Minerals Archives - Page 6 of 7

Infographic: Nickel, the metal of (stainless) steel

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a metal of steel. Well, stainless steel that is. Known for mixing well with others, nickel is often combined with different metals to make incredibly strong alloys. It’s this strength – along with a resistance to heat and corrosion – that make it the perfect...

Minerals

Infographic: Rare earths, don’t let the name fool you

Rare earths are a group of 17 elements that share key chemical characteristics. But don’t be fooled – despite the name, rare earths are not actually that rare. In fact they’re relatively plentiful in the Earth’s crust. This is fortunate, because demand for rare earths has skyrocketed over the past two decades. That’s because they’re...

Using x-ray vision to detect unseen gold

Powerful x-rays can now be used to rapidly and accurately detect gold in ore samples, thanks to a fancy new technique our scientists have developed. We’re pretty excited about this, because it means mining companies will be able to recover small traces of gold that would otherwise be discarded. Given that a gold processing plant...

Minerals

Infographic: Aluminium, recycling’s superhero

If you thought aluminium was only good for wrapping your lunch in, then think again. Sourced from bauxite, this tough, but lightweight metal has a range of uses in transport, construction and packaging. It has even been used in rocket fuel. Yes, rocket fuel. Best of all it is 100 per cent recyclable. In fact,...

Infographic: We love gooooold

Who doesn’t love gold? Or as Goldmember would say gooooold. Thanks to its beauty and resistance to corrosion, this precious metal has been used in jewellery and art throughout history. It has also been used as a medium of exchange or money for over 6000 years. Some of us even have gold grills. I’m looking at...

Minerals

Tackling society’s big issues in the cloud

By Emily Lehmann Enter the cloud. What previously took scientists months to achieve with big data, can now take just a matter of minutes. The geoscience community is taking advantage of cloud computing through new ‘virtual laboratories’, which allow geophysics data to be easily accessed, shared and rapidly processed online. It’s one of the key...

Minerals

Fault lines lead to gold

Small-scale fault systems in the Earth’s crust have a strong correlation with the location of gold, a study of the St Ives Goldfields in Western Australia has found.

Antacids cure more than just belly aches

By Emily Lehmann What rhymes with stalactite (well, kinda) and can put your heartburn at bay? Hydrotalcite. Believe it or not, an antacid – hydrotalcite – is the key agent used in a new treatment our scientists have developed for removing contaminants from mining wastewater. Like hydrotalcites can reduce acidity and indigestion in sour tummies,...

Minerals

CSIRO goes outback

We all know what stereotypical scientists look like. They’re clad in white lab coats and safety glasses, stirring a bubbling beaker or transferring something from one test tube to another using one of those squeezy things, but not all scientist look like these guys and – gasp – not all of them work in a...

Minerals

A new approach to managing mineral resources

Most Australians appreciate that our wealth of mineral resources supported our economy during the global recession, but others believe this industry is damaging our country. According to a report released this week, Advantage Australia: resource governance and innovation for the Asian Century, it is time for Australia to re-think how it manages its mineral resources...

Taking humans out of hazardous situations

Underground mines can be hazardous places for humans, which is why the industry is investing in robots and automated vehicles to keep workers safe. We developed a system for load-haul-dump vehicles, commercialised by Caterpillar and now called Minestar-Command-Underground, which takes humans out of the equation and allows the vehicle to react to its environment all...

Can you legislate a social licence to operate?

By Justine Lacey, Social Scientist, Earth Science and Resource Engineering The concept of a ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO) is not new. It has been used widely in the mining and minerals industry for some 15 years where it has generally described the informal acceptance or approval a local community extends to a mining operation or...

Minerals