Joseph Gutnick

Gutnick's father, Rabbi Shneur Chaim HaKohen Gutnick, was born in Zolotonosha, Ukraine, in 1921. He studied at the Telshe yeshiva in Lithuania until 1940 when the country was annexed by the Soviet Union and, via the far east, came to Cairns, Australia in 1941. After serving in the Australian Army until 1944 Gutnick married Rose Chester in 1945 and the couple had six children together, two daughters and four sons, Channah, Peninah, Mordechai, Moshe, Avraham and Joseph. Joseph Gutnick was born in 1952. His father died in 2003 after an influential life in the Australian Jewish community, having become president of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria in 1967.[3]

Gutnick became close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his role as the Rebbe's Special Emissary for the Integrity of the Land of Israel. In the 1990s, Gutnick spent millions of dollars campaigning for Netanyahu and against the Labour Party in Israel's elections to try to prevent the Israeli Government giving up land, which the Rebbe said would never help achieve peace.[4][5]

After almost having been ruined by the 1987 stock market crash, Gutnick was advised by Rabbi Menachem Schneerson to go back to the Australian desert and search for "gold and diamonds".[6][7] He was responsible for overseeing the discovery of the Plutonic gold deposit, as well as the discovery, development and operation of the Bronzewing and Jundee gold mines in Australia. Gutnick also was a director of the World Gold Council and was awarded the inaugural Diggers Award at the 1997 Diggers and Dealers Industry Awards.[8]

In 1991, his company, Great Central Mines, paid A$115 million to prospector Mark Creasy for the Bronzewing gold deposit.[6][9] In 1999, Gutnick along with partner Robert Champion de Crespigny was found to have illegally structured a takeover of Great Central Mining. Gutnick was ordered to return $28.5 million to investors.[10] Gutnick appealed the decision and the decision was vacated for lack of jurisdiction. Gutnick expressed confidence that he could have won on the merits too, had that been necessary.[4] On 5 April 2000, Joseph Gutnick, Robert Champion de Crespigny and Ian Gould resigned as directors of Great Central Mining.[11]

In January 2014 it was announced that Blackham Resources, of which Gutnick is the chairman, had acquired the Wiluna Gold Mine, a mine which Great Central Mines, under his leadership, held from 1997 to 2000. The mine was purchased from APEX Minerals, a company in receivership since June 2013, whose chairman at the time was Eduard Eshuys. Coincidentally, Eshuys was also in charge of the drilling program that discovered Plutonic for Gutnick.[12][13][14] Gutnick had become chairman of Blackham on 4 February 2013 when his private company, Great Central Gold, invested A$13.32 million in Blackham.[15]

Gutnick lives in Melbourne with his wife, a daughter of textile maker Max New, whom he married in 1974; they have 11 children. He studied for rabbinic ordination in Brooklyn, New York, and ran a religious girls' seminary in Melbourne.[1] Gutnick is an Orthodox Jew, and a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. According to Gutnick, in 1988, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Rebbe, told him to mine for gold in Australia's desert.[4][5] His brother, Mordechai Gutnick, is a prominent Orthodox rabbi in Australia.

Gutnick has made significant donations to schools and Jewish organisations in Australia and worldwide.[27][28]