Richard Lilly

Dr. Richard Lilly has over 25 years’ experience spanning the industry-academia boundary. Working as a Senior Exploration Geologist for Mount Isa Mines (2007-2015), and as an Embedded Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide (2015-2025), he is a copper and base-metal specialist who has coordinated and supervised >75 applied research investigations on a diverse range of ore deposits. He co-founded, and was program leader, of the internationally recognised National Exploration Undercover School (NExUS) program (2016-2025), which aimed to prepare Australia’s most promising geoscientists for a career in the minerals industry, and was named South Australian STEMM educator of the year in 2022. Richard is passionate about rocks, ore systems, exploration, and teaching/mentoring the next generation of geoscientists.