Welcome Message from the Chair April 2026

Dear Hunter Branch members,

2026 is shaping up to one of our busiest in years with a packed Technical Programme for members.  Our upcoming Kooragang Island visit (open only to members and FREE!) on 20 May 2026 will be a fascinating insight into one of the Hunter’s most sophisticated manufacturing sites.  We also have great Technical talks lined up in Singleton in June (watch your emails) and the much anticipated return of our JORC seminar in August, where the JORC committee will update us on the new code. 

We are delighted to recognise members of our Branch who have been long standing members of the AusIMM.   We thank in particular David Mathieson (70 Years!) and John Kalnejais, Michael Diemar and Neville Sneddon (60 Years) for their ongoing support of the AusIMM and our industry.  We will be presenting these members and other people marking milestone anniversaries of membership at an event later in the year.  We hope you can join us so that we can celebrate and thank you for your support of the AusIMM. 

The Hunter Branch is proud to announce that AusIMM’s annual Congress will be held in Newcastle in November this year.  Congress is a forum for Community of Interest leaders from across the AusIMM to get together and plan the future of our great organisation.  Congress allows the host Branch the opportunity to feature our region and highlight why mining is such an important part of our community to the broader audience. 

As well as these events, the annual Jameson Lecture will take place in October and we have myriad events for our student members organised by our indefatigable student committee headed by EJ.  

If you have any interest in joining our committee, we are always happy to accommodate additional members who wish to volunteer their time. In principle, it involves very little time; a monthly meeting of around one hour (usually on-line), attendance of events and perhaps some organisation of one of our events.  We’d love to have you on board.  In the interest of diversity, we would particularly like to hear from metallurgists/process engineers, geologists and women. Send through an email if you are interested.

Welcome to any of our new members. We hope to see you and all members at an AusIMM event sometime soon.

Kind regards,
Tim Baitch
Chair AusIMM Hunter Region Branch