Ecological Engineering in Mining
This group develops new technologies to rehabilitate metal mine tailings and other waste domains to improve economic and ecological sustainability; produce cost-effective remediation of contaminated land; create new knowledge on the biogeochemistry of engineered tailings-soil formation, ecophysiology of native plants and ecological linkages in soil-plant systems.
Projects within this Group
- In situ engineering red mud into functional soil - A new technology for cost-effective rehabilitation of red mud domains
- Evaluation of key attributes of nutrient cycling in revegetated waste rock landform of Ranger uranium mine
- Eco-engineering soil from mine tailings for native plant rehabilitation
![KM-Wet-tailings](/files/33790/KM-wet%20tailings-CMLR.jpg)
![Tailing Weathering Aggregation](/files/33841/Tailings-weathering-aggregation.jpg)
Sustainable rehabilitation of tailings at metal mine sites is severely constrained by soil resource deficiency. Building on our recent findings of critical processes in soil formation from Cu/Pb-Zn tailings, we aim to develop an integrated technology through eco-engineering the mineralogy and organic constituents of tailings to initiate and accelerate soil formation by using magnetite tailings as a template.
![Native-Pioneer-Plants-in-eco-engineered-Fe-ore](/files/33829/Native-Pioneer-Plants-in-eco-engineered-Fe-ore.jpg)
The technology will be underpinned by research to mediate and stimulate key biogeochemical and rhizosphere processes in the tailing-soil towards a functional 'technosol'. We aim to apply this technology at metal mines in Australia, to offset the soil required for rehabilitating tailings landforms with native plant communities. Grant type: ARC Linkage Projects
- Building the framework for meeting closure criteria in waste rock dump design and performance
- Developing options and strategies for red mud bioremediation
Related available student projects
- Bio-mineral-organo complexation models in tailings
- Molecular microbial mechanisms in mineral bioweathering and secondary mineral formation
- Mechanisms of water-stable aggregate formation in red mud
- Geo-rhizosphere biology in native/metallophyte species in mineralized soil and metal mine tailings
- Biogenic mineral forms and speciation in metal mine tailings
- Rhizosphere adaptation to tailing technosols in native plant species
- Biogenic factors in duricrust formation: from nature to tailings surface
- Bio-geo-mineral cross-linking mechanisms and hardpan formation in tailings
- Relationship between soil microbial community structure and trajectory of plant species diversity in revegetated mined land
Group Leader
Team
- Dr Songlin Wu
- Dr Saha Narottam
- Dr Fang You
- Dr Tuan Nguyen
- Merinda Hall
- Allen Yunjia Liu
- Yumei Du
- Dr Jing Zhao
HDR Students
- Lachlan Robertson
- Qing Yi
- Sicheng Wang
- Xingyun Guo (Jerry)
- Yuanying Ma (Momo)
- Miss Xiaoqi Qian (Molly)
- Chengyao Ren (Phoebe)
- Salome Nyangari
- Nurtiara Ridwan (Tiara)
Keywords
metal mine tailings, bauxite residue (red mud), mineral bioweathering, geo-microbial ecology, environmental microbial ecology, microspectroscopy, bio-mineral-organo interactions, geo-rhizosphere biology, engineered pedogenesis, technosols, hydrogeochemistry, bio-geopolymerization, hardpan, rhizosphere of metallophytes, soil-plant systems