Episode 8: Ken Brinsden, Managing Director & CEO of Pilbara Minerals

Pleasure to be with you, Tim. Looking forward to it.

As to how I ended up in Epping, that's a bit of a longer story, but yeah, the family very much, you know, deep Kalgoorlie roots. Mum and Dad born there, grandfather, father, great-grandfather.

Because, you know, even though I was born in Sydney, well, who knows as to how it happened, but it must have been in the blood because I ended up back in Kal and in the mining game.

Yeah, yeah. Well, both grandparents on my mum and dad's side were involved in the mining industry. On my mum's side, my grandfather was, well, he was an electrical engineer and worked on the mines, but ended up being a lecturer at the School of Mines. So, yeah, I knew about the School of Mines, you know, from the age of two or three. And then on my father's side, yeah, they were really into the mining game. My grandfather and my great-grandfather were both mine managers, you know, on the Golden Mile and at one stage through the US as well. Yeah, so it was all there, just not present in my mum and dad. Because, you know, sorry, getting back to your question, you know, what did my mum and dad do? Well, my mum is a concert pianist and a librarian, and my dad, he was also an electrical engineer.

No travel in between. They left Kal, having finished high school, went to university here in Perth, and, you know, their romance blossomed, married, and then the honeymoon was the commencement of their respective careers. And they went and worked in the UK and the Netherlands, or Holland at the time, travelled the world, and then ended up back in Australia in Sydney. And of course that was where I was born and my sisters were born.

Actually, yeah, well, no, six of us. Four kids.

Yeah, so I'm the only boy growing up with the three sisters.

Yeah, no, they looked after me for sure.

Yeah, Epping Boys High first, Epping Public, then Epping Boys High. I don't know, school was school, you know. I wasn't really passionate about it, and I've never really considered myself to be that greatest student, Tim, to be honest. But bumbled my way through school and did, you know, all the classic subjects and didn't really enjoy that many of them. And actually, by the time I got to the end of high school, I was really sort of, you know, second guessing what I was going to do. And mum and dad, you know, to their credit, they sort of, you know, kept encouraging me, and you'll find what you want to do. And I applied for unis in Sydney, and in the scheme of things, I think that went okay. I was offered a place at Sydney Uni in engineering, and as soon as I got the letter, Tim, I knew I didn't want to do it.

And I just thought, no, if I stay here, you know, I'm going to rot on the vine, I reckon. You know, I'm going to be a ratbag. I was already a bit of a ratbag, but I just thought if I'm at home, you know, it's just too comfortable. You know, I'm going to find myself kind of tied in knots. And that led to a bit of soul searching. But over a couple of weeks, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to go to Kalgoorlie and I was going to go to the School of Mines. And when I said to mum and dad, I really actually, this is what I want to do, I think I want to go to the School of Mines, it just blew them out of the water.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, a bit of a weird sort of confluence of events. I think the fact that I'd always been exposed to Kal and Western Australia generally, you know, as family, we travelled there, lots and lots of trips driving across Australia. That was kind of our, you know, biannual holiday. And that, you know, that exposure, it must have been worth something because actually I really liked the idea. Once I'd convinced myself it was the thing to do, I sort of never really looked back. Packed up my car, drove to Kal.

Yeah, well, the School of Mines is just such a great venue for your entree to the mining industry because you're immersed, well, especially at that time because you had no choice. You went to Kal to go to the School of Mines. You've got a few more options these days, but it was Kal that was it. You go and, you know, from day one, you're deeply immersed in the mining industry. You're living in town, probably working, you know, most of us in some way, shape or form worked in the industry while we were studying. And it was the full package because you had the sort of academic piece going on, but you also had this really important cultural piece, kind of getting you attuned to the industry and what makes, you know, the people tick in the industry. And, you know, integrating with the average kind of, you know, plant operator and all that is just so, so valuable. And I think that's one of the reasons why you'll see the School of Mines graduates excel. You know, they're tuned to the industry, ready to fire from day one. It's not quite the same as picking up a graduate from somewhere else around the world who, you know, the day he arrives at your mine is the day he was introduced to the industry.

Yeah, yeah, and I consider myself really lucky to have lived and worked with, you know, some of those people. You know, really good mate David Flanagan. We, you know, we met on the first day at college. You know, he was my neighbour. Yeah, we carried on like pork chops and, you know, did all the wrong things. But out of it, you know, again, just got this incredible experience in four years that was invaluable, really.

Yeah, deliberately so from my point of view. Yeah, I really had a passion for the underground mining and was really keen to progress and, you know, go through those classic, you know, learning elements, you know, underground operator, a leg miner, shift boss, and eventually one day maybe make it as an underground manager. And deliberately sought to achieve that and jump through those, you know, hurdles in the earlier part of my career. And considered that first stint of work with Western Mining as being a really important part of career growth because, you know, WMC at the time had this incredible portfolio of, you know, underground assets you could work out and learn from and take on a whole heap of different roles. So, yeah, that was job number one, just going to that.

No, we were doing, yeah, we were doing the remote relationship, Tim. Yeah, that was painful.

Well, another lucky stroke, I think, Tim, that one. Fiona was friends with some common acquaintances in, you know, the fourth year of university, and they came up, they hatched a plan to come to Kal and, you know, have a great weekend, participate in the School of Mines kind of end of year ball, graduates ball it's called. And lo and behold, who should I sit next to at dinner but Fiona. Yeah, so we got to know each other over the subsequent months, but of course it was at that stage, it was just a matter of months before I was going across to Olympic Dam. Yeah, at that stage, no such thing as fly-in, fly-out really. So I was going to, I was going to live there.

No, nothing like that. No, no, we did the, yeah, we did a remote relationship for the best part of two and a half years actually in the end. Yeah, but worth the investment, Tim, definitely worth the investment.

Yeah, again, another one of those lucky streaks in my life, Tim, that's for sure.

Yep, two girls, they're the eldest and the youngest, boy, he's just finished year 12. Yes, yeah, absolutely blitzed. We, you know, we didn't see that one coming either, Tim.

Yeah, well, down their own paths now. The oldest, Ellen, she's a graduate in public health and about to go back for a master's. And the middle, Miller, she's a dancer. She's in London studying dancing.

She didn't get the dancing from me, Tim, I can assure you. Came from mum.

First job, labourer. That was very much the mode of operations. You graduate and you'd start, you know, digging drains, and that's what I did. Yeah, really, really valued that experience that WMC gave me. And you're right, it's a huge mine. It's become even bigger since, but at that particular time, they were rapidly developing shafts and underground crushing chambers, and it was incredible to watch it all unfold. Huge open stoping, mass blast. It was an incredible experience, and again, consider myself really lucky to have been involved.

Yeah, it's a phenomenal mine. That mine will still be going in 120 years. It's incredible. Yeah, yeah.

That's a really good way to put it, Tim. Yeah, I'm not sure I could really grasp the sort of the reasoning other than to say you'd heard that WMC was a good place to be a graduate and get some experience, and that was absolutely my experience. You know, I think I was very, very privileged to have had that opportunity, and it did give me some fantastic exposure coming out of it. Underground, very much sort of my thing. We were, you know, doing some really innovative stuff over the years, the first paste fill, you know, Junction Underground back in the day.

Yeah, we were breaking a lot of new ground at the time, trying to make those things work.

Yeah, Junction Underground, no, no longer operating, but a phenomenal mine back in its day. But as it got deeper, it was geotechnically challenged, and we had, you know, that actually that was a bit of a formative time in my career because, you know, we were getting up in front of the underground miners, explaining what was going on in the mine, and in a manner of speaking, convincing them to go back to work because the mine was very active. It was popping and cracking, you know, stopes would be collapsing and drives would be squeezing, and we were building, you know, yielding bolts and shotcrete to, you know, hold things open. Yeah, incredible time. And the reason I say it's formative is because, you know, we were, in the manner of speaking, forging a new path. We were completely changing the shape of the mine development to suit the geotechnical conditions, and we were implementing paste fill and all these innovative structural controls, and trying to convince the workforce that, you know, we had it under control. And sometimes that wasn't easy. So that's one of the reasons why it was really formative in my career, was just being straight up front with the people that you're working with to say, yep, we understand this challenge, or no, we don't, in which case we should back off.

Yeah, Ken, reflecting on what happened to WMC, and I feel like I was lucky enough to be involved and part of it, they had had a raft of fatalities, right? And they were pretty widespread across the organization. It was a very, very uncomfortable time for the company, and they, you know, deliberately went down a different path, and they launched what they called the Fatalities Elimination Task Force, I think it was called, and it called for some really fundamental changes about the way that we operated the mines. So a really basic example was that we implemented meshing everywhere. Everything was going to be meshed as it was developed, which means you're installing with your ground support, you're installing mesh to stop rocks that would otherwise fall between rock bolts, you're falling to the ground or otherwise impacting people. It was a real uproar from the workforce saying, hang on, that slows us down, we're going to be impacted in terms of our ability to earn, you know, W and or it's just a stupid thing to do. You know, there was a lot of backlash, but what emerged was really interesting to me. What it forced was a completely different level of discipline about the way the mine worked, and it became more structured, more planned. There was less rework, and the net effect of it was, in fact, a better mine.

A safer mine and a better mine. It was really incredible, and again, really formative experience for me because I just came to appreciate that some of the things that you're doing here are sophisticated in the sense that it's building a much better operating platform. And even though at first blush, you know, you might think that you're spending more money or you're taking more time, well, actually the net effect of it all was a better, more productive operation that was also safer. Just fantastic experience to be involved in.

Yeah, I really got, you know, a kick out of that time and experience in, you know, management at a relatively young age, and I was really looked after by some key people too. So I consider myself really lucky to have worked with some of those amazing people.

So yeah, you're right, sort of turning left when I'd been previously turning right. And I guess the thing that was going through the back of my mind, there was a bit of a changing time for the family, and if we're going to move again, we should try and be constructive about how that's going to work for the family as much as it from a career point of view. And the project had about six months to run in Perth before we all shifted to Victoria, so that gave us the chance to see the last son born at that time and then make the move to Victoria. So from my point of view, yeah, it was all about a slightly different set of experience, but at the same time being able to set the family up and take advantage of, you know, whatever the next location was going to be. And I was really keen to get some greenfields development experience as well, having typically been involved in brownfields mining, you know, either expansion or development. So that represented a really good opportunity. A spin-off that arose from that time was, you know, we bought a small farm and went out, and no sooner had we turned up, you know, the next day, kid you not, the truck rolled up with the cattle on the back, and we had the, I don't know what it was, 15 or 16 steers out the back. And no, we really enjoyed the time there, and another really valuable learning about the interplay between, you know, mining and how that impacts in both a positive and a negative light in respect of the communities within which you work. So one of the really valuable pieces of experience to come out of that time with Alcoa was just how good a job they did at working with the community. Yes, we were mining in and on people's farms that they'd owned for 160 years, and Alcoa had done a good enough job to convince them that it made sense we could get in there and mine, and we could rehabilitate and hand the farm back to them, and who knows, maybe the farm would be better. Yes, it was really incredible, an amazing experience. What made it even more special was that this was Malcolm Fraser country, you know, this is not the back blocks in the goldfields. They had never seen a mine, so to have done that job, to have established a reputation that allowed them to get on with the work, create jobs in the community, and ultimately work on people's farms was pretty incredible and very, very valuable experience to have been involved in.

Yeah, no, that wasn't me. That was the team, Tim, and just incredible. Yeah, they had the model down pat for the ability to get to know people, to make them feel included in the process. The extent to which the whole team was invested in community engagement on a very regular basis, you know, both formally and informally, and created a great environment. Now, that doesn't mean it was always perfect. I don't want to give you that impression, but to have got those jobs done in that area, which is really beautiful, by the way, rolling green hills, incredible pasture, and Mal country, you know, just incredible.

Exactly, exactly. We got the job done, the mines, and I think as it would stand today, they probably, the farms have been handed back, and I'd imagine it's gone well. So, yeah, so a great experience to be involved in, Tim, really valuable.