Owen Hegarty

Owen Leigh Hegarty is an Australian mining professional with over forty years experience in the industry. Hegarty worked with Rio Tinto for 24 years, where he held positions of Managing Director Asia and Managing Director of the group's copper and gold business. He founded Oxiana Limited which grew from a small exploration company into a multi-billion dollar base and precious metals producer, developer and explorer. Oxiana merged with Zinifex to form Oz Minerals in 2008. Hegarty's commentary on the resources sector has been published in various news media including The Age, The Australian, Australian Financial Review, Jakarta Post, South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal and other industry-specific publications.

Australian interests Hegarty is a non-executive director of Fortescue and a Director of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy. 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's Department of State Development.

Honours Hegarty was awarded the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy Institute Medal in 2006 and an honorary fellowship in 2019 as well as the G. J. Stokes Memorial Award in 2008.