The Applied Mineralogy Group and the Environmental Mineralogy Group hosted a joint Research in Progress meeting ‘Minerals in a Sustainable Future’ at the British Geological Survey (BGS), Nottingham on the 13th of June 2019.
Forty scientists gathered to present and discuss ongoing work in applied and environmental mineralogy which addresses the sustainability challenges we face as a society. The attendees presented their research on a wide range of topics including sustainable lithium extraction; Mineral Waste UK – resources, ratios and research, or the geomicrobiology of metal-rich birnessite cave crusts. The meeting was enhanced by two fantastic keynote speakers: Andrew Bloodworth from the BGS with a talk on ‘Charging ahead: Decarbonisation, electric vehicles and the new age of metals’ and Ronan Courtney from the University of Limerick with a talk on ‘Ecological engineering approaches for the rehabilitation of mine processing residues [tailings]: A case study with bauxite residue’.
This was the programme:
- Andrew Bloodworth: Charging ahead: Decarbonisation, electric vehicles and the new age of metal
- P Mercer: Novel and Sustainable lithium extraction
- Eimear Deady: The South-West England Metallogenic Province: Concentration of tungsten by hydrothermal processes for future critical raw materials supply
- E James: U(VI) sorption and nanoparticulate formation in secondary amorphous silica
- C Mitchell: Mineral Waste UK – resources, ratios and research
- P Kao: Micronutrient form and distribution in grazing pasture systems
- A Lawal: Anthropogenic and lithological influences on long-term mineral and nutrient release rates in an agricultural karst landscape in southwest China
- S Bingham: Rates of hydroxyapatite formation and dissolution in a sandstone aquifer: Implications for dynamic phosphate behaviour within an agricultural catchment
- K Xiao: The Role of Minerals in Cryptic Methane Cycling in Marine Surface Sediment
- Laura Newsome: The geomicrobiology of metal-rich birnessite cave crusts and implications for their formation
- Ronan Courtney: Ecological engineering approaches for the rehabilitation of mine processing residues (tailings): A case study with bauxite residue
Two student prizes were awarded for:
(1) best talk – Sam Bingham
(2) best poster – Olwen Stagg on ‘Long-term interaction of iron oxyhydr(oxides) with radionuclides.’ Congratulations!
The meeting ended with a scanning electron microscopy session titled: ‘An overview of that most flexible of tools for the petrographer; the Scanning Electron Microscope’, delivered by Dr Jeremy Rushton, BGS senior petrographer.