Ravenswood Gold is the owner and operator of the Ravenswood Gold Mine, located in the town of Ravenswood about 130km out of Townsville. Since acquiring the Ravenswood Gold Mine in 2020, Ravenswood Gold has overseen the finalisation of the Ravenswood Expansion Project and is now the largest Gold Mine in Queensland, with an annual production target of 200,000oz of gold, a projected processing rate of 8.64 million tonnes of ore, and an estimated mine life beyond 2036.

The expansion of its operations and evolving expectations of stakeholders encouraged Ravenswood Gold to refine its approach to ESG strategy and disclosure. Led by Johanna Kennerley, Ravenswood Gold published its first voluntary Sustainability Report in 2024, which outlined its sustainability performance for the 2023 calendar year. Since publishing that first report, Ravenswood Gold has continued to mature in its approach to voluntary Sustainability reporting through its commitment to report with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, representing a genuine commitment to ongoing voluntary ESG disclosure.

Johanna's presentation provides a case study on the evolution of Ravenswood Gold's commitment to annual voluntary Sustainability Reports, and the benefit that voluntary disclosure has on overall ESG strategy and outcomes for mining companies. This includes discussing the GRI and distinction between mandatory and voluntary sustainability disclosure, as well as the corporate advantage available to resource companies who embrace voluntary sustainability reporting.

Legal framework; commercial space developments; resources extraction beyond Earth.

Dr Andrew Cannon AM, retired senior mining warden and Adjunct Professor specialising in space resource law, will give a brief overview of the existing Outer Space Treaty 1967 from the Sputnik era which prohibits sovereignty and the developing customary law. Dr Ben McKeown, PhD in space resource law at UNSW with 25+ years investing and leadership experience in global mining industries, will discuss the challenges, particularly benefit sharing, facing explorers and their investors, and will propose a solution to the current ambiguity around benefit sharing for space resources. James Minchinton, General Counsel at Gilmour Space Technologies, will tell us about Gilmour Space's program as it navigates Australia's regulatory regime for space activities, contracting for space activities and opportunities for lawyers in this space. Dr Timothy Jones PhD from ANU is the head of Exploration Geophysics for Fleet Space. He will discuss Fleet Space's breakthrough Exosphere technology, the first end-to-end solution integrating space-enabled geoscience, real-time data acquisition with on-the-field quality control and predictive AI drill targeting.

A panel session reflecting on the legal landscape for remediation, rehabilitation and restoration in Australia.

The panel will address existing regulatory requirements, identifying current weaknesses and areas for reform alongside discussion of collaborative opportunities with First Nations and tangible approaches to balancing social, environmental, and economic priorities.

Decarbonisation; international perspectives; regulatory and policy landscape.

Risks, complications and opportunities for resources and energy companies and suppliers.

In this session, Duncan Longstaff (Principal, Spruson & Ferguson Lawyers) and Luke Dale (Partner, HWLE) will examine practical intellectual property scenarios confronting in-house teams working in the mining, energy and resources sectors: patent infringement allegations; rivals using your proprietary technology; employees moving between competitors with sensitive know-how or unlicensed software; subpoenas from suppliers in litigation; personal information arriving on your servers via a new hire; ex-employees filing patents over your technology; and engineers presenting valuable new technology they are about to present publicly. They will also address how transactional documents and everyday commercial documentation can be drafted to prompt parties to consider IP consequences in advance and avoid disputes altogether, and how poorly considered IP assignment and licensing provisions can produce unintended and dire consequences.