The geoscience community is set to step into some of the big issues facing the transition to a low-carbon economy when it meets next month (February 6-7) at the Australian Mine Waste Symposium.

The symposium, held at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, will address four themes including valorisation to sequestration, mining and reprocessing pathways, barriers to success and the future landscape.

Main image: The Century operation in the Gulf of Carpentaria is a leader in remining tailings

Symposium co-chair Associate Professor Anita Parbhakar-Fox has led the way with her research at the Mine Waste Transformation Through Characterisation (MIWATCH) program.

MIWATCH is part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) based at the University of Queensland.

Related: Register here – Australian Mine Waste Symposium 2024

The symposium would address foundation challenges to the extraction of valuable minerals from tailings dams, Professor Parbhakar Fox said.

“Mine waste materials are potentially vast repositories of critical metals and cannot be overlooked in this context, and in the conversation around the energy transition,” she said.

“Unlocking the value contained in mine waste can only be realised based on robust chemical-mineralogical characterisation.

“This is the work MIWATCH has been doing in collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the state surveys in Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

“Designing out waste from the start is the key to long-term industry change when it comes to waste management-and is increasingly possible with new technologies emerging for characterisation and processing.”

Related: Mining waste involving profile, process and people

The symposium would be a meeting of determined minds Professor Parbhakar Fox said

“With the technologies that we have now, to me it almost feels like there’s no excuse not to do better. We have drill core scanning technologies targeting the collection of mineralogy and chemical data, we have very well-trained geologists internationally as well as within Australia.

“It’s not like it was 50 years ago when static testing was invented to predict acid and metalliferous drainage. We’ve now got this massive opportunity to leverage off all of this data to minimise environmental risks associated with mine waste and so we should be doing it.”

iQ Industry Queensland is a proud supporter of the Australian Mine Waste Symposium

The intent of the symposium was to produce a white paper to help direct the effort towards a low emissions economy, Professor Parbhakar-Fox said.

SMI was in a good position to take a leadership position, she said.

“I know that SMI have always had the appetite to take on board these big challenges. 

“Because we have that six-centre structure and many different discipline experts around the traps, we’re able to take the lead because we can evaluate each other, we can peer review and we can guide. 

“That collaborative nature really does put us at the front of the queue in terms of trying to take on these challenges and deliver solutions to solve them.” 

The Sustainable Minerals Institute has a clutch of research centres reflecting the new mining paradigms. They include geology and mineral processing research, land rehabilitation, social responsibility, water and health and safety, among others.

The Australia Mine Waste Symposium is being supported by SMI and Geological Survey of Queensland.