5 minute read
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
The year 2022 saw a significant ramp up in Centre activity. With labs operational and an increase in PhD students starting, our Centre grew to more than 100 scientists comprising PhD students, ECRs and senior investigators.
COEMinerals members met face-to-face for the first time during our annual conference in Canberra in July. This was the Centre’s first in-person event and it enabled us, our industry partners (including Jord International and FLSmidth) and guests to appreciate the importance of community and personal engagement, both precursors to successful inclusivity, collaboration and innovation. Personally, I believe the main conference highlight was the emergence of enthusiasm, energy and motivation from a new generation of researchers who are forming the research community that will underpin their future careers.
We greatly appreciated the involvement of:
Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Tina Brown for her inspiring Welcome to Country
Ms Tania Constable, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Council of Australia for her Opening Address
Industry representatives for their engaging panel discussions
Sector mentors (spanning departmental and industry) for their valuable advice and engagement with students, especially during the ‘Gaddie Pitches’
Centre technology advances
Jord International (Jord) securing a new installation of the Jameson Concorde Cell™ at Nickel West in Western Australia; its inventor being Centre Chief Investigator Laureate
Professor Graeme Jameson
Jord also secured funding for introducing the NovaCell™ into a site in NSW for floating coarse particles, and is working with UON on the upscaling of Centre-developed XtractORE™ agglomeration technology
FLSmidth successfully secured European funding to support Centre-developed CoarseAIR™ upscaling, with involvement from our Centre
UOM node researchers secured a contract with a major multinational minerals company to evaluate the performance of the developed High-Pressure Dewatering Roll technology in improving tailings storage and water recovery
Further, West Cobar Metals (ASX: WC1) re-engaged COEMinerals to undertake beneficiation studies on the Newmont Deposit to help unlock a major rare earth mineral deposit
Ground-breaking innovation as a result of internode, cross-discipline collaboration
Centre researchers began exploring and initiating collaborative research projects - sharing knowledge, skills and technical equipment - across nodes in earnest in 2022. This approach resulted in some highly productive, new and unique experimentation opportunities for members and industry. More on this in 2023!
Critical minerals, minerals processing, sustainability and ‘net-zero’ emissions targets are top of mind topics in Australia and around the globe
COEMinerals is well placed to contribute to enabling the transition to a metals-economy, making our communications and relationships with government and industry more important than ever. Ensuring our members form close and collaborative relationships with the minerals sector is an ongoing Centre priority. Throughout 2022, Centre leaders contributed to multiple Australian government feedback forums and channels, providing strategic advice for forward planning.
The Centre extended its industry connections and influence by hosting the ‘International REFLUX™ Flotation Cell (RFC) Upscaling Symposium’ in October, involving more than 20 Centre researchers and propelling local and international awareness of our latest research and technology invention to an audience of sustainability experts representing commercial and academic interests.
We welcomed visits, engagement and planning input from numerous members of our Advisory Board, International Advisory Panel, sector specialists and renowned academics in 2022 which provided opportunities for close engagement, including 1:1 conversations with PhD students, ECRs and undergraduates, as well as Centre and university leaders.
Visitors included:
Advisory Board Chair Professor Simon Biggs, Vice Chancellor (VC) of James Cook University who visited our Newcastle Administration node (November)
International Advisory Panel (IAP) Chair, Professor Cyril O’Connor (South Africa based) whom we also met in Melbourne and during a visit to our UON node (August)
IAP member Dr Martin Rudolph, from the Helmholtz Institute in Freiberg (HZDR/HIF) (Germany based), whom we also met with in Melbourne (August)
Further, we greatly appreciated the participation of the Australian and International industry and academic leaders who spoke during our ‘Signature Lecture’ series, which we make widely available to our community via our website and social channels.
Future leaders in focus
Guided by input from the Centre’s ‘Future Leaders Committee’, we commenced the ‘Future Leaders Training Program’ this year, which incorporates technical, academic and professional training elements that build on the wide-ranging experiences PhDs and ECRs gain by being part of the Centre.
Getting off-campus, ‘out of the lab’ and into the field, many of our PhDs and ECRs visited industrial/ mine sites in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales this year, giving them a taste of the scale and potential impact of their work to increase sustainability in minerals processing.
The Centre supported joint learning projects with international colleagues in 2022, an example being one of our Centre PhDs Siân Parkes spending two months in Germany and Switzerland to further investigate ion flotation of critical minerals using the REFLUX™ Flotation Cell (RFC), and use of Centre-developed, environmentally friendly Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT) polymers at the HZDR/HIF and Technische Universität Dresden.
Navigating challenges
It was not all smooth sailing in 2022, as PhD visa delays (ongoing) and publication delays (sometimes 180 days or more) challenged the pace of research and its access. That said, we are very close to meeting our PhD targets for the year, and we plan to trial some preprint research releases in
1. https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/stem-equity-monitor
2. https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/women-in-engineering-report-june-2022.pdf
3. https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/WGEA-Gender-Equality-Scorecard-2022.pdf the coming year to accelerate availability of our ground-breaking Centre work.
At times ore, mineral and reagent sample availability was limited, but inter-node resourcefulness literally helped deliver the goods.
Our team’s gender balance is not where we want it to be at 37% female. While in line with our planning expectations and on par with Australian academic STEM enrolment trends – where women make up 36% of course enrolments 1 - gender imbalance is a known problem for the engineering and mining industries in Australia (Engineering: 11% are women Mining: 20% are female 3). As a result, we plan to double-down on our efforts to increase female researchers in the second half of 2023, against a backdrop of very active and potentially competitive industry recruitment drive for talent.
Despite some member changes as part of the Centre’s evolution, we continue to build momentum and have a solid succession plan in place.
Our flexible workplace and family-friendly culture has enabled Centre members – many of whom were finally able to visit family abroad in 2022 after an extended period of lock downs and border closures - to work from home (WFH), or indeed anywhere in support of our inclusion values.
As we enter the next exciting phase of our research program, I thank Centre members for their contribution in 2022, along with our partners, collaborators and academic mentors.
We are planning wide ranging events, industry engagement, community outreach and research collaborations to increase our knowledge and understanding through engagement and influence next year.
Our Centre’s ARC ‘mid-term review’ will occur in 2023. This is a timely reminder for us to stay focused on achievement of Centre goals through the delivery of ground-breaking research, and our progress towards achieving our ultimate aim of enabling sector transformation as a result of industry adoption of our eco-efficient and moresustainable minerals processing methods in Australia and around the world.
Laureate Professor Kevin Galvin Centre Director
