Founder of the Melbourne Mining Club steering committee, Gavan Collery, is a recipient of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday acknowledgements.
Gavan is a 35-year veteran of the resources industry and has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to mining.
“This is outstanding recognition of the volunteer work that Gavan has put in with the Melbourne Mining Club since its inception in 2001,” said Melbourne Mining Club Chairman, Richard Morrow.
“Gavan has also made his mark as an IMARC Ambassador, with this important Melbourne-based resources industry event now in its sixth year, and targeting more than 7,000 attendees from over 100 nations in late October this year. For close to two decades, he was active in developing better relations with the Philippines mining industry and with building bilateral relations with the Filipino Government, culminating in Life Membership of the Australia-Philippines Business Council. His honorary activities include being a foundation member of the Philippines Mining Club and providing guidance to help launch the Mandarin Mining Club in China.”
Gavan started his career in resources after a career in journalism within The Herald & Weekly Times Group. He joined Elders Resources in 1988 before moving to Western Mining Corporation where he served for almost 15 years in a number of roles in corporate affairs. He left WMC after the company was taken over by BHP and joined Indophil Resources, the major asset of which was the massive WMC-discovered Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in Mindanao, the Philippines.
When Indophil was taken over by Philippine interests, Gavan started to consult to mining and oil companies, in between his time-consuming labour of love as an honorary member of the MMC steering committee. He also found time to devote many hours service to help establish and grow the International Mining and Resources Conference to confirm Melbourne as a hub for minerals industry investment. He was instrumental in attracting to IMARC 2018 the global industry group, the ICMM, one of the highlights of this emerging annual globally-significant gathering of mining industry leaders.
In responding to the recognition, Gavan said: “This Order of Australia award is indeed a great honour - humbling. It is in every way a recognition of an industry that contributes almost 60% of Australia’s goods and services exports, now worth almost $250 billion in annual export earnings, and one that sees Australia and Australians taking a leadership role across the globe, not just in technical areas or innovation, but also in environmental management, social license to operate practices, health and safety, extending to Australian METS with their goods and services to the world.
“The growth, reach and influence of the Melbourne Mining Club has been particularly pleasing. It now stands proudly as a world leader in its field as a forum for our industry’s leaders, having reached across a wide range of continents and countries with more than 250 of the world’s industry leaders harnessing this platform to discuss and profile issues and challenges as well as communicate the important role that the resources industry plays in economic and social well-being.”
Gavan and his wife Jan have two children and four grandchildren.
