Plane carrying miner Ken Talbot found, no survivors

Australian iron ore miner Sundance Resources has confirmed that the wreckage of a plane carrying its entire board – including mining millionaire Ken Talbot – has been located in the Congo in West Africa, but there were no survivors.

Search parties located the wreckage overnight in thick jungle. The plane went missing on Saturday, shortly after taking off from Cameroon, where Sundance is developing an iron ore mine.

“It is unfortunate that we fear that the 11 people on board, all of them have died,” Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary told a news conference in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde this morning.

“But for the time being we have retrieved between nine and 10 bodies.”

The bodies are yet to be positively identified and authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the crash.

Sundance Resources said an operation to retrieve the bodies will begin a first light today.

“Given the remoteness of the crash site, Australian mining contractors located in the vicinity will commence clearing access tracks to the accident site,” the company said in a statement.

Ken Talbot was one of Queensland’s richest men with a fortune of $965 million according to the latest BRW magazine Rich 200 list.

Talbot is best known as the founder of independent coal company Macarthur Coal, which operates a number of mines in the Bowen Basin region of Queensland.

Talbot sold out of the company in 2008 for about $640 million, and began investing in a string of junior mining companies. SmartCompany recently predicted Talbot would become a billionaire in the next few years thanks to his recent investment success.

He owned a 16% stake in Sundance Resources and was a member of the company board.

Also on board the plane were Sundance chairman Geoff Wedlock, chief executive Don Lewis, directors Craig Oliver and John Jones, and company secretary John Carr-Gregg. An employee of Talbot’s holding company Talbot Group, Natasha Flason, was also on board, as well as two other passengers and the pilot.

Sundance Resources shares were placed in a trading halt on the Australian Securities Exchange as the company sought to appoint an interim management team.

Former chairman George Jones will lead an interim board, and told ABC television that the crash would not “mortally wound” the company.

However, Jones also suggested that the executives on board the plane had probably breached company policy and standard corporate governance procedures by all travelling on the same light aircraft.

It is believed the party had intended to travel on Talbot’s private jet, but the intended landing strip was only suitable for light planes.

Talbot is survived by his wife Amanda and four children.

He was due to face 35 corruption charges in late August over allegations he made a series of payments to former State Government minster Gordon Nuttal.

Talbot always denied the charges, but told The Australian recently that he had prepared himself for the prospect of jail.