PM shuts down suggestions to increase defence spending
The prime minister has brushed off suggestions from the United States that Australia needs to substantially increase its defence spending.
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The Australian
18 minutes ago
- The Australian
Artemis on 5000m Pilbara drill drive
Artemis Resources to launch 5000m drill program to expand Carlow gold project Includes 3800m of wide-spaced diamond drilling to enhance 374,000oz gold and 64,000t copper Carlow deposits Application for potential new IOCG prospect at Cassowary near Kalgoorlie Special Report: Artemis Resources is about to embark on a key drilling program seeking to expand one of the most prominent gold and copper resources in WA's legendary Pilbara region. While it doesn't have the scale (yet) of a Hemi or Karlawinda, Artemis (ASX:ARV) has used the gold price boom to refocus its attention on the 374,000oz gold and 64,000t copper Carlow gold project. Its gold bounty is likely to be far more extensive than previously known, essentially proven in early drilling conducted under the watch of new managing director and ASX exploration legend Julian Hanna, which found a headline hit of 7m at 2.9g/t Au (including 1m at 15.3g/t) 600m from the existing resource. A 3800m diamond drill program will chase extensions beyond the limit of current drilling, including to close the knowledge gap across that 600m divide. The wide-spaced drill program will also follow up an historic intersection of 4m at 11.1g/t Au and 2% Cu some 120m below the limits of the Carlow resource shell, with drilling showing the mineralisation there remains open below 380m. On top of that, a dedicated project manager has been appointed to oversee technical studies including metallurgical testwork, conceptual mining studies and a review of processing options. 'The next few months should be an exciting period for Artemis with drill programs aimed at growing the scale of the Carlow project and technical studies required to move Carlow towards possible feasibility and early development stages,' Hanna said. 'The first priority is widely spaced diamond drilling to scope out potential for significant extensions to the high-grade gold and copper lodes along strike and below the mineral resource announced in October 2022, and to provide core samples for metallurgical testwork.' Golden opportunity The Carlow extension drilling in the September quarter will use large diameter drill holes to collect samples for met testwork. Wide-spaced drilling, which follows the March quarter program, detailed surface mapping and a hole by hole review of more than 400 historical holes will test a new interpretation of the geology at the site. It will target two areas: the 600m-long zone along strike from Carlow East, which extends below the Andover Intrusion, and a 1500m-long zone below the Carlow West and East resources. '5-6 diamond holes spaced 200m apart are initially planned to scope out potential for high grade lodes extending into the two target areas,' Artemis says. 'These areas are supported by high-grade gold intersected in two historic and recent holes (20CCDD003 and 25ARDD001) and by the new geological interpretation of low angle thrusting continuing below Carlow.' But there's more on the agenda. A 1200m drill program using low cost reverse circulation techniques will also kick off in the September quarter, zeroing in on the Titan geophysical anomalies, where high grade surface gold has been found just 2km west of Carlow. 'RC drilling at Titan will initially test a near-circular ~400m wide gravity anomaly (G1) with small outcrops of brecciated and sheared chert which returned assays up to 41.4g/t gold (sample ID: 24AR28-048 reported January 28, 2025) from surface samples of ferruginous chert,' Hanna said. 'RC drilling is also planned across the Titan thrust zone to test the wider potential of this unusual feature. A heritage survey to enable wider access for drilling at Titan is scheduled in July.' The first target is G1, an anomaly 700m west of Artemis drilling which peaked at 1m at 16.4g/t in porphyry. Ten shallow RC holes are planned there after a heritage survey scheduled for mid-July. Artemis will launch into a 5000m drill program at Carlow and Titan in the September quarter. Pic: ARV Watch: Artemis joins forces with GreenTech Metals for lithium JV Last but not least Not content just with its Pilbara quarry, Artemis has gazed out further for early stage exploration opportunities, placing its foot on the Cassowary Intrusion. There it hopes to uncover a potential iron oxide copper-gold discovery – the style responsible for the mammoth Aussie copper and gold deposits at Olympic Dam, Oak Dam, Prominent Hill, Carrapateena and Ernest Henry – 450km east of Kalgoorlie. An application has been made for an exploration licence at the project, where the target elucidated from regional magnetic data appears to sit below an estimated 250-300m of Eucla Basin sediments based on diamond drilling of other prospects in the region. An interpretation of the magnetic data shows the Cassowary Intrusion is large, sitting over 5km wide, and occurs in a 'unique geological setting on the margin of the >500km long Madura Crustal Boundary at the intersection with a cross-cutting fault.' The ground around Cassowary is hot property for mining majors. Pic: ARV 'The Company's other outstanding exploration project is the interpreted Cassowary Intrusion which occurs in a unique geological setting on the margin of a >500km long north-east trending crustal boundary, with surrounding geology disrupted over 10s of kms,' Hanna said. 'Cassowary is a rare opportunity to drill for possible IOCG type copper/gold mineralisation. Artemis's 330km2 EL application which covers Cassowary is expected to be granted in September Quarter and planning is underway for a gravity survey to assist drill targeting. 'We look forward to reporting progress on these three gold and copper opportunities as soon as possible.' Nearby tenement applicants in the surrounding region include WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) and Canadian giant Teck Resources, which has applied for seven ELs, showing the scale of the opportunity. This article was developed in collaboration with Artemis Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
The Australian
18 minutes ago
- The Australian
Australia's highest-paid vice-chancellors' salaries and pay packets ranked
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott. Jane Dempster/The Australian You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Mark Scott has a money problem and it is not finding the time to spend the $1.33m he was paid to be vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney last year. It's the perception that his pay packet encourages, and it is the same for university leaders across the country. As a class, V-Cs look opulent, out of touch and indifferent to public opinion. For institutions that still rely on public funding this is a big problem. Anthony Albanese is not about to 'Trump' the oldest and richest Australian universities, but if he did hit – like Harvard has been hit in the US – universities in Sydney and Melbourne would be light on for community support. Tasmanian senator Jacquie Lambie gets this. She introduced a bill in the previous parliament to cap V-C pay at the $435,000 the commonwealth Treasurer makes. There were 400-plus reader comments sent to The Australian on Natasha Bita's Friday coverage of the 10 NSW public universities' annual reports, and what V-Cs were paid kept coming up. Other V-Cs should be pleased Scott was top of the pay pops – his $150,000 pay rise is a sure-fire ire attractor. Not all had huge hikes. University of NSW V-C Attila Brungs made only $700 more on 2023, leaving him to subsist on $1.15m. But in 2024, every V-C in the state made more than the Prime Minister's $607,000 base pay. The University Chancellors Council ignores the comparison to Albanese's wage in its submission to the Senate committee that was considering Lambie's bill, instead offering unconvincing justifications for why the V-C pay packets they approve should not be capped. They argued, 'caps fail to account for university size and complexity'. But the way university councils set V-C pay do not either. Last year, Deborah Terry was paid $1.158m to run the huge and complex University of Queensland, which had $2.83bn in revenue. Up the road, Helen Bartlett received $935,000 to lead the University of the Sunshine Coast, a challenger brand with $435m in income. Plus, the chancellors claimed that setting ceilings on pay would discourage global top talent. The problem is Australia already pays a premium. The president of Harvard University had a total package of $US1.5m last year but will take a 25 per cent pay cut next month due to tough Trump times. According to the QS global university rankings, Harvard is consistently in the world's top-five institutions, while the University of Sydney was 61st this year. University of Queensland vice-chancellor Deborah Terry. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire The chancellors add that they were already on to pay, working on remuneration codes, but they know the jig is up. 'We are committed to restoring public trust and engagement with our universities,' their submission states. It is so far lost that Education Minister Jason Clare has a committee working on improving university management, including executive pay. So lost that V-C income is now a proxy for community distrust of university leaderships. They could all collectively cut their pay by half and stay on the hook of public suspicion. There are five reasons it came to this. One is apparent management indifference to student welfare, especially for victims of sexual harassment and assault that attracted so much community attention that Clare set up a national ombudsman to assist victims when university managements apparently would not. It is not just students who need help. Last week the Australian National University released a scathing report on decades of nepotism, bullying and ill-treatment of staff as well as students. Another is the underpayment of staff at universities across the country, mainly, but not always due to incompetence. The Fair Work Ombudsman has intervened repeatedly, including in the courts, to ensure universities pay people correctly. It still has a matter involving the University of NSW, which mentions in its annual report a $78m provision for current employees that includes underpayments. A third is the apparent inability of some universities – notably the universities of Sydney and Melbourne – to protect Jewish students, indeed some staff, from harassment during Gaza protests last year. There is also the failure of universities to assure the community that they are not ignoring the interests of local students by enrolling enormous numbers of internationals. The University of Sydney earned $1.6bn in international student fees in 2024 – 40 per cent of total revenue. Last year, 46 per cent of University of Melbourne students were from overseas. Both of them, and many more universities, need to do a way better job at explaining the real benefits of international education for the country. At the height of the phony argument during the election that internationals were to blame for housing costs, university lobbies complained about the revenue they would lose from enrolment caps. Then there is the way we perceive universities. For decades, V-Cs pitched them as a national resource, but now they can appear as giant corporations, focused on their own, not community interests. V-Cs with huge pay packets and grand digs do not help. The University of Melbourne bought a $7.1m Parkville mansion that former V-C Duncan Maskell lived in (it is now for sale). One of the reasons Scott is noticed for his plutocratic pay is Maskell, the previous top earner, has left. The University of Melbourne does not name the staffer who received a total package worth between $1,575,000 and $1,589,999, which suggests embarrassment at the size of the pay packet. 'I don't strike many people who are horrified by success, whether it's in business or on the sporting field or in the arts,' said economist (and assistant Treasury Minister) Andrew Leigh recently on the Joe Walker policy podcast. 'But in terms of Australian egalitarianism, I think there is that notion that being successful doesn't cause us to put you up on a pedestal. We are a country that doesn't stand up when the Prime Minister enters the room.' We certainly don't give V-Cs standing ovations, and won't while universities don't protect their staff and students and appear aloof to the way they are seen in the community. Big pay packets, regardless of apparent performance, will ensure we stay seated. Certainly, universities publish key performance indicators, but they are generally aspirational. Scott is not going to get sacked if staff and student responses decline on his university's surveys of satisfaction. But if the V-Cs are serious about 'restoring public trust and engagement' this year could be the last of ever-increasing pay for V-Cs, and their senior staff. Clare's committee could firmly suggest V-Cs link pay to public key performance indicators that cover what universities are supposed to do for students. Scores at faculty level on the national satisfaction surveys, lower attrition rates, a major – strike that – huge investment in new courses and teaching technology, would be a start, and competitive information on smaller classes would be a winner. Leigh is right, Australians don't object to rewards for success but it has to be earned and seen to be.
News.com.au
25 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Ferrari heavyweight replaces Scott Barlow as Sydney FC chairman
Scott Barlow's 13-year tenure as Sydney FC chairman has come to an end as part of an 'evolution' aimed at increasing the A-League club's 'international profile'. Ferrari Australasia president Dr Jan Voss, who joined the Sky Blues board last season, will replace Barlow as chairman. Voss is fluent in five languages – English, German, Italian, French, and Dutch – and 'brings a global perspective and deep experience in brand, performance, and strategic growth' As part of a 'broader strategic restructure', inaugural club chairman Walter Bugno returns to Sydney's board, while technology entrepreneur Sebastian Gray has also been added to the board. 'This is a pivotal moment for Sydney FC,' Voss said. 'I am honoured to be appointed chairman and to work alongside a board that is deeply passionate about football and our club's future.' The club's ownership structure hasn't changed, with the Barlow family remaining as 98 per cent investors, with the other two per cent owned by the Crismale family and two other Australian shareholders. 'With a strong and stable ownership base and a renewed focus on innovation, commercial growth, and elite performance, Sydney FC is more ready than ever to embrace the challenges of the modern football landscape,' Voss said. Barlow has not only departed as chairman but also as board member after two decades of service. 'I wish to thank Scott for his extraordinary leadership and commitment,' Voss said. 'His 13 years as chairman have laid the foundations for the club's next era of growth and international ambition.' Gray – who co-founded Dugout, a digital media company co-owned by a host of top European clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus, and Manchester City – will strengthen Sydney's focus on 'innovation, digital engagement, and sustainable investment'. Sydney's board also includes technical director Han Berger, Michael Crismale, Suzie Shaw, and Peter Paradise. The Ufuk Talay-coached Sky Blues failed to reach this season's A-League finals series, finishing seventh on the ladder. They reached the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League Two competition before being knocked out by Singapore club Lion City Sailors.
