Mining spoke to Agrimin CEO and MD, Debbie Morrow, about her switch from project to corporate positions, keeping miners safe and potash contributing to global food security.
In September 2023, Debbie Morrow joined Agrimin as CEO and Managing Director. Ms Morrow’s journey to Agrimin involved 24 years at Woodside, with 16 years spent on projects before moving to corporate roles, followed by a stint with OZ Minerals as global Projects Executive. In April 2024, Debbie also joined the Board of GR Engineering Services as a Non-Executive Director.
Agrimin is a Western Australia-based minerals company and owns the Mackay Potash Project. The Mackay project is predicted to be the world’s lowest cost producer of sulphate of potash (SOP).
SOP is a speciality fertiliser, with demand forecast to grow in order to feed the growing global population against the challenge of shrinking arable land.
Lake Mackay is currently the largest undeveloped SOP brine deposit in the world, boasting a considerable drainable mineral resource of 123 million tonnes.
When the opportunity to work at Agrimin presented itself, Ms Morrow said the decision to move was daunting, not just because she was moving to her first CEO and MD role, but because the commodity in Western Australia had struggled in the past.
“There was a lot of negative sentiment about the commodity in Western Australia as the two early movers had not been commercially successful.
“Going from a big company where your financial sustainability or security is not something you ever really worry about as an employee, to the junior environment was also very different,” she said.
“But the more I learnt about potash, and the more I understood about global food security challenges, the more I wanted to be involved.”
Career pathway
Ms Morrow made the decision to join Agrimin after learning more about the commodity and its role in global food security.
“I love the commodity, I love the project that we’re going to be developing and I love the land and communities we will be operating on and with for many years ahead. That’s how I got here.”
The transition from project delivery to corporate roles did not come easily.
“When I transitioned from major projects in Woodside to the corporate roles in Woodside, I really struggled, to be honest.
“I had historically excelled at bringing teams together to deliver a highly visible goal with tangible interim milestones, and corporate roles are not the same as that. You don’t have the same fast-paced, ever-present goals that you must achieve. My leadership style has certainly had to change over time, and this role again has been another significant shift.”
Ms Morrow’s exposure to the resources industry started from a young age, with her father in the offshore drilling industry. Her own entry to the industry was something of an accident after accepting a summer vacation slot at Worley resulted in her falling in love with the resources industry.
Overcoming barriers
The mining and resources industry has experienced significant momentum and change over the last five, even ten, years, and Ms Morrow has seen the shift occurring firsthand.
“I look back to when I started over 25 years ago, when bullying and sexual harassment was rife and known about and tolerated. It was clear in those days that women didn’t progress as fast or as far, or even at all, in some cases.”
Ms Morrow has a key piece of advice for other women embarking on their own journeys in the industry, no matter their role or ambition.
“The thing that helped me the most was having true sponsors; not mentors, not ones that are assigned to you, but having sponsors that will speak for you in rooms when you’re not there. They don’t necessarily need to be significantly more senior. They just need to be in different and the right rooms.”
Another key lesson she learned early in her career was the importance of being true to herself.
“I think I tried to fit in a bit too much, to emulate my successful male colleagues in terms of style and approach rather than being more myself,” Ms Morrow said.
“A now laughable example is when I got a promotion and a female colleague sat me down and suggested that I should start dressing more like a man, because if I wanted to keep progressing, the more they thought I fitted in, the more chance I’d have of being promoted.
“It is easier to be what you can see. We all need to see female leaders being themselves.”
Ms Morrow strives to use her platform to speak at as many conferences and events as possible in an effort to help everyone that is following her through the ranks.
Although significant progress is being made industry-wide to change the nature of the workforce and ways of working, Ms Morrow said that women still have to make certain sacrifices if they want to follow in her footsteps.
“If you want to choose an executive pathway, and if you want to aim for the C-suite and beyond, you need to make a conscious decision as a female that that’s what you’re going to do,” she said.
“I say that because particularly if you have a family, there are times in your career where getting the balance right for both work and at home can be very tough. I would describe it, no matter your circumstance, as a period of compromise, having a family and progressing your career.”
Compromise aside, Ms Morrow said that one of the best pieces of advice she can give to other women in the industry is to be themselves.
“Get your circle around you, to support you, take every opportunity offered, have fun and be yourself. Staying true to your own personal values can sometimes feel challenging in our industry, but it’s so important that you don’t lose your own compass along the way.”
Shoring up food security
A keen interest of Ms Morrow is helping the industry understand the potential of SOP in contributing to global food security.
At present, the Mackay Potash Project is at the stage of finalising approvals and gathering investment. Ms Morrow said that although global investor interest is quite strong for SOP, the challenge from a domestic perspective is to prove that the company and project have a technical solution that will be commercially viable in Western Australia.
“The world needs our commodity, and currently Australia relies on importing this critical fertiliser. Our Lake Mackay Potash Project is going to be six per cent of global supply from just one asset in Western Australia, and we have much more potash opportunity than that as a state, and as a country.
“On the global stage, the investment opportunities are much more significant because the demand for potash is outstripping supply.
“Globally, potash is emerging as a critical mineral and supply chains are realising that not only do we not have enough of this commodity, a significant amount of the global market relies on China and China also has high domestic use.”
Keeping workers safe
Alongside her passion for SOP and supporting other women in the industry, increasing worker safety is a topic she is vocal about. In the last 24 months, there have been 15 fatalities in mining and resources in Australia, a figure which Ms Morrow called “heartbreaking”.
When it comes to worker safety the best approach is to eliminate the risk altogether and technological innovations can go a long way in facilitating this. Although technology is certainly assisting in this endeavour, Ms Morrow said that there will always be workers in the industry and that keeping them safe should be the foremost priority.
“I still maintain a huge focus on people,” she said. “It’s people that get injured; it’s people that are on the front line – the ones making those final decisions when, unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong.
“The innovation that is happening is fantastic, and I think it is going to significantly reduce risk in the industry, but we still need to keep focusing on people.
“Even though some roles might be removed or become less risky it’s still all about people for me – making sure that people go home.”
Ms Morrow said one focus area is the concept that there should only ever be one workforce on a site: one cohesive health, safety and well-being culture.
“If you look at most of the fatalities, they’re contractors, not employees. There should only ever be one workforce on a construction and operational site: not an owner and contractor workforce.”
With a large portion of the sector’s workforce consisting of contractors, the cycling workforce can lead to challenges of competence, experience and capability.
“Sometimes with management systems you’ve got owners’ systems, then contractors, and even subcontractors with subcontractors. It starts becoming quite difficult to ascertain for your own governance and assurance that everything, all the checks and balances are not only there, but they’re being diligently applied.
“Anything that makes people’s roles on site more ambiguous or complex leaves room for error,” she said.
Ms Morrow said that having one genuine and cohesive culture of care for every person that comes on-site is the best way to set up for success.
“I know sometimes financially that’s difficult; I know sometimes the sites are so large it’s difficult; sometimes there’s so many contractors, it’s difficult; the workforce rotates, it’s difficult. But if we keep saying it’s all difficult, and we don’t try to simplify and form cohesion then I think we’re not using every single tool in our toolkit to make sure that health, safety and well-being is the core of everything we do.”
Miners Promise
Further underscoring her commitment to safety is Ms Morrow’s Non-Executive Board role with Miners Promise, a charity that “is doing a job that none of us want to have to do”.
Miners Promise steps in and supports the families of individuals who have died on-site, filling the gap in what the employer and EAP can do. Miners Promise helps with practicalities like paying for funeral costs, liaising with police and coroners, offering mortgage or rental support, providing food, managing donations for the families and establishing trusts for the affected children’s education. Most importantly of all, Miners Promise provides a dedicated Family Support Adviser who offers trauma-informed grief support and counselling, a trusted companion on a journey of tragedy that no one should have to experience – losing a loved one at work.
Ms Morrow said that one key difference in what Miners Promise does compared to the EAP or other mental health plans is that it doesn’t stop.
“We are there for as long as the families need us, and sometimes that can go on for years post-event and we’re still there supporting them with counselling, our family support groups and any other needs they have.”
Ms Morrow said the organisation has sadly been very busy in the last two years, with most of the 15 families affected by workplace tragedies under the care of Miners Promise. To further support the families under its care, Miners Promise is working on a strategy to be more accessible to industry and establish a sustainable financial structure.
“We need a sustainable funding model, because we need to be here when the industry and families need us.”
Ms Morrow said that with many company vision statements and health and safety policies saying that all injuries and incidents are preventable, it can be hard to get mining companies onboard.
“Trying to get companies to invest in Miners Promise in advance of a tragic event is quite tricky, because no one wants to plan for, or have, a fatality.
“It’s an amazing organisation but it’s one that all of us would love not to need to exist.”
The feedback coming from the industry uncovered a reluctance from some mining companies to have their logos on the Miners Promise website, as it could be seen as the company accepting the likelihood of fatalities occurring.
To combat this, Miners Promise has come up with a new strategy where companies can sign up through a ‘Partnership of Care’.
“This means we’re there if you need us and your sign-up contribution and modest annual retainer makes sure we’re there for other families that need us across the whole Australian industry.
“The game-changer with the new ‘Partnership of Care’ model is that with sign-up we would integrate with emergency response plans, or whatever the different companies call them so that in the event of a tragic fatality, Miners Promise will be an integral and immediate part of the response activation.
“At the moment, when tragedy strikes we are often searching through our networks to find a contact into the mine site, which means that the families miss out because they’re not getting the absolute best of care as quickly as possible.
“We’d love to not be needed, but conversely, we want to be there to care for families in the terrible event that they do need us.”
