Africa in the blood for Tiger chief Brad Marwood
The Australian
July 12, 2014 12:00AM
Paul Garvey
Brad Marwood, Tiger Resources MD
Tiger Resources managing director Brad Marwood, who has spent 20 years in Africa. Picture: Colin Murty Source: News Corp Australia
LIKE almost all its fellow African miners and explorers, the walls of Tiger Resources’ boardroom are adorned with photos of smiling Africans.
But unlike most managing directors, Tiger chief Brad Marwood knows the individual stories behind each of the faces.
There’s the woman who was dying from childbirth complications and saved by a 10-minute procedure at the health clinic built by Tiger near its Kipoi copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Then there’s another woman who, with training and support from Tiger, has started a business making and selling charcoal and is lifting herself out of poverty. A third photo shows a boy who had arrived at Tiger’s health clinic riddled with parasites before three tablets restored his health.
Over two decades, Africa has found its way into Marwood’s blood (figuratively and literally — he once picked up a parasite in Mali that bored into his bladder and almost killed him).
And while building Tiger into one of the biggest copper miners listed in Australia is his top priority, he sees the company’s contribution to the people of the DRC as a particular point of pride.
Mr Marwood is no bleeding heart. He has more than enough of the toughness needed to survive in the volatility of mining in Africa.
But he sees a profitable and successful mining industry as playing a major role in lifting living standards across the continent, and wants Tiger to do its part.
“The reason I’ve collected these photos of women,” he says, pointing to the boardroom portraits, “is that in Africa it’s my experience that’s it’s the women who are the fundamental engine room for stability, for sustainability, for growth”.
“Yes it’s a very male-dominated society in terms of politics and it is very patriarchal, but the engine room is about women. If you want to create a stable, growth-orientated nation, it’s about creating opportunities for women.”
Mr Marwood’s first exposure to Africa came when he arrived in Cape Town as a 10-year-old. His family was en route from Australia to New York, where his father was working for the UN, and the beauty of Cape Town left him determined to return.
By his early 20s he was back, starting a mining career that would see him work in 24 African nations. In Ghana alone, he says, he played a role in the discovery or development of more than 20 million ounces of gold.
At 42 he went into semiretirement, buying and running a motel in Falls Creek and starting to raise a family.
“Life was good. But I had more energy in me than just sitting there running a motel. My wife could see I was feeling bored and unmotivated,” he said.
“So I went back to look for places in the world where I can work and add value to the quality of life.”
He made the decision to return to Africa because he wanted to be able to explain to children why he was in mining.
“What’s my answer for being, say, a gold miner in WA? Because we need to put more lumps of shiny stuff in the bottom of a safe? I just didn’t think that was a big enough answer for me,” he said.
“I went to Africa because I could see it would create greater good.”
After his years working there, Mr Marwood is convinced that Africa is on the cusp of an enormous opportunity.
The average age in Africa is just 13 years, he says. That compares to 42 in Asia, or 51 in North America or Europe.
“We’re just about done. We haven’t got that engine room,” he says.
“That geographical wealth that Africa has represents a real opportunity to create in the 21st century a powerhouse for economic growth.”
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