CMLR provides opportunities for students wanting to enrol in an Honours, Masters or PhD program. The research topics available address current industry questions across multiple fields and, under the guidance of our academic researchers, students are able to make significant contributions to sustainability in mining.
If you would like to know more about Higher Degree by Research Programs (HDR) please visit SMI Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Programs
If you would like to know more about all SMI study please visit SMI Study Information
Topics currently available for postgraduate research projects:
Ecosystem Assessment, Restoration and Resilience
For further information, please contact Associate Professor Peter Erskine
Industrial Ecology & Circular Economy
- The role of primary mining in the future circular economy
- LCA in mining and mined land rehabilitation
- Technical, economic and environmental challenges in processing complex ore bodies
- Reuse and reprocessing of mine waste
- Minimising environmental footprint through progressive mined land rehabilitation
- The role of mining in sustainable development of regions and communities
- Strategies and solutions for managing and rehabilitating abandoned mines
- Climate change, mining, and resources supply chains
- Metals in urban waste and electronic waste
- Circular economy in product design for longevity, reuse and recycling
For further information, please contact Associate Professor Glen Corder or Dr Artem Golev
Ecological Engineering of Mine Wastes (Soil-Plant Systems)
For further information, please contact Associate Professor Longbin Huang
Mine Closure and Sustainable Landforms
For further information, please contact TBA
Environment Geochemistry
For further information, please contact Dr Mansour Edraki
Contaminant Management in Mining
For further information, please contact Dr Barry Neil Noller
CMLR postgraduate research students currently enrolled in a PhD or MPhil (and project title):
Our Current HDR Students are:
| Name | Project Title |
| Farida Abubakari | Developing tropical zinc biofortified crops |
| Raphael Akesseh | Geochemical and hydrological study of mine tailings and capping design strategy for proposed tailing facility system closure |
| Mohammad Boshrouyeh Ghandashtani | Polymer amended tailings stability for optimum rehabilitation outcome |
| Tamar Cohen | Re-imagining mined land: relating cultural and ecological criteria for the successful rehabilitation of mined land |
| Amelia Corzo Remigio |
Management of Mine Waste through Geochemistry and Phytoremediation |
| Bevan Roy Emmerton | Bowen Basin Coal Mine spoil classification for improved mine rehabilitation outcomes |
| Vidiro Gei | Elemental fingerprinting of the New Caledonian flora |
| Zhengdong Han | Australian Red Mud Dewatering and Reuse In Wastewater Treatment |
| Maggie-Anne Harvey | Development of selenium agromining in Queensland, Australia |
| Melinda Hilton | Prediction of long-term salt generation from coal spoils |
| Amelia Hine | Earthworks - envisioning innovative design solutions for the post mining landscape |
| Karan Jian | Salt crusting and its impact on water flow |
| Allen Yunjia Liu | Processes of arsenic (As) transformation in copper tailings amended with organic matter and As uptake by native plants |
| Adrian Paul | Rhizosphere processes leading to nickel uptake by hyperaccumulator plants: shining light on the soil-root interface |
| Gabriel Perez Murillo | Modelling transport and transformation of mine tailings |
| Lachlan Robertson | Rhizosphere adaptation of pioneer plant species to metal mine tailing-soil |
| Mitch Rudge |
The use of drones to conduct large scale vegetation surveys to guide mine site restoration |
| Pieter Swart | The development of a standardised process for the quantification of residual environmental risks and the proposed treatment thereof at mine closure and mine lease relinquishment. |
| Roger Tang | Using Zinc-Lead-Copper Metallophytes for Biogeochemical Prospecting and Mine Site Rehabilitation |
| Maria Cristina Vegafria | The development and implementation of geo-environmental assessment tools for abandoned mines |
| Sicheng Wang | Microbial community dynamics during remediation of bauxite residue |
| Qing Yi | Microbial driven transformation of ferrous minerals in magnetite tailings for soil formation |
CMLR PhD research students with submitted theses under examination