2023 has been a year of big moves for the resources sector, with continued supply chain disruptions, soaring critical minerals demand and net zero emissions goals all impacting the Australian mining industry over the last year.
While the country’s coal-fired power generation is progressively retiring, exploration for critical minerals has ramped up to support the green transition. Mining organisations have also seen a great deal of personnel movement, as well as takeovers, acquisitions and mining contracts awarded.
Mining Magazine has covered a range of news in the last 12 months, and here we unpack the top five news stories that rocked the Australian mining industry in 2023.
The Australian Geoscience Council released a report revealing a 40 per cent decline in students completing geoscience degrees over the past eight years. The findings raised concerns over Australia’s ability to find, define and mine key minerals and prompted the peak body representing major geoscience organisations to call for urgent action to promote the discipline to potential students.
Fortescue suffered a series of blows, with three executives leaving the company over the course of one week. The company lost its Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Fortescue Future Industries Director within days of each other – also just days after the company’s 20-year anniversary celebration at a Pilbara mine site.
A radiation alert was sparked across parts of Western Australia after Rio Tinto lost a tiny radioactive capsule in the Australian Outback, for which the company issued an official apology.
The radioactive capsule was lost in transit – believed to have fallen from a truck – from the company’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia. The capsule was eventually located by the Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services.
Newmont Corporation announced that Natascha Viljoen would join the Newmont Executive Leadership Team as Executive Vice President, to then move to the role of COO after a 12-month notice period. Newmont President and CEO, Tom Palmer, callled Ms Viljoen a seasoned industry leader with more than 30 years of experience across a diverse range of commodities.
Fortescue announced that a change of name had been approved for the company, meaning the formerly-known Fortescue Metals Group would be called Fortescue on the ASX from 28 November 2023, with the ASX ticker code remaining unchanged as FMG.
The change was intended to reflect the diversification of Fortescue’s operations as an integrated green technology, energy and metals company.
