Management
Morning Star Gold is operated and managed on a daily basis between its executive office in Sydney and its permanent presence at the Morning Star mine site in Woods Point, Victoria.
An Operating Committee of 5 persons forms the management team for the day-to-day operation of MCO. The Operating Committee comprises two Directors including the MD/CEO Nicholas Garling and Chairman Max Garling, two Senior Geologists who have over 50 years combined experience in the Eastern Victorian goldfields (Dr. Peter Jackson and Morrie Goodz) and Dennis Clark, a Technical Mining Specialist with over 30 years experience in hard rock Underground Mining, much of that in Victoria.
Morning Star’s other key Director is Jeff Williams, who as a Mining Engineer, is increasingly consulted on all aspects of mine development at the Woods Point Gold Project.
Chairman – Max M. Garling LLB
Max Garling is a Sydney based mining investor who has been involved with publicly listed mining companies for over 30 years. He is a substantial shareholder in MCO and was involved in its set-up and listing on the ASX. Mr. Garling is a lawyer by trade who specializes in merging mining properties & listed companies. He has been involved in various mines from vendor stage right through to production, including the A1 Gold Mine in Gaffney’s Creek Victoria (Broken Hill Holdings Ltd) and the Daisy Milano Mine in W.A. (formerly Perilya Ltd). Mr Garling is based in Sydney with his wife Julie and has 5 children and 21 grand children. In his spare time he enjoys cooking up Malaysian curries and watching the cricket. He is a regular visitor to Woods Point.
Managing Director / Chief Executive – Nicholas Garling
Nicholas Garling (Max’s son) has worked for Investment Banks for the past 21 years in areas concerning equity capital raising, asset disposal, structured derivatives and listed equity markets trading. After studying for a Diploma of Law at Sydney Uni and working in a Sydney legal practice for 4 years, he moved into the financial markets field. He worked for the past 10 years in Tokyo, Japan & Hong Kong, with UBS Warburg & Lehman Brothers where he was Managing Director of Equity Markets Group for UBS and before that, Managing Director of Lehman’s Asia-Pacific Equity business. Mr. Garling is a major shareholder in Morning Star Gold and works full-time between their Sydney and Eastern Victorian offices. Ultimately, he is Sydney based with wife Sam and their 7 kids. He is an avid rugby player and supporter of Old Ignatians RFC, a cricketer of no repute and has very busy Saturday mornings running a taxi service for kids…
Chief Geologist – Dr. Peter Jackson BSc (Geology), PhD, MAIG
Dr. Jackson is a Geologist who lectured for many years in Geology at Victoria’s renowned La Trobe University. He has over 21 years practical experience in the Eastern Victorian Goldfields and has conducted 100’s of field studies on old mining operations in the Woods Point area including economic geological assessments. He is intimately acquainted with all of the key mines & dyke structures within Morning Star’s tenement package. Dr Jackson is based between Melbourne & Woods Point. In a past life, Peter spent some frigid years in Antarctica with the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and as a result believes the winters in Alpine Victoria are quite mild…He is married to Fran with 2 daughters and when he’s not crawling through old dykes around Woods Point, is an avid reader.
Technical Director – Morrie Goodz MSc, MBA, MAusIMM
Morrie Goodz has spent over 15 years working as a project geologist and exploration manager in the Eastern Victorian Goldfields. He worked for several years with Max Garling & Ray Wright operating the rich A1 Mine near Gaffney’s Creek Victoria, just 6kms from the present operations at Woods Point. For the past 2 years, Mr. Goodz has been working in Kalgoorlie at the ‘Super Pit’ for KCGM in a senior strategic role. Between 1995 to 1998 Morrie Goodz supervised and completed an intensive trenching & drilling program on the Morning Star Hill (the site immediately above the main shaft). A non-JORC resource target of close to 500,000 ounces of Gold was identified and is currently being re-interpreted into the overall Resource Model for the Woods Point Gold Project. Morrie is a keen (& waterwise) gardener in his spare time and a lover of Yarra Valley reds.
Operations Manager - Dennis Clark
Dennis Clark is Morning Star’s new Operations Manager and will be responsible for all day-to-day aspects of MCO’s non-geological exploration and mine development operations. Dennis is no stranger to the Morning Star mine having worked with us there during the late 1990’s and earlier worked with several MCO operatives at the rich A1 mine at nearby Gaffney’s Creek. Dennis has a mine managers certificate issued in Victoria and has greater than 30 years underground mining experience Australia-wide including at the Woodlawn, Mineral Hill, Hellyer, Cobar, Union Hill, Wattle Gully, A1 and Morning Star mines. Dennis has worked in gold, copper, lead-zinc-silver mines in roles from Resident Mine Manager, to production, operations and development management, including recent involvement in Alliance Resources shaft and decline construction at Maldon. We are delighted to have his vast experience on board as we move up several gears in our operations at Woods Point. Dennis is based in Woods Point, spending most of his time off with wife Pauline in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
** Outgoing Mine Manager - Ray Wright
The retirement of Ray Wright feels like a death in the family. Ray has been a hugely pivotal player in the rebuilding and re-commissioning of the Morning Star mine. He has run the business with care and outstanding cost management and will be sorely missed by MCO. Raymond still has deep ties to Woods Point and will be a welcome visitor often. Ray's son Danny is a key mining operative for us and his son-in-law Darren Croucher is now assisting Dennis Clark in the management of our operations at and around Woods Point. We wish Ray and his wife Dawn well on the Sunshine Coast where gold is scarce but gold teeth are commonplace...
