2024 Forum Program

CEO - Mining, Exploration and Geoscience
Department of Regional NSW

Georgina Beattie is the CEO of Mining, Exploration & Geoscience within the Department of Regional NSW. She brings extensive leadership experience in the public sector, specialising in strategy, reform, and industry development.

As leader of the mining division, Georgina oversees decisions about the State’s mineral and petroleum resources including the policy and strategic framework, titles assessment, regulation of sector for safety, land access and rehabilitation, and the acquisition and analysis of geoscientific data.

Principal Compliance Auditor
NSW Resources Regulator

Jenny Ehmsen is the Principal Compliance Auditor with the Mining Act Inspectorate of the NSW Resources Regulator. Jenny has professional qualifications in environmental management and planning and over 30 years experience in the field. Jenny is certified with Exemplar Global as a Master Environmental Auditor and a Compliance Management Specialist. She has been the Principal auditor for the Regulator for the last 10 years, developing, implementing, and reporting on the Regulator’s compliance audit programs.

Managing Partner
Tau Media

Jessica Fertig: Founder and Managing Partner of Tau Media, an independent and boutique consultancy empowering ASX-listed companies in investor relations and media outreach across diverse sectors. With over a decade of experience, Jess specialises in IPOs and has thrived in both in-house roles and independent ventures. Armed with a Master's in International Business Law, a Graduate Diploma in Psychology, and a B.Comm in Law & Economics, she brings a multidimensional perspective to her strategic communications and advisory services. Jess Holland is a driving force in elevating companies' profiles and successes on the ASX platform.

Manager Property & Tenements
Yancoal

Thomas is the Manager Property & Tenements at Yancoal.

Thomas’ role manages Yancoal’s Property & Tenements Portfolio across NSW, QLD and WA.

Thomas has over 16 years Industry experience (including over 11 years in leadership/mgt positions). Prior to joining Yancoal as part of its Coal & Allied transaction, Thomas was the Manager of Land & Tenements at Rio Tinto Coal Australia and previously worked as a Property & Commercial lawyer in private practice.

Superintendent-Tenement
Glencore Australia

With over 38 years experience in the mining sector, Peter has worked on greenfield and brownfield exploration, open cut and underground mine geology, project feasibility commissioning and corporate management.

He has also managed natural resource planning, water licensing and EIS assessment in the public sector.

Since 2013, Peter has managed the tenure portfolio of Glencore Coal across NSW and QLD and has worked closely with Regulators on reform. He is a member and previous Chair of the NSW Minerals Council Exploration Committee and previous member of the Regulatory Committee of the Queensland Resources Council.

Manager - Regulatory Operations
NSW Environment Protection Authority

Sheridan has been working in environmental regulation for more than 20 years. She has worked in both local and state government roles and has been employed by the NSW EPA since 2006. Her various roles have concentrated on the environmental regulation of coal and metalliferous mining. She has been the lead in a number of major investigations for environmental breaches related to mining activities.

Her current role is the Manger Operations located at Bathurst with her team leading the EPA’s work in central west NSW.

Exploration Manager NSW
Alkane Resources

David Meates is Alkane Resources Exploration Manager for NSW. He has been working in the Central West region since 2003. David has been a part of Alkane’s successful team that discovered the orogenic gold deposits at Tomingley, and in partnership with Newmont, the McPhillamys gold deposit near Blaney. And more recently, the large gold-copper alkalic porphyry district comprising of the Boda and Kaiser deposits near Wellington. David has worked with landholders and in their communities for more than 20 years in NSW.

Manager Compliance Coordination
NSW Resources Regulator

Monique Meyer has over 30 years’ experience in the mining and exploration and is the Manager of Compliance Coordination Unit (CCU) within Resources Regulator. Monique's career started at Pasminco Cobar before joining the Department in 2003 where she remains as passionate about her role in assisting Industry to achieve compliance and drive the best results for mining and exploration within NSW. Monique and the CCU team are at the forefront working with Industry to maintain compliance, as well as bringing them onto the Portal to promote the benefits of the online system. CCU strives to seek continuous improvement of processes and educating Industry of the tools and resources available.

Head of Muswellbrook Site
Muswellbrook Coal Company

With a Finance and Commercial background, Brett is now the Head of Site for Idemitsu Australia’s Muswellbrook Coal Company. After 115 years, Muswellbrook Coal finished mining in late 2022 and is currently in a rehabilitation phase. Brett has 25 years of experience in coal mining having worked for BHP Coal / BMA, Vale and Muswellbrook Coal. He has worked in open cut and underground mines, ranging from startups, established mines, and most recently leading Muswellbrook Coal through mine closure. Brett is currently enjoying the challenges of mine rehabilitation and exploring potential future land uses.

Director Operations
NSW Environment Protection Authority

Steve is an experienced regulator who has a proven track record leading regulatory compliance and enforcement programs and major investigations into contraventions of the environment laws, work health and safety laws and mining laws.

Steve is currently a Director of Operations with the NSW EPA. In this role, Steve is responsible for leading regulatory operations teams and compliance programs to protect the environment. Recently, Steve has also been leading the EPA’s regulation of metalliferous mines in western NSW and the Snowy 2.0 project.

Partner
Johnson Winter Slattery

William is an environment and planning lawyer who has specialist expertise in native title, land access and cultural heritage matters. He acts for a wide range of energy and resources clients across Australia.

Principal Consultant
Hetherington

Tamara Robinson is a Principal Consultant at Hetherington and holds qualifications in law and geoscience. In her role, she assists explorers and miners navigate tenure, land access and approvals frameworks and compliance requirements across Australia for varying commodities. Tamara also sits on the Women in Mining NSW committee and co-leads their mentoring program.

General Counsel
Metals Acquisition Limited

Chris Rosario is a leading corporate lawyer with nearly two decades experience advising on resource focused cross border M&A transactions.

Before joining Metals Acquisition Limited (MAC) as General Counsel he was a senior partner at international law firm, Squire Patton Boggs, where he led the team advising on MAC’s acquisition of the CSA Copper Mine.

Mr Rosario spent a number of years working in Japan where he focused on providing extensive advice to a major Japanese trading company on outbound investments, including into the Australian natural resources and renewable energy sectors.

General Manager - Environment, Sustainability and Governance
RZ Resources

Mr Paul Smith (BscApplied Env Sc(hons), MMineral Resources), General Manager of ESG at RZ Resources Limited has extensive experience in Environmental Management and Community Engagement of mining operations across QLD, NSW and Western Australia. Mr Smith has spent his entire career engaging with all stakeholders relevant to mining operations from indigenous communities, remote and rural towns to major population centres for a wide range of mining clients, from exploration and startups, large multinationals and sites in care and maintenance. Mr Smith consider himself to have had a privileged career, working with a wide variety of stakeholders to deliver positive environmental and community outcomes across QLD and NSW.

Executive Director, Assessments & Systems
Mining, Exploration and Geoscience

Jamie is the Executive Director of Assessment & Systems at MEG. She is responsible for all Titles Assessments, TACO customer service centre, Native Title, Land Access & Arbitration, Small Scale Titles, Business Improvement & Information Systems. Jamie has been at MEG for over 3 years, is a lawyer by qualification and has had a career of utilising business process improvements and systems to improve efficiencies in delivery and customer service in the NSW Public Sector. In Assessment & Systems Jamie's focus has been putting customers at the centre of all they do and ensuring robust decision making processes.