Turner has worked in the mining industry for almost 20 years, having worked in iron ore, zinc, gold, copper and coal mines in Western Australia and Queensland. He was most recently COO for Northern Energy, where he was responsible for the Colton, Elimatta and Yamala projects.

“Mr Turner brings a wealth of experience to strengthen the Guildford senior management team to ensure that focus is maintained on Guildford’s priority Queensland projects of Hughenden, Kolan (formerly known as Maryborough) and Sierra while the company progresses in parallel the Mongolian South Gobi project,” Guildford managing director Michael Avery said.

Turner graduated as a mining engineer from the Western Australian School of Mines in 1990 and has a diploma in financial management from Central Queensland University.

Before Northern Energy, Turner was general manager of mining operations at the Queensland government-owned Tarong Energy Corporation, where he played a key role in meeting future coal needs for one of the state’s largest power generators.

His operational and management experience includes a senior role at Macarthur Coal, where he was the general manager operations and site senior executive of the Coppabella mine, and operational project management roles with Leighton Contractors.