A sustainable mining startup backed by the Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer that was developed by researchers at The University of Queensland has been recognised among a handful of top global innovators by the World Economic Forum.
Each year the World Economic Forum identifies top innovators using its UpLink platform with the aim of finding and nurturing startups focussed on sustainability. UQ spin-out venture OreSand Inc was one of eight mining innovators recognised globally, and one of two from Australia.
Led by Professor Daniel Franks of the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), OreSand Inc offers mining companies a research-backed blueprint to drastically reduce waste and produce useful sand byproducts at a time when global demand for the material is surging.
“The minerals that make up sand are discarded in huge volumes during the mining of metals like copper and iron ,” Professor Franks said.
“OreSand Inc works with mining companies to reduce their waste by extracting clean sand byproducts from the ore.
“We view an ore body like a butcher views a side of meat, for too long the industry has only mined the rib eye fillet discarding the rest as waste, and we think it is time to start making sausages.”
This vision of ‘nose-to-tail mining’ and the deep partnerships already demonstrated by OreSand Inc captured the imagination of the World Economic Forum’s Uplink Top Innovators program, where the project has been named as one of eight global winners that will gain access to networks capable of supporting and scaling it up.
Professor Franks said sand is often discarded during extraction and processing of more valuable metals and usually ends up in a slurry of waste materials known as tailings.
This is despite many researchers warning of a looming global shortage of sand, which is used in products such as concrete, glass windows, and even microchips.
“The annual global demand for sand and other aggregates is upwards of 50 billion tonnes, but this demand is also wreaking environmental havoc, destroying fragile ecosystems, and ruining rivers and beaches,” Professor Franks said.
Using approaches devised by Professor Franks and fellow SMI researchers, including Dr Louise Gallagher and Dr Juliana Segura-Salazar at the Global Centre for Mineral Security, OreSand Inc helps mining companies to use existing technologies to modify ore extraction so quality sands can be captured and processed from the ore before they become tailings.
Professor Rick Valenta said the project was another great example of the diversity of projects being funded by the Trailblazer program to enhance productivity of the sector.
“The OreSand Inc startup sits squarely in the Trailblazer theme of Mine Waste Management. The startup will create improved technological and commercial pathways to reducing the amount of tailings we produce and instead turning that material into sand for infrastructure and sustainable development,” Professor Valenta said.
In addition to the Trailblazer, OreSand Inc has received support from the Australian Government’s Australia’s Economic Accelerator program.
