The Firm

ZMK Advisory is an independent strategy house for natural resources — senior judgement across the global mineral value chains, macro-strategy, and supply–demand risk in mining and energy.

What we are
  • A small, senior practice retained for judgment on the decisions that do not survive being wrong.
  • Facts-first: we open with the number and price the downside before the upside is sold.
  • Independent — we hold no positions, take no placement fees, and carry no book to talk.
What we are not
  • A consultancy billing bodies against a workstream.
  • A broker, a placement agent, or a research vendor selling access.
  • A source of reassurance for a decision already made.
How we think

Most bad resource decisions are not failures of information. They are failures to keep counting once the story became comfortable.

Our work begins where consensus stops doing arithmetic. We reconstruct the base rate, name the assumption the room has quietly set to one, and price the case the narrative leaves out. The output is never a longer document than it needs to be — it is the number, the framework that produced it, and the impact of acting on it.

Client work is presented in blinded narratives so the method travels without the mandate. The formula does not change: Context, Analytical Framework, Quantified Impact.

The bench

Principal-led. Convened against the problem, not carried as overhead.

ZMK is led by its principal and draws on a standing bench of senior specialists — former public office, operating leadership, and deep technical practice. The bench is assembled per mandate. You are told who is on your team before the work begins, and you are not charged for a bench sitting idle between engagements.

Sovereign & diplomatic
Access · Policy · Licence
Seasoned diplomatic experience and senior policy-making at national level. Where the resource decision is finally a political one, and access to the room decides the outcome.
Subsurface & resource
Geology · Resource quality
Professional geology. Grade, continuity and the difference between a resource statement and a mine.
Execution & operations
Offshore · EPCI · SURF · Heavy equipment
Executive-level offshore energy and EPCI experience, including SURF — subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines. Heavy mobile equipment specialists and senior logistics practitioners. Delivery, not theory.
Risk, safety & assurance
Enterprise risk · HSE · Assurance
C-suite enterprise risk experience and HSE leadership at global operating scale. Downside priced and controls tested before the upside is sold.
Strategy & organisation
Ex-BCG · Advisory · People
Strategy practitioners including ex-BCG, alongside organisational and human-capital expertise for the structures that carry the decision.
Principal
Capital governance · Country strategy
Two decades across mining, energy and heavy industry. Capital governance and sovereign interface on multi-billion-dollar assets in frontier jurisdictions.
Bench specialists are engaged under mandate. Names and credentials are provided to clients on appointment.

“The number, then the narrative.”

Facts-First Analysis · Mineral Value Chains