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$40,000 awarded to students for resources research

Thursday, 20 August 2009

Western Australian post-graduate students will share in $40,000 worth of scholarships to undertake research projects in mineral and energy industries.

Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore officially presented students with their 2009 Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Australia (MERIWA) supplementary scholarships on Wednesday, 19 August.

MERIWA Acting Executive Officer, Don Martin, said the scholarship program had proven an effective method of guaranteeing there would be future generations of researchers to support resources development.

“Over the last 28 years, 276 research projects have been completed and reports published in the public domain by MERIWA,” Dr Martin said.

“We believe these research projects have helped to stimulate growth of the minerals and extractive energy industries in this State, and create a number of internationally recognised researchers.”

Successful recipients were short listed from a number of university applications by the MERIWA Scholarships Committee. 

The four recipients will receive a total of $10,000 each, with $5000 for stipend and $5000 for project maintenance.

Dr Martin said MERIWA was committed to supporting the development of minerals and energy industries in Western Australia.

“The State Government has invested $18.4 million to our scholarship program since 1982, and this has been matched by industry which has contributed $23.2 million,” Dr Martin said.

“The State Government has also provided us with an additional $350,000 per annum over the next four years through the State Government’s new Exploration Incentive Scheme which is aimed at encouraging new resources discoveries in Western Australia’s under-explored areas.

“This support will help us to provide further cutting-edge research for the resources industry through universities and other government and private laboratories.”

Dr Martin said he was confident that today’s scholarship holders would join the ranks of other internationally recognised researchers, as well as contribute to the State’s research capacity in the resources industry.

MERIWA is a State Government organisation supporting research into mineral and petroleum exploration, development and production.

This year’s MERIWA scholarships were awarded to:

• Talitha Santini (University of Western Australia)
Talitha’s research involves a study of soil formation in bauxite residue. Her project will help lead to improved rehabilitation outcomes associated with bauxite residue deposits and improved knowledge of soil forming processes. Findings will also have the ability to improve rehabilitation outcomes and minimise environmental risk associated with waste rock deposits.

• Erin Gray (Curtin University of Technology)
Erin’s research is focused on investigating the deformation of the earth’s upper mantle. The project aims to provide new methodologies for understanding the relationships among deformation, fluids and mineralisation that can be applied to other mineral deposit types.

• Carla Zammit (Curtin University of Technology)
Carla’s research is focused on providing a better understanding of micro organisms use in bio-mining operations as well as increasing their efficiency.

• Simon Assmann (Western Australian School of Mines)
Simon’s study will surround mass transfer in electrostatic liquid to liquid extraction (ELX), which is the only commercially proven technique to allow complete separation of chemically similar metals such as nickel and cobalt, among others. This research will lead to a significant improvement in the design of an industrially applicable ELX cell and potentially the commercialisation of a superior alternative to existing technology.

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