GRX26 opens with a Welcome to Country followed by a ministerial fireside chat exploring Australia's policy priorities for the resources sector and the role of innovation in global competitiveness.

In this flagship keynote, BHP's Jessica Farrell outlines the strategies, decisions and actions that will define which players shape the Critical Era. 

The global race for critical minerals leadership is accelerating. Industry leaders explore how Asia-Pacific nations must drive breakthrough innovation, deploy automation at scale and forge new partnerships to compete.

What if AI could find deposits that decades of exploration missed? What if mine waste became a carbon sink? What if AI could eliminate track defects before they cause failures? Earth AI, Arca and Hancock Iron Ore reveal breakthroughs spanning three segments of the value chain. 

AI investment is accelerating across the industry, yet many initiatives stall. Mikko Tepponen from BHP unpacks what separates execution from experimentation and shares practical insights from delivering digital change at scale.

Over $20 billion in government funding supports Australian innovation, but competition is fierce. Learn which programs suit METS and mining companies, what makes applications stand out, and common mistakes that sink strong projects.

Underground operations face the same costly compromise: stop production to inspect, or accept data gaps. Learn how persistent autonomy removed 12 workers from fatal-risk exposure across Pilbara operations.

Build, buy or integrate? Every mining operation faces a defining technology architecture choice that shapes performance for decades. Join mixed tables to solve real scenarios and leave with tools you can apply immediately.

Sustainable employment pathways built from the ground up. The leaders behind one of mining's most established Indigenous engagement models share a replicable blueprint for economic inclusion that delivers real outcomes.

How do you take a startup from a slide deck to an operating mine site? A leading mining company and venture partner go inside their accelerator to reveal the systems, structures, and lessons behind corporate–startup integration that actually deploys. 

Mining’s pursuit of zero harm has reached an inflection point. CSIRO and SAPHI confront why life-saving technology still takes years to reach operational settings, and what must change to accelerate zero-entry safety at scale.

This is not a roadmap. It is a field report. Battery-electric locomotives, electric excavators across multiple sites, electric drills in production, and the most comprehensive renewable energy buildout in global mining. Speaker to be announced. 

Australia is producing more mining tech startups than ever, yet very few cross from seed stage to institutional capital. A venture investor and government strategist reveal what separates companies that scale from those that stall.

Using the BHP-Curtin Trailblazer collaboration as a blueprint, this session shows how data science partnerships deliver measurable operational improvements – and a replicable framework for others.

Australia’s sovereign capability is built through partnerships, not isolation. Leaders actively designing JVs, R&D collaborations and trade frameworks share what’s working, and what’s at stake for our strategic future.

Seventy percent of people believe mining is negative to the planet. Mark Cutifani delivers an uncomfortable truth: we talk to each other instead of engaging with those most critical of us. It’s time to change.

Critical minerals are now diplomatic instruments reshaping international engagement. The Hon Julie Bishop delivers a diplomatic briefing, then joins a panel where the audience interrogates the new rules of resource diplomacy. Panel to be announced.

Innovation Accelerator Live Pitch Session  

GRX's flagship applied innovation platform culminates live on stage. Global finalists tackle the extraction challenge: breakthrough technologies to locate, map, and economically extract critical minerals from complex deposits, at pace and at scale. 

Bellevue Gold proves that embedding sustainability at design drives commercial advantage. Its WA mine runs on a 90MW hybrid power system, achieving >100 hours “engines off” and over 90% renewables for a month at a time—becoming the world’s first net zero (Scope 1 & 2) gold mine.

Jason Crusan led NASA’s team that discovered water ice on the Moon, then solved an impossible logistics problem: stop bringing everything from Earth. The parallel to mining’s remote operations is striking.

Session details coming soon!

Mount Isa Mines operates one of Australia’s most complex multi-commodity operations across 35+ stockpiles. Learn how they unified material tracking and connected shift data from mine to mill.

The conversation has moved beyond electric trucks. Today’s mining energy transition is about integrated whole-of-mine systems, renewable microgrids, hydrogen, AI-driven energy management and tackling the 80-95% of emissions in processing.

Output per person down by a third. Real unit costs up 90%. Twenty-five years of underground benchmarking data reveal a structural productivity decline that bigger equipment alone won't fix. AMC quantifies the gap and maps the path back. 

Big tech has mastered fleet automation, predictive maintenance and workforce AI adoption at global scale. A leading miner and technology partner explore the real challenges and breakthroughs of deploying AI at enterprise scale. 

What happens when Australia’s largest mining companies stop competing for talent and start building it together? The MiEX initiative proves what’s possible. 500+ applications, 60%+ female representation, and growing.