The SMI Production Centres: Technical innovation and the mining industry of 2050

Speaker: Professor Rick Valenta, Director - W.H. Bryan Mining & Geology Research Centre, Director - Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, Program Leader – Complex Orebodies

Abstract: The supply of minerals and the social, environmental, and energy performance of the minerals industry are more important than ever before, and the SMI Production Centres and its collaborators are focused on technical innovations aimed at addressing those themes. Key challenges include:

• Equipping the mining workforce to thrive in the transformed mining industry
• Innovation that will drive improvement in deep and covered mineral discovery
• Building the tools that will allow ultrafast and ultraflexible characterisation and piloting, and move the industry away from pure economies of scale
• Helping to make the zero net emission mine a reality
• Building the intelligent and connected mining value chain
• Minimising the social, environmental, and energy footprint of the future mine
• Leading geoscience innovation  for the deep, mechanised and automated mass mines of the future
• Minimising the impacts of mine waste and tailings, and maximising the value that can be derived from them

The SMI Production Centres are made up of three groups (JKTech, the JKMRC, and the BRC) that now operate together as a fully-integrated team focused on addressing these key challenges. 

Bio: Rick leads research aimed at improving the discovery,  mining and processing of hydrothermal ore deposits.  His areas of focus include structural geology, geophysics and ore deposit geology, with an overall theme of better understanding the underlying processes which lead to the localisation and characteristics of these deposits.  Rick also has a strong focus on development of 4D mineral systems models from deposit to region scales, using these models to improve targeting techniques, better formulate geological and resource models, and inform prediction of mineral processing performance.

Rick is a Fellow of the AusIMM, a practising member of the Association of Professional Geologists of Ontario (APGO), a member of the Geological Society of Australia, the Society of Economic Geologists, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and Chair of the Resarch Committee of the Queensland Exploration Council. He has over 20 years experience working in indsutry and maintains strong contacts with a number of mineral companies through his leadership role in the Northwest Mineral Province Discovery Initiative, supported by the Geological Survey of Queensland.  Rick is also involved in a number of collaborative industry projects.