Enhancing Australia’s leadership in minerals globally

Speaker:  Adjunct Professor Ian Satchwell, Sustainable Minerals Institute

Abstract:  The Australian minerals sector extends far beyond national boundaries. It has become a formidable global enterprise operating in all of the world’s resources regions and across the value chain, from exploration, to financing and development, to mining and processing, and to mining equipment, technology and services. Australia is also a world leader in minerals sector governance and sustainability, and its successes are viewed by others as examples to which they aspire. In the face of fast increasing and rapidly changing global demand for minerals, Australia therefore has both commercial drivers and ethical responsibilities to work with other nations to help them do mining well and do well from mining. This presentation examines Australia’s global minerals investment footprint and governance interactions, and suggests how the Australian minerals sector and governments can work together to improve sustainability outcomes for the sector and its host jurisdictions.

Bio:  Ian Satchwell has worked closely with UQ's Sustainable Minerals Institute since 2011, when he took up the role of Director of the International Mining for Development Centre.  This centre was a UQ-UWA joint venture funded by the Australian Government to build capacity in mining governance in developing economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  Ian was then appointed an Adjunct Professor at SMI in 2015. Ian and an SMI team have just completed a 17 month project for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) reviewing performance in minerals governance cooperation and investment and trade, and advising on both content and implementation of the revised ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan.

Earlier in his career, Ian was a senior executive in minerals and energy industry bodies, and a partner in an Australian consulting firm specialising in economics, policy and strategy.  He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Canadian Northern Corridor Research Program at the University of Calgary, Canada.

Ian’s work has given him a detailed appreciation of the leading role of Australia in global minerals investment and governance, and of how this can be enhanced to achieve commercial and sustainability goals.