2005 Student-Industry-CRC Symposium

What happens when you get nearly 30 Mining and Energy CRC students together with representatives from a range of industries? You have an excellent forum in which to network, to share experiences, to allow students to present their work to each other and to industry; and to learn that the world of research extends greatly outside their immediate topic and discipline. Such a forum was organised by Dr Dan Churach, Education Manager for the Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing.

The inaugural Student-Industry-CRC Symposium took place in the week 20th – 25th February and was held at Fairbridge Village, Pinjarra; an hour drive south of Perth, Western Australia.

Student participants came from six out of the eight Mining and Energy CRCs. Industry was represented by Rio Tinto, AngloGold Ashanti, Alcoa World Alumina, Voice4u, Minrisk and Executive Search. The mix of different of backgrounds from students and industry alike made for an extremely interesting week, with many experiences shared.

> View the Program of Events

The week covered many topics and events, including student presentations, industry and CRC presentations, roundtable discussions and site visits to WMC Nickel Refinery, Tiwest Pigment Plant and the HIsmelt plant in Kwinana. The social aspects of the week were not ignored, with a quiz night, sundowner and BBQ organised for the evening as well as the unplanned pool volleyball games.

The quality of all student presentations was extremely high and the industry representatives were very pleased to see students making such a contribution to research in Australia. Congratulations go to all the students for the superb effort they put in to preparing their talk. Rio Tinto generously donated cash prizes for the best student presentations, with the presentations being judged by Dr Janine Lay (Rio Tinto), Dr Jim Avraamides (Parker Centre and CSRP) and Dr Nick Welham (Murdoch Extractive Metallurgy). The students were judged on technical content, structure, personal style, presentation skills and overall impression.

The inaugural Student-Industry-CRC Symposium could not have taken place without the support of the Mining and Energy CRCs, in particular CSRP and the Parker Centre for organising and hosting the event. Industry also fully supported the symposium with financial support received from BHP Billiton, Newmont and Rio Tinto and site tours being offered by WMC, Tiwest and HIsmelt. The many other industry and CRC representatives were invited and the input received from them was invaluable. A special thank you as well to the staff at CSRP and Parker Centre who helped in organising this event.

The students got a lot out of the week and the general consensus of the group was the hope and anticipation that the event would be held annually. Industry representatives have also expressed an interest in having this event held annually. Congratulations to Dr Dan Churach for organising such a successful and enjoyable week, one that was extremely well received by all its participants.

Tsuey Cham, Coal in Sustainable Development
"Coke and Iron Interactions in the Blast Furnace"

Claire Rogers, Greenhouse Gas Technologies
"In situ stress determination for fault reactivation related tseal breach with respect to carbon dioxide sequestration, Otway Australia"

Second Place Prizes (3 x $300 each)

Tim Ballantyne, Clean Power from Lignite
"Combustion of dewatered coal"

Mike Daniel, Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing
"Energy efficient mineral liberation using high pressure grinding rolls"

Tania Dhu, Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration
"How and why does the Earth’s electrical response vary spatially – is there more information out there?"

WA Weekender Award to the Best WA Student Presentation (Cabin for 8 at Fairbridge, kindly donated by Fairbridge Village)

Venny Tjandrawan, (Honours Student) Parker Centre, Murdoch University
"The Effect of Silver on Loading of Gold onto Activated Carbon"

Bravery Award to the only student who had a mere 8 weeks of research in a Parker Centre Summer Jobs Program presenting his work with 26 PhD students, 1 MSc student and 1 Honours student (Bottle of wine)

James Didovich, Parker Centre, Western Australia School of Mines
"The recovery of magnesium from hypersaline waters in the Eastern Goldfields by liquid-liquid extraction"

The “Guiding the Eye” Award for the Best Moment of Humour during a Presentation (A toy figurine)

Murray Johnston, Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing
"A thermodynamic study of minor elements in molten metallurgical mattes, slags and alloys"