44 Essential Thought Leaders in Mining in Australia and New Zealand

Last updated: June 2026

The 44 people on this list are not here because they hold the most impressive titles or run the largest companies, though several do both. They are here because they are actively shaping how Australia and New Zealand think about mining: its future, its responsibilities, its safety culture, its role in the global energy transition, and its relationships with communities, investors, and governments.

As of June 2026, mining contributes more than 12% of Australia's GDP and represents approximately 70% of the nation's export earnings. Australia produces more than a third of the world's iron ore and lithium, and its critical minerals endowment has placed it at the centre of strategic conversations between governments from Washington to Brussels to Tokyo. New Zealand is in an earlier phase of its minerals story, having launched its first national Minerals Strategy in January 2025 with a stated goal of doubling export earnings to NZ$3 billion by 2035. Across both countries, the stakes for getting mining leadership right have never been higher.

Whether the issue is decarbonising operations, earning and keeping social licence, attracting a skills-short workforce, or navigating a new era of geopolitical competition for critical minerals, the quality of thinking in this sector will determine outcomes for decades.

Each person on this list was selected on the basis of a documented contribution to the public mining conversation in ANZ through advocacy, research, writing, speaking, or innovation; active engagement with the sector in 2025 or 2026; and a genuine diversity of perspective across geography, discipline, and the range of challenges the industry faces.

Organisations looking to improve their leadership culture, strengthen executive alignment, or invest in the people dimension of their operations can contact Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, at jonno@consultclarity.org.

For more on the best speakers to bring into your mining leadership event, see my blog post "50 Best Leadership Speakers for Mining Companies" at consultclarity.org/post/50-best-leadership-speakers-for-mining-companies-2026.

Why Mining Thought Leadership Matters

The case for following and engaging with mining thought leaders is not abstract. The voices shaping how this industry thinks about its future are directly influencing billion-dollar investment decisions, government policy, workforce strategy, and community relationships in real time.

Mining accounts for more than 12% of Australia's GDP and supports 1.2 million jobs across the value support chain, according to the Minerals Council of Australia's 2025 figures. That scale means that the quality of thinking at the top of the sector has outsized consequences. A shift in how the industry approaches safety culture does not affect a single team: it eventually reaches every site, every supervisor, every worker in an industry that still faces unacceptable rates of serious injury and fatality.

The sustainability and ESG dimension has added a new layer of urgency. Research summarised by Bloomberg's Global ESG Trends analysis indicates that ESG considerations now influence approximately 71% of global institutional investment decisions, a figure the sector ignores at its financial peril. Mining companies with below-median ESG scores face average borrowing cost increases of 50 to 75 basis points compared to sector ESG leaders. The thought leaders in this space are not arguing for softer standards: they are arguing for smarter ones, built on evidence and operational reality rather than rhetoric in either direction.

The critical minerals story has added geopolitical weight that the industry is still learning to carry. Australia's abundant lithium, rare earths, nickel, cobalt, and copper deposits have placed it in the centre of supply chain security conversations between major economies. The thought leaders who understand both the technical and strategic dimensions of critical minerals are among the most consequential voices in this list.

If your organisation's leadership team needs to work more effectively, think more clearly together, or communicate more honestly through complexity, book Jonno White, host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast (230 episodes, listeners in 150+ countries), to facilitate your next executive offsite or keynote at jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Each person on this list was selected against three criteria: a documented, substantive contribution to the mining and resources conversation in Australia or New Zealand through published research, public advocacy, writing, conference speaking with an independent profile, or demonstrated innovation; active engagement with the sector in 2025 or 2026 rather than historical prominence alone; and a commitment to building a list that reflects diverse perspectives across the full range of challenges the sector faces. The list is deliberately not dominated by the largest companies or loudest voices. It includes mid-tier researchers, independent consultants, policy advocates, and practitioners whose platforms are smaller but whose contributions are direct and consequential.

Category 1: Industry Advocates and Policy Leaders

Australia's mining industry is one of the most intensely regulated and politically contested in the world. The advocates who represent it, and who push governments to create the conditions for responsible resource development, play a consequential role that rarely gets the recognition it deserves. These six leaders work at the intersection of industry, government, and community, translating the complexity of mining policy into positions that shape legislation, investment frameworks, and public understanding of what the sector does and why it matters.

1. Tania Constable

Chief Executive Officer, Minerals Council of Australia

As the chief executive of Australia's peak national advocacy body for the minerals industry, Tania Constable PSM is the most prominent policy voice for mining in Australia. Her public contributions range from Senate committee appearances to detailed policy papers on environmental approvals, industrial relations, and critical minerals investment frameworks.

In a November 2025 appearance before the Senate Environment and Communication Legislation Committee, Constable made the case that Australia's 16-year timeline for bringing new mines and processing facilities into production represents a structural competitive disadvantage against jurisdictions such as Canada, the US, and Chile. Her advocacy on streamlining approvals while maintaining genuine environmental standards has shaped the framing of the debate in Canberra. Her background before the MCA spanned senior executive roles in the Australian Government across oil, gas, and resource regulation, as well as the CEO role at CO2CRC, giving her a depth of technical and policy understanding that distinguishes her commentary from generic industry advocacy.

2. Nicole Roocke

Chief Executive Officer, Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA)

Nicole Roocke has led MRIWA since November 2018, building the organisation into one of the most strategically positioned research coordinators in Australian mining. Her role is to activate collaboration between industry, researchers, and governments to unlock innovation that the market alone would not fund. MRIWA's research portfolio spans precision and low impact mining, accelerated mineral carbonation, mining equipment technology and services, and the intellectual property strategies that protect and commercialise research outcomes.

Roocke's public commentary on LinkedIn reflects a sophisticated understanding of the structural challenges facing mining research, from decarbonisation measurement to groundwater management. She has been a consistent speaker at AusIMM events and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Her particular contribution is making the research-to-industry pathway legible for both sides of the collaboration.

3. Josie Vidal

Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Minerals Council

Josie Vidal has led the organisation representing New Zealand's mining and minerals sector through one of its most consequential transformations, including its rebrand from Straterra to New Zealand Minerals Council in April 2025, timed to coincide with the New Zealand Government's release of its Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List. Her advocacy work spans the corridors of Wellington, where she has helped to shape the Fast-track Approvals Act, the Crown Minerals Amendment Act, and the government's target to double minerals export earnings to NZ$3 billion by 2035.

Vidal brings a communications and journalism background to the advocacy role, giving her a public voice that is unusually clear and accessible for an industry that often struggles to explain itself to non-specialist audiences. Her LinkedIn posts and media engagements are among the most active from any New Zealand mining figure, making her the primary public voice of the NZ minerals sector.

4. Aaron Morey

Chief Economist and Director of Policy, Influence and Strategy, Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA

Aaron Morey is one of the most credible economic voices in the Western Australian resources sector. His commentary bridges the macro-economic conditions that shape investment in Western Australia with the specific policy and regulatory settings that determine whether that investment flows. He was a speaker at Future of Mining Australia 2026 and is a regular media commentator on the economic dimensions of mining and resources in WA.

His work on labour market conditions in the resources sector, the economic contribution of critical minerals, and the productivity implications of industrial relations settings gives the WA business community a rigorous analytical foundation for its advocacy positions. His commentary is valued by both industry and government for its grounding in data rather than in either partisan advocacy or academic abstraction.

5. Ross Lambie

Chief Economist, Minerals Council of Australia

As the Minerals Council of Australia's Chief Economist, Ross Lambie provides the analytical underpinning for the MCA's advocacy work. His contributions include economic research on the contribution of mining to employment, GDP, and regional communities, as well as modelling of the economic costs of regulatory delay and the potential uplift from critical minerals development. His work is cited in Senate submissions, media commentary, and industry reports, giving the MCA's advocacy positions a data-driven foundation.

Lambie has appeared as a speaker at Future of Mining Australia and is active in the broader economics community through publications and conference contributions. The quality of the economic case for Australian mining depends significantly on the rigour of the modelling and evidence his team produces.

6. Allison Britt

Director of Mineral Resources Advice and Promotion, Geoscience Australia

Allison Britt leads mineral resources advice and promotion at Geoscience Australia, the federal government's national geoscience agency. Her work encompasses the public communication and strategic positioning of Australia's mineral endowment for domestic and international investment audiences. She has been a regular speaker at AusIMM and Future of Mining Australia events, contributing perspectives on geological data, critical minerals prospectivity, and the role of public geoscience in supporting responsible resource development.

Her commentary on tungsten, rare earths, and other critical minerals has featured in AusIMM publications and Mining Magazine Australia. Britt represents the intersection of government science and industry development that is critical to realising Australia's critical minerals potential, making the geological case that underpins the investment story.

Category 2: Executive Leaders Driving Public Conversation

The executives in this category are not here simply because of the scale of the organisations they lead. They are here because they have chosen to use their platform to advance the public conversation about what mining is, what it should be, and how it navigates the pressures of decarbonisation, geopolitics, and social licence. Their public positions have shaped industry norms and government policy in ways that outlast their tenures.

7. Andrew Forrest AO

Founder and Executive Chairman, Fortescue

Andrew Forrest founded Fortescue from nothing in 2003 and built it into one of the world's largest iron ore producers and a global clean energy, technology, and mining group. His contribution to the public conversation about mining goes far beyond his business accomplishments. Forrest has been the most prominent voice arguing that the mining industry can and must eliminate fossil fuel use from its operations, not merely offset it.

His "Real Zero by 2030" commitment for Fortescue's Australian operations has challenged the entire industry to examine what genuine decarbonisation means as opposed to what net-zero accounting allows. He received the 2025 Progress Medal from the Society for Progress for leadership in advancing business models that integrate economic performance with long-term purpose. His public advocacy has permanently shifted the frame of what major miners are willing to commit to, regardless of where one stands on the timeline.

8. Mike Henry

Chief Executive Officer, BHP Group

Mike Henry has led BHP since late 2019 through the most turbulent and consequential period in the company's recent history, including the exit from petroleum, the pivot toward copper, nickel, and potash as the future-facing commodities of the energy transition, and a public reckoning with legacy environmental and social failures. Henry's public commentary on the role of mining in the energy transition and the importance of safety culture as a non-negotiable foundation of operational performance has been substantive and consistent.

He is a member of the Minerals Council of Australia board and has used that platform alongside his BHP role to push for policy settings that attract long-term investment into Australian resource development. His willingness to engage with critics and acknowledge failures, as well as celebrate progress, gives his thought leadership a credibility that purely self-promotional executive commentary lacks.

9. Simon Trott

Chief Executive Officer, Rio Tinto

Simon Trott was appointed CEO of Rio Tinto in August 2025, succeeding Jakob Stausholm. With more than 25 years of mining industry experience, most recently as CEO of Rio Tinto's Iron Ore division where he oversaw the largest iron ore operation in the world, Trott brings a depth of operational understanding that is unusual in a major company CEO.

His public commentary since taking the top role has focused on the intersection of operational performance and the company's obligations to the communities, traditional owners, and environments in which it operates. His presentation at the Bank of America Global Metals, Mining and Steel Conference in May 2026 outlined Rio Tinto's strategy around copper, aluminium, and lithium as the defining commodities of the energy transition era. His approach to the ongoing accountability obligations arising from Juukan Gorge will be among the most watched dimensions of his leadership.

10. Mark Cutifani

Former CEO, Anglo American; Active Mining Keynote Speaker and Adviser

Mark Cutifani spent more than 48 years in the mining industry, from underground coal mining in Australia to leading Anglo American as CEO from 2013 to 2022 through a transformational restructuring that delivered industry-leading returns and repositioned the company as a leader in sustainable mining. He was inducted into the US Mining Industry Hall of Fame in 2024 and received a CBE for his contributions to global mining investment.

Since leaving Anglo American he has been one of the most active keynote speakers and advisers in the sector, speaking at events including AusIMM's Underground Operators Conference and Mines and Money on topics including leadership culture, the case for mining in the energy transition, and what it actually takes to transform a large mining organisation. His willingness to speak honestly about what went wrong as well as what worked makes his contribution to the public conversation unusually valuable.

11. Nicki Ivory

Mining and Metals Leader, Deloitte Australia

Nicki Ivory is Deloitte Australia's Mining and Metals Leader and is one of the most active voices in the analytical and strategic conversation about the sector's future. She leads the production of Deloitte's annual Tracking the Trends report, the most widely read strategic analysis of the mining sector globally. In the 2025 edition, Ivory characterised Australia as being in a period of transformation where digital innovation, inclusive leadership, and sustainable practices are no longer optional responses to external pressure but existential requirements for competitive survival.

Her March 2026 commentary described Australia as being "in the eye of the storm" given its position as a critical minerals supplier in the middle of intensifying geopolitical competition. Her public commentary and the annual Tracking the Trends report have become reference documents for mining strategy teams across the sector and are among the most substantive ongoing thought leadership contributions from any advisory firm in the space.

12. Sandeep Biswas

Former Managing Director and CEO, Newcrest Mining; Active Mining Speaker and Adviser

Sandeep Biswas led Newcrest Mining through a transformative period that included significant operational improvement programs, a major safety reset, and ultimately the company's acquisition by Newmont in 2023. His background in chemical engineering and decades of operational experience give him a credibility as a speaker on topics including leadership in complex environments, operational turnarounds, and building high-performing teams.

His presentations at industry events address the specific leadership challenges of running large mining operations through periods of transformation, and his insights on the relationship between safety culture and operational performance are drawn from direct experience rather than framework. For organisations navigating the human and cultural dimensions of mining leadership, his contribution to the public conversation is one of the more practically grounded available.

Category 3: Safety, Health and Human Factors

Mining remains one of the most hazardous industries in Australia and New Zealand. Progress on safety has been genuine and significant over the past two decades, but the rate of fatal and serious injuries still represents an unacceptable toll that every serious participant in the industry acknowledges. The thought leaders in this category are the people doing the hardest work: developing the evidence base, the frameworks, and the culture that move the needle on mine safety in ways that hold up beyond the next regulatory cycle.

13. Professor Maureen Hassall

Professor and Director, Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre (MISHC), University of Queensland

Maureen Hassall is the most prominent academic voice on mining safety in Australia. As Professor and Director of MISHC at the University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals Institute, she leads a research centre whose work spans industrial risk management, systems safety engineering, human factors, and the intersection of AI and automation with workplace safety. Her 18 years of prior industry experience across multiple countries and disciplines gives her research a practical grounding that is comparatively rare in the academic safety literature.

Her 2025 research includes a published safety leadership model developed through iterative industry engagement, studies on mine worker perceptions of automation, and AI applications for workplace safety assessment. She has been a speaker at Future of Mining Australia, at Standards Australia's mining safety programme, and at AusIMM events including the Mine Health and Safety Conference. Her work on what safety leadership actually looks like from the frontline up is among the most practically relevant research being produced for the sector.

14. Kylie Harris

Director of Health, Safety and Security, Newmont

Kylie Harris has been among the most visible practitioners in mining safety leadership at the major-company level. As Director of Health, Safety and Security at Newmont, one of the world's largest gold mining companies with major Australian operations, she is responsible for the safety and health performance of an operation that employs tens of thousands of people across dozens of sites.

Her speaking at Future of Mining Australia 2025 and 2026 has addressed the specific challenge of building safety culture in large, geographically dispersed organisations, and the particular risks introduced by the rapid deployment of autonomous equipment and AI-assisted systems at scale. Her perspective on how safety leadership differs from safety compliance is a contribution the sector needs to hear more of, and her willingness to speak to those distinctions in public forums is genuinely useful for the broader industry.

15. Kanae Dyas

Chief Safety and Compliance Officer, PowerSkillsAi; Founder, Alchemy Workplace Solutions

Kanae Dyas is one of Australia's most recognised voices at the intersection of occupational safety, psychosocial safety, and mining culture. She brings 30 years of operational and governance experience across mining and resources companies including Anglo American, Incitec Pivot, Dyno Nobel, and Rio Tinto, combined with specialist expertise in trauma-informed approaches to psychosocial safety, domestic and family violence, and mental health.

She was recognised with the 2026 Australian WHS Icon Award and the 2024 Australian MCA BHP DEI Champion Award. As founder of Alchemy Workplace Solutions, she works with mining organisations to build safety capability and culture that goes beyond compliance. Her LinkedIn posts and conference speaking on psychosocial safety in mining environments represent a contribution that is ahead of where most of the industry currently sits on these questions, particularly in relation to workforce wellbeing and the overlap between safety culture and inclusion.

16. Professor Nigar Sultana

Professor, ESG/Sustainability Accounting and Governance, Faculty of Business and Law, Curtin University

Nigar Sultana is a Professor of ESG and Sustainability Accounting at Curtin University's Faculty of Business and Law and a speaker at Future of Mining Australia 2025 on the governance and reporting dimensions of sustainability in mining. Her academic research addresses the intersection of financial reporting, ESG disclosure, and sustainability governance in extractive industries.

In a sector under increasing scrutiny from investors and regulators on the quality and credibility of its sustainability reporting, her work on what meaningful ESG accounting actually looks like is a practical contribution to the conversation about how mining companies earn and maintain their financial licence to operate. Her academic rigour provides an anchor for discussions that can too easily become dominated by marketing language rather than measurable performance.

17. Kim Morrison

Chief Technical Officer, ATC Williams

Kim Morrison is Chief Technical Officer at ATC Williams, a consultancy specialising in tailings storage facilities, mine rehabilitation, and related geotechnical and environmental services. Her experience converting ESG commitments into measurable operational changes through waste management and tailings innovation represents a technical dimension of mining sustainability that is often absent from the ESG conversation.

Tailings failures have caused some of the worst mining disasters of the past decade globally, and the technical leadership required to manage these facilities safely and sustainably is exactly where organisations like ATC Williams contribute. Morrison's participation in the AusIMM Thought Leadership Series in 2025 brought the operational complexity of tailings governance into the strategic leadership conversation in a way that combined scientific rigour with practical relevance.

18. Ivor Roberts

Acting Deputy WorkSafe Commissioner, Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS), Western Australia

Ivor Roberts represents the regulatory leadership dimension of mining safety in Western Australia, the jurisdiction that produces the majority of Australia's iron ore, gold, and a significant portion of its critical minerals. As Acting Deputy WorkSafe Commissioner, his role sits at the intersection of regulatory enforcement, industry engagement, and the development of safety standards that translate into operational requirements across the state's mining sector.

His conference participation at Future of Mining Australia 2025 addressed the regulatory dimensions of new technology deployment, particularly autonomous equipment and AI systems, and the safety standards framework that mining companies must meet as they digitally transform their operations. The regulatory voice is often underrepresented in thought leadership conversations that are dominated by industry, and his contribution provides an important counterpoint.

Category 4: Researchers and Academic Leaders

The researchers in this category are producing the knowledge that the mining industry needs but does not always know how to access. From materials science and sustainable metallurgy through to geoscience and drilling analytics, their work addresses fundamental challenges in how minerals are found, extracted, processed, and managed throughout and after their productive life. Their contribution to thought leadership is sometimes less visible than a CEO's LinkedIn post, but it is often more durable.

19. Professor Veena Sahajwalla AO

Scientia Professor and Director, SMaRT Centre, UNSW

Veena Sahajwalla is one of Australia's most recognised scientists in the field of sustainable materials and circular economy innovation in mining and metals. As founding director of the SMaRT Centre at UNSW, she has pioneered green steel processes, e-waste microfactories, and a new generation of approaches to recovering valuable metals from waste streams. She was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2025 Australia Day Honours for her contributions to sustainable waste solutions and circular economy research.

Her ranking as a Top 10 Most Read Thought Leader in Mining and Metals on the global illuminem sustainability platform confirms that her ideas have traction well beyond Australia. She was appointed inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge University Press journal Cambridge Materials Circularity in 2026. Her research on recycling critical metals from e-waste is directly relevant to the emerging battery materials and rare earths processing challenges that Australia faces as it seeks to move downstream from raw extraction to value-added processing.

20. Professor Mohan Yellishetty

Associate Professor of Resource Engineering, Monash University

Mohan Yellishetty is an Australian Endeavour Fellow and Chartered Mining Engineer whose research at Monash University focuses on sustainable mineral resources, life cycle assessment, and the long-term environmental implications of mining at scale. He has been recognised as one of the top thought leaders in mining and metals on illuminem, the global sustainability and energy platform.

His research on Australia's critical mineral deposits and the gap between Australia's resource endowment and its strategic capacity to develop and process those resources has influenced policy discussions in Canberra and in the resources sector itself. His particular contribution is in making the systemic, long-term consequences of individual mining decisions visible in a way that helps both industry and government make better choices about where to invest and what to build.

21. Dr Marthie Grobler

Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO

Marthie Grobler is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, working at the intersection of digital technologies, cybersecurity, and mining operations. As mining operations become more autonomous and digitally connected, the cybersecurity risks associated with connected mining infrastructure have become an increasingly material concern for operators and regulators alike.

Grobler's research addresses these risks with a focus on the specific operational technology environments that mining companies use. She was a speaker at Future of Mining Australia 2025, where her work on digital risk in mining environments was presented to an audience of senior mining executives. Her contribution represents a dimension of mining technology leadership that is underrepresented in most thought leader conversations but is becoming more consequential as the industry's digital surface area expands.

22. Professor Eric Lilford

Head of Minerals and Energy Economics, Western Australian School of Mines (WASM), Curtin University

Eric Lilford leads the economics function at the Western Australian School of Mines, one of the world's most significant mining education and research institutions. His work covers mineral economics, project valuation, investment decision-making, and the economic frameworks that govern how mining projects are evaluated and financed.

As the energy transition reshapes which minerals are economically strategic and which are in oversupply, the analytical frameworks that mining companies use to assess project viability are under significant pressure to evolve. Lilford's research and teaching equip the next generation of mining executives and finance professionals with the tools to navigate these evaluations. He has been a speaker at Future of Mining Australia and contributes regularly to industry publications and conference proceedings on the economics of resource development.

23. Associate Professor Masood Mostofi

Director, Drilling Analytics Research Centre (DARC), Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin University

Masood Mostofi was recognised at the 2026 Cooperative Research Australia Excellence in Innovation Awards for his work on drilling analytics in mining. As Director of the Drilling Analytics Research Centre at WASM, he leads research into the use of data science, AI, and sensor technology to improve the precision, safety, and environmental performance of drilling operations.

Drilling is one of the most fundamental and energy-intensive activities in mining, and improvements in drilling analytics have direct implications for exploration productivity, ore body understanding, and operational efficiency. His work on the integration of real-time data from drilling operations into mine planning and management represents a genuinely important contribution to how the industry gets smarter about where and how it extracts value from the ground.

24. Phaedra Upton

Land and Marine Geoscience Theme Leader, GNS Science, New Zealand

Phaedra Upton is among the most prominent geoscience voices in New Zealand, serving as Land and Marine Geoscience Theme Leader at GNS Science, the Crown Research Institute responsible for earth sciences research in New Zealand. She participated in the New Zealand Government's critical minerals strategy process, providing geoscience input on the mineral potential and environmental constraints that should inform the country's approach to minerals development.

Her contribution to the public conversation reflects the view from GNS Science that the foundations for responsible minerals development must be built on credible geoscience rather than on political ambition alone. As New Zealand's minerals sector grows, the quality of the geoscience underpinning investment and regulatory decisions will determine how responsibly that growth proceeds, making voices like Upton's essential to the conversation.

Category 5: Innovation, Technology and Digitalisation

Mining is in the middle of a technological transformation that the industry itself sometimes struggles to describe coherently. Autonomous vehicles, real-time data analytics, AI-assisted exploration, digital twins, electrification of fleets, and the connected mine are not future concepts: they are operational realities at the frontier of Australian and New Zealand mining. The leaders in this category are at the practical edge of that transformation.

25. Laura Tyler

Former Chief Technical Officer, BHP; Active Conference Speaker and Mining Technology Adviser

Laura Tyler served as Chief Technical Officer of BHP, where she was responsible for one of the most ambitious technology transformation programmes in the mining industry. In a keynote at Future of Mining Australia 2025, she articulated the convergence of computational power, AI, and robotics as having moved the industry to "the next portal of development and discovery," a framing that captured both the scale of the opportunity and the organisational challenge it represents.

Her specific contribution to the thought leadership conversation is her focus on what it actually takes to deploy new technologies safely and at scale in a large mining operation: the change management, the skills development, the regulatory navigation, and the cultural shift that sits alongside the technical implementation. This combination of technical depth and organisational understanding is comparatively rare and makes her one of the most valuable voices on mining's technological future.

26. Guy Boggs

Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME)

Guy Boggs works at CRC TiME, the Cooperative Research Centre focused on what happens to mining communities, workers, and environments as mines move through their lifecycle toward closure and transition. CRC TiME addresses one of the most consequential and underresourced challenges in Australian mining: how to manage the end of a mine's productive life in a way that leaves communities better off, land rehabilitated, and workers supported into new livelihoods.

The thought leadership contribution here is in making the closure and transition dimension of mining a first-class strategic and operational concern rather than a deferred liability. As Australia's mining portfolio ages and more operations approach end of life, the frameworks and evidence that CRC TiME produces will become more, not less, relevant to the sector's social licence and environmental obligations.

27. Emilie Ditton

Mining, Mineral and Metals Regional Segment Leader, ANZ/Pacific, Schneider Electric

Emilie Ditton leads Schneider Electric's mining, minerals, and metals segment across the ANZ and Pacific region, working with mining companies on the electrification, automation, and energy efficiency transformations that are central to decarbonisation. Her participation at Future of Mining Australia 2025 brought the perspective of a major technology partner working across the full spectrum of the industry's operational technology challenge.

Her contributions address the specific commercial and technical realities of deploying energy management and automation systems in mining environments, where reliability and safety requirements are unlike almost any other industrial context. Her perspective bridges the technology vendor and mining operator relationship in a way that is useful to both sides and is grounded in the practical realities of implementation rather than promotional claims.

28. Chad Burrows

Manager of Digital Innovation, Roy Hill

Chad Burrows has led digital innovation at Roy Hill, one of Australia's largest iron ore operations, through a period of significant transformation. Roy Hill has been among the most active Australian miners in deploying autonomous haulage, data analytics, and integrated operations centre technology.

His participation at Future of Mining Australia 2025 brought a practitioner perspective on what digital transformation at a major mine site actually involves: the integration challenges, the skills requirements, the cultural shifts required at every level from the pit to the boardroom, and the honest account of what has worked and what has not. Practitioner voices at this level of specificity and honesty are rare and valuable in the industry conversation, where promotional narratives from technology vendors often drown out genuine implementation experience.

29. Pamela Hackett

Author, Manage to Engage; Co-Founder, The LeadReal Company

Pamela Hackett is the author of Manage to Engage and co-founder of The LeadReal Company, a leadership development firm with deep relationships in the mining and resources sector. She has been a regular speaker at Future of Mining Australia, bringing a people-centred perspective on what makes organisations in the resources sector perform at their best.

Her particular contribution is making the connection between engaged, accountable leadership and operational outcomes in mining environments legible for senior executives who are more comfortable with technical than human complexity. Her framework for engagement as a driver of safety, productivity, and innovation is grounded in extensive work with mining and resources organisations across Australia and internationally.

30. Andrew Michelmore AO

Chair, Minerals Council of Australia; Former CEO, MMG, Zinifex, OZ Minerals

Andrew Michelmore brings more than 35 years of senior leadership experience in the metals and mining industry across Australia and internationally, including as CEO and Executive Director of MMG Limited, and as CEO of Zinifex Limited and OZ Minerals. He is currently Chair of the Minerals Council of Australia, a position that places him at the governance apex of the industry's peak advocacy body.

His public contribution to the thought leadership conversation focuses on the governance and strategic direction of the industry at the peak body level, and his operational experience gives his commentary on investment conditions, regulatory settings, and the critical minerals opportunity a credibility rooted in decades of direct industry leadership. His engagement with sustainable development in mining communities, built over a career spanning developing economies as well as Australia, is an underappreciated dimension of his contribution.

31. Roger Kermode

Adjunct Professor, Edith Cowan University; Mining Technology and Workforce Specialist

Roger Kermode is an Adjunct Professor at Edith Cowan University with a background spanning mining technology, workforce development, and the interface between new technology systems and the people who operate them. His contributions at Future of Mining Australia address the human dimension of the industry's digital transformation: what skills the mining workforce needs, how organisations bridge the gap between where their people are and where the technology is taking them.

His perspective on what responsible workforce transition looks like as automation changes the composition of mining employment is one of the most important questions the sector faces and one of the least well-addressed in the mainstream thought leadership conversation. The intersection of technology adoption and workforce capability is where the most consequential leadership challenges of the next decade in mining will be found.

Category 6: Critical Minerals, Sustainability and ESG

Critical minerals have moved from a technical backwater to the centre of geopolitical and economic strategy within a decade. Australia's endowment of lithium, rare earths, cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese has placed it at the middle of some of the most consequential supply chain conversations in the world. The leaders in this category are doing the analytical, advocacy, and operational work that determines whether Australia and New Zealand capitalise intelligently on this moment or squander it.

32. Kathryn Horlin

Manager, Sustainability and Social Value Improvement and Assurance, BHP

Kathryn Horlin works on sustainability and social value at BHP, one of the companies where the gap or alignment between sustainability commitments and operational reality is most visible to the industry. Her contributions at Future of Mining Australia 2025 and 2026 addressed the practical implementation of sustainability improvement programs within a major miner, the specific challenge of measuring and demonstrating social value rather than merely claiming it, and the governance frameworks that give sustainability assurance credibility with investors and communities.

Her operational perspective on what genuine sustainability transformation looks like from the inside of a major mining company is more grounded than most of what the consulting community produces on the same topics. The distinction between assurance and performance is one she returns to consistently in her public commentary, making her one of the more useful voices on what credible sustainability reporting actually requires.

33. Tzila Katzel

Head of Sustainability, Sandfire Resources

Tzila Katzel leads sustainability at Sandfire Resources, a mid-tier Australian copper producer with operations in multiple countries. Her contribution to the ANZ mining sustainability conversation comes from the mid-tier operator perspective, which is often more instructive than the major-miner perspective because the resources and support structures available to Sandfire are closer to the reality of most mining companies than those available to BHP or Rio Tinto.

Her work on ESG strategy, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability reporting at Sandfire has been recognised through the company's engagement with AusIMM and other industry bodies. The questions she navigates around how mid-tier miners demonstrate genuine sustainability performance to increasingly sophisticated investors and community stakeholders are questions facing the majority of mining companies operating in Australia today.

34. Gayathri Siripurapu

Senior Mining Analyst, GlobalData

Gayathri Siripurapu is a Senior Mining Analyst at GlobalData, the research and analytics firm, covering the Australian mining industry with a particular focus on critical minerals, commodity market dynamics, and the intersection of policy and investment. Her analysis has appeared in major industry publications and has been cited extensively in reporting on Australia's mining performance in 2025 and the outlook for 2026.

Her contribution to the thought leadership conversation is the analytical rigour she brings to questions that are often discussed with more heat than light: how Australia is actually positioned competitively in critical minerals, where the constraints on realising that potential are structural rather than cyclical, and what the data says about which strategic bets the industry and government are making well and which they are not. Her commentary provides an independent, data-grounded anchor for the critical minerals debate in ANZ.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several voices contributed meaningfully to the process of building this list without making the final 44. The new CME CEO who will succeed Rebecca Tomkinson in her advocacy role after her departure to the WA Agent General role in mid-2025 will in time become one of the most important voices in Western Australian mining policy. Diane Smith-Gander AO, professional company director and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the resources sector, brings a governance perspective on mining that merits attention.

Christine Gibbs Stewart, Chief Executive of Austmine, has built one of the most important innovation communities in the Australian mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector and runs the GRX global innovation expo. The advocacy leadership at the Queensland Resources Council and the Victorian Chamber of Mines and Energy are doing consequential regional work that shapes the conditions for mining in their jurisdictions and whose public profiles deserve to grow.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Engaging Mining Thought Leaders

The quality of the conversation Australian mining has with its own best thinkers is not always as good as it should be. There are several patterns that reduce the value organisations get from engaging with thought leaders in this sector.

The first is treating thought leadership as a marketing function rather than a strategic input. Mining companies that commission speakers for their annual conference or follow researchers on LinkedIn but make no connection between those insights and their actual decision-making are not engaging with thought leadership: they are consuming it passively. The organisations that get the most value from the leaders on this list are those that create structured mechanisms for ideas to travel from the thought leadership space into operational and strategic decisions.

The second is over-concentration on the major-company voice. The executives of BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue are important voices, but they are operating in conditions that are different from those of most mining companies. The mid-tier miners, the researchers, the safety practitioners, and the policy advocates on this list often have more directly applicable insights for organisations operating at smaller scale or in more constrained conditions. A deliberate effort to diversify which voices shape your organisation's thinking will almost always produce better decisions.

The third is confusing advocacy with thought leadership. Some of the most prominent voices in mining are primarily advocates for positions their organisations have committed to. That is a legitimate and important function, but it is different from the work of people who are genuinely developing new frameworks, testing ideas against evidence, and willing to follow the argument wherever it leads. The researchers, safety scientists, and independent practitioners on this list tend to have more of the latter quality.

The fourth is underinvesting in the people dimension of the ideas you are importing. Mining companies sometimes bring in thought leaders on innovation, safety culture, or decarbonisation strategy without ensuring that their own leadership teams have the capacity to translate those ideas into sustained operational change. The limiting factor is almost always not the quality of the idea but the quality of the leadership environment into which it is introduced.

Book Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), to work with your executive team on exactly that challenge. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Implementation Guide

If you want to get genuine value from the thought leadership community this list represents, here is what that looks like in practice.

Start by identifying which of the six categories is most directly relevant to the challenges your organisation faces right now. If your biggest issue is safety culture, the researchers and practitioners in Category 3 deserve your closest attention. If you are navigating the policy environment around critical minerals development or approvals, the advocates in Category 1 are your most useful reference points. If you are deploying new technology and struggling to manage the human and organisational dimensions of that deployment, the innovators in Category 5 are worth engaging with directly.

Follow the voices you identify as most relevant on LinkedIn, but go beyond passive consumption. Engage with their posts, share their work internally, and create mechanisms for the ideas to reach the people in your organisation who can act on them. If a researcher has published work directly relevant to a challenge you are managing, reach out directly. The researchers and mid-tier practitioners on this list are overwhelmingly accessible and responsive to genuine industry engagement.

Use conference appearances strategically. The major ANZ mining conferences, including AusIMM events, Future of Mining Australia, the Women in Mining Summit, and the Diggers and Dealers forum in Kalgoorlie, are the most efficient mechanisms for engaging with multiple thought leaders in person over a short period. The quality of those engagements depends on the preparation you bring to them.

Invest in your leadership team's capacity to turn ideas into action. The most consequential thought leader in your organisation may be a practitioner in your own workforce who has developed a deep understanding of a particular challenge through direct experience. Creating the conditions for internal thought leadership to flourish, including the psychological safety to challenge existing practice and the structural pathways for frontline insights to reach senior decision-making, is as important as engaging with external voices.

Organisations that need help building that kind of leadership culture can bring Jonno White in to facilitate a leadership offsite, deliver a keynote, or run a Working Genius workshop for their executive team. International travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect. Engage Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org.

For more on finding the right consultant to support your mining leadership development, see my blog post "50 Top Leadership Consultants for Mining" at consultclarity.org/post/50-top-leadership-consultants-for-mining-2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the best mining thought leaders in Australia and New Zealand in 2026?

The 44 people on this list represent the most substantive voices shaping mining in ANZ across safety, policy, research, innovation, sustainability, and executive leadership. They include Tania Constable at the Minerals Council of Australia, Professor Maureen Hassall at UQ, Andrew Forrest at Fortescue, Professor Veena Sahajwalla AO at UNSW, Josie Vidal at the New Zealand Minerals Council, Nicki Ivory at Deloitte Australia, and Nicole Roocke at MRIWA, among 37 others who contribute across the full spectrum of mining thought leadership in the region.

Who should I follow on LinkedIn for mining insights in Australia?

Nicole Roocke at MRIWA, Tania Constable at the Minerals Council of Australia, Nicki Ivory at Deloitte, Josie Vidal at the New Zealand Minerals Council, and Kanae Dyas are among the most consistently active LinkedIn voices on ANZ mining topics. For safety-specific content, Maureen Hassall and Kanae Dyas post original research and practice-informed commentary. For policy and advocacy, both Constable and Vidal publish substantive commentary on the regulatory issues shaping their respective jurisdictions.

What are the biggest issues shaping mining in Australia and New Zealand in 2026?

Three issues dominate: the critical minerals opportunity and the policy, infrastructure, and investment conditions required to realise it; the ongoing challenge of decarbonising mining operations in a context where the technology is advancing faster than the organisational and regulatory frameworks; and the social licence question, encompassing traditional owner engagement, community benefit-sharing, and the ESG standards that determine access to capital. In New Zealand, the additional dimension is the policy reset underway since 2025 that has made the country more actively open to resource development after a period of restriction.

What is the role of the Minerals Council of Australia?

The Minerals Council of Australia is the peak national advocacy body for the minerals industry, representing the industry's interests to government, the public, and the policy community. Led by CEO Tania Constable, it produces research, makes submissions to government inquiries, advocates for regulatory settings that make responsible mining investment attractive, and plays a coordination role for the industry's engagement with national issues including industrial relations, tax policy, environmental approvals, and critical minerals strategy.

How can mining organisations improve their leadership culture?

Mining organisations that want to improve their leadership culture benefit most from interventions that build self-awareness and honest communication at the executive team level, create psychological safety for frontline workers to raise concerns without fear, and align the organisation's working practices with the energy and strengths of the people within it. Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works with mining leadership teams on exactly these challenges. Contact jonno@consultclarity.org.

Final Thoughts

The 44 people on this list are shaping Australia and New Zealand's mining future in ways that will outlast any individual commodity cycle. They are doing it through the quality of their ideas, the rigour of their evidence, the courage of their advocacy, and their willingness to engage honestly with the hardest questions the industry faces.

Mining in ANZ has never had a more consequential moment. The world needs what these countries have in the ground, but it is becoming increasingly discriminating about how that material is produced, at what human and environmental cost, and under what governance conditions. The thought leaders on this list are collectively working to ensure that Australia and New Zealand rise to that standard rather than merely meeting the minimum bar.

If you lead a mining organisation, a mining-adjacent business, or a community that lives alongside the industry, following and engaging with these voices is one of the most practical investments you can make in understanding what is actually happening in the sector and where it is heading.

If your organisation's leadership team needs to work more effectively together on any of the challenges this list surfaces, reach out to Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and experienced executive team facilitator, at jonno@consultclarity.org. International travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Sources

Minerals Council of Australia. (2025). Statement to Senate Environment and Communication Legislation Committee, November 2025. Tania Constable, Chief Executive Officer.

GlobalData. (2025). Australian mining industry 2025 review. Via mining-technology.com.

Deloitte Australia. (2025). Tracking the Trends 2025: Mining and Metals. Nicki Ivory, Mining and Metals Leader.

Bloomberg. (2025). Global ESG Trends analysis. Via AusIMM Thought Leadership Series.

New Zealand Government / NZ Petroleum and Minerals. (2025). A Minerals Strategy for New Zealand to 2040 and Critical Minerals List for New Zealand.

Next Read

Australia and New Zealand's mining sector depends on exceptional leadership, and that leadership is both invited onto the keynote stage and hired into the boardroom. Understanding who speaks most credibly to mining audiences is the natural companion question to understanding who is shaping the intellectual conversation. For more on finding the right speaker for your mining conference, offsite, or safety stand-down, read my blog post "50 Best Leadership Speakers for Mining Companies" at consultclarity.org/post/50-best-leadership-speakers-for-mining-companies-2026.