Wireless mining conveyor and critical mineral extraction among research funding winners

Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants support short-term collaborative research projects. They are available for industry-led research collaborations with at least:

• 2 Australian industry organisations, including at least 1 small to medium-sized enterprise
• 1 Australian research organisation.

The Hon Christian Porter MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, and Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie, Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education, announced the outcomes of CRC-P Round 11 on 3 September 2021.

As well as focussing on manufacturing, as part of the Australian Government's Regionalisation and Decentralisation Policy framework, Round 11 also includes dedicated funding for projects that support research and development activities in regional areas.

Round 11 projects which will advance technology and safety in energy, resources and circular economy sectors include:

• Wireless mining conveyor technology to Improve safety and reduce outages
  MineSensor combines proprietary hardware, firmware, software, and an analytics platform to digitise mine conveyor information to reduce breakdown, increase mine output and improve safety.

• Advancing nanoporous MOF materials for high efficiency hydrogen storage
  This project will prove-up breakthrough advanced hydrogen (H2) storage materials discoveries at the University of Sydney.

• Extracting critical minerals and rare earths from bauxite residue.
  This project will further develop and commercialise existing proprietary processing technology to extract critical minerals and rare earths from bauxite residue.

• Novel & environmentally sustainable ultra-high efficiency micro HVAC system
  This CRC-P enable the development of innovative and cost competitive micro HVAC system, designed to harness clean energy, reduce energy consumption by >50%, use more environmentally friendly refrigerants, eliminate the use of fossil fuels, and help limit the spread of viruses within HVAC systems.

• AI based conversion of unrecyclable waste into engineered building products
  This CRC-P will introduce smart analytical platform based on AI to optimise material recovery at a materials recycling facility (MRF). This CRC-P will also develop a prototype smart manufacturing plant to develop new building products.

• Developing high-capacity dynamic rock reinforcement for underground mines
  This project will ensure safety and productivity in Australian underground mines remains world leading as they embark on mining deep stressed orebodies and/or using lower cost large cave mining methods that generate higher mining induced stresses.

• Underground mine LoRa network for monitoring/control monitoring/control/backup/rescue/robotics
  In this project, the team will develop a chain type digital LoRa network, which can achieve full coverage, provide a backup network, be quickly deployed for rescue work, and support new robotic applications.

• High value-added manufacturing from polymetallic critical minerals
  The Project seeks to develop a novel, environmentally-friendly process that will increase efficiencies in processing critical raw materials into platinum group metals, battery minerals (nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate) and energy metal copper.

To read more about the Round 11 funding outcomes, go here.

To find out more about Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants, go here.