BRC News

Mining waste could be a key source of indium for Australia’s future home-grown solar panel manufacturing industry, now a new study led by The University of Queensland has investigated indium host minerals at various scales – from centimetres to the nanoscale – helping to find economic ways to extract it and better understand its environmental impact.

A new $1.25 million partnership between Evolution Mining and The University of Queensland will establish the Jim Askew Evolution Mining Fellowship, a five-year initiative focused on unlocking unrealised potential in orebodies to improve safety, efficiency, and sustainability in mining.

On 2 October 2025, dozens of staff, students and families of donor families gathered that the Indooroopilly Mine site for the SMI Memorial Awards, a full-day program which included presentations from the award recipients, student poster displays, an industry led panel discussion and a keynote address.

A highly specialised drone research fleet is providing the opportunity to fast track a range of projects such as solving daily traffic snarls to targeted monitoring and protection of coral reefs.

Researchers from The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute have found 11 critical and strategic metals, including copper, cobalt, silver and antimony, in the waste of metalliferous and coal mine sites across New South Wales – opening the door to a secondary source of minerals critical to the energy transition.