Landscape view of regional Australia.
Our vision for the Australian mineral resources sector
This is the vision of the Minerals Down Under Flagship in 2030, where the creation of new knowledge and transformational technologies will improve Australia's competitive position in the global minerals sector.
- 19 April 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011
Imagine it is 2030.
Australian earth scientists are the best trained mineral explorationists in the world.
Australia is once again the leading global exploration investment destination.
This reflects growing confidence based on exploration successes in traditional 'greenfields' terranes with production ramping up in several new mining districts that outpaces the decline in more mature districts.
These mineral resources are being delivered with new technologies that minimise the social and environmental impact using new Minerals Down Under Flagship technologies.
This success reflects the strong partnerships between CSIRO and industry, Australian State and Territory Surveys and Geoscience Australia to provide new exploration targets and appropriate discovery tools especially under covered parts of Australia, effectively unlocking an additional one third of the continent for exploration.
The technical platform that underpins Australian exploration provides world leading pre-competitive data and derivative knowledge to industry.
Three-dimensional (3D) geological interpretations of large volumes of the Australian continent now exist and are linked to broad 3D hyperspectral coverage that helps guide exploration.
As a result, the mineral potential in half a dozen little-explored terranes within Australia has been unlocked.
The Minerals Down Under Flagship is developing novel, online measurement technologies.
Improvements in geophysical data collection and processing technologies have enabled imaging of potential new discoveries at depth.
This provides the ability to develop 3D geological interpretations and simulate the geological processes within them without the need for a computational modelling background.
These improvements, along with dramatic reductions in drilling costs, now permit Australian mineral explorers to make discoveries at depths of 1000 m or more.
Many Australian explorers are taking advantage of predictive modelling of ore-forming processes and new geochemical and geophysical detection methods, making exploration under cover economically attractive. Average Australian greenfields mineral discovery costs are below 2010 levels.
These models are constrained by integrated mineral system data sets and laboratory studies that provide revolutionary new insights into ore-forming processes.
Geological data is well integrated with the entire mining cycle, with significant impacts on mining, processing and environmental performance improving projects economics.
Feedback loops across the industry value chain have fundamentally changed how data is collected and used.
Drilling economics have been transformed by lightweight, easily transportable drilling equipment.
Hard wearing new materials are engineered into drill bits and fibre composite coiled tubing contains embedded fibre optics for telemetry.
High power laser and plasma drilling is common than it was in the 2020's. Logging and measuring while drilling are standard, with feedback to intelligent control systems for drill rigs.
Semi-autonomous moles are guided with pin-point accuracy and are used to drill multi-lateral boreholes from a parent borehole.
Sampling boreholes are now very small in diameter, and down-hole probes measure elemental and mineralogical compositions in real time. Remotely controlled semi-autonomous rigs are able to move around in mines or in the field.
The Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship is conducting research to help secure the long-term future of the Australian minerals industry.
Many mines are controlled from major centres. Operations are fully automated, highly selective and host minimal local support staff.
Geologically 'intelligent' autonomous mining systems are capable of mining ore selected for grade, and are able to sort ore as it is mined.
Deep ore mining systems keep people isolated from the hazardous activities of drilling, explosive placement, access construction and ore haulage.
Highly precise, 'surgical mining' is now possible though use of non-explosive rock breaking and rock cutting technologies.
Underground vehicles are powered by low-carbon fuels and fuel cells, radically reducing emissions and mine ventilation costs.
Large resources of mineral sands, alluvial gold, alluvial uranium and alluvial iron ore are being mined with minimum impact on other land uses using keyhole mining techniques.
The injury frequency rate on mine sites is now a very small fraction of what it was in 2010, and there are no fatalities.
Innovative biological processes have revolutionised heap leaching, and processing underground using in situ and in-place leaching technologies is widespread.
For some ore bodies, in situ processing has brought us closer to 'invisible mining' – lower energy and water use, and reduced disruption to the environment from open cut mining and waste storage in tailings dams.
Many large Australian deposits that were on hold due to limited availability of process water are being developed and operated using dry processing technologies.
Australian mineral exports continue to grow to meet global demand as new, low grade and complex resources are seamlessly integrated into the production cycle through use of more efficient, lower cost processing technologies, with products that meet evolving customer needs.
Fully integrated exploration, mining and materials characterisation technologies are on stream and provide unparalleled data transparency and accurate, real-time expert control systems to manage every aspect of the production cycle.
The minerals industry no longer competes with communities for allocations out of the nation’s stretched water resources.
One of the Flagship's goals is to help the minerals industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Forests are now considered a key part of mining as biomass partially replaces coal as a major energy source and reductant in several metallurgical processes, such as in blast furnaces.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of mineral products are extracted from old tailings dams or from what once were tailings product streams.
Many other materials, once considered to be wastes, are used to generate valuable products. Based on low waste and in situ technologies, several mines now operate with wide community support in close proximity to Australian towns and cities.
Waste high grade heat is recovered from molten slags, which is used for the desalination of water.
Millions of hectares of salinity affected farmland in Western and South Australia have been rehabilitated through partial revegetation with Mallee trees, restoring the soil and land quality, and electricity and charcoal by-products from this agricultural industry are recycled into the metal production industry, making it almost greenhouse gas neutral.
The Australian mining and minerals technology services sector remains the world leader and its exports exceed A$20 billion per year.
Our vision for the Australian mineral resources sector has become a reality.
Read more about the Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship overview.
