Leadership role helping guide critical minerals development

Take a bite and start chewing. Furiously. That’s what the head of minerals geoscience with the Geological Survey of Queensland, Dr Janelle Kerr, is doing in her position to help develop a critical minerals industry. The scope is audacious. Help competitively develop one of the most prospective minerals provinces in the world to contribute to an international goal of net zero carbon by 2050. Related: Idemitsu-backed vanadium hopeful raises $1.7m At the same time draft processes to bring trace elements to near 100 percent purity and re-invent manufacturing in Australia to standards that have yet to be defined to take advantage of downstream value adding. Whew. Dr Kerr is taking the challenge in her stride and true to her calling that deals in infinite timelines, microscopic detail and the forces of nature, refers to it as an ‘opportunity’. She says the goals are realistic as her professional team is well supported including by government processes that are maturing past the three-year election cycle. “There is so much going on,” Dr Kerr says. “It's a wonderful team of people doing so many varied things. “We're doing detailed micro analytic characterization of rocks. We're doing big scale geophysics, we're doing grants programs. “So trying to work out how to support that team and delivery of all that great work has been a learning curve for me, but it's a great opportunity to let them shine.” Dr Kerr says there are many issues, sometimes competing, to consider. “Understanding how we position Queensland in the critical mineral space and what government support should be provided is an ongoing conversation,” she says. “Our general day-to-day work is thinking about pre-competitive geoscience and how we support industry through delivering that. But when you're talking about critical minerals, it's a much more difficult problem. “It's not just about finding them, it's about how do you process them? How do you deal with market instability? How do you find a customer who's going to be reliable? “It's kind of broadened our focus because to support critical minerals, we can't just do the upstream thing anymore and so at the GSQ, we've expanded out into trying to think about what circular economy is and how that might help recycle resources through economies rather than disposal.” Dr Kerr has a 15-year career with the GSQ working her way through to principal geophysicist and her current role where she has been for eight months. She says it has been a difficult decision to move from being a technician into leadership. “It's a question I asked myself, whether I was ready to put aside the majority of my technical work to think about a leadership role. That's one of the hardest decisions I've made. “I think you do it because you want to make a difference. That's the point. “I love the geophysics. I love doing what I do, but I'm going to put that to the side for the moment and think about if there's something else that I can do in a more strategic way to support not just geophysics, but the industry as a whole.” The GSQ co-hosts a regular webinar series on the last Thursday of the month with the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute. The webinars cover a range of topics from data to sustainability and give a snapshot of the work being undertaken by the GSQ and collaborators. Register here

Leadership role helping guide critical minerals development

Industry Queensland

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