Bill Beament adds $58m to his net worth after Develop Global options convert into shares

Mining big shot Bill Beament became $58 million richer on Wednesday when a stack of Develop Global options were converted into shares.

Mr Beament, Develop’s boss, paid $9.1m to exercise 14 milllion options issued in June 2021 with a four-year expiry.

The 14 million new Develop shares Mr Beament added to his portfolio, minus the 65¢ price to convert each of the options into shares, boosts his paper wealth by at about $57.9m.

Mr Beament now holds 64.5m shares in the company worth approximately $310m.

Develop’s stock closed at a record $4.83 on Wednesday, having clocked up gains of 135 per cent since early April despite no company news surfacing until the end of the month.

That was when the miner and mining services provider announced it had produced first copper concentrate from the Woodlawn copper-zinc project “on budget and ahead of schedule”.

Develop’s share price had lost more than 25 per cent in the month prior owing to its involvement in Bellevue Gold’s struggling namesake mine. Develop is the mining services contractor and operational under-performance at the mine stoked rumours it will miss out on a renewal when its contract is up at the end of this year.

“The relationship between Develop and Bellevue is very strong in all areas and the co-operation at the operational level is achieving record mine physicals,” Develop stated in response.

Bellevue’s chief executive Darren Starlow was a key lieutenant for Mr Beament at Northern Star.

Mr Beament became a rich-lister after founding Northern Star — transforming it from a penny dreadful to the largest Australian-based gold miner.

The Cottesloe resident formally cut ties with the company he founded in 2021.