Researchers from The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) have received over $1 million in Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage funding to establish the long-term sustainability of the rehabilitation of ecosystems using technosol – a soil-like substance made from process waste.
SMI researchers have been working since 2015 on ways to create technosol from red mud, a byproduct of alumina refining that accounts for 4 billion tonnes in waste sitting in storage dams worldwide.
This project aims to establish a field-based strategy to overcome topsoil shortage across the mining sector, in response to Australia’s limited topsoil availability and the lack of sustainable options for tailings rehabilitation.
Professor Longbin Huang, Group Leader of Ecological Engineering at SMI’s Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation explained that technosol has gone from the lab in Brisbane to a small field trial at Gove in the Northern Territory, and is now undergoing large and long-term field trials at major alumina refiner, Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) in Gladstone.
Credit: Rio Tinto (Used with permission).
Professor Huang explained that this latest ARC Linkage grant will support long-term strategic research alliances with industry and answers a key question that needs addressing before eco-engineering rehabilitation can be confidently adopted.
“Our previous work established that red mud can be turned into technosol and that plants can grow in it, but it must be resilient and sustainable to support long-term plant growth and development because the external supply of nitrogen fertilisers is not an option for this purpose,” Professor Huang said.
He added that the project aims to establish a detailed knowledge about development of an adaptive biological nitrogen supply that can tolerate the high levels of salt and alkalinity in the young technosol initially formed from red mud.
“This ARC grant will aim to prove this long-term viability by establishing which plants could provide this nitrogen supply to the soil and if the technosols can hold onto it,” Professor Huang said.
Credit: Rio Tinto (Used with permission).
Trent Scherer, General Manager at QAL explained that the ARC grant, of which the operation is listed as an industrial partner, is another expansion of a long-term and fruitful collaboration between the SMI and QAL.
“If technosol can be shown to have a long-term benefit, this could lead to an industry-wide shift towards tailings rehabilitation in Gladstone and around the world,” Mr Scherer said.
This latest funding comes as part of $6.4 million awarded to UQ researchers from the ARC to progress research across health, agriculture, environment, Indigenous experiences and data sciences.
