That passion was ignited when Wellman's parents pulled her out of school in Brisbane for seven months to travel around Australia.

"We spent six weeks or so in Western Australia and it was the first time I saw mines," Wellman told MNN.

"That probably piqued my interest and I also got to spend time outside, climbing mountains and things like that, which I've always loved doing, so that probably started the interest in geology."

Wellman studied geology at the Queensland University of Technology and made the big move to Kambalda at the tender age of 20 after securing an internship with Gold Fields.

She eventually ended up working at Gold Fields' 800m-deep Junction mine, which was the first time she'd ever been underground.

"I just remember thinking that I couldn't believe that I was going to get paid to do this - four-wheel driving, I get to wear overalls, get dirty, smashing rocks with a hammer essentially is what my job was, and I'm getting paid pretty decent money to do that," Wellman said.

Wellman then moved to the then-new Argo mine, where long-time friend Paul Schmeide (now vice president corporate development at Sarama Resources) was the mine manager.

She said Schmeide was instrumental in setting up female toilets and change-rooms on site and counts him as someone she still turns to today for advice.

Wellman eventually moved into resource estimation work which is where she found her passion.

"I always thought I'd end up back in the underground mine as a manager there but once I started doing resource estimation, I loved the maths, the technical side of things," she said.

Wellman met her husband, fellow geologist and DiscovEx Resources managing director Toby Wellman, in Kalgoorlie and the two moved overseas to Sweden where they worked for Boliden.

She relished the opportunity to work on polymetallic deposits to broaden her experience and also got a taste of the business and commercial sides of mining.

After three years in Sweden and the arrival of their first child, the Wellmans returned to WA.

Wellman worked as a consultant geologist for Optiro for four years before joining Doray Minerals in 2014.

"I initially started as an administration geologist, because I was still working part-time - I'd had child number two by that point," she said.

"Doray were contracting out all their resource estimation work, so once they realised that I had the capacity to do it and I was right there under their nose, I took over the resource estimation side of things."

It was Doray where Wellman also experienced some tough days when the realisation came that the exploration results were not going to result in life extensions at the company's Andy Well mine.

"That was probably the first time I got to feel the impact of my resource estimation work on people, I guess," she said.

"Most of the time you're at your computer doing work and it's all happy days, you're increasing the resource.

"But this was the first time where I started realising that the results weren't going to be good enough to keep the mine life going and having to go out there and tell people that you're putting the mine on care and maintenance was difficult."

At the same time, Doray had taken over the Deflector project where the resource needed a complete re-working.

Wellman recalls it as being a stressful time but the small team banded together.

"We had some luck there when we intercepted the link lode in the decline, massive sulphides, which was unexpected," she said.

"That really helped change things and turn things around at Deflector, and I really think that Deflector's success was because of the teamwork we had between the geology and engineering teams because we did work really hard to get that project off the ground.

"I guess to this day, Deflector is sort of like my pride and joy. Deflector is one of the most amazing departments on the planet, I think."

Wellman became resource development manager at Doray, a role she said she had the confidence to back herself into, just before the company merged with Silver Lake Resources. She stayed on for 18 months with the enlarged company.

In early 2020, she was approached about the CEO role at US-focused lithium developer Jindalee.

"I thought, ‘oh well, what the hell, go do the interview and see how we go'. I wasn't necessarily expecting to get it," Wellman said.

"The next thing I knew I was on the shortlist, doing a presentation to the Jindalee board about company strategy, they liked what they saw and the rest is history."

Wellman joined the company when there was little love for lithium but also got to experience the extraordinary market reversal of the past 18 months.

The stock has gone from less than A30c when Wellman joined to as high as $4.99 earlier this year.

"I like to say to people that if you look at our share price chart, that's kind of my learning curve from where I started," she said.

Jindalee is spinning out its Australian exploration projects into a new company, Dynamic Metals, which will be led by Wellman.

While the company last week delayed the float of Dynamic due to market conditions, it has allocated a $3.8 million exploration budget for the projects.

"We've got legitimate ground here and I'm really excited to get drilling. That's what we're here for., that's what us geologists want to do. You don't get any results by sitting behind a computer," Wellman said.

Wellman's most pressing goal is getting Dynamic up and running but she's also moving towards board roles.

"I feel like my experience is quite broad and I would have a lot to offer," she said.

"There's this thing where we're pushing for women to be on boards and I could see that's where I was heading, but I wanted to make sure I had the right background and experience before I jump onto a board, because the worst thing we can do as females is to fill up the boards with all these females who don't have enough experience as well."

A mother of three children aged between seven and 13, Wellman said she has a group of younger women in mining contemplating motherhood who she informally mentors.

"There is a way - you don't have to make a choice between one or the other," she said.

"It can be busy but it's all about having confidence in yourself. That's the most important thing."

Karen Wellman is a nominee for Emerging Leader of the Year in the 2022 MNN Awards.