Leigh Staines, Managing Director of Banksia Minerals Processing, says she is working to find new ways to provide the energy and materials the world requires, following this year’s International Women’s Day (8 March).
The International Women’s Day theme for 2026 ‘Give to Gain’ represents that the more industries such as mining invest in people, opportunities and inclusion, the greater the returns.
As a student entering university, Staines chose environmental engineering as she was in grade 12 during the launch of the Kyoto Protocol – which she describes as her ambition to work on the decarbonisation of industrial process.
The Kyoto Protocol is an 1997 international treaty that committed industrialised nations to legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, aiming for a 5% reduction below 1990 levels by 2012.
However, in reality, Staines says she was “about 25 years too early”.
“After completing a vacation work assignment with an environmental consultancy I learnt that the ability to influence change in this area wasn’t going to be driven by the specialist consultants, who were hired to report on emissions rather than reduce them,” she tells Mining.com.au.
“As a result I changed my focus to working internally in the industry with the most impact and therefore most influence – energy – starting at ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM).
“Later I transitioned across to the mining side of the resources sector helping to establish the internal strategy consulting group at Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), where we had the opportunity to work on transformation projects across the group.”
A defining moment
Speaking to this news service ahead of the Women in Sustainable Energy and Resources’ (WISER’s) Brisbane Champagne High Tea held last week, Staines explains when she was 23 years old and only one of two women in the field, she experienced a defining challenge in her career.
“I was asked to lead the implementation of Risk Based Work Selection – an operations and maintenance philosophy that was new at the time,” she says.
“It was highly controversial because the operations and engineers had input to their planning process. I will never forget standing in front of 300 loud and passionate operators and maintenance technicians and walking them through the proposed changes.”
However, Staines says it did not take long to show a drop in unscheduled down time from over 20% to 7%.
Since being one out of two women in Staines’ workplace, the mining industry’s women representation has shown significant change.
According to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), at a national level roughly 17% of Australia’s mining workforce were women. That has increased to 22% – with more than 52,000 women in a workforce of 280,000 direct employees.
Deloitte Insights research into gender equity in leadership roles in financial services institutions globally shows that Oceania is leading in regard to the proportion of women in financial services leadership roles, as Mining.com.au reported.
Forecasting reveals that the current 25.2% share of women in C-suite roles is projected to grow to 34% by 2030 – higher than any other region. Similarly, women in next generation roles is expected to reach almost 37% by 2030, indicating an increased pipeline of women in financial services.
These figures are more than a statistic. They represent structural change in an industry historically defined by male dominance – proof that when companies give attention and investment to inclusion, they gain access to a broader talent base.
Everyone has ‘gold dust’
Over Staines’ career, she explains that she has had numerous mentors who have shaped her career.
“The Plant Manager at Longford taught me that everyone has some ’gold dust’ in them and the role of a good manager is to find that gold and let it shine. This remains the guiding principle of how I build teams,” the Managing Director says.
“I was also influenced by my family who ran a medium-size enterprise in the construction industry, in which both my parents and my grandparents were involved.
“Growing up, literally, alongside staff with a 30-year tenure, helping out both the back in the workshop and up front in the office taught me many lessons around building and maintaining a successful business.”
With an ambition to work on the decarbonisation of industrial processing, Staines explains that a sustainable future is more dependent on the resources sector than ever.
“Finding new ways to provide the energy and materials the world requires relies on the courage to try something different,” she says.
The global decarbonisation sector aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050, focusing on transforming energy, industrial and transportation systems.
To reach net zero emissions by 2050, annual clean energy investment worldwide will need to more than triple by 2030 to US$4 trillion. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports this will create millions of new jobs, lifting global economic growth, and achieve universal access to electricity and clean cooking worldwide by the end of the decade.
Due to the world’s decarbonisation goals, a wide range of minerals are required for clean energy technologies – from wind turbines and solar panels to electric vehicles and battery storage.
According to the IEA, since 2015, EVs and battery storage have surpassed consumer electronics to become the largest consumers of lithium, together accounting for 30% of total current demand.
Clean energy technologies are set to become the fastest-growing segment of demand for most minerals, as countries step up their climate ambitions. Their share of total demand edges up to over 40% for copper and rare earths, 60-70% for nickel and cobalt and almost 90% for lithium by 2040.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: The University of Queensland, WISER, RTCM Trailblazer & Austmine
