John Welborn

John Welborn is Executive Chairman of Fenix Resources (ASX: FEX), an iron ore producer consolidating Western Australia's Mid West around the Port of Geraldton — and before that he spent five years as Managing Director and CEO of Resolute Mining, an Africa-focused gold producer. That combination is why resource investors pay attention: he has run a gold miner producing roughly 400,000 ounces a year across Africa and Australia, and now leads an iron ore company whose production rose 83% to a record 4.4 million tonnes in FY26, on a stated path toward 10Mtpa (million tonnes per annum).

At Resolute (2015-2020), Welborn commissioned the Syama Underground Mine in Mali — the world's first purpose-built fully automated underground gold mine — completed a dual listing on the London Stock Exchange in June 2019, sold the Ravenswood Gold Mine in January 2020, and introduced a dividend policy that let shareholders take payment in physical gold. He joined Fenix as non-executive chairman in November 2021 and became Executive Chairman in October 2023. Since then Fenix has acquired the Shine iron ore project and Mid West port and rail infrastructure from Mount Gibson, signed a 30-year mining agreement with Chinese steelmaker Baowu, and posted record FY26 results: revenue up 87% to A$590 million, net profit up 128%, and operating cash flow up 33% to A$96 million.

His approach favors integration over scale for its own sake. At Resolute he pushed automation to cut costs; at Fenix he is combining small, stranded Mid West deposits into one shared system of mines, road haulage, rail sidings and port facilities, which lowers C1 costs (the mine-site cash cost of producing one tonne of ore). A three-year plan — branded "The New Western Force in Iron Ore" — targets about 6Mt of production by FY28, with the Weld Range project and the Baowu agreement underpinning a longer-term path to 10Mtpa. He is also Chairman of Athena Resources, a Western Australian magnetite explorer aiming at green-steel markets.

Welborn is a chartered accountant and a former Wallaby rugby player, and he has backed his Fenix view with his own money since taking the chair. The honest caveats: his Resolute tenure ended with his departure announced in October 2020, and Fenix's growth targets remain execution-dependent, sensitive to iron ore prices and Western Australian logistics. For investors, he is worth following through Fenix's quarterly reports and interviews such as his 2026 Mining Network conversation on the A$96 million cash-flow year — a plain-spoken window into how a mid-tier Australian miner is actually run.