Despite last minute fears of cancellation due to COVID-restrictions in Western Australia, the 2021 Resources Innovation Showcase (RIS 2021) delivered a full program of science, research and development presentations focussed around the theme of ‘Smart science for a sustainable future’.
Preceding the annual RIU Explorers Conference, the showcase displayed a range of technological advancements to enable successful mineral exploration under cover and create more efficient ore sensing, sorting and mineral processing
Keynote speaker Fiona Best, Lead Geochemist from South 32, championed the importance of collaboration and open innovation, a sentiment backed up by Dr Rob Hough, Deputy Director for CSIRO Mineral Resources, who cited examples of how collaboration between industry and CSIRO has brought success in mineral discovery.
One of the afternoon sessions was dedicated to the topical issue of critical minerals, from a uniquely Australian perspective. This included talks on opportunities for battery metals, lithium deposits in the Yilgarn, the emergence of new indicator minerals in magmatic nickel exploration and in-situ recovery of copper in Australia.
Gold as always was a hot topic. Simon Bolster from Portable PPB demonstrated low level gold detection using a portable XRF scanner. Dr Adam Bath (CSIRO) talked about mapping Archaeon gold deposits and Dr Nathan Reid (CSIRO) gave an overview of hydrogeochemical methods for continent-scale mapping.
Most importantly, RIS 2021 provided an opportunity for CSIRO to understand and listen to industry perspectives to become a better science and technology partner in business.
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