Summer and Winter Research Programs for Undergraduates
The Sustainable Minerals Institute offers a number of research projects to UQ-enrolled undergraduate students, through the UQ Summer and Winter Research programs. These projects will develop your analytical, critical thinking and communication skills, through research, while providing you with an opportunity to gain research experience working alongside some of the university's leading academics and researchers.
For details on how to apply for a project, please visit the UQ Summer & Winter Research Programs website.
Projects on offer for Summer 2022/2023:
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC)
Project title: | Mine to Mill optimisation opportunity through simulating |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. Full-time onsite attendance at the Indooroopilly Mine Site and Dassault Systems Office in Brisbane, is required. |
Description: | This research project is focused on building a case study in the suite of simulation packages in Dassault Systems to enable simulation and optimisation of Mine to Mill. The model will cover geological modelling, blast and blast movement modelling, load and haul monitoring and dynamic simulation of the processing plant. The project will focus on transferring JKMRC dynamic models into the Dassault Systems Dynamol platform and establishing the link between packages which can model each stage of the mining process. The model will then be used to perform a case study. In this process, the candidate will work closely with JKMRC researchers and the Technical team from Dassault Systems to deliver the project while the candidate gains practical experience with Dassault Systems simulation platforms and JKMRC dynamic models. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant will receive training in the use of Dassault System simulation packages and JKMRC dynamic models. The applicant will also be supervised by world-leading researchers at JKMRC and a highly-skilled technical team of Dassault Systems, a world-leading company offering software solutions to industry. |
Suitable for: | This project is suitable for students who are comfortable with learning new software packages and have programming skills, and who desire to enhance their programming skills. Previous experience with modelling and simulation software is desirable. |
Primary Supervisor: | Associate Professor Mohsen Yanyaei - JKMRC |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Assoc Prof Mohsen Yahyaei to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | The Use of Lightning to Treat Metal Ores – High Voltage Pulse Pre-treatment Technology |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. Full-time onsite attendance at the Indooroopilly Mine Site is required. |
Description: | Background Comminution is especially challenged in the face of likely future ores. Comminution is the reduction of solid materials from one average particle size to a smaller average particle size, by crushing, grinding, cutting, vibrating, or other processes. Comminution is currently the most energy intensive process used in minerals operations. This will only increase for harder ores, with more disseminated, finer grained, complex mineralogies which will require finer grinding, and thus more energy input, to enable a subsequent separation to occur. High Voltage Pulse (HVP) technology is a selective comminution process designed to decrease the energy required to liberate valuable materials and enable their separation, such that the contained metals can then be extracted. HVP comminution applies electrical energy (akin to a lightning bolt) directly to ore fragments to achieve selective breakage of particles containing metalliferous mineral grains. In the past 15 years, the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) has conducted extensive research using HVP electrical comminution technology for the mineral industry and have become the leaders in this field. Three major applications for the mining industry have been identified and explored by the research team to date:
Enhanced Liberation – HPV results in preferential liberation of minerals resulting in improved recovery in the downstream separation processes. HVP can potentially enable alternative separation technologies, such as coarse particle flotation, to be viable. Project: Ore Amenability Assessment To date most of the studies has been on sulphide ores but the technology has potential to be used for other commodities i.e. critical minerals, coal, iron, etc. The objective of this Project is to test the potential of using HVP treatment on a new ore sample and quantify any benefits gained in terms of pre-concentration and pre-weakening. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant will be working with researchers in the HVP group on this project. It is envisaged that the applicant will gain valuable experimental and data analysis skills from the work to be undertaken. These include:
At the completion of the project, the successful applicant will be asked to produce a report and/or an oral presentation of their project. They will also have an opportunity to generate publications from their research work. |
Suitable for: |
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Primary Supervisor: | |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Christian Antonio to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: |
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Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. Full-time onsite attendance at the Indooroopilly Mine Site is required. |
Description: | Background:
Research to date has shown HVP has significant potential to address many current and future mineral processing challenges. Nonetheless, barriers remain to industrial uptake of the HVP technology. Fundamental knowledge gaps, around ore composition and amenability to HVP, and the optimum means of incorporating this technology and the benefits it provides, into mineral processing circuits exist. Project:
This is an industry focused and sponsored project with potential industrial applications. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant will be working with researchers and a PhD Student on this project. It is envisaged that the applicant will gain valuable experimental and data analysis skills from the work to be undertaken. These include:
At the completion of the project, the successful applicant will be asked to produce a report and/or an oral presentation of their project. They will also have an opportunity to generate publications from their research work. |
Suitable for: |
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Primary Supervisor: | |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Christian Antonio to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Effect of feed size on Ball mill overloading |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 6-10 weeks duration, for two students. Hours of engagement must be between 20-36 hours per week with attendance at the Indooroopilly Mine Site required for the experimental work. Results analysis may be able to be performed remotely. |
Description: | Ball mill overloading is an important problem that can limit the grinding performance of the mill and the comminution circuit. The project aims to develop an understanding of the ball mill overloading phenomenon to develop tools to detect its onset. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant can expect to gain an understanding of the operational behaviour of ball mills. The applicant will also gain skills in data collection and analysis. |
Suitable for: |
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Primary Supervisor: | |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Conrad Ndimande to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Primary breakage behaviour and its effects on mineral and liberation distribution |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration, for 2 students. Attendance will be required full-time at the Indooroopilly Mine Site. |
Description: | The research project will support an existing PhD project that is researching how to integrate teeter bed floatation technologies into comminution circuits aiming for early coarse waste rejection. Coarse waste rejection is a processing strategy that aims to save grinding energy and increase circuit capacity by separating gangue particles as early as possible in the flowsheet to avoid grinding the entire ore stream to the final required size. Integrating these technologies into comminution circuits poses new technical questions due to its requirement of a coarse, narrowly sized feed distribution. Its performance will also be governed by the degree of liberation of the feed to the flotation device. To optimise the effectiveness of coarse gangue rejection using teeter bed flotation, there is a need to better understand how mineral deportment and liberation are affected by comminution processes. This project will try to decouple the effects of breakage within a breakage device to be able to measure how liberation classes respond to a single primary breakage event. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant will receive training in the safe use of the breakage devices to conduct experimental investigations, as well as gain skills in accurate data collection, analysis, and reporting. The student will be integrated into the research program of the JKMRC and receive instruction on minerals processing knowledge and common breakage characterisation techniques in the mining industry. |
Suitable for: | This project is suitable for students who would like to learn basic mineral processing skills and theories. Self-motivation and willingness to learn new skills are essential. |
Primary Supervisor: | Associate Professor Mohsen Yahyaei Second supervisor: PhD Candidate Hayla Miceli |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Hayla Miceli to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Utilisation of CO2 in Copper Smelting |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. Full-time onsite attendance between 20-36hrs per week at the UQ Long Pocket Campus (80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly) is required. |
Description: | Copper is a critical metal widely used in our daily life and plays an important role in clean energy transition. In the copper smelting process, copper minerals, e.g. chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), are oxidised by oxygen-rich gas to form matte, a mixture of copper sulfide (Cu2S) and some iron sulfide (FeS). This project will explore the feasibility of CO2 utilisation in the copper process for circulation of CO2 gas. FactSage software will be used to model the effect of O2-CO2 gas mixtures on matte grade and off-gas compositions. The modelling results will be further verified by high-temperature experiments and microscopy analysis. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant can gain independent research skills including literature review, high-temperature experiment, FactSage calculation, sample preparation and examination. The student will also be asked to produce a report or oral presentation at the end of the project. A publication may be generated depending on the research outcomes. |
Suitable for: | This project is suitable for students with a background in chemical or metallurgical engineering, 3rd or 4th year undergraduate studnets or master course students. UQ enrolled students only. |
Primary Supervisor: | |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Xiaodong Ma or Dr Helen Tang to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Effect of feed size on Ball mill overloading |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 6-10 weeks duration, for two students. Hours of engagement must be between 20-36 hours per week with attendance at the Indooroopilly Mine Site required for the experimental work. Results analysis may be able to be performed remotely. |
Description: | Ball mill overloading is an important problem that can limit the grinding performance of the mill and the comminution circuit. The project aims to develop an understanding of the ball mill overloading phenomenon to develop tools to detect its onset. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The successful applicant can expect to gain an understanding of the operational behaviour of ball mills. The applicant will also gain skills in data collection and analysis. |
Suitable for: |
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Primary Supervisor: | |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Conrad Ndimande to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Utilising Hyperspectral Scanning for Geotechnical Characterisation |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. Attendance will be required on-site at the Indooroopilly Mine Site. |
Description: | This project involves work with hyperspectral and geotechnical data from coal mines in Bowen Basin. The student will be working on representative data to integrate mineralogical/textural/structural information from the hyperspectral data with the geotechnical data. The objective of this project is to process data from a breakage device (Short Impact Load Cell) to extract geotechnical properties as well as data already collected from hyperspectral technologies at various resolution. The student should be able to code and run hierarchical clustering analysis in Python. Potentially the results of hierarchical clustering will be presented as a dendrogram. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The applicant will benefit from this project by being exposed to high-quality applied research in the mining context. He/she will work on hyperspectral and geotechnical data analysis. The successful applicant will gain skills in data analysis and reporting. At conclusion of the project the applicant will be expected to present the learnings providing an oral presentation. This project can be the start of a larger research project, such as Honours or PhD. |
Suitable for: | The project is well suited to 3rd or 4th year Engineering students – ideally Mechatronics - wishing to obtain experience in Research and Development practices for mining industry. Self-motivation and willingness to learn new skills are essential. |
Primary Supervisor: | |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Karina Barbosa to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM)
Project title: | Metals for the global energy transition – an analysis of site-level ESG disclosures |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 7 weeks duration, 35 hours per week. The applicant will need to be on-site at St Lucia Campus for the project, although work from home may be possible one day per week. |
Description: | Low-carbon energy technologies and infrastructure require an enormous quantity and diversity of metals, which cannot be sourced from recycling only. We therefore need mining to mitigate climate change, which is problematic since mining activities have historically caused adverse impacts including environmental degradation, population displacement, violent conflicts, and human rights violations. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The student will gain a broad knowledge of sustainability challenges in the global mining sector, as well as qualitative and applied research methods. They will be expected to work collaboratively within a small research team and to report on progress regularly. Academic rigour will be critical. Should the project be successful, the student will be included as co-author in an academic paper based on the research findings. |
Suitable for: | This project is open to applications from students from any background, but good common sense and logical reasoning skills are critical, as well as communication and interpersonal skills to work with the research team. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Eleonore Lebre |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Eleonore Lebre to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (CWiMI)
Project title: | The effect of fire on soil physio-chemical properties of Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration, working onsite at the St Lucia campus. |
Description: | This project will contribute to a large SMI research project called “Fire resilience of Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone (THPSS)”. One of the objectives of that project is to develop understanding of the effect of fire and its severity on THPSS soil, hydrology and the post fire recovery process of these swamps. THPSS typically have a high resilience to fire at wet conditions, due to their usually high soil moisture, and ability to support rapid vegetation re-growth. However, THPSS of Sydney Basin overlie underground coal mining area that may affect hydrology of swamps due to an increase in swamp drainage. THPSS of Sydney Basin was severely affected by wildfires during the fire season 2019-2020. Most burnt swamps lost their surface organic matter layers (fibrous or spongy organic-rich detritus). In the most severely burnt swamps (very high or high burn severity burn class), the upper portion of the peat layers (called the alternating organic sands layer) also incinerated. Fires can alter soil physio-chemical properties. However, the effect of bushfires on THPSS that have been undermined is not understood. The successful applicant will work on the physical, chemical and hydrological analysis of pre- and post-fire soil samples collected from these swamps and develop an understanding of the effect of fire and its severity on THPSS soil and hydrology. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The candidate will benefit from this project by being exposed to high-quality applied research in the mining context, and by potentially becoming a co-author in a manuscript to be published in an international journal. This project can be the start of a larger research project, such as Honours or PhD. |
Suitable for: | This project is open to students with an interest in soil physics, with strong laboratory skills and the ability and enthusiasm to learn and apply new equipment and tools. Ideal candidates would be Masters, 3rd or 4th year students of Soil, Environmental, Earth or Agricultural Sciences, or Civil/Environmental Engineering. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Mandana Shaygan |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Mandana Shaygan to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Minerals Industry Safety & Health Centre (MISHC)
Project title: | Unpicking Juukan Gorge: Applying the Linear-Landscape-Layered modelling framework for identifying new questions for cultural disaster prevention |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration, between 30-36 hours per week. COVID-19 considerations: This project can be completed remotely. Presence on site at the Sustainable Minerals Institute (either St Lucia or Indooroopilly Mine Site) is encouraged, however other plans can be made via negotiation with the supervisory team. |
Description: | In 2020, the mining company Rio Tinto blew up a 46,000 year old cave of significant indigenous cultural heritage in Juukan Gorge, WA. Previous to the disaster, the state government had given approval to Rio Tinto to progress with the expansion of their mining activities under WA legislation. This expansion led to the destruction of the cave, a sacred site for the traditional owners, Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (Binigura) peoples. A quote from Rio Tinto's website about the event: "In allowing the destruction of the Juuka Gorge rock shelters to occur, we fell far short of our values as a company and breached the trust placed in us by the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we operate. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that the destruction of a site of such exceptional cultural significance never happens again, to earn back the trust that has been lost, and to re-establish our leadership in communities and social performance." Much analysis has already been performed on this terrible and complex scenario, examining how this could come to pass. In such cases as these, though, it is common to return to the data gathered about what happened, for a deeper investigation through various analytical lenses, perspectives and methods. This is so that as much as possible can be learnt about the situation so that similar disasters can be prevented from happening elsewhere. This project seeks to do that that: to look again at what happened in Juukan Gorge through the lense of a recently develped modelling framework with the intention of expanding the range and type of questions that could, or should, be asked to maximise what we as a society can learn about preventing such cultural disasters. This modelling framework is called the Linear-Landscape-Layered approach intended to be used to help observers decide how to interact with a 'system of interest' in order to drive that system towards a desirable end-state. e.g. if the system of interest were the socio-technical system of a mining company relating to a local indigenous community and a state government with reference to a piece of land and the end-state were sacred sites left intact, all desired ore extracted from the area, all laws complied with then the question becomes how best should each of those stakeholders interact with each other and the landform to achieve the desired end-state? The Linear-Landscape-Layered approach supports decision-making for this type of problem by uniting the following concepts:
The activities of this project include:
The goal of the project is to explore whether the Linear-Landscape-Layered modelling framework, applied in this way, can help generate new insights about the Juukan Gorge scenario. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | Students can expect to learn about:
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Suitable for: | This project would be suited to 3rd or 4th year students, however an excellent 2nd year will be considered. The student can be from any of the following disciplines (non-exhaustive):
Other disciplines will be considered. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Ben Seligmann - working closely with Professor Deanna Kemp, Dr Anthony Kung, Dr Sandy Worden (all Sustainable Minerals Institute). |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Ben Seligmann to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Enhancing mine site rehabilitation risk analysis through model combination: integrating Bayesian Networks, Causal Networks and Ecosystem Trajectory Models |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration, between 30-36 hours per week. COVID-19 considerations: This project can be completed remotely. Presence on site at the Sustainable Minerals Institute (either St Lucia or Indooroopilly Mine Site) is encouraged, however other plans can be made via negotiation with the supervisory team. |
Description: | Mine closure and rehabilitation is a complex process. There are many technical, environmental, social and economic considerations that must be made and managed together in order to successfully rehabilitate the mine site. Being a multi-faceted problem, this means that rehabilitation has many different but interconnected risks - i.e. the uncertainties associated with the process of rehabilitation which can threaten its success. Exploring the depth to which these diverse risks are causally interconnected is an open area of research, but critically imortant for the environment and society in the vicinity of a closed mine to thrive. Ranger is a uranium mine in the Northern Territory that is a few years away from the end of its mine-life. there is ongoing collaboration between the Supervising Scientist of the Northern Territory (NT government department) in conjunction with the Sustainable Minerals Institute at UQ to help support and enable the rehabilitation journey for Ranger post-closure. Previous work performed to undertand the risks to rehabilitation for Ranger has been two-fold:
This project explores enhancements that could be gained in mine rehabilitation risk management by combining both of the above modelling approaches, Bayesian Networks (BNs) and ecosystem trajectory models (ETM), together by means of a third kind of causal model: Causal Network Topology Analysis (CaNeTA). CaNeTA is a very flexible approach that can be used to convert data about risk events from a wide variety of sources, and embed causally connected risk events in space-time. All of these types are useful models in their own domain, and are (can be) all used to study a closure process. The hypothesis is that being able to switch between or use each of these models in an integrated way for a specific closure scenario will help improve the overall certainty in the actions to take to drive the ecosystem to where you want it to be, compared to only using them separately. This is because it is thought that combining all three approaches would yield a method that helps identify:
The key activities of this project will be:
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Expected outcomes and deliverables: | The student will gain skills in:
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Suitable for: | This project would be suited to 3rd or 4th year students, however an excellent 2nd year will be considered. The student can be from any of the following disciplines (non-exhaustive):
Students from any degree are welcome to apply, but they are required to be comfortable with the following content in the project:
IMPORTANT: You do NOT have to know the above content to be considered. We will teach you what you need to know, but we are looking for someone willing to learn. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Ben Seligmann (Sustainable Minerals Institute) Co-supervision will be delivered by Professor Peter Erskine (Sustainable Minerals Institute), in association with Katherine Harries (PhD student, Sustainable Minerals Institute) |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Ben Seligmann to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
W.H. Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre (BRC)
Project title: | Mineralogical and geochemical characterisation of Rare Earth Element (REE) deportment |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. The applicant will be required to work onsite at both the Indooroopilly Mine Site and St Lucia Campus, for sample preparation and analysis, working under COVID-19 compliant arrangements. Data processing aspects of the project can be completed via remote working arrangements. |
Description: | This project forms part of the Rare Earth Element (REE) Processing Project which is a collaboration between the Sustainable Minerals Institute and the Queensland Government Department of Resources. The project aims to identify new resources of REE across Queensland and develop new and novel methods for extraction and processing of these critical elements. REEs include Ce and Nd used extensively in the high-technology/manufacturing sectors for specialised magnets, electronics and advanced engineering applications. Whilst the main REE bearing minerals include allanite and apatite, REEs may also occur in a range of trace minerals including monazite and titanite. The broader project focusses on developing novel methods to extract REEs from a range of samples using novel extraction methods. The specific aim of this project is to characterise the geological occurrence of REE-bearing phases in a range of samples from sites across Queensland to develop a detailed mineralogical and geochemical understanding of REE deportment. This work has significant implications developing new REE extraction and beneficiation processes. The work program will involve:
The student will have the opportunity to be exposed to a range of research groups involved in the broader collaborative project including UQ’s hydrometallurgy group and the geomicrobiology group at SEES. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | This project presents the opportunity to develop insights into the growing field of critical metals in Australia, focussing on rare earth elements (REEs). Through this project, the candidate will develop skills in systematic sampling and sample preparation methods, mineralogical analysis tools and to gain insights into the significance of mineralogy on beneficiation and extraction processes. The research outcomes will be included in quarterly reports to the Queensland Department of Resources with opportunities to contribute to publications based on the results. The candidate will contribute to written reports and may provide a short oral presentation of results at regular meetings of the REE Processing Project working group . |
Suitable for: | This project would be suited to 3rd or 4th year students with a background in mineralogy, geochemistry or science, looking to gain applied experience in characterisation for mineral processing applications. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Nathan Fox; Lizette Verster; Associate Professor Paul Gow |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Nathan Fox to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Exploring for new economy metals: circular economy of mine waste |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. The student will be required to work onsite at the Indooroopilly Mine Site for part of the project and can work remotely for part of this project. |
Description: | Background: In Australia, much like the rest of the world, the circular economy is growing with a target set by the Australian Government for it to generate at least AUD $26 billion by 2025. Whilst industries like plastics, food and fashion are making significant changes to meet this target, the mining industry has been considerably slower to adapt. Further, there is an international drive for countries to transition to low-carbon economies. New technologies are required to support this including electric vehicles and products for the medical and defence sectors. To manufacture these products new resources, here termed ‘new economy metals’ which include cobalt, tungsten, rare earth elements, indium, gallium and germanium, are required. In many downstream markets globally, these metals are increasingly required to have green credentials (e.g., Rio Tinto’s green aluminium; the EU’s battery passport). Traditionally, these metals are by-products of base metal and precious metal mining operations, and therefore have been disposed of in waste dumps and tailings storage facilities. These sites can contain reactive wastes (e.g. causing the generation of acid and metalliferous drainage or AMD), and therefore require effective rehabilitation. This project will focus on secondary prospectivity. This is defined as the examination of previously unconsidered mining opportunities in existing and abandoned mines, with this pursuit in keeping with circular economy principles. This collaborative project between the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ), within the Department of Resources, and the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), within The University of Queensland ,will examine mine waste at several sites across the state (operational and abandoned) to determine their new economy mineral endowment and will also investigate the mining technologies and techniques required to recover these metals as part of an economic rehabilitation approach. Project Aim/Objectives: This program focusses on performing routine mineralogical and chemical investigations at operational and abandoned mine sites across the state to quickly assess the new economy metal fertility and reprocessing potential of mine waste. This will be achieved through robust sampling (in the upper 5m of the sediment package in the case of tailings or spent heap leach materials, otherwise with representative samples of the major mine waste types selected). Approach: In this project, mine waste samples from select mine sites across Queensland are to be sampled and subjected to chemical assay, mineralogical analysis and mineral chemistry analysis using a range of techniques including bulk XRD, MLA, pXRF, LA-ICPMS and micro-XRF to quantify the critical metal content and identify their host minerals. The student working in this project will have the opportunity to get involved in one or more of the following project tasks (for a select site):
A key outcome of this research will be the provision of data to build a secondary prospectivity map of Queensland informing future brownfields exploration in the state. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | Students may gain skills in geochemical and mineralogical data collection, and be involved in data handling and visualisation softwares (e.g. IOGas, Leapfrog, Geoscience Analyst). The outcomes of this project will feed into the Queensland Government’s New Economy Metals Initiative (https://www.resources.qld.gov.au/mining-resources/initiatives/new-economy-minerals). From this, the student will have an opportunity to contribute towards publications. Students may also be asked to produce a report or oral presentation at the end of their project, to both the SMI and the Geological Survey of Queensland. |
Suitable for: | This project would be suited to 3rd or 4th year geology or environmental science students with a background in mineralogy or exploration geochemistry. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Laura Jackson; Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Laura Jackson or Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
Project title: | Using machine learning to assess acid mine drainage potential |
Project Duration & Delivery: | 10 weeks duration. The student will be required to work at the microscopy laboratory onsite at the Indooroopilly Mine Site. Data analysis and processing are also required to be completed at Indooroopilly unless COVID-19 considerations require alternative arrangements. |
Description: | Background: Sulphide minerals contained in mine waste (e.g. tailings, waste rock) can undergo oxidation and produce acid mine drainage (AMD). However, by understanding the degree of oxidation of the sulphide minerals responsible for generating AMD, predictions can be made regarding likelihood of formation and indeed, longevity. This project is focused on developing a computer algorithm for rapid assessment of sulphide minerals using the sulphide alteration index or SAI (Blowes and Jambor, 1990). The SAI is a ranking scheme to assess the degree of sulphide oxidation and focusses on examining the formation of secondary oxidation products as rims, and the relationship between different sulphide minerals, as these will govern the rate of AMD formation. Aim: Collected automated mineralogy data to feed into the development of an algorithm to rapidly perform the sulphide alteration index. Approach: 1) Selection of a range of mounted mine waste materials (tailings, waste rock) containing sulphide minerals (from existed data); 2) Collection of reflected light images from these grain mounts on an automated microscope; 3) Manual SAI assessment of the sulphide grains; 4) Using machine learning platforms, development of a code for computer-based performance of the SAI. |
Expected outcomes and deliverables: | Students will gain skills in reflected light microscopy, and an understanding of mine waste mineralogy and coding. The student will have an opportunity to contribute this data to publications arising from this research project. Students may also be asked to produce a report or oral presentation at the SMI Researchers Forum, at the end of their project. |
Suitable for: | This project is open to applications from students with a background in geology (skills in reflected-light microscopy are advantageous) with computation science skills beneficial and would suit those with an interest in mining and environmental geosciences. |
Primary Supervisor: | Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox |
Further information: | Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox to discuss this project in more detail, prior to submission of their online application. |
DATES
2022/2023 Summer Research Program
6-10 weeks duration between
November 2022 - February 2023
Applications open 15 August 2022
More Info from UQ Careers and Employability
Winter 2023 Research Program
TBA