By Josh Jerga and Rebecca Le May
IT TOOK courage, determination and enterprise for Sundance Resources mining executives to head off to a ''far-flung part of the world'' to develop a project.
But tragically the risk proved too great, the Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, told a memorial service in Perth yesterday.
Mining executives and political heavyweights joined hundreds of mourners at a public memorial service for four Perth mining executives killed in a west African plane crash last month.
The Sundance chairman, Geoff Wedlock, its chief executive, Don Lewis, and two directors, John Jones and Craig Oliver, were among 11 who died when their twin-engine CASA 212 crashed in the Republic of Congo on June 19.
With the mining magnate Ken Talbot, of Queensland, and the company secretary, John Carr-Gregg, from Sydney, the group made up the entire board of Sundance.
They were on their way from Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, to the site of Sundance's Mbalam iron ore project, near Yangadou in the northwest of the Republic of Congo, when their plane crashed into dense jungle.
Mr Barnett told the memorial the men would have been ''enthusiastic about their dream of developing a new mining project in a far-flung part of the world''.
The Premier said the mining industry faced great risks in pursuing projects in such remote areas.
''It takes men and women of courage and enterprise, skill and determination to develop those resources,'' Mr Barnett said. ''That description definitely fits Geoff Wedlock, Don Lewis, John Jones and Craig Oliver.''
Among the more than 500 attendees were the Opposition Leader, Eric Ripper, and federal Deputy Opposition Leader, Julie Bishop. Rio Tinto's chief, Sam Walsh, the former Fortescue Metals director Graeme Rowley and the managing director of Atlas Iron, David Flanagan, also attended.
Garret Dixon, the managing director of Gindalbie Metals, said Mr Wedlock was a man with a remarkable experience in the industry, whose ''decades of knowledge was soaked up by fellow directors and management alike''.
''Geoff was hard of mind but soft of spirit,'' Mr Dixon said. ''His understanding of the iron and steel industry was without peer. What he didn't know about iron ore and steel just wasn't worth knowing.''
The joint managing director of Multiplex, John Flecker, paid tribute to Mr Lewis who he said was a man of great intellect, energy and wit.
Craig Laslett, the executive general manager of Leighton, said the defining thing about Mr Jones was his integrity and his passion for success.
''When you shook hands with John, you knew that deal wouldn't be compromised,'' Mr Laslett said.
''Sometimes you weren't sure of where you were going but what you could be sure was that it would be a success, it would be fun and many people would benefit.''
The managing director of Western Areas, Julian Hanna, paid tribute to Mr Oliver whose passion for mining ''was legendary … You couldn't keep him away from a mine.''
He said Mr Oliver was a political stirrer who was one of the first to come out against the government's resources super profits tax.
All four men were remembered as dedicated husbands and fathers.
The man who recruited the executives to Sundance, the chairman, George Jones, is in Brazzaville preparing to accompany the bodies back to Australia.
AAP