AusIMM’s 2025 Critical Minerals Conference will take place from September 2–4 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
As the fastest-growing event in AusIMM’s portfolio, the 2025 Critical Minerals Conference is set to advance global discussions on critical minerals, aligning with the collective goal of achieving net-zero emissions.
The conference will feature keynote speakers from across the critical minerals supply chain, including Sustainable Minerals Institute adjunct professor Ian Satchwell, Vulcan Energy founder and executive chair Francis Wedin, and CSIRO critical minerals chief research scientist Chris Vernon.
Conference chair Helen Degeling will be leading the conference, confident that this year will see a raft of high-quality discussions delivered to attendees.
“I’m especially proud of the broad nature of the conference this year,” Degeling told Australian Mining.
“Our conference, from a technical perspective, covers the whole supply chain for critical minerals, from exploration and discovery, right through to processing, mining and manufacturing.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into expanding the reach this year, and that’s had a great response from the industry.”
With a background in geology, Degeling has spent time in academia, industry and government, which has instilled in her a deep understanding of the minerals sector and how the industry will need to position itself to meet rising demands.
Now back in industry, Degeling is taking everything she’s learned from her experience to champion the role of the mining industry in the energy transition.
“It’s a massive opportunity and challenge we face as a community, a society and an industry,” she said.
“The driving force behind events like these is the importance of growing the mining sector to rise to those challenges and meet those opportunities.”
But Degeling emphasised the topic of critical minerals is far more complex than the energy transition alone, with the conference working to expand this year’s offering beyond what has ever been seen before in a single program.
The event’s 2025 themes broach subjects such as mineral economics, geopolitics, the global supply chain, circularity and environment, social and governance (ESG), discovery and development, new technologies and processing manufacturing.
“There’s a wide range of discussions set to take place at this year’s conference,” she said. “Some are highly technical, others take a bigger picture approach to topics like political environments, ethics, and financial challenges and controls.
“The conference is set to cover the entire critical minerals supply chain, and we’re seeing a great response from industry for the developed program.”
In addition to technical sessions, the event will provide opportunities for networking and collaboration among industry professionals. Attendees can expect to engage with experts and peers, fostering discussions that illuminate new opportunities and strategies for sustainable resource development.
The conference will also offer professional development hours, enhancing value for attendees seeking to advance their careers in the critical minerals sector.
But what truly sets the 2025 Critical Minerals Conference apart from the rest is its ability to bring together all sectors of the industry to discuss critical minerals from a global viewpoint.
“There’s no aim here to make a profit or run a business; our strategy is to create a space for the industry where they can discuss and solve all the big challenges and issues that we face together,” Degeling said.
“Because we’ve created a dedicated event for critical minerals, we’re able to go into much more detail on important topics and generate a more sophisticated and nuanced offering that gets to the heart of the issues that the industry wants to cover.”
And while the conference is being held in Perth, Degeling believes the event will provide a platform for global conversations.
“Geopolitics will be a key part of the discussion,” she said. “That discussion is even more vital now and it’s important that we don’t stay in a bubble here in Australia, because critical minerals is a global market.
“We need to ensure that we involve the world, and not only that, but we’re a part of their conversations on a global scale as well.”
AusIMM’s Critical Minerals Conference takes place in Perth from September 2–4.
This feature appeared in the June 2025 issue of Australian Mining.
