Critical Minerals: A Pathway to A Renewable Future

Critical minerals are essential to building current and emerging technologies

Critical minerals are metals and non-metals fundamental to society’s future in the progression of renewable energy systems, infrastructure, transport, high-tech equipment, and defence systems.

Critical minerals are essential to building current and emerging technologies that play a necessary role in manufacturing clean energy production. Australia, with its unique endowment in critical minerals such as rare earths, lithium and copper, and its established mineral extractive industry, is ideally placed to be a leading supplier of critical minerals and associated products to the world. If supported, this burgeoning industry can drive national wealth creation and employment at a time when traditional commodities such as oil, coal and iron ore are expected to flatline or decline.

The University of Adelaide leads the Australian Critical Minerals Research Centre (ACMRC), which focuses on the discovery and extraction of these commodities with a cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally sustainable approach.

Amongst ACMRC’s goals, is the improvement of mineral exploration strategies, thereby reducing the spatial footprint and time needed for exploration, which in turn reduces environmental disturbance, costs and carbon emissions. The centre team works on securing supplies of some minerals that are essential to our transition to a high-tech and clean energy world.

ACMRC is world-renowned for its expertise in novel isotope geochemistry, mineral geochemistry and geology, which is used to develop new exploration tools.

Leading the team at the Centre director is Professor Carl Spandler. He began his career in critical minerals quite early on when there was not much discourse on the topic. Prof. Spandler started in the field of ore deposit research nearly 15 years ago, building on his existing knowledge of deep earth processes and geochemistry. He teaches at the University of Adelaide, exposing his undergraduate students to the world of critical minerals and mineral deposits, how to mine them, and why we need them. Prof. Spandler leads a diverse team of researchers with expertise spanning the fields of ore geology, mineralogy, and mineral processing. The team is comprised of Niloofar Karimian, Jarred Lloyd, Adam Abersteiner, and Fun Meeuws, who are all driving research projects to gain new insights into how critical minerals’ deposits form and how they can be extracted.

As an initiative backed by the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources (ISER), the ACMRC is also supported by leading industry bodies representing South Australia’s resources sector, such as the SA Department of Energy and Minerals and the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME).  

The Centre’s fundamental research is fully consistent with ISER’s mission towards sustainability, by leading globally transformative research that overcomes complexity, drives change, and creates value for a more sustainable future.

Current projects being conducted by the Centre include:

• Understanding rare earth element ore systems in Australia (funded by the Australian Research Council, Northern Minerals Ltd, QLD government, WA government, NSW government, and Geoscience Australia). with Dr. Fun Meeuws.
• Critical minerals associated with high-temperature mantle-derived magmas. Led by Future Making Fellowship, Dr. Adam Abersteiner.
• Discovery, characterisation, and processing of lithium ore deposits (funded by Core Lithium, Australian Research Council, SA government, NT government) with Dr Jarred Lloyd.
• ARC linkage project on Greater McArthur Basin, led by Prof. Alan Collins. Subproject on sediment-hosted critical minerals in central Australia, with Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Darwin Subarkah.

A major upcoming initiative starting in 2024 will be the ARC Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future, which represents a partnership between the University of WA, University of QLD, University of Adelaide, and ANU. The ACMRC team will be an integral part of this Centre. This Training Centre will extend for five years and see teams of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers from Adelaide and across the country all working together to solve some of the nation’s most pressing challenges of finding and processing critical minerals deposits. 

South Australia’s opportunity to provide the country and the rest of the world with critical and raw metals is copious. The geology in the state is very diverse, giving South Australia the opportunity to have the facilities and production across the value chain. Our great state has so much to offer, and we can’t wait to see all the great work and research that is to come from the research centre and its talented team*.

*To know more about the ACMRC’s team members and their projects, keep an eye out for future editions of our ISER newsletter.