MetFest! Sydney Basin 2026
Join the Illawarra and Sydney Branch, WIMnet NSW and Metallurgical Society for MetFest! Sydney Basin 2026.
About this event
The AusIMM Illawarra & Sydney Branches together with Women in Mining NSW invites you to join us for the inaugural Sydney Basin MetFest.
The day will commence with a guided tour of the spectacular Port Kembla Steelworks, offering an up close and personal sensory experience of the largest and most dynamic concentration of heavy industry in Australia. The tour will include a visit to the colossal Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant, continuous slab caster, and Hot Strip Mill.
Proceeding lunch, delegates will then have the oppertunity to listen to three speakers on the following topics:
GD Delprat Distinguished Lecture: Flotation - understanding particles, processes and people
The Delprat lecture is a distinguished lecture series providing industry professionals an opportunity to showcase their perspective of a chosen topic in Minerals Processing. Virginia will discuss successes and challenges in her career and the impact of people who have been part of the journey to provide an entertaining and informative series of flotation challenges and wins.
New Dryflow Magnetics Technology
DryFlow’s patented stacked magnetics technology separates valuable magnetic minerals from gangue, or non-product mass, early in the flowsheet, without the need for process water. The result is higher grade feedstock before material enters complex, high cost, low waste tolerance downstream metals processing.
New GRolls Crushers
The Gyratory Rolls Crusher (GRolls®) is a compression-based particle size reduction device designed to generate fine and ultra-fine products from coarse feeds. It achieves this by simultaneously applying pulsed compression and shear forces to a packed particle bed, initiating breakage mechanisms such as impact breakage, inter-particle compression, induced tensile failure, and particle shear forces.
Program:
7.45am - Meet at pick-up location (25 Bligh St, Sydney)
8.00am - Bus departs from Sydney
09.45am - Arrive at BlueScope Steel Visitors Centre (everyone)
10.00am - Depart on busses for Steelworks tour
12.00pm - Return from tours and lunch
1.20pm - Talks commence
3.30pm - Afternoon Tea break
4.00pm - Talks close
4.30pm - Bus departs back to pick-up location (Sydney attendees only)
6.15pm - Estimated arrival time at Sydney
Speaker/s
Virginia Lawson
Her journey in mineral processing began with more than 15 years immersed in gold operations and at Mount Isa, where she mastered the intricacies of metallurgy while navigating engineering milestones and raising four children—project managing both with characteristic precision and resilience. During this time, she acted as Owners Representative, collaborating across operations, engineering contractors, and project teams to improve recoveries, concentrate quality, and concentrator operability and maintainability.
Virginia then spent 13 years in Sudbury, Canada in copper/nickel operations and project roles. As Manager of Mineral Processing Technology for Vale and later in consulting with Glencore’s XPS, she led high-impact initiatives while mentoring young engineers toward their P.Eng accreditation through targeted project work and personal development. Her blend of technical depth and people leadership transformed teams and delivered operational excellence.
Returning to Australia to support her children through university and care for aging parents, Virginia continued shaping the future of metallurgical innovation within the Glencore Technology and the Glencore Copper group. Her technical leadership drove unprecedented adoption of the Jameson Cell technology, and she developed company-wide technical standards spanning metallurgical processing, metal accounting, project and operational guidelines and best practices.
Joining Mineralis in late 2025 as a Principal Consultant she is enjoying providing technical expertise and advice to willing clients. Trading mining towns and cities for a coastal lifestyle.
Virginia served on the AusIMM Metallurgical Society from 2018 to 2025 and was Chair from 2022 to 2025, steering professional development initiatives and events that empowered industry professionals in metallurgy. She remains a vocal advocate for sustainable mineral development and ongoing professional advancement through continued involvement with AusIMM and advisory roles including the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute.
Virginia was named in the “100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining” (WIM100) in 2024.
Oliver Cox
Tristian Coventry
Sponsors
Date and Time
7.45am – 6.15pm (UTC+10:00)
Venue
Springhill Road, Port Kembla
Cost
AusIMM Member Student: $15
Non-Member: $150