Adjusted expectations secures sale for miner Nick Curtis on Queen Street, Woollahra
The adjusted price expectations that Lynas Corporation rare earth mining magnate Nick Curtis and wife Angela issued last month for their trophy Woollahra abode has secured a sale.
The Queen Street house was initially marketed with hopes that it might go close to $12 million in February. There were then adjusted $10 million plus indications. No sale price has been indicated for Thursday's private treaty sale, but Property Obsever would suggest around $10.5 million given what was being told to other prospective buyers.
It last traded in 2004 when bought from the 2SM radio broadcaster John Laws and wife Caroline for $7.7 million.
Laws had purchased the 961 square metre Queen Street property in 1981 for $264,000 and then commissioned a two-storey house, with separate staff quarters and garaging for six cars, behind its high fence.
There is also a separate two bedroom cottage.
All just footsteps from all the village amenities.
Nick Curtis has been leading Lynas Corporation since mid-2001 with a career spanning more than three decades in the resources and finance industries.
Lynas’ business relies primarily on the production and sale of Rare Earths products. Last month Lynas raised about $40 million through a discounted share purchase plan and placement to assist its endeavours.
Lynas provided the first new source of supply of Rare Earths outside of China when production came online in 2012.
Lynas owns the richest known deposit of Rare Earths at Mount Weld in Western Australia. The Chinese government is actively cracking down on illegal RE mining to improve the environmental and safety compliance of the RE industry.
China consumes 50-60% of global RE production and it is expected to continue to grow, due to fast growing Chinese domestic demand.
Despite the name, Rare Earths are relatively abundant in the earth’s crust, however they are rarely presented in economic concentrations. Rare Earths are not found as free metals but rather as an ore consisting of a cocktail of Rare Earths elements that need to be separated for their individual or combined commercial use.
The Queen Street trophy mansion sold through BradfieldCleary agents Bob Guth and Georgia Cleary who marketed it as "a blue ribbon retreat with comfort and convenience."
Woollahra's record sits with a 2008 sale when engineer John Grill paid $16 million on Rush Street.