Monash University has launched its Critical Minerals Initiative (MCMI) bringing together more than 40 researchers from its faculties of Business and Economics, Science, Engineering and Arts to tackle the challenge of Australia’s critical mineral processing capacity.
The university said that this comes at a crucial time when the demand for critical minerals is surging and geopolitical competition is intensifying, utilising the nation’s already-present reserves.
It also said that exploration rates have fallen, processing capacity remains “heavily concentrated” offshore, and domestic capability is “fragmented” across institutions and sectors.
Monash professor and deputy dean in the Faculty of Business and Economics, Russell Smyth said that the challenge could not be solved with a single [educational] discipline.
“The MCMI brings together expertise from across disciplines to help balance supply security with sustainability, ensuring that extraction, processing and recycling are efficient and responsible,” Smyth said.
“By drawing on the considerable expertise on critical minerals across Monash, the MCMI can tailor solutions that anticipate market volatility, reduce geopolitical risk, and accelerate the transition to clean energy technologies.”
Monash said that with the International Energy Agency forecasting the demand for critical minerals to double, or even quadruple by 20240, its MCMI cross-disciplinary initiative aims to secure Australia’s place in the global supply chain.
The MCMI “spans the full minerals value chain”, from resource discovery and extraction technologies to environmental stewardship, supply chain modelling, investment policy and social licence outcomes.
Monash’s initiative is built around six research pillars, which involve new mineral resources, future processing technologies, mine rehabilitation, environmental and social impact systems, policy and economics, and national security.
It will focus on rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, and others, which are essential for technologies such as electric vehicles, batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, and defence capabilities.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering professor Sankar Bhattacharya said the initiative positions Monash as a leading Indo-Pacific hub for critical minerals research.
“Our focus is on developing and rapidly scaling up fundamental scientific proof-of-concept into future processing technologies that are environmentally sustainable and economically feasible,” Bhattacharya said.
“This confidence is backed by our publications and patents harnessing critical metals from low-value and legacy wastes from other industries.”
Researchers will work alongside partners including CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, Resources Victoria, the International Energy Agency, and the ARC Research Hub for Carbon Utilisation and Recycling.
This level of collaboration, inside the university and across industry partners, represents an opportunity to make a difference, according to the Faculty of Science, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment professor Andy Tomkins.
“For too long we’ve been hearing about how climate change is going to cause catastrophic change,” Tomkins said.
“Now we can start to solve the problems by building the pipeline of critical minerals needed for renewable energy infrastructure, electric vehicles and advanced battery technologies.”
