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Two New Cooperative Research Centres in Minerals Exploration Research and One for Coal Research Two Mineral Exploration CRCs are included in the 19 new Research Centres, which the Commonwealth Government has agreed to support over a seven-year period starting on 1 July 2001. The $325M commitment does not represent additional money, but ensures that Commonwealth support is maintained at about $140M per year. There is also a new CRC for Coal Research. FASTS, the
Australian Geoscience Council and the Batterham Report The Chance to Change,
have argued for a larger public investment in this Program, and the Prime
Minister, in his forthcoming Science Statement, will hopefully provide more
government funds. The
CRC Program is making an excellent contribution to Australia's applied research
capacity. It encourages interaction between research teams from universities,
industry and government, with funding contributions from each of the three
partners. In the Geoscience sector the Geodynamics, Australian Mineral
Exploration Technologies (AMET), and Landscape
Environments and Mineral Exploration (LEME) CRCs have made very significant impacts to Australian
Mineral Exploration. The
new CRCs are LEME2, one on Predictive Mineral Discovery and one on Coal
Research. The Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments And Mineral Exploration This
Centre aims to provide a breakthrough in mineral exploration of areas
characterised by substantial cover (>100m), a flow-on of airborne geophysical
methods and regolith knowledge from mineral exploration to environmental
studies, and a supply of skilled practitioners and researchers. The Centre also
will provide high quality, geoscience-based education for those entering the
minerals industry, land care and environmental realms and provide continuing
education for those already involved. The
Core Participants are:
The
Headquarters of the CRC will be in the new Australian Resources Research Centre
at the Bentley Technology Park adjacent to Curtin University in Perth, with
other nodes in Canberra, Adelaide and Sydney. The Research and Education Programs are: Program 1: Regolith geoscience,
Program 2: Mineral exploration in areas of cover, Program
3: Environmental applications of regolith geoscience,
Program
4: Salinity Mapping, and Program
5: Education and Training Program
The CRC expects to receive funding of $20.2M from the Commonwealth over a period of for seven years and the CEO is CSIRO’s Raymond Smith. The
Cooperative Research Centre for Predictive Mineral Discovery – pmd*CRC
This CRC
aims to create a predictive environment for mineral discovery. The highest
impact issue facing mineral exploration is: prediction of the location and
quality of ore deposits. The associated scientific challenge is to develop a
holistic view of the processes involved in ore formation. The objectives of this
CRC are to:
The
Core Participants are: Victorian Institute
of Earth & Planetary Sciences The Research and Education Programs are: Program
1: Interpreting and understanding mineralising systems and processes, Program
2: Mineralising Systems Architecture, Program
3: Mineralising Systems History, Program
4: Sources, Transport And Deposition Processes, and Program
5: Computational and Interactive Visual Modelling of Mineralising Systems. Program
6: Education and Training The
CEO will be Robert Haydon from Pasminco. The
Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in
Sustainable Development (Key
Participants in QLD, NSW, WA) The
CRC will continue and build on research done by its predecessor CRC for Black
Coal Utilisation, within a new framework of criteria for environmental, social
and economic sustainability, and will initiate new research in the areas of
sustainable impacts, life cycle assessment, process technology systems analysis
and waste utilisation. The overall research program will be shaped by the
economic, social and environmental assessment 'driver' program, which will focus
on strategic options for coal in sustainable development, as defined by
sustainability, scenario, risk and life cycle assessments. The technical
research will be conducted in five programs: Current power generation, focussed
on pulverised coal-fired utility boilers, with major projects on emissions to
air, coal characterisation, and improvement and development of boiler
operations; transitional power generation, covering entrained-flow gasification,
fluidised bed combustion and advanced systems evaluation; future scenarios and
technologies, including portfolio options and risks, greenhouse gas reduction
and barriers to coal utilisation technology change; ironmaking in blast furnaces
and by novel processes; and by products and waste, including waste management
and utilisation components. Contact: Mr David Cain, 07 3327 7609 These
CRCs will join the following Mining and Energy CRCs already in existence: CRC for Mining Technology and Equipment GK Williams CRC for Extractive Metallurgy AJ Parker CRC for Hydrometallurgy CRC for Clean Power from Lignite CRC for Landscape Evolution and Mineral Exploration CRC for Black Coal Utilisation Australian CRC for Renewable Energy David Denham
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