He also lived in the region through the Poseidon crash — the nickel exploration boom in the 1970s which prompted the regulation of Australia’s stock markets after a reported find near Laverton fuelled by speculation pumped shares in penny stock Poseidon Nickel to more than $280 a share in a matter of weeks.
Louthean, who went on to found industry journal and events company Paydirt Media, has now cast his mind back to the early days of WA nickel in a new book co-written with business partner Carl Knox-Robinson, Australia’s Nickel Adventure.
“Kalgoorlie and Boulder were on the bones of their posterior at the time before the nickel boom,” he said. “You were down to Mt Charlotte, the mine at Mount Magnet and also a bit of mining at Norseman, and that was virtually all of the gold apart from some prospectors at State batteries.