A bumper crowd gathered last Thursday evening for the final WA Mining Club’s Young Professionals ‘Miner’s Mingle’ event for the year, with the discussion titled “Contractor versus Owner Miner”. Our first three Miner’s Mingle events this year were held at Mayfair Lane in West Perth, however this second consecutive sold out event meant we’d outgrown that venue, with around 270 people packing out a function space at RAC Arena.
Our inimitable MC, Matty Michael of ‘Money of Mine’ podcast fame steered the discussion with his customary dry brand of humour as Mick Radi, Chris Dark and Shelley Whittaker took us through the ins and outs and whys and wherefores of the topic. Whilst marketed and introduced as a boxing match / debate, the panel were in furious agreement that the truth centres more around the sensible allocation of business risks and capital, with contractors often deployed to cover rapid deployments or where a specific specialist skill set is required. Chris made the case that as a mine owner it can be important to have control over establishing your own culture and where capital requirements are well understood and can be procured at a lower weighted average cost of capital, it may make sense to employ your own workforce. Mick spoke about how contractors can bring specialist capital and skills to the table and can stay up to date with changing operational practices with their broad network of operations across many jurisdictions. He also made the point that contractors have varied and diversified equipment fleets and have the ability to modify site’s equipment requirements as required. Shelley spoke about the assessment processes adopted when assessing various bids from competing contractors and whilst price is obviously important, she pointed out that relationships, safety, cultural alignment, approach to innovation and proposed equipment fleet are among the key determining factors. All panelists agreed that relationships between contractors and mine owners had matured significantly since the introduction of contracting in the 1980s, with well-considered partnering and pain / gain share models now commonplace.
All in all an excellent discussion and it would no doubt have been comforting for young professionals in the room to hear such measured and intelligent thoughts from industry leaders in this space.
Click here to check out the photos
Thank you to all those who attended. It was fantastic to see so many new young faces in the room – please spread the word to your buddies ahead of next year’s series of events.
Big thanks to the Young Professionals subcommittee, Jordan Pedley, Barry Upton and Rob Humphryson and our merry band of YP advisors (Linda, Bernard and James) and last but not least a huge thanks to Cassandra and Josh who anchor everything we do and ensure it runs to plan.
Many reading this will be attending St Barbara’s day at Optus Stadium Friday 29th November and we look forward to seeing you there.
Have a great festive / holiday season.
