What's new at IMARC 2026
Australia’s resources minister Madeleine King has said the country is at the centre of international efforts to build stable and reliable critical material supply chains and this will never be more evident than at the International Mining and Resources Conference + Expo (IMARC) in Sydney this month.
The mining and metals world will descend on ICC Sydney from October 27-29 and will be joined by financial, political, scientific and manufacturing leaders from 120-plus countries.
Connect with AusIMM at IMARC
Visit the AusIMM stand (F01) to meet the team, discover what’s coming in the 2027 Professional Development Calendar and scan to win one of three great prizes.
Future-ready Capability Spotlights: Join us for practical 20-minute presentations exploring four key areas of professional capability and how AusIMM can help you and your team stay future-ready. Sessions held at the AusIMM stand, daily at 10am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3pm.
It's not too late to register or attend. AusIMM members can save 15% on delegate passes or register for a free Expo Pass using the code SPEX15.
IMARC in context
Why is Australia so central to current thinking on minerals and metals supply?
“The trends impacting the mining and metals sector feel almost unprecedented and Australia is in the eye of the storm,” Deloitte Australia mining & metals leader Nicki Ivory has said. “Our abundant critical mineral supply, once seen primarily as an energy transition enabler, is now at the centre of global national security discussions. Companies are expected to balance powering clean energy with reinforcing defence strategies, all while meeting growing consumer demand.”
Another IMARC 2026 speaker, mining economist and Critical Minerals Security Program director at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, Gracelin Baskaran, put Australia at the top of a global list of “partners” she saw as vital to US efforts to counter China’s stranglehold on critical minerals supply chains. “Taken together [Australia’s] resources, capital and talent make one fact clear: US mineral security cannot be achieved without Australia.”
Baskaran and Ivory head a who’s who list of international mining and metals market experts on the IMARC 2026 program.
Other top-level speakers include BHP chief enterprise performance officer Edgar Basto, Alcoa Australia president Elsabe Muller, Appian Capital Advisory critical minerals CEO Paulo Castellari, mining investment guru Rick Rule, industry visionaries Jake Klein and Mark Cutifani, and China Mining Association president Cheng Liwei.
Senior leaders from the world’s biggest gold, copper, iron ore, rare earths and coal companies will join their contemporaries from engineering heavyweights such as WSP, Aecom, Arup and Jacobs and major mining contractors such as Thiess, Byrnecut, Perenti and Macmahon, in event forums and networking lounges.
What else is happening at IMARC this year?
The world’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and technology companies – from Hitachi Construction Machinery, Weir, Metso, Epiroc, Sandvik, Hexagon and FLS to Australia’s IMDEX – will be in town.
The event will welcome an unprecedented line-up of senior government officials from Europe, USA, Canada, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Chile and Peru, as well as the full complement of Australian state and territory administrations.
More than 30 country pavilions will be dotted across the 20,000-square-metre exhibition floor, reinforcing IMARC’s status as a significant platform to explore trade, investment and cross-border collaboration in mining and resources.
“IMARC’s timing could not be better,” said a spokesperson for Team Finland, which returns to the event with a Finnish business delegation led by the country’s economic affairs minister, Sakari Puisto (below).
“The upcoming EU–Australia Free Trade Agreement, Australia’s association with Horizon Europe and the EU–Australia MOU on Sustainable Critical and Strategic Minerals together create an unprecedented window of opportunity, opening the door for Finnish companies to expand, innovate and scale like never before.”
Business Sweden CEO Jan Larsson no doubt agrees on timing. He will be at IMARC for the first time this year.
And speakers from Vale, Codelco, Antamina and SQM will lead a powerful South American presence at the event.
Meanwhile, attending export credit agencies including KfW IPEX, the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea EXIM), US EXIM, Export Development Canada, UK Export Finance and Japan Bank for International Cooperation highlight the increasingly important role these groups have in helping to mobilise capital and address financing gaps across critical mineral value chains.
“EXIM is moving boldly into the industries of the future,” US EXIM chairman John Jovanovic said last month.
Alyssa Pettus, US EXIM Bank senior vice president and chief of staff, leads the bank’s IMARC presence and adds a senior US government voice to the event’s international program.
In terms of valuable new IMARC insights and unique takeaways:
- Visitors can this year get an exclusive look at one of mining’s most anticipated annual industry surveys in the form of EY’s 2027 Business Risks and Opportunities report.
- Austrade’s latest Critical Minerals Prospectus will be available.
- The Gold Industry Group is bringing World Gold Council chief strategy officer Terry Heymann, Evolution Mining CFO Fran Summerhayes and Westgold CEO Wayne Bramwell together for a “candid conversation about what trust really means in gold today and what it costs – or earns – a company that gets it right”.
- The aforementioned Rick Rule will tell his audience how to get a cheque from him (warning: not getting any easier).
- Faisal Alharbi, CFO of Saudi Mining Services Company (ESNAD), the executive and operational arm of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, comes to IMARC for the first time to provide a close-up examination of one of the world’s hottest mineral investment jurisdictions.
- New Minerals Council of Australia chair Amanda Lacaze will regale IMARC Gala Dinner guests with her unique views on mining’s main issues. With more than 25 years in senior executive positions across mining, telecommunications, marketing and consumer goods, including 13 years heading Lynas Rare Earths, Lacaze is one of Australia’s most respected corporate leaders.
- The American Exploration & Mining Association, Australia’s Association of Mining and Exploration Companies and leading Asia Pacific investment firm Tribeca host first-time pavilions in a mining investment hub featuring 50% more juniors than last year.
- IMARC’s Innovation & Investment Alley returns in 2026 with exciting start-ups and world-class R&D. Ecohoist, Evaporation King, Liberate Minerals, NOVYNS, SpaceDraft, Reveal, OreStrike, Spatialis AI, Proxion and the Australian Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer are all highlighting new productivity, efficiency and safety pathways.