http://www.platinumgroupmetals.net/
It is with sadness and condolences to his family, colleagues and many friends that we write of the passing of Dr. Tony Naldrett, “Tony” this past weekend, in England. We at Platinum Group Metals can trace the company founding all the way back to the teaching and enthusiasm of this amazing man.
President and CEO R. Michael Jones said: I met Tony as an undergraduate student, in 1984 at University of Toronto and he taught me Ore Deposits. His enthusiasm for Copper Nickel and Platinum Group Metals was obvious and we spent more time on this topic than other deposit types. Tony was a former RAF pilot and a leading academic with a background at Cambridge.
He was a gracious, generous and extremely friendly person who could speak to anyone at any level. In his 70’s, cane in hand, he climbed over outcrops with Frank Hallam (CFO and Co-founder of the Company) and I, in Northern Ontario. Tony was brightly explaining a chemical phase diagram he had likely taught me 20 years earlier, as he cheerfully climbed over logs and rocks.
It was the confidence that I had been taught by one of the academic giants in the field, that dared me to go off to South Africa and look where mining companies had hunted before for 100 years. If even a glancing scrape of what this man knew rubbed off on me – We had a chance, I thought!
I will never forget my first academic conference in South Africa, being thrilled to see my professor from Toronto as a senior academic in attendance. I was proud to name Tony as my teacher and was blessed to be a friend for 36 years.
The discovery of the Waterberg 19.5 M ounces of reserves, in Northern South Africa, by Platinum Group Metals, from Canada, can be traced back to the sound and enthusiastic teaching of Dr. Naldrett. It was a highlight of my career to stand over the discovery drill core at Waterberg, show my teacher what we found and to again be taught geology with boundless enthusiasm.
We remember Dr. Naldrett with immense admiration and thanks.