Dear All,
I hope that you are all well, and that those of you in the Brisbane area weathered the cyclone as well as possible, and that those of you further north or west in Queensland have survived the extremely wet year we have had so far.
I would like to start by acknowledging the resilience and strength of our community in the face of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. This severe weather event, which impacted Queensland in March 2025, brought significant challenges, including heavy rainfall, flooding, and widespread damage. We had to make fast preparations on three separate sites and I wanted to thank everyone who stepped in and did their bit in very trying conditions.
Congratulations are due to Dr Nikky LaBranche for winning the Exceptional Woman in Technological Innovation Award, presented by Mitsubishi Development, during the Queensland Resources Council and WIMARQ Awards for Women, held in early April in front of over 1000 attendees at the awards lunch in Brisbane. Nikky won the award for her research into how to prevent dust-related deaths in the mining industry.
The honours keep coming in for the OreSand program led by Professor Daniel Franks of the Global Centre for Mineral Security. OreSand Inc has just been been recognised among a handful of top global innovators by the World Economic Forum. The initiative has been chosen as one of as one of 8 global winners of the WEF's Uplink Top Innovators program, gaining access to networks capable of supporting and scaling it up its effort to offer mining companies a research-backed blueprint to drastically reduce waste and produce useful sand byproducts at a time when global demand for the material is surging.
I have been to Chile since the last newsletter and had a great chance to participate in the World Copper conference and catch up with new initiatives and new team members in SMI ICE Chile. There is more detail in the newsletter about the very successful “Puentes Australes” event that was just held to showcase our achievements and to seek feedback from Industry partners and other stakeholders.
In previous newsletters we have made mention of the Resource Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer Program, in which UQ is a major partner with initiative leader Curtin University. One of the initiatives in this program supports industry placements for early career researchers, and Lexi K ng from the WH Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre just spent six weeks working at the Rosebery Mine as part of this program. She has written a fascinating blog summarising her experience there. This sort of experience is vital as part of our need to maintain an understanding of current industry challenges.
The transition of the SMI into EAIT continues to go well. A highlight over the past few months has been a series of research networking sessions designed to showcase areas of strength in key topics across the faculty. So far we have had sessions on water and on managing mining impacts, and by the time this newsletter is out we will have also had a session on valorisation of mine waste. These sessions will be complemented by a program of seed grants designed to foster collaborations across the faculty.
I thought I would try something different this time and list some of our recent publication outputs not by title, but by impact. If you click the link that will take you to the actual paper and authors, but it really shows the breadth of the topics we are addressing in the SMI.
- Enabling circular use of tailings as sand for sustainable construction and waste reduction.
- Supporting spatial ESG risk analysis for better regulatory and investment decisions.
- Guiding post-mining land rehabilitation and trace element risk management.
- Improving copper recovery and reducing processing costs.
- Framing mine waste as a geopolitical issue to inform policy, governance, and sustainability strategies across international mining contexts.
- Aiding in designing socially inclusive, sustainable energy transition solutions.
- Highlighting the urgent need for mine rehabilitation policies to protect Indigenous land rights, environmental health, and cultural heritage from abandoned mine risks.
I hope you find this newsletter insightful and informative. Wishing you a successful 2025, and as always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback.
