Douglas Daws commenced his career with Western Mining Corporation (WMC) in 1962. Later as regional manager for the Eastern Goldfields for the Western Australian Government, he facilitated the governmental response to both minor and major resource and development projects in the region. Between 1986 and 1991, Mr Daws was projects manager for the Western Australian Mint, assisted in the establishment of the very large Kaltails tailings re-treatment project, and supervised the construction and managed the Kalgoorlie Gold Refinery. He was also involved in several overseas resource projects in China, Romania, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and gold projects in Ghana.