Sustainable Minerals Institute

Director's Welcome - August 2023

SMI Director Professor Rick Valenta

Welcome to the third e-newsletter of 2023.

The past three months have been intense for the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), in the best possible way.

After years of planning, the 2023 World Mining Congress finally came to Brisbane, and I am proud to say our expertise was on full display. It was clear from early on that SMI would have a presence at the event, but I don’t think many expected it to be as strong as it was. Our researchers were involved in over 50 presentations, including three keynotes, across the week. This was reinforced by the fact that over 80 of our employees attended – most wearing the distinctive purple UQ scarf – and an address by UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO.

During the conference itself, our people spread throughout the sessions and exhibition floor to engage in dozens of meetings and discussions, reconnecting with existing partners and meeting plenty of new potential partners. I met with many of the Institute’s partners at the UQ meeting room, and had the opportunity to promote UQ’s vision for the future of mining alongside the Vice-Chancellor and Executive Director for Research Partnerships at several meetings with major mining companies.

The event wouldn’t have been nearly as productive and valuable for SMI without the dedication of both our academic and professional staff, so I thank them for their effort. 

The World Mining Congress was just one of the 12 conferences and events that featured SMI researchers over the past few months, which included keynote presentations at the prestigious Goldschmidt 2023 conference in Lyon, the Australian Earth Sciences Convention, the International Flotation Symposium, and Sustainable Mining 2023 in Santiago.  More recently, CWiMI Director Claire Côte chaired the 2023 AusIMM Life of Mine Conference, which featured several SMI presentations.

Shortly after the World Mining Congress, another massive event in our calendar arrived: Higher Degree by Research (HDR) student graduations. The graduations embody the Institute’s commitment to developing the next generation of leaders, celebrating their hard-earned expertise and the journey to develop it, and marks the beginning of a new phase in the graduate’s life. I’d like to congratulate the following students for graduating this year:

  • Gabriel Pérez Murillo
  • Maggie-Anne Harvey
  • Chinwe Ezeigbo
  • Shahla Yavari
  • Rocío Vargas Soto
  • Philippa (Paige) Dodshon
  • Roger Tang
  • Farida Abubakari
  • David Tennant
  • Raphael Akesseh

In mid-July our Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) teamed up with the Queensland Law Reform Commission to host Ignite the Conversation, a panel discussion for the launch of the Commission’s Review of Mining Lease Objections Process. Through our researchers’ presence at the event, and CSRM Director Deanna Kemp’s address to attendees, it proved to be a fantastic opportunity to develop our relationship with Queensland’s legal community.

Earlier in the quarter, UQ and SMI also had the privilege of hosting a delegation from Chile’s Antofagasta region, which was in Brisbane to formalise an agreement with the government on education, research, and knowledge-sharing. The delegation included the Governor of Antofagasta, the Vice Chancellor of the Universidad Católica del Norte and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Antofagasta, all of whom visited UQ to explore new opportunities for collaboration and strengthen the existing relationship between our institutions.

Joining the delegation was Dr Doug Aitken, Executive Director of our International Centre of Excellence in Chile (SMI-ICE Chile), who was in Brisbane for the first time since his appointment as Executive Director. The team at SMI-ICE-Chile are doing fantastic work to generate positive impacts in their region, including with many of the delegates who joined us from Chile, so it was fantastic to welcome him to UQ.

I also recently retruned from a visit to South America with the University's Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO who was undertaking her first official visit to our partners in the region. During the visit, Professor Terry highlighted the importance of collaboration as the pace of technological and social change increases and the minerals industry expands to support the global energy transition.

I hope you enjoy catching up on the latests news from the Institute, if you have any questions or feedback, please let me know.

With warm regards,