Many of Queensland’s operating mines have reached or are approaching the end of their productive life in the coming decades. As the 1200 or so abandoned mine sites attest, successful mine closure or economic post mining outcomes are historically rare. There are many more mines that will close operations in the next decade.

enviroMETS (Qld) Limited has been established to find innovative ESG solutions and sustainable ways to make mining impacted land valuable to its future custodians. This Mission recognises the diverse range of challenges that can be overcome by adopting a collaborative approach to technical innovation, fresh thinking about repurposed land use and new land remediation methods.

As an independent industry led, not-for-profit company, it facilitates research activities, shares knowledge, identifies solutions to problems, coordinates projects and provides an innovation eco-system for its participants.

We are initially seeking a number of regional Queensland abandoned or impending closure mine sites to establish commercially sound demonstration Projects, where our research, innovative SME suppliers, government agencies and industry corporates can collaborate to recommercialise or repurpose and remediate.

Such sites will bring together more than one of our Expertise Streams to create a sustainable environmentally and socially sound solution that benefits a wide stakeholder group. Engaging industry, government, researchers and local communities.

Over time processes and technologies available for mineral processing, dewatering, ore sorting has advanced to manage lower grade ores and reprocessing of tailings and waste rock.

There are a range of new innovative technologies that can be used to liberate and separate critical metals from mining and processing waste. Extraction of any metal value from tailings is contingent on detailed mineralogical characterisation.

The re-commercialisation of Mt Carbine was enabled by new technology, the x-ray ore sorters. They are now able to reprocess what was waste rock efficiently to recover tungsten. The resultant waste rock is valuable as construction aggregate.

We will pursue, facilitate and promote collaborative projects that enable re-commercialisation. In-so-doing the participants will be able to improve the long-term residual impact of mining.

Robotic drill rigs make holes in the rock, which is filled with explosives to break up the rock for excavation. They use GPS, obstacle detection, and advanced auto-drilling to move and dig independently.

Autonomous vehicles (haul truck and rail trains) can provide increased performance and reliability, as well as allowing operations to be performed where it would be otherwise too hazardous for human operators.

Modelling geological formations underground is challenging due to the lack of direct visibility and cost of exploratory sampling. AI algorithms are being applied to improve geological estimations, fusing together a variety of dense and sparse data from different sources.

AI is being used in maintenance prediction and response, accident and injury avoidance, environmental impact including ventilation, pollution and water management, and autonomous vehicle management.