Maryanne Kelly has beaten the odds to rise to some of the most senior operational positions available in mining in Western Australia.
The 2005 40under40 winner was operations manager at Pannawonica, the second largest iron ore mine in Australia and run by iron ore miner and Rio Tinto when she won her award. At the age of 28 and a single mother running a restaurant, Ms Kelly decided to enrol in a commerce degree. Ms Kelly has continued studying ever since, having completed a graduate diploma and an MBA, and is pursuing further postgraduate qualifications. In between her study and work commitments, Ms Kelly found time to be a member of the Army reserve. In 2005 she transferred to Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley where she was mine manager and then general manager until 2011 when she joined iron ore startup Kimberley Metals Group as general manager of operations for more than two years. From 2011 to 2016 she owned a general store in Wyndham. In 2014, she joined Fortescue Metals Group as its port operations manager before becoming general manager of its Cloudbreak Mine in 2015.
