Originally published by Peter Ker of The Australian Financial Review
26.05.2026
Departing Lynas Rare Earths chief executive Amanda Lacaze is the new chairman of the Minerals Council of Australia, and will use the prominent position to call on governments to encourage investment in the nation’s biggest export sector.
Lacaze’s candidacy united the mining industry’s divided factions at a vote in Perth on Tuesday, and will see her immediately take on the role.
Lacaze announced plans to step down as Lynas chief in January and most MCA members had expected her to take a year off before building on her existing role as a director of the peak industry body.
But the 66-year-old will make her first public appearance as chairman at the Financial Review Mining Summit on Wednesday, where she will declare the minerals sector to be more important than ever before.
“We need governments to be our partners by providing constructive policy settings that encourage investment and productivity growth,” she will say.
“We have created a sophisticated, world-leading industry that provides the foundation of Australia’s economic resilience and the inputs our trading partners need. Our economic contribution is in the form of export revenue, corporate tax, state royalties, jobs, community support and of course returns to our shareholders, including via the superannuation funds that are so important to each and every one of us as we age.”
Lacaze has advocated for governments to invest in shared infrastructure for miners rather than handouts to a select few in the form of tax credits.
She has described Australia as a high-cost labour market, due to industrial relations and energy policy, and lamented the fact many business figures are scared to speak up on policy.
She will tell Wednesday’s summit that Australia is vulnerable to competition from rival mining nations with lower cost bases and less regulation.
“Australian mining projects face high effective tax rates, slow and complex regulatory approvals, relatively high labour and construction costs and rising energy prices,” she will say, according to speech notes.
Her appointment comes as the MCA seeks to mend relations with federal Labor after being a strong opponent of the Albanese government’s “same job, same pay” industrial relations reforms.
“We seek to work with government to reduce these barriers to continued growth,” she will say on Wednesday. “By leaving mining tax settings unchanged in the 2026-27 federal budget, the Albanese government showed the government understands mining’s immense contribution.”
Tuesday’s appointment ended a campaign that had seen former Western Australia premier Mark McGowan and former federal Labor heavyweight Joel Fitzgibbon promoted by rival sections of the MCA membership base as potential candidates to replace retiring chairman Andrew Michelmore.
The campaign exposed tensions that have run through the MCA for the best part of a decade, since miners like BHP and Rio Tinto sought to distance their brands from fossil fuels.
BHP and Rio are the biggest financial contributors to the MCA and forced big changes in 2017 and 2018, including a cessation of lobbying for new coal-fired power stations in favour of a “technology neutral” energy policy.
BHP and Rio are believed to have nominated McGowan, but other members like Hancock Iron Ore and pure coal miners were cool on his candidacy.
East coast coal miners were backing Fitzgibbon, who represented the NSW coal mining electorate of Hunter between 1996 and 2022.
It is believed BHP and Rio were reluctant to support Fitzgibbon’s candidacy given his public advocacy for coal. “It was a compliment to be asked, but I’m no longer interested in the MCA role,” Fitzgibbon said on Monday.
It is believed Lacaze was appointed unanimously by the MCA members.
Michelmore was prevented from serving as MCA chairman beyond Tuesday’s meeting under the organisation’s constitution. A former chief executive of Chinese miner MMG, he is chairman of Century Aluminium.