The University of Adelaide in South Australia is recognised globally as a leading research university.
MinEx Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is the world’s largest mineral exploration collaboration bringing together industry, government and research organisations.
Nominated project: Transformative ways to date resource-hosting rocks
Awards category: Innovation and collaboration (Resources)
Many critical mineral and energy resources are found in ancient sedimentary rocks. Dating them to understand how and when they formed, and correlating sequences in the subsurface over many kilometres, is vital to harness these resources. Yet it remains a challenge.
The University of Adelaide has become a world leader in applying new laser-based mass spectrometer technology to address this problem and provide Australian explorers with a practical approach to dating sedimentary rocks in deep time, quickly, cheaply and accurately.
This project has yielded four publications in peer-reviewed, acclaimed journals, and three international conference presentations. It continues to grow in strength and is an integral part of two Australian Research Council Linkage Projects as well as the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre.
Q&A with Alan Collins from The University of Adelaide
We’ve developed a new and novel way of dating ancient sedimentary rocks that host both critical mineral and energy resources. The project is a major team effort involving students, academics and technical staff to develop a technique now sought after by explorers from all over the world.
Many critical mineral and energy resources are hosted in ancient sedimentary rocks that are buried and hard to locate and correlate across many kilometres of cover. This technique allows the rocks to be dated, to be linked up over vast areas and to be explored more efficiently.
I decided to nominate to highlight the amazing results that the team at The University of Adelaide are getting and the translational research that is coming out of student-based innovation. I’d like to achieve recognition for the students, partners and technical staff that have allowed us to develop this world leading technique.
There is an incredible nexus between resources industries, academia and government in tackling our major challenges of better understanding how the earth works and in exploring for the resources we so critically need for the energy transition. I’ve lived and worked in other states and overseas and the support, quality of students and interest here is of a much high standard than anywhere else I know.
Earth Science is entering a scientific revolution that is led by new technologies and techniques (such as the technique here). It is an incredibly exciting time to be an earth scientist when so many of our major issues are based on understanding our planet.
The University of Adelaide has recently risen to number 88 in the world according to the Times Higher Education assessment. This is well deserved and a testament to both the education, the blue-sky research and the translational/partnered research undertaken at the university.
It is incredibly important to celebrate the amazing collaborative nature of energy and mining in South Australia and how important, and how innovative, it is in our state.
The first time we tried to date billion year old sedimentary rocks, and it worked! We knew we were on to a new technique that would change the way people explore in ancient rocks.
- The support from the university, government and industry
- The quality of the students and their constant interest and enthusiasm to query
- Involvement in major collaborative endeavours such as the MinEx CRC which is the largest mineral exploration collaboration between industry, government and academia in the world
It is a state where innovation in science and engineering is supported and celebrated. It is also an amazing city and environment to live and work.
Hey, I grew up in the UK, Adelaide is paradise.
Everyday is a school day – keep learning and keep thinking about how to do things differently.
