Owen Leigh Hegarty is an Australian mining professional with over forty years experience in the industry. Hegarty worked with the

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...

for 24 years, where he held positions of Managing Director Asia and Managing Director of the group's copper and gold business. He founded the Oxiana Ltd Group which grew from a small exploration company into a multi-billion dollar base and precious metals producer, developer and explorer. Oxiana merged with

Zinifex Zinifex was an Australian company that operated lead and zinc mines, refineries and a lead smelter. It was established in April 2004, when the assets of Pasminco were spun-off. In 2008 it merged with Oxiana to form OZ Minerals. History In ...

to form OZ Minerals in 2008. Hegarty's commentary on the resources sector has been published in various news media including

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

The Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

Jakarta Post ''The Jakarta Post'' is a daily English-language newspaper in Indonesia. The paper is owned by PT Niskala Media Tenggara and based in the nation's capital, Jakarta. ''The Jakarta Post'' started as a collaboration between four Indonesian med ...

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

and other industry-specific publications.

Australian interests

Hegarty is a non-executive director of

Fortescue Metals Group Fortescue Metals Group Limited (often referred to as Fortescue Metals Group, FMG, or simply Fortescue) is an Australian iron ore company. As of 2017, Fortescue is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the world. The company has holdings of ...

and a Director of the

AusIMM The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia. History The Institute had its genesis in 1893 with ...

. He is Chair of Tigers Realm Minerals and a non-executive director of Tigers Realm Coal and Highfield Resources. He is also the chair of Melbourne-based EMR Capital and is a member of the South Australian Minerals & Petroleum Expert Group which advises the

Government of South Australia The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

's Department of State Development. He is also a director of the Mining Hall of Fame Foundation.

Hong Kong interests

Hegarty is Executive Vice Chairman of Hong Kong listed mining companies G-Resources Group Ltd (gold) and Executive Vice Chairman of CST Mining Group Ltd (copper).

Political views

Hegarty has expressed his support for his business associate

Andrew Forrest John Andrew Henry Forrest (born 18 November 1961), nicknamed Twiggy, is an Australian businessman. He is best known as the former CEO (and current non-executive chairman) of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), and has other interests in the mining i ...

's controversial 'Forrest Review' and believes in its potential to improve opportunities for indigenous Australians.

Honours

Hegarty was awarded the AusIMM Institute Medal in 2006 and the G. J. Stokes Memorial Award in 2008. In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours he was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for "service to the minerals and mining sector".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hegarty, Owen Australian corporate directors Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia