Director's Welcome - November 2020

Welcome to the November e-newsletter, the last for the year.

In spite of the difficulties 2020 has presented us with, the SMI team have continued to actively engage with industry and stakeholders and I am pleased to say we have established a  number of key partnerships and collaborations.

In March, UQ was co-awarded a Cooperative Research Centre with the University of Western Australia to focus on Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC-TiME). The application was driven by Professor Anna Littleboy and Dr Glen Corder and is a 10-year project jointly led by SMI and UWA. It brings together 75 industry partners, the State Governments of Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, as well as researchers from eight universities and the CSIRO.

In May a project proposal led by Professor Deanna Kemp was awarded funding from the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Program to investigate the role and effectiveness of independent inquiries in mining. In June, Professor Longbin Huang was also awarded funding from the ARC Linkage Program, and from industry partners Rio Tinto Aluminium’s Yarwun Refinery and Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL), to further develop research into the eco-engineering of mine waste to a useful soil.

Through late 2019 and through into 2020, Professor Deanna Kemp, was invited as a community and human rights specialist on the expert panel, supporting the Independent Chair of the Global Tailings Review. Seven SMI researchers, including Deanna, also published chapters in the compendium that accompanied the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management released through the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).

In September, we signed an agreement with seven industry partners to form the Collaborative Consortium for Coarse Particle Processing Research (CPR). The Consortium will run initially for five years and aims to develop improved energy efficiency for mineral processing operations.

In October, we signed a partnership with the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), and we are looking forward to working with them to highlight the latest research and innovations in the resources sector.

As we look ahead to 2021, I am pleased to tell you we have established a new strategic research program on Development Minerals, led by Professor Daniel Franks, there will be more information on this in the New Year. In October we appointed Susan Johnston as the lead on the Governance and Leadership strategic research program. Susan brings a wealth of experience to the role and I am delighted she is joining SMI’s Senior Leadership Team. You can read more about Susan in this newsletter.

Here at SMI we are all looking forward to a well-deserved break, and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a restful and relaxing holiday season.

I hope you enjoythe e-newsletter, and I look forward to working with you again in 2021.