Rio-backed research hub to tackle transition challenges

Tackling the major bottleneck to electrification - copper supply - has been earmarked as the first 'grand challenge' for the newly launched Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials. Rio Tinto has launched the centre in partnership with Imperial College London as part of a program that aims to accelerate the development of sustainable techniques and technologies to deliver the materials necessary for the energy transition. The centre is backed with an investment of $150 million from Rio Tinto over the next 10 years. It will connect some of the world’s best researchers with the capability and commitment of industry to help transform the way materials are sourced, processed, used and recycled to make them more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Imperial vice provost (research and enterprise) Professor Mary Ryan said the scale-up of electrification needed for the energy transition required a step-change in the production, supply and utilisation of a whole host of critical materials. The centre's first grand challenge is: "Delivering future material systems for energy transitions with integrity: Overcoming the copper challenge”. Copper is critical to electricity generation, storage and transmission, but the world needs more in the next 10 years than has been mined in the whole last century. Research will include investigating new ways to extract copper - such as from fluids in the Earth’s crust; using microorganisms to harvest metals from rocks that only contain small volumes of copper; and the optimisation of the waste from old mine workings – with a focus on ESG from the perspective of indigenous communities. Academic partners include The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, The University of California, Berkeley, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and The Australian National University, Canberra. Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm (pictured left) said innovative partnerships between industry and academia were critical for the world to meet the deeply physical and complex challenge of the global energy transition. "The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials should become a global hub for investment and collaboration that will ultimately create the conditions for technological breakthroughs," he said. “Innovation has been a fundamental part of Rio Tinto’s DNA since we were founded in London over 150 years ago. "We are constantly trying to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs, and this partnership with some of the leading research universities in the world, led by Imperial College London, will support this ambition.” You may also like: https://industryqld.com.au/rio-tinto-pilot-to-get-the-good-oil-on-diesel-replacement/

Rio-backed research hub to tackle transition challenges

Industry Queensland

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