Event - 2026 March Luncheon – Exploring Exploration BOOKINGS CLOSED

This is a livestreamed version of this event.

BOOKINGS HAVE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT

By the time Exploring Exploration rolls around, it will have been a full 7 weeks since your last WA Mining Club luncheon event (the hugely successful Market Outlook in early Feb), so we’re anticipating some pent-up booking energy release for this one. Don’t even read to the end of this blurb, just jump on the website and book it before you get distracted. Please also consider others when you book and invite some colleagues and clients along, or reward some of your young professionals with a lunch pass.

Enough preamble.

This is really hard for a mining engineer to admit, but exploration is the most important part of the mining industry. If we don’t find, we don’t mine and if we don’t mine we deprive the world of the minerals that are the foundational elements of all the things that allow humanity to thrive. And if we don’t actively support exploration in Australia, within a generation our standard of living will become unrecognisable (and not in a good way) and minerals will be mined elsewhere in the world with far worse environmental outcomes. Eat lamb and explore, you know it makes sense!

So, who have we assembled to tackle this weighty subject ? If anyone reckons they could cobble together four more knowledgeable people on the subject, I’ll eat my hard hat. From facilitator Mark Bennett (ex-rock star turned rock star geologist who’s found more commercial deposits than most geos in ten lifetimes – also Exec Chair S2 resources among other gigs), Margie Hawke (Principal Geoscientist Rio Tinto and discoverer of Degrussa), Dr Mike Jones (MD Impact Minerals) and Steve Beresford (Director Power Metallic, Founder Altai Resources), we’ve got the world of exploration well and truly covered. What’s on the agenda ? In no particular order, you can expect to hear opinions on the following aspects of exploration and much more:

• How has exploration spend been tracking? How much is greenfields and how much brownfields?
• Which commodities are attracting the exploration dollar and what trends are emerging?
• Australia’s ranking in the Fraser Institute – why are we going backwards, what can be done about it and how is it impacting exploration spend?
• What are the differences in exploration approach between large and small exploration companies?
• What recent innovations are contributing to positive outcomes in the exploration space?
• Are discoveries getting harder to find and deeper or are we just chasing known lower grade deposits that are becoming economic as commodity prices cycle upwards?
• Some personal career highlights from each panelist – what initially attracted you to geology and exploration, career exploration success (or lack of), how the industry has changed over time, from improvements in safety and tech to challenges around continuing to attract talented people into our industry.

Given the reputation that precedes our collective panel, this promises to be a very frank and candid conversation and highly likely to include some elite humour. Where would you rather be on March 26th  (other than say, at the beach, or on holiday, or at a great rock concert, getting a massage, maybe watching sport …….), but assuming those aren’t on the agenda that day, next best would be to get along to Optus and enjoy the industry’s best networking lunch and hear from some genuine doyens of the world of exploration.

See you all there. I’m excited – can’t wait!

Rob Humphryson
WA Mining Club
Speaker Engagement Lead

Thank you to the following sponsors for supporting this event:

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact Cassandra at events@waminingclub.asn.au