Mineralogy and environmental geochemistry of the Elverdton Cu-Au tailings, WA

Theme: Earth Science and Resources 

Description: The Elverdton tailings in Western Australia contain a range of critical metals, which may be of interest for revalorisation opportunities. The tailings are eroding into the surrounding environment; therefore it is important to understand potential environmental impacts. Samples of tailings, hardpan and efflorescent salts were previously collected and analysed for geochemistry, mineralogy and mineral chemistry. This project will involve performing sequential extraction experiments on selected samples to investigate the mobilisation behaviour of critical and hazardous metals. The results will be linked to the mineralogy results to assess how metal deportment influences geoenvironmental behaviour of tailings in mine waste environments.

Additional Information: This Honours project will be mainly supervised by Dr Rosie Blannin and Associate Professor Anita Parbhakar-Fox of the MIWATCH group, Sustainable Minerals Institute. For any questions, contact Rosie at r.blannin@uq.edu.au

Contact: Assoc Prof Carlos Spier