Australian – Indian research cooperation is crucial for rare earth manufacturing.
With the increasing demand for high technology equipment (e.g., catalytic converters) and a transition to green energy economies, battery metals (e.g., cobalt, nickel, and lithium), and rare earth elements (e.g., cerium and lanthanum) are critical. In recent years, significant commitments have been made by the Australian and Indian governments, consistent with transitioning to a net zero economy by 2050. The projected demand for these critical minerals in India presents a unique opportunity to increase cooperation with Australia which has abundant resources and world-class expertise.
InnovEco Australia has developed and patented two technologies – resin in pulp (RIP), and resin in moist mix (RIMM) with a high target metal extraction performance from fine particles in an eco-friendly manner. “Our company has been developing a novel metal recovery technology since 2012 when we first identified a key issue in the heap leaching process – the processing of fine fractions in copper ore,” said Gennadiy Sukhinin, Managing Director at InnovEco Australia. Particularly, the technology has been successful in copper recovery resulting in 96 – 98 wt.% yields compared to 70 wt.% for conventional heap leaching technology. The technologies have received funding for development from the AusIndustry’s Accelerating Commercialisation grant and two Mobility grants at the University of South Australia as part of the Future Industries Accelerator Program sponsored by the South Australia State Government.
“Our research will apply new technologies to evaluate their capabilities to both extract critical metals from low-grade resources and mineral tailings streams, together with recyclable spent batteries and magnets,” said Dr. Richmond Asamoah of UniSA. “Accumulated mining wastes, from a range of primary commodities, are becoming an increasingly valuable source of metals, but there is often a lack of viable extraction technologies.”
In this project, advanced beneficiation and extraction (RIMM) methods will be further developed for battery metals and rare earth elements, which are relevant to Australia and India. Fundamental and applied studies will be undertaken together with the development of prototype equipment for pilot studies. “The new technologies to be developed will build upon over three decades of excellent research and development activities at UniSA,” said Professor William Skinner: FII Research Leader – Minerals Processing.
A stable critical mineral supply stream for key manufacturing areas was hampered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian government is currently seeking an alternative to the non-renewable sources of the material supply to ensure the nation’s resilience in face of global supply chain disruptions. Those might be induced by external threats, including scarcity of geological resources, and geopolitical issues hindering their extraction, processing, and shipment.
The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) that supports this project is a strategic initiative of the Australian Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, and the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to increase the uptake of leading science and technology by supporting strategic collaboration and alliance between Australian and Indian researchers and technology companies.
The Advanced recovery of the battery materials and REE from ores and wastes project falls under one of the recent priority areas for AISRF, focussing on developing novel solutions to improve downstream processing, recycling, and tailings reclamation of critical minerals. Particularly, the project aims to develop advanced eco-efficient critical mineral extraction technologies for Australian and Indian resources.
“Achieving global goals for climate change mitigation requires switching from fossil fuel-based energy supply and demand towards low carbon technologies and practices,” said Dr. Kali Sanjay, CSIR–IMMT. “The low-carbon transition needs the adaption of renewable power technologies and electric vehicles. Metals like Ni, Co, Li, Mn, REEs, etc., are essential for pursuing these goals for sustainable growth. CSIR-IMMT has expertise in non-ferrous extractive metallurgy while KIIT will be contributing to the process optimisation and IIT Bhubaneswar to produce the functional materials. The expertise of the Indian and Australian partner institutes and technology companies combined with the geologically and compositionally diverse resources targeted provides this Indo-Australian collaboration a strong potential for developing technically advanced and commercially viable technologies that can benefit both the countries.”
“Eco-efficiency of new technologies for critical metals extraction is very important,” said Mr. Joe Mifsud – Principal Scientist of COOE. “A technology that can also address challenges at legacy and abandoned mines will be of great benefit”.
Several potential sites have been identified where the RIP and RIMM technologies could be used for the recovery of critical minerals and major metals. The identified mining companies and deposit owners in South Australia and other states will be approached in regard to obtaining mineral samples for the tests. This project will foster a synergetic and multidisciplinary collaboration between the Australian and Indian research groups in the field of critical minerals recovery from mineral ores and wastes. The expected project outcomes include economic, scientific, environmental, as well as cross-cultural links.