Queensland’s potential as a source of critical minerals is being put under the microscope this week.

A Geological Survey of Queensland virtual seminar is being led by Professor Rick Valenta from the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute who said the group of minerals were under-explored.

“It is now well established that modern economies will increasingly depend on the supply of a broad and in some cases poorly understood and under-explored group of commodities termed the ‘critical minerals’, due to discrepancies between predicted demand versus known supply,” Professor Valenta said.

“The increasing production of electric motors, solar panels, batteries and wind turbines has led to an increased requirement for a large range of commodities including nickel, cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements and many others.

“While some of the required commodities, such as copper and zinc, are well-understood geologically and metallurgically, many others have had relatively little attention in terms of process models, exploration and targeting.

“Further, much of the attention within Australia for critical mineral potential has focused on the world-class Lithium and REE endowment in WA.

“However Queensland also has strong, and in some cases un-recognised, potential for critical minerals.”

The webinar on Thursday (28 May) outlines some of the work being done by GSQ and collaborators on critical mineral potential in Queensland, as well as solutions for barriers to potential.

Register for the seminar here.