On 2 October 2025, dozens of staff, students and families of donor families gathered that the Indooroopilly Mine site for the SMI Memorial Awards, a full-day program which included presentations from the award recipients, student poster displays, an industry led panel discussion and a keynote address.
I am very excited to share that I started my PhD as an ARC ITTC Critical Resources for the Future (ITTC CRFF) PhD candidate ~3 months ago. My research will focus on transforming pyrite to pyrrhotite using pyrometallurgy and extract the valuable elements using hydrometallurgy.
The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) recently celebrated the accomplishments of its latest cohort of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students through two major events: the SMI Next Gen HDR Student Conference 2025 and a ceremony for the July 2025 HDR graduates.
Whilst the change of season brings in cooler temperatures (almost jacket weather now in Brisbane) things are hotting up at MIWATCH in the leaching space as we welcome two new Winter Interns Skye Plenderleith and Jonathan Sayer who have joined Eric Ansah to work on projects focused on low-grade copper ore leaching and carbon dioxide sequestration potential. I caught up with them both to find out a little bit more about their background and motivations
The SMI Next Generation HDR Student Conference aims to facilitate knowledge sharing, networking, and industry engagement within the SMI and EAIT HDR student communities doing research related to the minerals industry.
The SMI Next Generation HDR Student Conference aims to facilitate knowledge sharing, networking, and industry engagement within the SMI and EAIT HDR student communities doing research related to the minerals industry.
Earlier this year, Lexi K'ng completed a 6-week work placement at the MMG Rosebery Mine in Tasmania and is very thankful to Anita Parbhakar-Fox and Rick Valenta, Sustainable Minerals Institute and MMG Rosebery for giving her this opportunity supported by the Trailblazer program.
Training has started at the new South Gobi Underground Mass Mining Institute (SGUMMI), which was established by mining company Rio Tinto and is managed by JKTech Pty Ltd, the knowledge transfer vehicle of The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI).
