decision,
in 2008 it was a one-man
so I designed a logo, registered the
band triggered by his disillusionment
company in New Zealand and headed
with the big-company approach. “I was
out to South Africa to provide technical
looking for more exposure to different
support at a small gold mine in South
projects and different commodities,
Africa.” It was this go-getting attitude
and to be able to have a more direct
and passion for geology that saw the
impact on the bottom line”, recalls
company grow. w w w.rsc mm e. com
R S C M I N I N G & M I N E R A L E X P L O R AT I O N
“ WE’RE ONE OF THE VERY FEW GROUPS WORKING IN THE SEABED MINING ENVIRONMENT. OUR BREADTH OF EXPERIENCE IN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT, SEABED SAMPLING EXPERTISE, AND ABILITY TO COME UP WITH INNOVATIVE APPROACHES REALLY ADDS VALUE HERE” 06
— René Sterk, Managing Director, RSC
Today, RSC boasts a 72-strong team comprising consultants, project and logistics managers, data management professionals, contract geologists and savvy technical personnel with experience spanning the mining cycle. Based around the world and with offices in Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Canada, the company runs projects from early stage exploration through to resource development, feasibility studies, mining operations, project close-out and sustainable environmental remediation. Navigating the challenges of the industry downturn has seen RSC dig deep to succeed by doing things differently. “As consultants and service providers we aim to get our clients on board and to buy in to what we can offer,” says Sterk. “We really want to add value, not just do the job and send the invoice. I have sleepless nights if we’re facing a challenge to deliver on schedule, or if things don’t work out as planned. In this very conventional and crowded mining-service space, that journey, as a point of difference, is important to us. We have a top to bottom structure which is very flat, so
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latest machine learning research as
RSC strives to be on the cutting
we aim to offer our clients the total
edge of industry developments, with
package,” he pledges. Sterk notes that
technology part of the success of its
RSC is big on forging alliances in order
offering. “Most of the time people are
to broaden its offering. “For example,
looking for a very conventional product.
we work closely together with Olympus
They simply want our geologists to
which has turned us into one of the
come out to assist with a drilling
major rental outlets of portable XRF
program and we just work within the
analysers – capable of delivering
client’s constraints,” says Sterk.
multielement geochemical data via
However, he is keen for RSC to be part
X-ray fluorescence – in Australasia,”
of the conversation and to stay relevant
reveals Sterk. “We also have strong
as early adopters. “We’re excited about
alliances with companies who push the
a brand new alliance with our partners
software envelope. Phinar Software,
in the US, giving us access to the very
which creates the data-analytical w w w.rsc mm e. com
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package X-10, are creating functional-
of this is done in international waters.
ity and user experiences that nobody
Our breadth of experience in resource
else out there are offering, at great
development, seabed sampling
value, making our resource estimation
expertise, and ability to come up with
work so much easier, and offering
innovative approaches really adds
a higher-value product to our clients.
value here. We have done high-level
“Alternatively, we provide high-level
work for several large international
consulting advice in unconventional
consortiums and governments with
markets. For instance, we’re one of the
interests in this space,” Sterk adds.
very few groups working in the seabed
RSC is also a strong supporter of
mining environment. It’s a secretive
questing junior explorers. “We get the
space with overlaps with the oil and
biggest kick out of helping small
gas environment, and without public
companies that have dreams but not
reporting requirements because a lot
the teams to develop those dreams,”
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
René Sterk, Managing Director, RSC “I’ve always loved starting new things”, says serial entrepreneur René Sterk. “Confidence is everything: being able to deliver on what you promise, and knowing that you can, is key. You’ve got to learn from your mistakes and learn to identify your own strengths and weaknesses. In order to set up a successful company, you have to hire people who are better at the things you are not good at. I’m only a geologist because I love rocks and have a passion for the outdoors, not because I wanted to find fortune; I would have become a banker instead! From an entrepreneurial point of view, I find the competitive nature of the mining industry really interesting. It’s a very crowded space, but it’s been far easier than I thought at the beginning to start a company and find a niche.” Sterk has delivered resource evaluation, training and geological consulting throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania in a wide variety of geological settings and commodities. He has led numerous exploration and mine geology teams in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Mongolia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Sweden and Mali. He is a Director, Fellow and Chartered Professional with the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, a Member and Registered Professional Geologist with the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, and holds a master’s degree in Structural Geology and Tectonics. He established RSC in 2008, employing up to 75 technical staff around the globe, and specialises in exploration management for gold and base metals, with a strong added skill set in resource modelling, grade control, reconciliation, QA/QC and successful sampling. w w w.rsc mm e. com
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R S C M I N I N G & M I N E R A L E X P L O R AT I O N
2008
Year founded
65
Approximate number of employees
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Sterk. “At the end of the day, as geologists our primary goal is to find deposits and these guys have a really prospective stretch of ground, but on a budget without the arms and legs to undertake the work. We’ve got exploration managers in the field developing programmes getting results and then we’ll advise on how to structure the portfolio. It’s an area where we excel. says Sterk. “They have ambition to
Finding a big deposit is not only great
get into the mining game. They’ve put
for the client’s shareholders, but it
a framework together; they’ve got
makes us look good as well.”
a board and raised some money, but
The challenge for RSC is to remain
they’ve got nobody to help them
flexible and keep resources in place in
execute. We like helping those guys
what Sterk terms “such a competitive
from cradle to grave. It’s the front end;
and crowded market”. Being able to
all the exploration management on
react to demand is vital. “Our planning
the ground, but also the marketing,
and governance is based on quarterly
design, road shows and compliance.”
budgets,” he explains. “That’s how
To that end, one of the various juniors
short-term the demand in the service
RSC is currently working with is
industry is. Resourcing appropriately
Sydney-based Gold Mountain in Papua
and taking on just enough risk to
New Guinea. “It’s a fantastic project,
be ready when demand spikes is key.”
with amazing potential,” enthuses
Sterk maintains that RSC always w w w.rsc mm e. com
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positions itself to be able to say yes to clients and to consistently deliver the high standards they have come to expect. RSC is agile and well-tuned to react to industry trends. Among those, Sterk highlights the shifting geography of demand that can move from North America to Africa. “Clients aren’t necessarily looking for different solutions, but they do need different structures to how we offer them, so right now we’re doing a lot of campaign 14
work, specifically for mid-tiers and larger companies. The liability of an overfull team of full-time geologists is still fresh in their mind from the previous downturn, so we’re supporting them with turnkey solutions. It’s a way for them to mitigate risk,” reasons Sterk, who sees this development as indicative of a shift in the wider industry. The company has managed several of Barrick’s drilling campaigns and assisted with its exploration and feasibility programmes in Western Australia. Its turnkey
CO M PAN Y FACT S
RSC originally analysed listed mining company announcements to support its own marketing efforts. Through its work in the public reporting compliance space, RSC then began offering a free service allowing users to view and download published reports, with the main aim of improving the quality of global public reporting standards. Its most popular product is a weekly list in which all globally announced drilling results are converted to an Au-equivalent result and ranked against each other, producing tables of the top intersections by stock exchange listing in different time periods. Opaxe was formed in March of 2019 to take over the existing operations of RSC’s Mineral Intelligence service and to continue to develop and expand the subscriptionbased service. Its clients include mining professionals, investors and brokers, mining companies and the media.
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“ WE GET THE BIGGEST KICK OUT OF HELPING SMALL COMPANIES THAT HAVE DREAMS BUT NOT THE TEAMS TO DEVELOP THOSE DREAMS” — René Sterk, Managing Director, RSC
full-project solutions are in demand, with RSC recently picking up a big project with Evolution Mining which has assets across New South Wales and Western Australia. “Working on great exploration projects like these is a feather in our cap,” adds Sterk. Sterk believes that being a service company is not RSC’s final destination; the organisation is capable of much more. “We’ve developed a number of other products that will ultimately diversify our company,” he confirms. RSC added oil and gas services to its portfolio in 2016, and has picked up soil remediation and other environmental work in New Zealand. “However, diversification for us is also about w w w.rsc mm e. com
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“ WE’RE VERY EXCITED ABOUT COMBINING OUR MACHINE LEARNING EXPERIENCE AND RESEARCH WITH BETTER WAYS TO DO DATA ANALYTICS IN A PUBLIC REPORTING SPACE. THAT’S WHERE OPAXE COMES IN” — René Sterk, Managing Director, RSC
18 coming up with novel ideas. One of the things we’ve developed is a resource intelligence product that’s become very popular. We’ve recently spun that off into a daughter company called
Sterk recently took on a Director role
Opaxe, providing mineral intelligence
at the Australian Institute of Minerals
to mining professionals and investors.
and Metallurgy (AusIMM) where he
The data analytics space is where the
hopes to contribute at board level for
industry is looking for new solutions
three years. Why is he so keen to give
with things like big data and machine
back to the community that has
learning. We’re very excited about
supported his business endeavours?
combining our machine learning
“We need to encourage the next
experience and research with better
generation to enter the mining industry,”
ways to do data analytics in a public
he argues. “It’s critical to build a strong
reporting space. That’s where Opaxe
industry and AusIMM allows profes-
comes in.” www.opaxe.com
sionals to come together to find ways
19 to improve it. I’m passionate about getting more young people on education pathways into the industry. I’m eager for the institute to be innovative, think about what the future looks like in 20-30 years’ time, and ask how we position it to provide a place for the millennials and then the Gen Zs.” Energised by finding new ways to make miners mineral dreams come true by helping them realise the value of their assets, Sterk and RSC aren’t ready to pass the torch just yet.
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RSC Australia 45 Ventnor Avenue West Perth WA 6005, Australia T +61 8 9467 1444 www.rscmme.com