SMI Quarterly Newsletter

The production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries is widely seen as crucial to achieve the energy transition and carbon targets, but the extraction and refining of the required critical minerals comes at a cost to local people, environment and biodiversity. 

In a new paper for international journal One Earth, researchers at The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute looked at Indonesia’s nickel production and proposed how taking a broad view at the problems involved in climate solutions could help reduce those risks.

To help foster an exchange of mining governance knowledge, 25 participants from across 20 countries took part in the Australia Awards Africa ‘Mining Governance’ short course.

Organisational improvement and leadership expertise from across The University of Queensland will be focused on improving outcomes for all sectors, including industry and government, through a new virtual Centre hosted by the Sustainable Minerals Institute.

A new program launched by The University of Queensland (UQ) will provide an authoritative accounting of how much metal is needed for the energy transition, where it will come from, and what needs to be done to sustainably supply it.

The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute has received close to $2.4 million from the Queensland Government Office of Industrial Relations for research into occupational dust lung diseases.

Professor David Cliff has been with the Sustainable Minerals Institute’s Mineral Industry Safety and Health Centre (MISHC) for over 19 years, but his work in the field reflects extends far before that.

An additional three years of funding will see the Sustainable Minerals Institute’s International Centre of Excellence in Chile (SMI-ICE Chile) continue to grow as a force for change in the minerals industry.

Geoscientist Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox joined the team at SMI’s W.H Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre (BRC) in February 2019. We asked Anita what she thought were some of the key issues for the mining industry in dealing with mine waste and how the work of SMI could help find solutions.

A University of Queensland researcher has co-written the first publicly available Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) for a proposed gas project in Papua New Guinea.