Critical Minerals Forum 2023

Dudley Kingsnorth has over 50 years experience in the international mining industry through positions that he has held in operations, project development, marketing, technical consultancies and business development. Dudley is recognised as a world authority on the rare earths market and rare earths project development through his 29 year association with the industry, initially as Project Manager of the Mt Weld Rare Earths Project and over the past 19 years as an independent consultant to the industry. He is the author/editor of the many editions of the Roskill report on rare earths. Dudley has given many key note addresses to international rare earths conferences. He provides confidential advice on rare earths to a number of government departments worldwide. In 2012, Dudley was appointed a Professor at the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) at Curtin University in Western Australia with special responsibilities for establishing the Curtin Critical Materials Initiative. Dudley is a former Vice-President of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.

Kotaro Shimizu is a Chief analyst and General Manager of Sustainable Society Department in the Policy Research and Consulting Division at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. Next to that, he is the vice president at the International Rare Earth Industry Association, a lecturer at the International Institute for Mining Technology in Japan and endowed chair in Global business management at Economic and social policies in Chuo University, Japan. Also, Kotaro is a supporting member of Japan Society of Newer Metals and secretary in the committee on the comprehensive system of resource utilization at the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan. In addition, he is an invited researcher at the Environmental Research Institute at Waseda University, an Executive director at the Circular Economy Association, and ISO expert in TC298 (Rare Earth), TC323 (Circular Economy), TC333 (Lithium) and TMB/SAG Critical Minerals.

Karin Soldenhoff holds a BSc (Hons) from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, MSc from the University of Cape Town and a PhD from UNSW. She is currently employed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation where she holds the role of Principle Consultant in the ANSTO Minerals Business Unit. Over a 30 year career in process development for the mining industry, she has led numerous projects commissioned by industry regarding various aspects of hydrometallurgical processing of uranium, rare earths, zirconium, hafnium, lithium and other critical metals.

Tania has over 20 years’ post-graduate experience working across government and private sectors in Australia and overseas including leading the Commonwealth’s Rum Jungle Mine Rehabilitation Project. Tania specialise in the assessment and management of environmental and social issues on resource projects and has extensive experience in environmental management and undertaking due diligence and compliance auditing both for the mining industry and government.

Angela O’Rourke is a geoscientist with 20 years’ experience in diverse roles for government and industry and is passionate about applying geoscience to address the challenges facing the global community. Angela is currently the Senior Advisor – Critical Minerals at Geoscience Australia, Australia’s national geoscience agency, where she leads a project on mineral criticality for Australia, and contributes technical advice and fosters collaboration to inform and advance critical minerals research and policy. In this role Angela values the opportunity to support Australia to grow our critical minerals sector and play an integral role in the global energy transition. Prior to her time at Geoscience Australia Angela worked for 4 years as an engineering geologist, followed by 7 years in the mineral resources sector with WMC, MMG, Oz Minerals and Zinifex. Angela worked at the Leinster Nickel, Dugald River and Century operations in WA and QLD and has managed mineral exploration programs throughout the Carpentaria Zinc Belt in Northern Australia and the Belt Purcell Basin in North America. Angela graduated from Queensland University of Technology with first class honours in Geoscience in 2002.

Nick is Executive Chairman of Northern Minerals Limited. He has over 35 years’ experience in mining and finance, with extensive involvement and knowledge of the rare earths industry. Nick was previously Executive Chairman of Lynas Corporation Limited, taking control in 2001 and refocussing it as a rare earths company; developing the Mt Weld deposit in Western Australia and building the downstream processing plant in Malaysia. Nick was a founding director of Sino Gold Limited, an ASX listed top 100 company which was taken over by Eldorado Gold in 2006. More recently, Nick has served as Managing Director of BBI Group. Northern Minerals’ vision is to become a leading producer of ethically produced rare earth elements, especially the heavy rare earths dysprosium and terbium. These minerals are essential components of high-performance permanent magnets, which are used in a variety of industrial and technological applications, including electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Chris is the General Manager – Sustainability for the Minerals Council of Australia. He has over 20 years’ experience working in geoscientific, environmental and sustainability policy and practice in the public and private sectors in Australia and internationally. Chris leads key initiatives supporting the minerals industry’s environmental, social and governance performance, including implementation of the Towards Sustainable Mining system in Australia. In 2018, Chris worked with the International Council on Mining and Metals, focussing on global water issues. Prior to his role at the Minerals Council, Chris was Manager, Major Projects for the Queensland Government’s abandoned mines program and has spent a number for years working as an environmental consultant across both Australia and the United Kingdom.

Janice Zinck is chair of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, President Elect of the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences and Executive Director of Geoscience and Mines for the government of Nova Scotia. Janice has more than 25 years’ experience in the leadership of multidisciplinary programs to address mineral resource development-related to environmental and processing challenges. She has been involved in many national and international multi-stakeholder initiatives where she has developed strategic priorities, partnerships, and collaborations. She was instrumental in the creation of Canada’s Green Mining Initiative and more recently the national program on rare earth elements and chromite development in Canada.

Chris has conducted and led applied R&D for the Australian mineral processing industry for nearly 35 years. His earlier contributions include in the gold and alumina industries, and more recently he led CSIRO’s mineral processing research across all commodities important to Australia, as well as its process engineering capabilities. He recently started the Green Minerals Technologies initiative at CSIRO, with the aim of commercialising greener and more economic methods to extract, process and manufacture, using Australia's minerals endowment. He is also co-lead for the Renewable Energy Powerhouse Mission, which incorporates value-adding to critical minerals to lengthen and strengthen supply chains that are vital to renewable energy. His association with the less common metals started in about 2011 when he led a research team working with industry to develop flowsheets to extract rare earths, tantalum and niobium, amongst others. He has maintained an interest in what are now known as “critical minerals”, adding the battery metals to his portfolio of interests in recent years. He works collaboratively with the other government science agencies, ANSTO and Geoscience Australia, to assist state and federal governments with issues around the emerging opportunities in critical minerals. Together with these agencies he contributed to the establishment of the federally-supported National Critical Minerals R&D Hub, and is currently working with a number of industry partners on developing critical minerals technologies.

Diane Hobday is the Sector Manager for Materials, Assets & Products (MAP) at NATA), which mainly covers testing in the engineering, manufacturing, and extractive industries. Diane is responsible for implementing technical standards in this Sector, including minerals and ores testing. Since joining NATA in June 2008, Diane has worked with several standards across three different industry Sectors. She is an experienced and passionate quality systems professional whose work with implementing and assessing quality frameworks started in the early 1990s. Diane believes that a robust quality system, used by staff at all levels of an organisation, mitigates risk to the organisation, and supports the national technical infrastructure by providing confidence to decision makers who rely on test results. Cunzhen Ma Chairperson ISO TC

Mr Cunzhen Ma is the vice president of China Nonferrous Metals Techno-Economic Research Institute Co., Ltd. He is also the Chairman of Chinese Technical Committee for the Standardization of Nonferrous Metals (SAC/TC243) and the Chairman of the Rare Earths Technical Committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC298). Mr.Ma has organized the preparation and revision of more than 100 crucial standards for nonferrous metals.

Andrew is the General Manager of the Critical Minerals Office with the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Andrew brings 20 years of experience in energy, climate, environment and resource management to the Critical Minerals Office, having worked across the private and not for profit sectors, and the Commonwealth and state governments. Andrew’s depth of experience within these fields is particularly notable, having experienced everything from managing national parks, to advising on environment, energy, climate change and the resources sector within central agencies.

Jennifer Parker is Vice President Corporate Affairs, responsible for Lynas Rare Earths’ internal and external communications and ESG impact. Jennifer has over 15 years of experience in management roles in both consulting and in-house environments. Prior to joining Lynas in August 2021, Jennifer was a Director at Cannings Strategic Communications, and previously held roles as Corporate Communications Manager at ASX-listed REA Group and Senior Corporate Communications Manager at digital media joint venture AOL|7. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Arts Communications Management from the University of Technology Sydney.

Karen’s current role is Head of International and is responsible for identifying and managing key international engagement and policy priorities and representing Standards Australia at international and regional forums. Her responsibilities encompass governance and policy representation of Standards Australia at international standards development organisations including membership on the ISO Technical Management Board (2021- 2023), international policy and development management, and maintaining relationships with other National and Regional Standards Bodies.