Developing new industries Training the future workforce | Leading in innovation How university science is evolving new methods of mineral discovery, p3 Science wasterevolutionisingUniforginggraduatesenergyfutures,p5R&Dthat’sminetreatment,p6Issue 8, Sept 2022 CRITICAL MINERALS How university science is improving access to reliable and resilient supplies of critical minerals Jess Walsh’s ARC linkage project utilises data to vastly speed up critical mineral analyses.
DELIVERING THE INNOVATION AND THE TRANSLATION VALUE CHAIN NECESSARY TO UNDERPIN THE SUPPLY CHAINS OF THE FUTURE.” 2 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE
Decarbonisation relies on the deep science capability present across our universities and the ability to train the next generation to enable one of the world’s biggest industrial shifts — towards net zero. This issue of Australian University Science could not be more prescient. The most recent World Economic Forum Global Risks Report found that respondents ranked “climate action failure” as the number one threat with the most likely severe impact on the world in the next decade. In this context, industry sectors in countries not focussed on decarbonisation will face increasing costs of carbon and significant difficulties trading in global markets. As the world gears up to meet net zero commitments, metals and mining companies are positioning to drive this massive technological transition. Critical minerals are at the heart of decarbonisation and electrification as we harness renewable energy, fuel-cellbased electric vehicles and scale green hydrogen production. These changes will drive significantly increased demand for raw materials such as copper, nickel, lithium, cobalt, tellurium, neodymium and others. Most of the tellurium used in solar panels is collected from electrolytic copper refining, and while copper demand may increase, its mine supply may not expand at the same rate to meet this demand. In this context, the world and Australia face both opportunities and challenges. As summarised in Australia’s 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy, we have some of the world’s largest recoverable resources of critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, vanadium and Rare Earth Elements. As also highlighted in the Strategy, Australia’s real asset is that of the scientific and technological know-how built over decades in fields spanning extractive metallurgy, analytical, macromolecular, materials and physical chemistry, materials engineering, geology and geochemistry digitisation — to name just a few. It is the value chain created by long-standing collaborations
Australia’s strong science research and training is integral to driving new economies. Universities have a critical role as partners in establishing innovation and technological change in industry. As science delivers new insights and tools, new industries are emerging, and people with science skills will be essential to these new industries. Australian University Science magazine highlights these stories, showcasing exceptional science teams and Australian science graduates working in industry. To provide feedback or suggestions, subscribe or order additional copies, visit acds.edu.au/AustUniScience
AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE
Professor Caroline McMillen AO Chief Scientist for South Australia “AUSTRALIA’S REMARKABLE UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS ARE
Exploring the achievements of university science in building Australia’s sovereign capability
transitionasupportingSciencecritical forged between energy, mining and manufacturing companies with Australia’s remarkable university scientists that have delivered the innovation and translation outcomes that drive our supply chains and are key to meeting the challenges of the Australiafuture.is well positioned as a trusted global leader to overcome the challenges of a global energy, industrial and economic transition and to reduce the risks highlighted by those respondents to the Global Risk Report. Now is the time to back the best of Australian science and to support the next generation of scientists coming through our university system, who carry the weight of the planet’s future with them.
Cover Image: Brenton Edwards. Published 27 Aug 2022 by Refraction Media on behalf of the Australian Council of Deans of Science. Designed by Jon Wolfgang Miller. Printed in Australia by IVE. ISSN: 2652-2403. © 2022 Australian Council of Deans of Science, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner or form without written permission. If you would like to reproduce anything from this issue, email info@refractionmedia.com.au.
THE RISE OF CRITICAL MINERALS
“Now these minerals are critical ingredients in the technologies we increasingly rely on in phones, batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines and more.
WORLD-LEADING ISOTOPE SCIENCE University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) Distinguished Professor Mark Harrison is renowned worldwide for “TECHNIQUES UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS STARTED MORE THAN 40 YEARS AGO HAVE BLOSSOMED INTO THE CAPABILITIES FOR CRITICAL MINERALS EXPLORATION WE HAVE TODAY.”
“In the 1960s–80s, ANU was the global leader in isotope science — that’s where the methods were being developed most aggressively,” Harrison says. “Now, those techniques university scientists started more than 40 years ago have absolutely blossomed into the capabilities for critical minerals exploration we have in universities and geological industries today.”
The Australian Critical Minerals Research Centre is part of a drive towards sovereign capability in critical minerals. L-R: Diana Zivak, Fun Meeuws, Carl Spandler, Jarred Lloyd, Jess Walsh.
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Measuring the relative abundance of isotopes gives scientists clues about how minerals formed millions of years ago.
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Despite their name, REEs are not actually that rare in the Earth’s crust. However, to date they have been relatively hard to access, as they don’t typically occur in deposits rich enough to support traditional mining approaches.
The critical minerals boom is driven by a transition to green energy and appetite for tech such as smartphones. Australia is well positioned to play a leading role in finding and extracting them.
ProfessorHarrisonMark his expertise in isotope geochemistry. He undertook his PhD at ANU in the late 1970s and was director at ANU’s Research School of Earth Sciences from 2001–06.
“At ANU in the 1970s, we developed a mineral dating technique based on measuring two isotopes of argon, which is still widely used across the globe,” Harrison says. In the early days, spectrometry was used to date the geological evolution
Looking forward, demand for critical minerals is only going to go up,” he says.
Better understanding of REE deposits – such as how they formed and why they occur in particular locations – will improve commercial opportunities and ensure reliable sovereign sources.
Acheiving this requires a complex interplay between university science and“Themining.best exploration companies think very much like geologists at universities, and they fund people within universities to work on certain problems,” Mavrogenes explains. But the exchange goes beyond a ‘pay and find’ mentality.
A lab technique known as mass spectrometry is particularly vital for critical minerals research. It can identify forms of elements known as isotopes, which have subtly distinct masses due to differing numbers of neutrons.
Fundamental university science is driving a discovery process that will completely change the way we search for these critical minerals into the future.
“For decades, university scientists have studied rare minerals in rocks to understand ancient geological processes,” explains John Mavrogenes, professor of economic geology at Australian National University (ANU).
The term ‘critical minerals’ is used to describe naturally occurring elements that are essential for modern technologies, economies and national security, and for which supply-chain vulnerability exists. Well-known examples include silicon (used in solar panels), lithium (for batteries) and cobalt (used in magnets). Geoscience Australia (GA) lists 45 minerals as critical in the Australian context, including 15 metals called the Rare Earth Elements (REEs). Critical minerals are essential for tech we use today and for the green economy. Accessing these elements is thanks to innovation in Earth science research.
“This lets us perform accurate isotope analyses from one sample in just a couple of minutes, fundamentally changing the way minerals exploration can be done,” says Associate Professor Carl Spandler, director of the Australian Critical Minerals Research Centre (ACMRC) at the University of Adelaide.
“They come from the Georgina Basin in Queensland, and are really high in REEs,” Zivak says. She measures the relative ratios of isotopes of two REEs — samarium and neodymium — in the Georgina Basin phosphorite, and compares these with the ratios of the same isotopes in adjacent rocks.
A common approach is laser ablation ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry), in which samples are scraped off with a laser; the resulting individual elements are converted into ions (charged particles) and then analysed in one step.
MINERALISATION OF REE S ACMRC postdoctoral researcher Dr Jessica Walsh is studying REEs in an ARC Linkage Project. Working with ANU scientists, state geological surveys, GA and Northern Minerals Ltd, Walsh aims to understand how mineralisation of REEs takes place, focusing primarily on geological formations in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. ARC Linkage Projects are designed to bring skills, knowledge and ideas from the university sector across to industry.
Dr Diana Zivak at ACMRC is conducting geochemical studies on a unique group of geological formations called phosphorites.
“Comparing the ratios helps us understand how REEs have ended up in the phosphorite, and whether they came from a local source or due to a different process entirely. This information could help mining companies avoid wasting exploration dollars looking for REEs in locations that are not prospective.”
ANALYSING A WHOLE MINERAL AT ONCE
The government’s 2020 Modern Manufacturing Strategy includes critical minerals processing as one of its national manufacturing priorities.
Walsh brings mineral samples to the University of Adelaide labs and applies laser ablation ICP-MS to quantify REEs and measure isotopes of uranium and lead, so she can assess the age of the formations.
“Critical mineral discovery, separation and extraction – all of this requires the right techniques and an educated workforce,” Mavrogenes says. “There’s really important research still to be done on the rocks that carry critical minerals in Australia.”
“It’s incredibly fast – you can get a phenomenal amount of geochemical data really quickly,” she says. Exploration companies will use the data to help them understand the geology of their exploration sites, and to better target prospective areas to drill test for ore discoveries.
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of the Earth. The world-first SHRIMP (Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Micro Probe) for spectrometry was created at ANU, revolutionising dating of minerals by removing the need for scientists to chemically process rocks and minerals before“SHRIMPanalysis.offered a way around all the tedious chemistry we’d had to do up to that point,” says Harrison. SHRIMP and more advanced isotope and dating technologies soon became established at other universities, but remained largely the domain of academia due to the persistence of some lengthy procedures and reliance on separate techniques for different elements.
– Sarah Keenihan Critical minerals researcher Jarred Lloyd loading rock samples into the laser ablation chamber for isotopic analysis. REE S AT THE SOURCE
In recent years, however, isotope science has become more commercially viable, thanks to important improvements in mass spectrometry.
ACMRC was formed in 2021 to build expertise and knowledge around discovery of critical minerals. It’s part of a larger movement building critical minerals capacity in Australia.
TALKING POINT
“I studied at ANU under some of Australia’s leading geologists,” she says. “The program was academically rigorous, and the thought at the time was that ANU geology students would have a solid grounding in all the major science subjects that could then be applied to whatever career path they chose.
“The next step is to build the infrastructure. This investment will have to come from industry, but it can be incentivised by the government.
“Now is the time for visionary leadership. The pay-off will be huge for Australian jobs, the economy and for our planet.”
MELANIE FINCH
“If we can figure out how these critical mineral deposits form in shear zones, we can find more of them, making the switch to green energy technology quicker and cheaper,” saysAtFinch.James Cook University, she’s part of the Economic Geology Research Unit, working closely with mining companies to better understand ore deposits and aid companies in their current exploration efforts. “Research we are doing today could impact the discovery of critical mineral deposits within the next five to 10 years.”
Finch says we have the technology to produce enough green energy for the domestic and export markets.
“As I was leaving university, jobs were just becoming available in the mining industry for environmental management,” she recalls. “Some of my university colleagues went into that career path. We were right on the cusp of that shift.”
SEP 2022
UniversityMonashofBachelorScience, UniversityMonashPhD,
Britt herself joined the CSIRO, where she worked as a science communicator changing public conception of the mining industry as environmentally irresponsible and destructive. That revelation was not received so warmly by some of the old blokes in industry, she says, but her managers at the CSIRO supported her and that understanding has driven the rest of her career. She spent several years overseas, and returned to Australia in 2008, when she joined the government body Geoscience Australia.
ANUofBachelorScience, AustraliaGeoscienceSpecialist,CommodityCSIROScientist,Research Director of Mineral Resources, Advice and Promotion, Geoscience Australia
As she was leaving, ANU established the School of Resource and Environmental Management, making Britt’s area of interest the crest of an environmental land management wave we’re still surfing today.
“That kind of thinking and the scientific thought processes — these just get passed down the generations.”
“My most satisfying job is helping to ensure that Australia understands its own national minerals inventory,” she says. “It is now my great privilege as the director of mineral resources, advice and promotion to be helping lead Australia’s critical minerals program.”
– Rachael Bolton Dr Melanie Finch hopes to accelerate Australia’s green energy transition. As a child, Finch was fascinated by the macroscopic questions of geoscience: “how mountains were made, what made volcanoes erupt”. Her PhD at Monash University focussed on shear zones: “‘conveyor belts’ that can stack rocks kilometres thick”. As crystals shift and deform, water seeps through, dissolving then depositing critical minerals. Shear zones, Finch says, are “water superhighways and can move quantities of fluid a couple of hundred times the volume of Sydney Harbour”. But the process is poorly understood; and Australia’s substantial critical mineral deposits have hitherto been uncovered largely by chance.
DSTOscientist,factorsHuman
— Alison Ratcliffe 5
profiles THE BIG PICTURE ALLISON BRITT
Allison Britt unlocked the synergy of her science and communication skills at university.
You could say that, in the 1990s, Allison was a step ahead of her time. She took an interest in the confluence of geoscience and environmentalism at a moment when the possibility that the two could, or indeed should, coexist was a bit of a novelty.
Lecturer, EnvironmentalinPresident,JCU,WomenEarthandSciences
Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) have come up with a method for extracting cobalt from the acidic mine tailings left over at the Old Tailings Dam at Savage River, Tasmania.
As the world focuses on critical minerals supply, Australian university scientists are working with industry to ‘re-mine’ deposits previously passed over as difficult or expensive to extract. Mining these deposits ethically and sustainably will open the pathway to a sovereign supply of minerals, and potentially a mine-to-factory process that could transform our manufacturing capability.
WASTEWANTNOTNOT
“We work with University of NSW and ANSTO through a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) project. We also work with Curtin University and QUT as part of the Future Batteries Industry CRC.
The team was trying to work out how to clean up the old site when investigations discovered a high concentration of cobalt in the tailings.
GOING CRITICAL
It’s a tricky path to manoeuvre, however, one that requires investment at all stages, as well as collaboration between science and industry.
This kind of rehabilitation or remediation is often referred to as ‘re-mining’. It serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it removes and/or stabilises the sulphur commonly left over in waste products that poisons surrounding groundwater. Secondly, it opens up new, ethical sources of minerals — from cobalt to tungsten and high-purity alumina.
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Dr Andrew Tong is a metallurgist and executive manager at Cobalt Blue, which aims to be one of the world’s largest ethical suppliers of cobalt, a critical mineral used in batteries. A University of Sydney science graduate with a PhD in chemistry, Tong holds several patents in mineral extraction methods that separate precious metals from pyrite and simultaneously create a stable, elemental sulphur that can be used in farming. He says collaboration among the university sector, research institutions, government and private enterprise has never been more important if we want to build a viable renewable tech and battery industry.
The process involves using bacteria to separate cobalt from the pyrite that was discarded when the open cut mine was originally exploited for its iron ore. Dr Laura Jackson is part of the team at UQ that came up with the extraction method. She explains that as a native Tasmanian, Supplying the world with critical minerals is going to require innovation in re-mining old deposits.
this kind of rehabilitation work is close to her heart.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING BLUE
Critical mineral extraction and advanced manufacturing have been big-ticket items on the agendas of successive federal governments in recent years and university science is front-and-centre of these efforts at innovation. For example, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling EcoEfficient Beneficiation of Minerals, based at the University of Newcastle, boasts 16 participating partner unis, including eight in Australia, and four processingcriticalmostpartners.industryPresently,oftheworld’smineralshappens
spotlight
“That led to a set of studies as to how much cobalt, and how you could extract it,” she says. The team is working towards patenting the process.
“My own personal background includes a PhD at the University of Sydney. So, most of my industry career has had some links back to a university at some point. They’re a great source of graduates, training and facilities.”
New processes to extract minerals from waste sites are highly patentable. There are several examples of these patents being licensed and/or commercialised, such as a recent agreement between Curtin University and the international mining company Draslovka (see p8).
On a global scale, the demand for environmentally responsible and ethical human labour practices has never been higher. This is a trend that affects all production and manufacturing industries and mining is no exception.
DIFFERENT NECESSARYMEANENVIRONMENTSMININGINNOVATIONINTHISSECTORISANDHIGHLYCOLLABORATIVE.
These regulatory changes present an opportunity for Australian university science and industry partners. As a country with some of the most stringent standards for occupational health and safety and the environment, Australia is a safe place for companies to source their raw materials, from an ESG standpoint. By providing green sources for critical minerals, research partnerships play a vital role in filling the recycling gap.
ENSURING ETHICAL SUPPLY CHAINS
In pursuit of those goals, Tong says Australia has an advantage in the quality of its university research andHepartnerships.sayssituational and compositional differences between mine locations can have a big influence on the type of process you might need to find or invent to exploit specific resources of mine sites. For that reason, innovation in this sector is both necessary and highly collaborative. This position is echoed by Allison Britt, director of mineral resources advice and promotion for Geoscience Australia (see p5). GA is part of the National Critical Minerals R&D Centre with the CSIRO and ANSTO. It is performing a stocktake of critical minerals research in Australia across all sectors — commercial, government and university research.
in China. Increasing our critical mineral extraction and processing capacity is both an economic opportunity and an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) opportunity.
battery standards also mean that more battery components will have to come from renewable and recycled sources — which is a challenge, as the demand for new batteries is expected to outstrip the retirement of old batteries.
— Rachael Bolton
“We want to work out who’s doing what, who has done what…and where our capability gaps are, because there’s further opportunity there to concentrate our efforts,” Britt explains. “One of the critical minerals activities that’s close to my heart is the national mine waste assessment, which Goescience Australia is doing in collaboration with UQ, RMIT and the geological surveys of Queensland andTheseNSW.”programs highlight the importance of university research in every step of the re-mining process, from mapping to investigating mine waste sites for possible sources of valuable metals, and developing new technologies to extract those minerals.
MINERAL: GOLD PARTNERSHIP: CURTIN UNIVERSITY + DRASLOVKA
MINERAL: TUNGSTEN PARTNERSHIP: UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA + GROUP 6 METALS
Tungsten is a rare mineral used to make alloys that are extremely durable against both heat and wear. Tungsten alloys are some of the hardest metals around, almost as hard as diamond, making them good for things such as heavy cutting blades, armaments and aeronautics. But tungsten is also used in many electronic components, for filaments, electrodes and heat sinks. In January 2022, EQ Resources received a co-investment from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre to re-mine waste product at the Mt Carbine tungsten mine site, supported by the Sustainable Minerals Institute at UQ.
TECH: BATTERIES
TECH: CIRCUITS AND COOLING FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES
TECH: HIGH-PERFORMANCE ALLOYS AND BATTERIES
Cobalt is a critical mineral often associated with its bright blue colour. It has historically been used in relatively small quantities to produce lightweight but durable alloys like those used in aircraft. It’s a potential boom mineral, with uses in satellite and space travel projects, and in high-performance batteries where rapid charge and discharge is key — think top-end car batteries. Cobalt Blue and the University of Queensland are working together to investigate and rehabilitate old copper mines where the tailings contain cobalt. outcomes
UNIVERSITY SCIENCE & INDUSTRY PARTNERS IN CRITICAL MINERALS
MINERAL: COBALT PARTNERSHIP: UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND + COBALT BLUE
“This investment is helping Queensland become not just a mining state but a high-tech developer of the future energy needs for the world,” says QUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Margaret Sheil.
Tungsten is also a critical part of much modern circuitry as a heat sink: essentially a piece of metal that sits inside your phone, laptop or other electronic device that transfers heat away from the processor so that the delicate circuitry stays cool and doesn’t overheat or melt. China is currently the dominant global producer for tungsten, which brings with it some environmental and social governance concerns. Australia has tungsten deposits in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and along the eastern seaboard, presenting an opportunity for Australia to step up its tungsten production and deliver a more ethically produced metal in this space. The partnership between the University of Tasmania and Group 6 is built around research into ecologically sustainable production of tungsten at King Island.
High Purity Alumina is a product used in the energy-efficient lights of today — LEDs — as well as for separators for lithium-ion batteries.
TECH: ELECTRICAL CONDUCTION
MINERAL: TUNGSTEN PARTNERSHIP: UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND + EQ RESOURCES
QUT Associate Professor Sara Couperthwaite’s research alongside industry partner Lava Blue has shown this valuable mineral — as well as critical minerals magnesium and vanadium — can be found in kaolin clay. In April 2022, the collaborative project received $12 million in funding to scaleup operations at Redlands Research Park in south-east Brisbane.
More than just a luxury metal used in jewellery, gold, while not a critical mineral, is a key element in many electronic devices important to the renewable energy economy. Its high conductivity makes electroplating in gold an important part of circuit boards. Curtin University scientists have developed technology that uses amino acids such as glycine to leach gold and other minerals from ore, including waste tailings. The method removes the need to use cyanide in the extraction of gold, making it a much more environmentally friendly process. The Curtin Uni-developed technology was commercialised when Czech multinational chemical supplier Draslovka purchased it in May this year. UNIVERSITY SCIENCE
MINERAL: ALUMINA, MAGNESIUM, VANADIUM PARTNERSHIP: QUT + LAVA BLUE
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