By Doug MacLaurin
As international demand for copper surges, the partnership between UWA’s Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET), The University of Bristol and BHP is delving deep into new territory to find high-quality deposits of the vital material — and minimise the environmental impact of mining for it.
When BHP put out the worldwide call to find innovative solutions to the global shortage, CET built on its strong working ties with the University of Bristol to gain a strong collaborative advantage in the intensely competitive selection process — and came out ahead of the field.
“These days, you can’t do this sort of cutting- edge research alone in one institution,” centre director, Professor Steffen Hagemann said.
“The phrase world-class is often used, but I’m proud that really is the case with CET. We’re attracting people from around the world to UWA and once you establish a critical mass of top-notch researchers, you are positioned to become a springboard for these mega projects.”
A research team comprising two postdoctoral fellows Dr Giulia Consuma and Dr Brian Tattitch along with Professors Marco Fiorentini, Tony Kemp and Hagemann, is tasked with finding supplies of copper to catch up with the explosion in demand for the essential component of renewable technologies such as batteries and electric vehicles.
A large part of the problem is that major copper resources lie in porphyry systems: deposits in rocks and megastructures, with a relatively low concentration of the metal — which is further dwindling.
“For example, the Bingham Canyon copper mine, which is one of the biggest in the world, started 120 years ago at an average rate of about 2 per cent. Now they’re down to 0.5 per cent,” Professor Hagemann said.
“Quality deposits are hard to come by, and because the easy deposits have been found, we have to go deeper into the Earth’s crust to find high-grade deposits in a smaller excavation space.”
‘Years ago, deep mining was considered too costly. Now, due to their smaller ecological impact, they’re seen as ‘green mines’, so the game has completely changed.’
Professor Steffen Hagemann
It’s that deeper drive and high-grade ore that reduces the environmental impact compared to the low- grade open cut pit mining used to extract the resource from porphyry systems.
Having predicted the search for copper would have to shift its focus to either higher grades or other deposit types, UWA’s CET team found itself at the forefront of an alternative approach to sourcing scarce resources, already leading the way with similar exploration in the Kupferschiefer — a 600,000 square kilometre sedimentary rock deposit spanning several countries in Central Europe.
“Years ago, deep mining was considered too costly. Now, due to their smaller ecological impact, they’re seen as ‘green mines’, so the game has completely changed “ Professor Hagemann said.
“Our research is very early in the exploration cycle. It is fundamental to understand how our planet concentrates copper in the crust, and what processes are involved.”
But there’s much more work to be done. That’s where the recently funded Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future comes in.
Professor Fiorentini said the training centre aimed to bridge the gap between mineral systems science, exploration protocols and ore processing and metallurgical extraction.
“This new UWA-led centre will build a skilled future workforce and provide enhanced production of Australia’s critical resources, while ensuring best practice in environmental protection and community engagement,” Professor Fiorentini said.
“It’s an extremely exciting time for researchers.”
Read the full issue of the Summer 2023 edition of Uniview [Accessible PDF 15Mb].