Peter Lynch (14 February 1964 – 26 January 2017) was an Australian mining engineer.
Career
Lynch was born in
Caringbah
Caringbah is a suburb in Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Caringbah is south of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local government area of Sutherland Shire.
Caringbah once st ...
, New South Wales, the second child of Dr Gilbert Lynch a general surgeon in the St George region of Sydney, and wife Judy. He attended local Catholic schools, then studied mining engineering at the
University of New South Wales, graduating in 1988. After moving to
Queensland to work on coal projects,he met his wife Laura, a geologist from Sydney. The couple had three children - Alicia, Sebastian, and George.
In 1995, he was appointed Mine Manager of
Mount Isa Mines' (MIM) Oaky North Underground Mine, a poorly-performing mine, which he turned into a profitable venture within three years. MIM then appointed him general manager of Lead Zinc Development and by 2002 he was the managing director of Australian Premium Coals Pty Ltd. (APC).
Lynch left MIM to work with Gallipoli Mining (a subsidiary of
JX Holdings), then was involved in the set-up of
Galilee Basin coal giant
Waratah Coal in 2006. He was President and CEO for several years, but, citing family reasons, left in 2010, shortly after the
buyout of the company by
Clive Palmer.
In 2009, Lynch set up a mining exploration company, Cokal Ltd. , the company has four exploratory projects in
Kalimantan
Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo.
In 2019, ...
, Indonesia and has signed a joint agreement with Tanzoz Resources to develop
metallurgical coal exploration in
Tanzania.
He also held an interest in several property developments including
Evans Head
Evans Head is a town in Richmond Valley Council of the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, Evans Head had a population of 2,843 people. It is 726 kilometres north of Sydney, and 11 kilometres east off the ...
AirPark, a residential air park development for people who own private planes.
Death
By 2016, Lynch was living in between mining operations he was supervising in Indonesia, and his new home base in Perth.
He died with his new girlfriend,
Endah Cakrawati, on 26 January 2017 when his private plane, a
Grumman G-73 Mallard, crashed into the
Swan River during
Australia Day celebrations in
Perth. His daughter was living with him at the time but had not joined him for the flight.
The
City of Perth Skyworks
The City of Perth Skyworks (previously named for other sponsors) was a large scale fireworks show in Perth, Western Australia that was held annually on Australia Day (26 January) over Perth Water, the section of the Swan River (Western Austral ...
fireworks display was subsequently cancelled.
References
External links
Cokal Ltd.: Board of Directors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Peter
1964 births
2017 deaths
Accidental deaths in Western Australia
Australian mining engineers
Australian mining entrepreneurs
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Australia
University of New South Wales alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2017
People from New South Wales