Who we are

Since 1901, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) has been the leading advocate for the resources sector in Western Australia. It is a member-funded, not-for-profit organisation that represents the views of its members and advocates on their behalf.  

CME leads policy development on issues impacting the sector, prosecutes the case for those policies through government, stakeholder and media channels, and promotes the value of the sector to the community.  

To support the many business links between our members, investment partners and customers, CME’s policy experts engage in economic research and policy development activities across a range of social, environmental, workforce and business competitiveness issues.  Their work is complemented by an external communications strategy that aims to educate and increase awareness of the sector as a driver of the Western Australian and Australian economies, and as a significant enabler of the global energy transition.   

In 1895, following the discovery of gold in Coolgardie, local leaseholders and representatives of the area’s gold mining companies formed the Coolgardie Chamber of Mines and Commerce to protect and advance their interests.

With the addition of members from Kalgoorlie mining companies, The Kalgoorlie Chamber of Mines was inaugurated the following year. A Perth Chamber of Mines was established in 1897 consisting principally of attorneys and legal managers of gold mining companies. The Perth chapter soon folded as it was considered too far removed from the industry’s geographic centre. 

Over the next few years, a great deal of legislation was passed and it became necessary for goldfields mining companies to unite on a larger scale. In 1900, the Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie Chambers were amalgamated to provide a consolidated voice for the flourishing gold mining industry. The Chamber of Mines of Western Australia was born. 

At the first general meeting of the new Chamber on 11 March 1901, Richard Hamilton was unanimously elected as the inaugural President, a position he held until his death in 1943. This meeting of the Chamber’s Executive Council was attended by 37 members, who voted on the Chamber’s structure and Constitution, and matters of government policy.  

The Chamber has grown with the sector, particularly through the boom times of the 1960s when the burgeoning market for key minerals such as iron ore, bauxite and nickel started to flourish. As the sector expanded into oil, petroleum and natural gas, so too did the Chamber, leading to its formal renaming as the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia.