Construction has started on a $7 million mineral research centre at The University of Queensland, which aims to boost Queensland’s mineral production and cut the state’s power use.
The Mineral Characterisation Research Facility (MCRF) will develop new mineral processing technologies to increase the state’s metal production by two percent and cut mining electricity use by one percent.
The new facility will be located at the university’s experimental mine at Indooroopilly, which is home to one of Australia’s oldest mining research centres, the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC).
JKMRC Business manager Dr Leith Hayes said the three-storey mineral research centre would house research labs and office space for students and mining partners.
The Queensland Government will contribute $6.1 million and UQ will provide $900,000 to build the centre, the newest mineral characterisation centre in Australia and first in the state. Construction is expected to be completed in mid-2009.
Commercial mining partners: Xstrata Technology, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Anglo Platinum, JKTech, Cytec Industries Inc and Metso Corporation together are contributing about $10 million in cash and equipment for research projects.
The MCRF aims to increase Queensland mineral exports by $255 million, decrease carbon dioxide emissions from producing electricity for mining by 427,000 tonnes and reap $4.2 million in royalties, within the next decade.
Dr Hayes said even small reductions in power use were significant given mines used about 10 percent of all Queensland’s power.
She said the MCRF’s chemical flotation and mineral grinding techniques would help companies use less energy to recover more metal in a more environmentally friendly way and could be applied to most base metals, coal and gold.
The MCRF will also give UQ facilities to test how emerging technologies can be applied to mineral characterisation.
JKMRC research has already led to metal recovery increases of up to 5 percent at several Queensland mines.
Queensland’s mining industry was worth $14.3 billion in 2004-05, accounting for about half the state’s exports.
The JKMRC is part of the UQ’s Sustainable Minerals Institute which was created to give a focus to mining issues such as water quality and use, rehabilitation, production planning and lifecycle cost analysis.
Media: Dr Leith Hayes (07 3365 5820, l.hayes1@uq.edu.au) or Jan King at UQ Communications 0413 601 248
