News and Events

The Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) is home to dozens of fantastic early career thinkers and future thought leaders who are already making a name for themselves, and nowhere is this more evident than in our postgraduate cohort.

The Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management establishes an unprecedented global standard on tailings management applicable to existing and future tailings facilities. Launched on 5 August 2020 by the United Nations Environment Program, the International Council on Mining and Metals, and the Principles for Responsible Investment, the Standard aims to strengthen current tailings management practices by integrating social, environmental, local economic and technical considerations across a facility’s entire lifecycle, wherever they are and whoever operates them.

The Sustainable Minerals Institute’s Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) has added to its research capability with the announcement of a High Temperature Processing Research group.

The Risk and Critical Control Management (RCCM) course which has been delivered face to face by UQ’s Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre for a number of years now has an online option and will be available from 6 July 2020.

Mineral processing experts from the Sustainable Minerals Institute’s (SMI) Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) have embraced 21st Century technology to maintain site engagement and delivery of research outcomes to mineral processing plants amid COVID-19 restrictions.

Prepared by Professor Deanna Kemp, Director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute

University of Queensland research into the eco-engineering of mine waste to a useful soil has received over $1.2 million in government and industry funding.
The project 'Breaking critical barriers in soil formation of bauxite residues', has received $777,000 from the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Program, and industry partners Rio Tinto Aluminium’s Yarwun refinery and Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) have contributed an additional $520,000.