Marshall’s medical breakthrough hitting headlines
Medical wunderkind Barry Marshall from Perth was making news around Australia this week 10 years ago for his discovery that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria and could be cured by antibiotics.
This discovery set the medical world on its head. For years stress had been blamed for ulcers.
Admittedly Dr Marshall had first publicly spoken of his ulcer belief in 1982 but a decade on and the ball was starting to roll.
There was even talk of himself and fellow researcher Dr Robert Warren receiving a Nobel Prize for medicine.
In the finance world St George Bank threw its hat into the ring as a possible buyer of the WA Government-owned BankWest.
By this stage the realistic options on the table for the Government were to float the institution once known as the Rural & Industries Bank or to consider selling it to Challenge Bank or St George Bank.
St George’s managing director Jim Sweeney said buying BankWest was one option for the New South Wales-based bank to expand its operations.
Challenge Bank added heat to its takeover intentions by increasing the size of its Eurobond offering by $50 million to $250 million.
That deal prompted criticism from BankWest that if the two were to merge, the combined entity would have trouble funding itself in the capital markets.
On the mining front Burmine Limited and Dragon Mining NL merged to create Australia’s leading platinum play.
The companies announced that they would meld their adjoining Weld Range and Range Well platinum plays with Burmine keeping a managing interest of 75 per cent.
Success was announced in the marriage of Resolute Resources NL with Samantha Gold NL.
Samantha chairman Bob Pett told the press that his company’s reverse takeover of Resolute was virtually complete.
The merger created a top-10 gold mining house and the Resolute-Samantha Group’s had cash flows of about $70 million, up from $50 million.
As the dust settled on the Resolute-Samantha celebrations, another gold float was starting.
Tanami Gold NL was seeking $7 million to target highly prospective ground in outback WA and the Northern Territory.
Fast forward 10 years and Tanami was recently listed as one of WA’s top explorers in a recent WA Business News exploration survey.
In other mining news, Mount Edon Gold Mines announced that it had received some “very encouraging results” from drilling at its Tarmoola Deeps project.
Embattled diamond explorer Cambridge Gulf Exploration looked like emerging from its doldrums with a letter of intent for a joint venture over the Berkely offshore diamond project, signed with major energy industry contract Heerama Offshore Services and Dutch company Kamp Drilling Consultants.
The deal would allow a bulk sampling project to begin, something regarded as make-or-break time for Cambridge, which was facing an investor market becoming increasingly sceptical over its plans to mine diamonds from the Cambridge Gulf near Wyndham.
Good news also came to the minerals processing sector with the $400 million Goldfields Gas Transmission project linking the Pilbara to Kalgoorlie getting the green light.
Australian Leather Holdings was keeping its reputation as a dynamic business intact with the opening of its new Darkan Wet Blue plant in the heart of WA’s cattle country. The company was also gearing up for the opening of its Rosedale operation in Victoria.
One step removed from leather, meat exporter Roger Fletcher was planning to invest more than $20 million on a new abattoir near Mt Barker.
On the political front former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke was crying again, this time after announcing that his 38-year marriage to Hazel Hawke was over.
Mr Hawke first shed tears in public throughout the 1980s over his daughter’s battle with heroin, the massacre of students in Tianamen Square and over revelations that he had been unfaithful to Hazel.
Some viewed their PM’s tears seen as a sign of public honesty and genuine emotion.