Minerals Archives - CSIROscope

Local communities need more reassurance about the legacy left by coal seam gas wells

One of the key questions any industry must consider is: what is left behind when it is finished. For coal seam gas, this question is crucial.

Cyanide-free gold… I’ll have a bar of that.

We’ve poured the country’s first cyanide-free gold using our clever process in an effort to put an end to the use of toxic chemicals to extract the yellow metal.

Minerals

Gems for reducing plant wear and tear

Solutions like our ‘tornado in a tank’ are extending the life of plant equipment to save industry millions of dollars, while cutting energy and water use.

Minerals

Could clues from the landscape reveal the next big gold discovery?

We’re working with Classic Minerals Limited to see if tree size is associated with areas of deep gold deposits in their Forrestania tenement in Western Australia.

Minerals

MRI to sort out copper mining waste

Copper miners can slash their energy and water use thanks to a breakthrough ore sorting analyser that uses similar technology to MRI.

X-ray marks the spot

The first installation of a revolutionary x-ray analysis system for gold is now open for business at Ausdrill’s MinAnalytical labs in Perth, Australia.

Minerals

What mining means to Australians: a national survey

A new national survey of 8,020 citizens reveals what mining means to Australians. While most Australians accept mining and think it makes an important contribution to our economy, they hold low levels of trust in in the industry and don’t feel they have a voice in shaping the industry’s practices.

Minerals

Quest to explain the Pilbara’s unusual ‘watermelon-seed’ gold nuggets

Hundreds of unusual gold nuggets shaped like watermelon seeds were discovered in the Pilbara goldfields last year. We’re now getting to the bottom of how and why these gold nuggets exist.

Mining the Internet of Things

Exploration and mining companies are just at the beginning of a digital transformation through the Internet of Things. Accurate and fast data is driving decision-making more and more across the whole mineral value chain. Issue 13 of resourceful takes a look at some of the new technologies unpinning this change.

Minerals

Exploration needs to get smart if we’re to remain a leading gold producer

It’s a bleak outlook for the future of Australian gold production and revenue unless we rapidly innovate the exploration sector to improve discovery rates.

Creating 3D digital rocks using x-ray data

Superman had the power to see through solid objects with his x-ray vision and now we’re using a similar approach to see ‘inside’ solid rock.

What to know about graphite: the mineral of extremes

With the rise of electric cars and energy storage, graphite – a mineral made of carbon – is poised to be hot on the commodity market to meet demand for lithium-ion batteries.

Minerals