The Spektrum Development difference.
Spektrum Development will accelerate approvals for the critical minerals needed to fuel the Net Zero transition. We are a social purpose company that is built with social licence at our core.
FOUNDER
Katherine Teh
Katherine Teh is planning to become the fourth generation of her family in mining. She is working towards an April 2023 launch of Spektrum Development which will accelerate approvals for the critical minerals needed to fuel the Net Zero transition. The company will be a social purpose company that will be built with social licence at its core.
A pioneer of sustainability and social licence strategy and practice, Katherine Teh has been developing resource projects for companies she worked for either as an employee or consultant for 30 years. Her specialty is creating strategy that is ahead of the curve which eliminates the need for activism, such as the Gorgon project approval strategy which she designed to reduce political and regulatory risk which today stands the test of time as the only significant energy project without an activist group.
She has also worked with activists when they’ve blockaded or locked the gate to resolve their issues and realign the project so it can progress to licencing or to maintain the licence of an existing operation.
The methodology she has developed integrates social licence into governance, financial, environmental and social assessment and management of projects from due diligence to operation, engagement, communication, performance, role definition and issues management.
A former journalist, Katherine developed the world's first Social Licence Method to accelerate resource development in 1993. A winner of the Telstra business woman award in 2000, she is a highly experienced business leader who has served as the chair of the project approval sub-committee of the Earth Resources Development council for the Minister of Resources and Energy in Victoria as well as on the steering committee that developed the world’s first social and environmental standards for the mining industry.
She was the industry partner for the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law to undertake the world’s first series of case studies for the role of transnational corporations in upholding human rights which informed the UN Principles for Business in Human Rights.
She was a co-founder of the UN Global Compact Cities Program that engaged cities in sustainable development partnerships (today goal 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals). Today Katherine is an ambassador for the Victorian Women’s Honor Roll due to her work against sexual harassment and discrimination.
PRIME MOVERS
We are proudly endorsed by key industry figures.
Jerry Ellis, AO
Former Chairman of BHP
I have known Katherine for about 20 years. We first met as members of a resources advisory committee to the Victorian Government. I was Chairman and Katherine was a constructive and creative member. At this time Katherine was the owner and MD of her creation Futureye, a company she set up to assist companies, particularly those in mining and mineral processing, to gain community support for their developments. Katherine asked me to be her Chairman which was really more of a mentoring role than the normal Chairman position. What I observed was how effective the methods were. For example, OneSteel in Whyalla had the community against them over iron ore dust which the company was inclined to do little about maybe relying on the fact that the whole community depended on the steel works staying open and profitable. Katherine was able to convince the management to address the issue, openly with the community, and an economic abatement was developed that satisfied the community and the company. This is but one example of many in the successful resolution, of usually an environmental issue, with the community involved. Katherine has now moved on in many ways but her commitment to solving roadblocks to development remains. Her concept of creating mining opportunities from frozen assets, frozen due to environmental restrictions, is in my opinion a very good business concept. The assets will be cheap and Katherine has the skills to deal with community resistance. Katherine has faced many challenges which she has dealt with gracefully and courageously. I think she has the skill, and fortitude to bring this business idea to life.
Dr. Megan Clark, AC
Chair, Advisory Board, Australian Space Agency
The mining industry faces a new challenge. State and national governments are responding to community concerns and slow development timetables by removing or diluting ownership of mining tenements (e.g. Jadar in Serbia; Simandou in Guinea). At the same time all levels of government are looking to capture more of the downstream processing in the areas of critical and battery minerals and decarbonise their energy market. These trends create an opportunity for new entrants into the mining sector that can build social licence and bring value to communities while working constructively with local, state and national governments. Katherine Teh has an extensive track record of anticipating and resolving conflicts between communities and resource companies. She has developed a unique methodology to understand, approach and resolve such conflicts and has in many cases turned communities into advocates for a project.
I first worked with Katherine Teh when at BHP to understand community and social issues such as climate change, water and social licence and their impact on the future of mining. We have continued to work closely and I deeply respect her capability and experience. She is the leading global expert in social licence. This leadership is built on pragmatic on-the-ground experience with successful collaborations across the coal, mining, agriculture and other sectors. I endorse Katherine's vision to bring a new approach to mining and social licence.
STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT
Professor Mike Sandiford
One of the most daunting of the many challenges in meeting climate goals, such limiting global warming to 1.5°C, is delivering the critical minerals needed for “electrification of everything”. At around 20% per year over several decades, the demand growth for critical minerals on the net zero pathways is unprecedented. For countries like Australia with abundance in both mineral resources and cheap renewable energy, the economic opportunities for both mining and processing are immense, but only if the challenges of bringing new resources in a timely fashion can be overcome. Not least amongst the challenges will be building consensus for resource developments amongst all stakeholders including impacted communities; that is securing a "social license".
For many years now, Katherine Teh has been a leading practitioner in resource development social license governance, culture and regional development. Her ongoing focus on critical mineral resource development will assuredly continue to provide a guiding light for the industry best practise, and will be crucial for Australia realising the immense opportunities afforded by its extraordinary resource endowments, as most recently espoused in the "Superpower Transformation".
Prof Mike Sandiford,
Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of Melbourne and Director, Superpower Institute