Six directors sell $75m of shares

Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison has raised $36.9 million from the sale of some of his shares in the mining services group, adding to a string of big share sales by Western Australian company directors who have cashed in on strong market rallies.

Mr Ellison’s big sell took place last week and was announced to the ASX today.

Nearly 1.9 million units were sold across a three-day period, at an average price of around $19.80 per share.

About 21.3 million Mineral Resources shares remain in Mr Ellison’s portfolio, worth around $400 million at today’s closing price (see wealth creators feature).

According to BNiQ Search Engine data, Mr Ellison has sold $164 million of share since 2010, in seven tranches.

The biggest was about $43 million in March 2012.

Some of his MinRes earnings went towards a home purchase in Mosman Park in 2009, reportedly worth $57.5 million.

MinRes chairman Peter Wade sold 200,000 shares in November, reaping just less than $4 million from the move.

Mr Wade’s remaining stake was worth about $5.9 million at the close of trading today.

Four other WA directors made major sales recently.

At the end of November, Monadelphous executive chairman John Rubino disposed of 1 million shares in that business, about half his holding, in a deal worth $19.2 million.

RCR Tomlinson managing director Paul Dalgleish sold 2.3 million shares in that company, about a third of his stake, in mid-November.

With an average price of around $4.40 per share, that move was worth $10.1 million.

Also in November, Northern Star Resources director Chris Rowe sold 235,000 shares worth about $1.3 million, while Pioneer Credit managing director Keith John earned $4.3 million when he sold 1.5 million stocks.