Spotlight on mineral and energy resources

The 2nd Korea-Australia Joint Symposium on technology for the sustainable development of mineral and energy resources included presentations from local and international researchers as well as industry representatives.

The symposium highlighted recent research conducted by scientists from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) and CSIRO. The organisations have been working closely on several projects since establishing a research collaboration in 2006 as part of the Global Partnerships Program.

The research collaboration has three key areas of interest:

• the recovery of valuable metals from wastes;
• nano-coated and structured inorganic materials; and
• novel routes for extracting value from Bayer residues.

Dr Kyung Ho Park (Distinguished Researcher, KIGAM) said it was important to acknowledge that the world’s mineral resources were finite.

“We need to develop methods for effectively using the resources already available, rather than simply throwing them away,” he said.

“In Korea, which has limited natural resources, we are continually striving to develop new methods to reuse, recycle and recover valuable resources.”

A number of presentations discussed the recovery of valuable metals from spent batteries using methods such as leaching, solvent extraction and froth flotation.

Mr Warren Bruckard (Science Leader, CSIRO Minerals) is investigating flotation methods for recovering valuables from lithium-ion batteries, a secondary-type battery commonly used in watches, cameras, lap tops, video cameras and mobile phones.

In Australia approximately 910 tonnes of used lithium-ion batteries are sent to landfill each year. This wastes resources – the batteries contain valuable lithium and cobalt – and also poses a potential threat to the environment as the batteries contain hazardous materials.

“We are looking at developing methods to cost effectively recover the valuable components of the batteries and reduce the volume of hazardous material entering the environment,” Mr Bruckard said.

Other presentations included the use of sustainable fuels in metallurgical reactors, gold and silver recovery from tailings, and improving the productivity and environmental performance of continuous casting processes for aluminium and magnesium alloys.

The symposium was jointly sponsored by CSIRO and KIGAM.

Download image at: Spotlight on mineral and energy resources