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Episode Teaser

Introduction

“…The story of a success is the story of lots and lots of individuals that played a certain part…”

Biography

Mark Swinnerton is the Founder and CEO of Green Gravity, an energy storage company that uses legacy mine shafts and gravitational storage to support the energy transition, based in Wollongong, Australia. He was formerly Vice President in Operations Services at BHP and has been in the mining and resources industry for over 20 years. Mark studied Metallurgy at the University of Wollongong, obtaining a Bachelor in Materials Engineering and then a Masters in Engineering (specializing in Metallurgical processing). He is a global mining executive with a proven record of sustainably delivering innovative solutions to enterprise level issues, while building and inclusive and motivated team culture.

Mark is actively working to support the Australian energy transition. Australia has an urgent need to improve the smooth integration of renewable energy into our energy grid and, at the same time, has a rich and deep mining legacy which, when partnered with the right clean technology, can form part of the solution to rapid and economic decarbonisation.

Resources Related to the Episode

• Wollongong Australia
  • About Wollongong, Australia and its history [Official Tourism Site] [Wikipedia]
  • The World Ccycling Championships 2022
  • Wollongong’s mining history
  • The University of Wollongong
• For those interested in purchasing your own selfie stick, here’s a review of the best selfie sticks for your smartphone or other devices
• Some of the companies Mark worked in:
  • BHP’s Official Website
  • BlueScope
• We refer to Episode 17 with Mohan Yellishetty, which was also the first episode about the abandoned mines story on the podcast. Check out his episode for more details on the topic!
• Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) work culture, what’s it like? and the Life of a FIFO Worker
  • Some of the best Mining Camps or FIFO towns in Australia [Top 6 Mining Camps]
  • And a list of mining towns in Australia [Wikipedia]
• Here’s a nice summary of the Australian Mining History
• Abandoned and Legacy Mines in Australia
  • The article of our work that inspired Mark: Werner, T.T., Bach, P.M., Yellishetty, M., Amirpoorsaeed, F., Walsh, S., Miller, A., Roach, M., Schnapp, A., Solly, P., Tan, Y. and Lewis, C., 2020. A geospatial database for effective mine rehabilitation in Australia. Minerals, 10(9), p.745. [Open Access Link]
  • A shorter article about the work and the gist of the message
• Green Gravity’s Website:
  • About the energy storage challenge
  • About their technology
• Energy storage 101 – the different types
  • Regenerative electrical motors [ABB Article] [RoboteQ] [BrakingChopper]
  • Why energy storage matters for the global energy transition? [World Bank Blogs]
• Depths of mine shafts – here’s a list of the deepest mines
  • The Kolar Gold Fields in India [Wikipedia]
• What is Mining care and maintenance
• Tall buildings in Australia
  • Centrepoint tower Sydney [Official Website]
• Some history of mining regions around the world
  • A history of Romania’s Jiu Valley – post coal mining
  • Ballarat’s Gold Rush History, if you’re ever visiting, take a trip there! Definitely worth it!
• More about the Digital Economy, Software as a Service and the Personal Brand to complement our business discussion.
  • Startup Failure Statistics 2025

Episode Chapters

(Chapters are embedded in the episode for quick access, click this to expand and view all chapters and time stamps)

• 00:00 Intro
• 1:59 Guest Intro and Wollongong, Australia
• 3:52 Mark’s infamous selfie-stick – communicating authenticity
• 9:10 Mark’s journey from metallurgy to mining
• 15:17 Reflecting on Mark’s 9 years in Singapore
• 18:16 Handling large responsibilities
• 20:19 The challenge of mining legacy issues
• 23:01 Mark’s own perception of mining legacy issues
• 24:26 What is Green Gravity? – the concept of gravitational storage
• 32:30 VIsualizing the scale of mines
• 35:30 Increasing importance of energy storage
• 38:31 Building up Partnerships in preparation for technology readiness
• 42:00 Multiple benefits of Green Gravity’s technology
• 46:02 What is Mark most excited about?
• 47:42 Relationship between mines and urban areas – the Ballarat example
• 52:29 The changing world of business – from corporation to startup
• 1:00:48 Q&A Start
• 1:01:09 What does innovation mean to you?
• 1:03:42 Key moment, book , event
• 1:09:26 Time Management
• 1:11:39 Favourite childhood memory
• 1:14:15 Biggest challenge in career to date
• 1:16:39 What would you most like to be remembered for?
• 1:17:57 Where can people find you?
• 1:18:38 Final Message
• 1:19:04 Outro

Connect with Mark Swinnerton

• LinkedIn
• Green Gravity Website

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Related Episodes

	Episode #17 – Mohan Yellishetty What to do with a hole in the ground – re-mining for critical minerals, rehabilitation and repurposing (Related Topics: abandoned mines, rehabilitation, sustainability, resources engineering)
	Episode #41 – Don Weatherbee “Catalyzing” change beyond the mine – scaling up metals regeneration to enable the future circular economy (Related Topics: mine rehabilitation, resources engineering)
	Episode #42 – Mashael Yazdanie “Doing the right things the right way” – how to holistically plan for sufficiency and renewable energy (Related Topics: sustainability, renewable energy, resource sufficiency)

Credits

• Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach, follow me on: X: @petermbach, Instagram: @petermbach87 or subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
• Intro/Outro Song: ‘Starsky’ by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)