Why Australia's Sharpest Prospector Just Went Substantial in FMR
The billionaire behind Sirius and Azure becomes a substantial holder in this small-cap copper play
Every few years, a name appears on a junior register that instantly shifts sentiment. Mark Creasy is one of them.
The billionaire prospector, renowned for backing early-stage mining projects long before the market catches on, now has more than a 5% stake in FMR Resources (ASX: FMR), following the company’s $2.2M placement.
Anyone familiar with the ASX small-cap landscape knows what that signals. Creasy backs teams and targets for good reason.
FMR trades at 32.5 cents with a $13.5 million valuation and $4.5 million in cash. The company is gearing up to drill its giant copper target in Chile, and now has one of Australia's sharpest resource investors on the register as a substantial holder.
Who is Mark Creasy?
Mark Creasy is one of the most successful prospectors in Australian history.
Born in the UK in 1944, he moved to Western Australia in the ‘60s after qualifying as a mining engineer. While many of his peers pursued corporate careers, Creasy took a different path.
He spent decades pegging ground, negotiating tenements and identifying mineralised systems, usually long before the rest of the market caught on.
He’s intensely private and rarely speaks to the media. Yet despite the low profile, his influence runs deep across the ASX through his private vehicle, Yandal Investments.
His career spans more than 50 years and includes some of WA’s biggest discoveries, often turning small-cap explorers into billion-dollar takeovers.
He’s a prospector in the old-school sense: boots in the dirt, hunting for the next discovery. That mindset makes his FMR Resources stake worth paying attention to.
From Millions to Billions: Creasy’s Greatest Hits
Creasy's success really took off in the early '90s when he helped discover the Jundee and Bronzewing gold deposits in Western Australia.
Bronzewing and Jundee were eventually sold to Great Central Mines for more than $115 million. These deals put serious capital behind Creasy and marked the beginning of his rise as a heavyweight in WA exploration.
His biggest win came in 2012 through Sirius Resources.
Creasy held ground in the Fraser Range, east of Kalgoorlie. After a series of deals, Sirius hit the jackpot at the Nova-Bollinger nickel deposit. It was a once-in-a-generation discovery.
Creasy owned 30% of the project privately, and was also Sirius’ largest shareholder at the time. The company’s share price surged from under 5 cents to more than $5 in under a year.
Sirius went on to be acquired by IGO for $1.8 billion. Creasy’s cut ended up around $200 million.
Then came Azure Minerals, which owned 60% of the Andover lithium project. Creasy held 13% of Azure, plus the remaining 40% of Andover privately.
Azure went on to become one of WA’s biggest lithium stories of the decade, eventually acquired for $1.7 billion by SQM and Hancock Prospecting. Creasy had backed Azure early, before the lithium pivot, and quietly watched as multiple billionaires scrambled for control of the Andover asset.
By the time the dust settled, his 13% equity stake and 40% free-carried interest reportedly delivered him around $200 million.
What ties these deals together is simple: Creasy got in early, backed the right people, and stuck around until the value was clear.
Why FMR Caught Creasy's Eye
FMR Resources is still early days, but the setup has echoes of success stories we've seen before.
A team with serious technical and commercial chops backs the company. Managing director Oliver Kiddie is now flanked by Justin Werner, the long-time boss of $3.25 billion Nickel Industries, who’s just joined as a non-executive director.
On the ground, FMR has secured the right to earn up to 60% of the Southern Porphyry Copper target within the Llahuin Project in Chile.
Fieldwork has already confirmed the upper levels of a copper porphyry system at surface, with all signs pointing to a large porphyry target below.
The ground sits within 5km of grid power and 20km from a sealed airstrip, and is close to large existing copper deposits like El Espino and Los Pelambres.
We won’t have to wait long, as drilling is expected to kick off early in Q4.
FMR’s Setup Reads Like a Creasy Classic
Anyone who’s watched Creasy over the years will spot the pattern.
Find a company with a serious target, a tight register and bet big and early on a team that knows what it’s doing. Then stay quiet, let the rocks do the talking and hang on through the early holes.
In this market, copper’s still one of the few commodities drawing long-term capital (BHP alone is spending over US$13 billion in Chile over the next decade), as the world’s push toward electrification rolls on.
If FMR hits copper when drilling starts soon, its current valuation could be a distant memory.
Follow the Money
Mark Creasy backs teams and targets for a reason.
FMR now has a world-class porphyry target in a Tier 1 location, a proven management team, and a clean balance sheet. Add in Creasy on the register as a substantial holder, and the setup looks eerily similar to the start of some of his biggest wins.
For investors watching the smart money in copper exploration closely, FMR is one to keep front of mind.
It might just be the next big Creasy win.
