Sustainable mining & energy a UQ priority

The University of Queensland (UQ) is bolstering research and education to boost the number and quality of graduates available to the minerals and energy sector.

UQ and the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) - the peak industry association representing the state’s minerals and energy sector - will formalise an agreement in coming months to build on existing partnerships between the University and the resources sector.

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield said the strategy’s main aims were to increase the number and expertise of graduates employed in the minerals and energy industries, and to assist the sector’s responses to current and future sustainability issues.

Immediate joint priorities include:

- Collaboration on strategies to better sustain UQ mining engineering and metallurgy and related engineering and earth sciences student numbers;

- Redevelopment of UQ’s Engineering precinct to provide new and upgraded facilities and infrastructure for high-quality delivery of learning and research;

- Expansion of research to support a sustainable low emissions energy industry;

- Redevelopment of UQ’s School of Earth Sciences so that it can fully support the needs of the minerals industry; and

- Continuing pursuit of common aspirations through the Bradley Review into Australian Higher Education.

“In Queensland and globally, the sector faces some of the great engineering, research and public policy challenges and opportunities of this generation,” Professor Greenfield said.

“This is heightened by increasing pressures for sustainability and the professional skills that this requires. UQ has responded by increasing engineering student numbers and establishing the Sustainable Minerals Institute with globally recognised research strengths in minerals processing, mining geology, water, environment, social responsibility, health and safety – but more progress is needed.

“Stronger working relationships with industry groups such as QRC, and its member companies, will improve the value we can add to the sector’s operations, to the intellectual capital and wealth of the nation, and to national and global responses to sustainability issues,”’ Professor Greenfield said.

QRC Chief Executive Mr Michael Roche was pleased to officially recognise the start of a new era in this long-standing relationship.

“UQ’s expertise and reputation in the industry makes it a pivotal university in QRC’s vision for higher education in Queensland,” Mr Roche said.

Several QRC member companies partner with UQ in the funding of professorial chairs and major research programs. Areas they cover include minerals processing, mining engineering, geomechanics, mechanical engineering (automation), metallurgical engineering, safety, social responsibility, the environment and water.

According to a National Institute of Labour Studies report for the Minerals Council of Australia (June 2008), by 2020, Queensland’s minerals industry labour force will grow by 53 per cent from 44,000 to 67,000 people.

The value of minerals and energy production in Queensland is expected to exceed $40 billion in 2008-09, further consolidating the sector’s position as the state’s key export earner now and into the future.

Media contacts:
For Professor Greenfield - Fiona Kennedy (07) 3365 1384; 0413 380 012
For Mr Roche – Caroline Morrissey (07) 3316 2507; 0417 770 893