Project Status: Complete
Project Participants: Alcoa, BHP Billiton, CSIRO, Rio Tinto, BlueScope Steel, OneSteel, Hatch
Project Leader: John Rankin (CSIRO)
Future graduates for the minerals industry will not only require in-depth technical and scientific understanding of their fields (such as geology, mining and metallurgy) but, increasingly, they will also need knowledge of how their discipline relates to other technical disciplines and how the whole relates to sustainable development. While there are many books on geology, mining and metallurgy, at both
elementary and advance levels, there are no technical books that provide a multi-disciplinary approach which integrates the physical and earth sciences with the social sciences, ecology and economics.
The end result of the project will be an undergraduate level textbook tentatively titled "Minerals, Metals and Sustainability – A textbook for the future". The Project Leader drafted the chapters, which were then reviewed by "key" readers (a mixture of experts from CSIRO, industry and universities) and then revised by the Project Leader. The text is written in three sections in a logical sequence: 1) Introduce readers to the concept of the earth as the source of all materials, how materials are utilised in society (with particular focus on inorganic materials) and the issue of sustainability in relation to finite resources; 2) Examine two important classes of materials – metals and cement – in detail; and 3) Address the sustainability challenges.
Progress in 2009/10 has been good. The final chapter has been written, with the complete draft completed in August 2010. Eighty percent of the figures have been prepared to publication standard. Extensive revision and restructuring of earlier chapters was done in parallel with writing new chapters and the overall quality was continually improved. CSIRO Publishing has arranged for external refereeing and in parallel has sought an international co-publisher. After refereeing, and changes made by the author as appropriate, CSIRO Publishing will engage an editor to check style, spelling, references, etc and prepare an index. It is anticipated that type setting will be done in January/February 2011, followed by checking of the proofs (by the author) then printing. Anticipated release of the textbook is June 2011.