2026 Exploration Forum
8:30 am | Registration, tea and coffee
9:15 am | Welcome and Introduction
Melinda Graham, Principal Compliance Manager
9:30 am | Opening address - Exploring in NSW
Executive update
• Active regions and focus commodities (e.g. Critical Minerals)
• NSW Government initiatives e.g. funding and/or support.
9:45 am | Compliance focus, Mining Act Inspectorate
Meagan McCool, Chief Regulatory Officer
• 2026 compliance priorities
• Community consultation code of practice uptake
• Importance of building and maintaining your social licence.
10:00 am | New Assessable Prospecting Operations (APO) applications
Sally Franco, Principal Project Officer
• Internal business improvement project
• NSW Planning Part 5 assessment changes
• Referrals to other agencies – environmental protection, biodiversity.
10:45 am | Morning tea
11:15 am | New Rehabilitation Cost Estimate (RCE) tool
Matt Newton, Principal Inspector, Environment and Rehabilitation
• Overview of changes
• Live demonstration
• Portals and support.
12:00 pm | Workshop: Hear from Industry
Hosted by David Fowler, Principal Operations Manager
• A day in the life, what is your top regulatory challenge with exploration?
• Your feedback on the APO and RCE changes?
• Emerging industry innovations/technology/trends that are affecting you?
What do you need/want from the Regulator?
12:45 pm | Lunch
1:30 pm | Case studies: trends and compliance results
Jenny Ehmsen, Principal Compliance Auditor & Mark Greally, Inspector Environment
• Common APO & Rehabilitation Completion (REH) issues
• Areas of high non-compliance on site
• Good examples of exploration operations.
2:15 pm | Geological Survey of NSW
Geological Survey of NSW representative, NSW Resources
• Reports, applications and surveys
• HyLogger opportunities
• Projects and the Drillcore libraries.
2:45 pm | Land access framework
NSW Resources representative
• Landholder and explorer rights
• Land access arrangements and dispute resolution.
3:45 pm | Closing address and final discussion
Please note this program is subject to change.