''The work that Australia has done has been invaluable in helping to engage governments elsewhere in the world," he said.

''That has set a benchmark for us ... we have been using that material as we go and engage in Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Quebec."

Health comes first

Asked whether it was time to relax the economic lockdowns in place around Australia and restart the economy, Mr Palmer urged decision makers to be conservative.

"I think it is really important as an industry, a community and a society that we listen to the experts and we take conservative decisions to ensure we are protecting people's health,'' he said.

"Front and centre in every decision we are making is the health and safety of our workforce and the surrounding communities. "

While its prized assets are in the US state of Nevada, Newmont has a significant presence in Australia at the Northern Territory's Tanami mine and Western Australia's Boddington mine.


Strict limits on travel between Australian states has forced Newmont to relocate close to 60 workers who normally live in WA and Queensland to Darwin so they can continue to work at the remote Tanami site.

WA's hard state border has had less impact on Boddington, which is within two hours' drive of major population centres such as Perth, Mandurah and Bunbury.

Mr Palmer is an Australian citizen who spent several decades with Rio Tinto, including as chief operating officer of its flagship iron ore division, and has adult children living in Brisbane and Perth.

With BHP and Rio run by Canadian and British citizens respectively, Mr Palmer became one of the highest-ranking Australians in international commerce when appointed last year, given Newmont's market capitalisation exceeds that of Mike Cannon-Brookes' Atlassian, Mark Cutifani's Anglo American and Ivan Glasenberg's Glencore.

With all Newmont offices around the world closed in the wake of the pandemic, Mr Palmer chose to work from the Perth house where his youngest children live.

''We decided to get ourselves to Perth to be with the younger kids to get through the worst of the pandemic,'' he said.

"I think we will probably be here for a while. It is difficult to see international travel being lifted anytime soon.''

Newmont has recently sold a swath of assets including half of Kalgoorlie's Superpit to Northern Star and the Red Lake mine in the US to Evolution Mining, but Mr Palmer said he planned to retain ownership of Boddington and Tanami.

A group of senior and long-serving Rio executives have followed Mr Palmer to Newmont, including Rio's former copper chief operating officer Rob Atkinson, minerals chief executive Dean Ghering, global head of productivity delivery Dan Janney, iron ore general manager Alex Bates and strategic planning manager Mark Casper.