Centre for Water 
in the Minerals Industry

The Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (CWiMI) aims to provide cutting-edge research that seeks to promote and support sustainable management of water in the minerals and energy industries.

CWiMI moves towards this goal by solving the environmental, social and engineering challenges associated with sustainable water management. Our core driver is integrating knowledge to deliver solutions to complex water-related issues.

Accordingly, the Centre has strong expertise in hydrology, hydrogeology, soil hydrology, geochemistry, water resource engineering, spatial science, data science, climate science and aquatic ecology. The team integrates these disciplines to develop systems-based solutions to manage water as a shared resource.

CWiMI engages with a wide range of stakeholders and research collaborators in Australia and internationally. Its research is funded by diverse sources such as mining companies, governments, investors and regional stakeholders.

CWiMI’s research focus areas include:

• managing water resources in a changing climate, using a global perspective and promoting comprehensive analysis
• system-thinking, which recognises that water is a shared and valuable resource affected by a complex set of surface, underground, climatic and anthropogenic phenomena
• spatial science that integrates and models the distribution of water-relevant characteristics in time and space
• society and water, where we incorporate social considerations into water management
• post-mining land and water management that fosters extensive engagement with multiple stakeholders to solve the water-related challenges associated with regional transitions in mine-closure scenarios.

Our Centre is one of the only research groups that applies High Reliability Organisational (HRO) thinking to enhance sustainability outcomes. We regularly review current and emerging global challenges in the resources industry to remain at the forefront of the mining sector’s response to closure, post mining transitions and climate change.