The Australian mining industry has had a series of people who have had significant impact on the Australian economy as well as the mining industry due to their wealth, and their investment in the industry.[1] Sometimes they are designated as Mining Magnates,[2] and they are ascribed other titles such as Mining Tycoons,[3] however in most cases they are significantly very public figures in the media of their times. Also during various changes in the national economy and mining industry some smaller players have had to adapt to the change.[4][5]
There have been occasions where they join in protest against politicians,[6] or alternatively they become leaders of political parties, or politicians.[7] The claims that Australian mining entrepreneurs have control over the political process also arises at times.[8] At times tycoons have also been known to have rivalries and difference that become public.[9]
Some people who have been more acutely private about their wealth and lives, also can be understood to be those who have gained from the mining and resources industries, such as Mark Creasy,[10] Rick Stowe[11] and Alan Bond whose interests at some stage in his fluctuating fortunes had investments in the industry.[12] Stan Perron is also another who shies from any publicity.[13] There are also lesser known individuals who have also contributed to the industry, who have not been recognised for their investment in the industry.
^The superlatives rise to further – Mega-Magnates – see Knox, Malcolm (2013), Boom : the underground history of Australia, from Gold Rush to GFC, Melbourne, Victoria Viking, ISBN978-0-670-07611-6
^Dumett, Raymond E (2009), Mining tycoons in the age of empire, 1870-1945 : entrepreneurship, high finance, politics and territorial expansion, Ashgate, ISBN978-0-7546-6303-4 Claude de Bernales has a chapter as a 'Tycoon' – in Mel Davies Claude De Bernales, wizard of Australia's golden west
^"Rich year for mining magnates", Australasian Business Intelligence, COMTEX News Network, Inc, 26 May 2010, ISSN1320-6680
^Baker, Russell (10 November 1998), "Desperate and dateless.(the Australian mining entrepreneurs)", The Bulletin with Newsweek, 117 (6148), A C P Computer Publications: 54(1), ISSN1440-7485
^"Mining merger threatened as tycoons clash; Merger.(Business)", Sunday Times (London, England), NI Syndication Limited: 6, 7 April 1996, ISSN0956-1382
^Gooding, Ken (24 September 2004), "Still at the sharp end.(mining engineer Mark Creasy)(Biography)(Column)", Mining Journal, Mining Communications, Ltd: 17(1), ISSN0026-5225
^Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Radio National (15 January 2010), Rick Stowe's Griffin Coal empire in trouble, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, retrieved 3 February 2014
^Barry, Paul (1990), The rise and fall of Alan Bond (Rev. ed.), Bantam Books (published 1991), ISBN978-1-86359-001-3