Goldmining executive Simon Lee will retire in November, after calling time on a prolific multi-decade career of success which has fingerprints across the sector in Australia and abroad.
Goldmining executive Simon Lee will retire in November, after calling time on a prolific multi-decade career of success which has fingerprints across the sector in Australia and abroad.
Malaysian-born Mr Lee, in his 80s, was chair of Emerald Resources from its inception in 2014 until 2023, overseeing its growth to a Cambodian-focused producer of scale with a market capitalisation of $2.4 billion.
The company announced today that Mr Lee would retire after its AGM on November 29. It is expected to be his last, though it's not the first time he has retired from the sector.
Mr Lee was in his 70s when he got the call to be involved at Emerald, which developed Cambodia’s first large-scale goldmine and has ambitions to deliver a second, as well as a first in Australia.
The veteran executive said that after a number of previous comebacks it was highly likely that today’s retirement was his last – but did not fully rule out supporting his network in future.
“You never know when someone calls for help, then you see what happens in life,” Mr Lee told Business News today.
“I would say, to be honest, I’ve been very, very grateful that Morgan [Hart] called me up about 10 years ago to assist.
“It has been the most wonderful journey for me, because at an old age when someone calls you up for help, you say yes, but don’t realise that you can still contribute.
“The connection between me and Morgan, and his ability to harness the team that we have currently, I think, is exceptional – I put it down to Morgan’s skill.”
Emerald is the most recent of several successful goldmining ventures by Mr Lee, whose considerable impact on the sector can be traced back to a decision to holiday in Perth 45 years ago.
Business News columnist Tim Treadgold reported in the Australian Financial Review in 1993 that Mr Lee’s venture into the WA mining space came off the back of an initial retirement from a Hong Kong-based trading company he founded and sold out of in 1979, at the age of 38.
That retirement was short-lived.
By the mid-1980s, Mr Lee had ventured into the WA gold sector with his successful takeover and turnaround of Great Victorian Gold – which was sold ahead of the market crash of 1987.
Mr Lee then took the helm at Samantha Gold in the early 1990s, leading that company to success that culminated in the award of the inaugural Outstanding Producer award at the 1992 Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum, and backed it up in 1993.
Samantha – where Mr Lee’s fellow industry legend Nick Giorgetta was managing director – was taken over in the mid-1990s and became known as Resolute Mining. Resolute still produces and has a market capitalisation of $1.5 billion.
“I think Nick was a very disciplined and ethical person, and we share the same basic rights and wrongs of life – we got along very well,” Mr Lee told Business News.
Mr Giorgetta and Mr Lee would link up again at Equigold, another significant success story, sold for $1.1 billion to Lihir Gold in 2008.
Its executive team – including Mr Giorgetta, Ross Stanley, Mark Clark and Morgan Hart – then set up Regis Resources (current market capitalisation $1.53 billion). Mr Lee held shares, buy was not directly involved in management.
Spun out of the founding Regis executive team came Emerald, led by Mr Hart and chaired until last year by Mr Lee, and Mark Clark-led Capricorn Metals – valued by the market at $2.2 billion.
Emerald, which took out the Digger of the Year award at Diggers & Dealers this year - an award accepted by Mr Lee and Mr Hart - has a market capitalisation of around $2.5 billion.
In a statement, Mr Hart thanked Mr Lee for his support, guidance, friendship and generosity.
Emerald chairman Jay Hughes, who took over from Mr Lee last year, said the former chair had a significant role in building Emerald up to the business it was today.
“Under Simon’s guidance and support and drawing on his considerable experience of developing successful goldmining companies, the company has created significant shareholder value through the development of the 100 per cent owned Okvau Gold Mine in Cambodia,” he said.
“He is leaving the company in a solid financial position as we look to progress the development of our 100 per cent owned Memot Gold Project in Cambodia and 100% owned Dingo Range gold project in Western Australia which form part of the company’s ambition to become a +300koz per annum multi-project gold producer.”
Mr Lee’s track record of success would suggest significant skill. Mr Lee said he had a knack and instinct for business from a young age, which translated into success as an entrepreneur and businessman across multiple sectors and countries.
But he places a lot of emphasis on luck.
“I would consider myself having been very lucky in life,” he said.
“Every time I get out of something to retire, a friend will call and ask me indirectly to assist, and then there I go, off again, doing something I consider useful and helpful.”
Mr Lee said he did track the value of his contributions to business, but that he prioritised people in the way he ran companies and mentored others.
“I think nowadays, everyone seems to think you run the company just for shareholders,” he said.
“While that is a good way to go, I think all executives, all directors of a company, must think of how they can improve the lives of their workers.
“If you do that, and you’re able to achieve that, that means the company is very successful – you can’t do that if your company is not successful.”
Outside of the mining sector, Me Lee has been a board member at AUSTRADE, chairman of the Western Australian Museum Foundation Trust and president of the Western Australian Chinese Chamber of Commerce,
He was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 1994 and received the Advance Australia Award in 1993 for services to commerce and industry, having been a key advisory voice for former Prime Minister Paul Keating.
“I’m very gratefully to have been able to have the opportunity to do these things in life,” Mr Lee said.
“Sometimes you can be very capable, but you may not have the opportunity. Sometimes you have the opportunity, but you don’t have the ability.
“I think all those nexuses have to meet, and that’s where I think luck comes in, in life.”
His philanthropic ventures, through the Simon Lee Foundation which he set up in 1994, gave more than $450,000 in the 2023 financial year.
Mr Lee is currently based in Singapore but said he intended to return to Perth in retirement once his business commitments abroad are done.
Emerald shares were 2.1 per cent lower this morning, at $3.72.