Published in the March 2014 International Coal News Magazine

A highly credentialled and experienced professional, she spoke to Lou Caruana about her career and experiences in the UK.

Would you be able to give me a snapshot of your role as exploration manager with New Age Exploration?

My role is to deliver all aspects of the exploration program for coking coal in the Canonbie coalfield. This involves all aspects of exploration from drilling contracts, data management, team development through to establishing a UK office, community liaison and budgeting. The role has a broad scope of responsibility but I have an excellent local team and strong support from our Melbourne-based team.

How does the geology in the UK where NAE’s Lochinvar project is located differ from that of Australia?

The geology in the UK is not vastly different, the major elements are the intriguing reddening of fresh unweathered lower units, making the geology visually very different to the standard grey lithology below the surface in Australia.

The fossils are also of greater abundance and provide excellent markers to know where you are in the geological sequence. Otherwise, there are no great differences and the same principles and timelines apply.

You were formerly a manager for Cockatoo Coal at Hume in the New South Wales Southern Highlands. Does the English countryside remind you of the Southern Highlands?

I was NSW geology manager at Cockatoo. Very much so, the Southern Highlands of NSW have beautiful green rolling hills and a quite cold climate but the outstanding beauty of the English and Scottish Highlands cannot be surpassed.

I have been here for five months and cannot resist stopping on the journey up to Edinburgh to soak in the gorgeous mountains and terrain.

You have also worked as a geologist for major companies such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. What was the nature of your work for these companies and how does your present role in a smaller company differ from this?

For BHP I was superintendent of geology, survey and geotech on the team that delivered the Daunia resource through final exploration into becoming an open cut mine. With Rio Tinto I consulted across various projects.

While the geological aspects stay the same the joy of the smaller company is the freedom to use the breadth of your experience into other aspects of the project.

This drives you to be more creative and adaptable as you simply don’t have the enormous budgets and huge numbers of staff to delegate to.

With New Age I have the privilege of working directly with the CEO, upper management and drawing from the wealth of hindsight our board brings – an honour rarely available, given the calibre of our board.

I have found communication in a smaller company is outstanding. The team at New Age Exploration, being mostly drawn from larger entities, all have vast depths of experience and are flourishing in the privileges of a close team environment where each person knows what a big impact we have on the company’s projects, is sincerely appreciated and enjoys working to deliver a joint vision.

On the whole I am sure the entire team find this very motivating and never boring.

The experience with the large blue chip companies really provides a valuable foundation, strong skill level and develops a level of knowledge that can only be fully realised by more junior entities as they have the flexibility to allow each person’s true value to be realised and utilised.

The overriding difference is that the role in a junior explorer becomes more than a job. You wholeheartedly celebrate the wins and work through the challenges together, the rewards seem so much richer and really do stem from achievements that you know the whole team have earned.

Do you feel that women should be encouraged to pursue geology as a career?

Most definitely. We bring an alternative aspect to the industry, not better or worse, just a different approach, which strengthens any project.

Geology is a career that doesn’t get held back by gender, age or physical ability and one where everyone starts on equal footing. You can travel the world or work from home.

The variety of commodities, public projects and research extents take geologists into careers that have them working at the bottom of the ocean to the moon and everywhere in between, so the choices are outstanding.

You are a member of Women in Mining and Women in Technology. What are the aims of these two groups and what benefits do they offer to its members?

I can’t speak for these groups but can speak from experience in them. Women are quite low in total numbers in the mining and technology industries, these groups provide an excellent opportunity to network and learn from the experience of other women.

At times you can be the only female in a crew of hundreds, so contact with other women who understand the demands, challenges and opportunities of the industry is healthy.

I am not a feminist or ever been concerned for equal rights, I’ve always worked on the premise of deeds not words, so neither group membership has been with that aspect in mind for me.

Men often have boys’ clubs. I view both of these groups as somewhat of a boys’ type club for the girls.

I do know they offer great opportunities to expose women to industries they may have traditionally not even noticed and provide direction and support to foster personal growth and pleasure in one’s career.

So while I found it as a sisterhood-type group to gain mentoring and encouragement, for many it is an opening to a wide expanse of opportunity, education and new horizons.

Are there any stumbling blocks that still need to be removed?

I don’t really know of any but that has been my experience. I’m sure other women would have lists of stumbling blocks. My only stumbling block has been my own perception of where women work.

However, the first time I set foot in a mine I realised this was just my own perception. I haven’t changed as a woman working in male-dominated industry. I still spend too much money at the hairdressers, paint my nails and I have two grown children and a husband who knows I like to have the door opened for me.

In 2006, you were the winner of Business Innovation Award – PricewaterhouseCoopers. Why did you receive this award?

I am the co-author of a 20-year monopoly patent on a greenhouse-friendly soil technology, held in most countries around the world. After co-inventing this technology I went on to start a company that grew from $200,000 in value to more than $11 million in value in just a few years.

During this journey, I wrote the company’s business plan and, with a great team behind me, went on to open quarries, raise capital and build an outstanding business.

While all of these achievements earned me the PwC award, I found my greatest learning and experience came during the global financial crisis, where the closing of the company taught more than growing it ever could have.

NAE has rapidly advanced its Lochinvar project with the initial JORC inferred resource of 112 million tonnes released in October. This must be satisfying for you and your team. What was involved?

A whole team’s dedication to delivering excellence and strong motivation, including our consulting companies, who we too often forget are consultants – they are all very proud of this project and as motivated as the staff team.

The Phase 1a drilling program delivered sufficient data for collation with historic drilling and historic seismic survey. After extensive work by all members of the team the geological model defined the inferred extent of the resource plus additional target resource. An outstanding and very pleasing outcome for all involved.

Lochinvar has the potential to produce a low-ash high-volatile coking coal at high yields. This is a bit like exporting coals to Newcastle – an Aussie company setting up a coal mine in UK.

Do you think the Australian industry has a lot of expertise in coal mining and exploration to share with the rest of the world?

The interesting thing here is that while Australia is definitely recognised as one of the global leaders of coal exploration and mining, the downturn of the UK industry is one of the major drivers behind the level of expertise achieved in Australia today.

As the industry largely reduced in the UK 30 years ago many of the industry frontrunners took their knowledge to Australia and helped build the industry Australia enjoys today.

It is definitely not uncommon on an Australian mine or exploration project to hear English and Scottish accents among the teams driving operations to success.

Bringing the knowledge home to the UK has also led to many of the remaining industry leaders here re-emerging and warmly sharing their knowledge, helping to breathe new life back into UK coking coal.

Although coking coal drastically faded away, the remaining UK coal producers are still respected globally for their depth of knowledge and skills.

When you’re not conducting geological surveys, how do you relax?

I have simply fallen for the stunning countryside in Scotland and England, every possible moment I am off to explore the beautiful villages and historic buildings.

Whenever possible I try to get over to Europe to lose myself in the foreign languages and fabulous food.

The depth of history here and age of buildings has me amazed. Australia has such a brief built history, so soaking in the culture and beauty of the UK is a wonderful way to relax. I am very spoilt to have the opportunity to live, work and play in the UK.