Find an expert

Vigya is a Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at The University of Queensland, Australia

Vigya has degrees in engineering and social science, and she applies this interdisciplinary training to research complex social, institutional and economic aspects of the modern energy and mining sectors globally. Specifically, her interest is in understanding how the presence (or absence) of resources impacts development outcomes in host communities and regions. Her current research projects examine this complexity across the energy transition chain: from fossil fuel transition in coal-dependent regions to energy transition mineral mining and large-scale renewable energy production systems (including the role of Indigenous co-ownership).

Vigya also has a part-time appointment with the School of Chemical Engineering, where she coordinates a course on Humanitarian Engineering. She co-designed the course in 2020 and has been its primary instructor since. The course is offered to students from across UQ's Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT).

She also advises several PhD students on energy transitions, just transitions, mine closure, and energy and development.

Vigya has an active service profile both within and outside UQ. She is the Deputy Chair of the EAIT Faculty Low and Negligible Risk (LNR) Ethics Committee. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Energy Research and Social Science and Sustainability Science. Since 2023, she has been a member of the UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), established at COP27. CEET is an Independent Advisory Council to the UN Secretary-General, to contribute to their goal to build a coalition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and to support the United Nations to achieve global decarbonisation goals by mid-century.

Prior to joining CSRM, she was based at the Energy Poverty Research Group (EPRG), an interdisciplinary pan-UQ initiative established to support positive social, environmental and health outcomes vital for sustainable and productive livelihoods in energy-impoverished communities globally.

Mohsen Yahyaei is an expert in modelling, optimising, and controlling mineral processing circuits using novel approaches and tools. He is currently the Director of the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) and Program Leader for Future Autonomous Systems and Technologies (FAST) at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute.

Mohsen completed his undergraduate studies in Mine Exploration and earned a Master’s degree in Mineral Processing in 2002. His master’s thesis focused on applying column flotation in the Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, the largest copper mine in the Middle East. After his Master’s, he worked at the R&D centre of the Zarand coal washing plant in Iran for two years before becoming the plant manager. In 2007, he returned to the University of Kerman to pursue a PhD, investigating the effect of liner wear on charge motion and power draw of SAG mills, which he completed in 2010.

Since joining JKMRC in 2011, Mohsen has conducted extensive applied research and successfully delivered numerous industry-funded projects. As a comminution specialist, he is dedicated to implementing fundamental understandings in his research to offer practical solutions to the minerals industry and educate engineers and researchers with problem-solving skills for future resource industry challenges. His research focuses on optimising mineral processing techniques to enhance efficiency and sustainability, with a strong emphasis on practical application. Mohsen's research extends to advanced process control, including the development of soft sensors and model-predictive control solutions. His work aims to improve the precision and reliability of industrial processes, contributing significantly to the field of mineral processing.

Science and technology of ecological engineering of ferrous and base metal mine tailings (e.g., magnetite tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), Cu/Pb-Zn tailings) into functional technosols and hardpan-based soil systems for sustainable tailings rehabilitation: geo-microbial ecology, mineral bioweathering, geo-rhizosphere biology, technosol-plant relations in mined environments. Championing nature-based solutions to global mine wastes challenges.

Longbin Huang is a full professor and a Program leader in The University of Queensland, leading a research program of "Ecological Engineering in Mining" to develop naure-based methdology and technology, for assisting the world's mining industry to meet the global tailings challenge. Driven by the passion to translate leading knowledge into industry solutions, Longbin has pioneered transformative concepts and approach to tackle rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, acidic and metalliferous waste rocks). Recent success includes the "ecological engineering of Fe-ore tailings and bauxite residue" into soil, for overcoming the topsoil deficit challenge facing the mining industry. Scaled up field trials have been going on to deliver the much-needed technology into field operations. Long-term and multi-site based field trials have demonstrated for the first time, the field-feasibility to accelerate nature-based soil formaiton processes for developing tailings into adaptive and sustainable soil (or technosol) capable of sustaining plant community growth and development (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VzfiWL-8UI&t=4s).

The program consists of a group of researchers with leading knowledge and research skills on: soil/geo-microbial ecology, environmental mineralogy, bioweathering of minerals, native plant rhizosphere (micro)biology, soil-plant relations, and environmental materials (such as biochar and environmental geopolymers). It aims to deliver transformative knowledge and practices (i.e., technologies/methdologies) in the rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, mineral residues, spoils, waste rocks) and mined landscapes for non-polluting and ecologically and financially sustainable outcomes.

In partnership with leading mining companies, Longbin and his team have been focusing on developing game-changing knowledge and technologies of tailings valorisation for achieving non-polluting and ecologically sustainable rehabilitation of, for example, coal mine spoils and tailings, Fe-ore tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), and Cu/Pb-Zn tailings. Leading the global progress in bauxite rehabilitation, Longbin and his team are currently taking on field-scale research projects on bauxite residue rehabilitation technologies at alumina refineries in Queensland (QAL- and Yarwun refineries) and Northern Territory (Gove refinery).

Longbin's industry-partnered research was recognised in 2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL).

Membership of Board, Committee and Society

Professional associations and societies

2010 – Present Australian Soil Science Society.

2016 – Present Soil Science Society of America

2015 – Present American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR)

Editorial boards/services

2018 - present: Member of Editorial Board, BIOCHAR

2013 – present: coordinating editor, Environmental Geochemistry and Health

Awards & Patent

2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL)

2017 SMI-Industry Engagement Award, University of Queensland

2015 SMI-Inaugural Bright Research Ideas Forum Award, University of Queensland

2014 SMI-RHD Supervision Award, University of Queensland

2015 Foliar fertilizer US 20150266786. In. (Google Patents). Huang L, Nguyen AV, Rudolph V, Xu G (equal contribution)

Eleonore is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at UQ.

Initially trained as an engineer, Eleonore is a multi-disciplinary researcher with expertise in the mining industry and passionate about bridging qualitative and quantitative disciplines. She leads both academic research and industry-commissioned projects.

Her current interests include:

• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data and their use in decision making
• Responsible investment practices and outcomes in the mining industry
• The organisational drivers of ESG performance

As part of her role at CSRM, Eleonore delivers guest lectures and professional development offerings on ESG and particularly the social aspects of mining, including on the topics of:

• Establishing a social knowledge base
• Social risk
• Social incident investigation
• Mining-induced displacement and resettlement

She has also published on the topics of energy transition minerals, tailings dam failures, and circular economy and mine waste management. Her research on energy transition minerals earned her a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council.

Eleonore advises several PhD students on topics such as multi-criteria decision making, post-mining land use, and spatial ESG data analysis.

Dr Elin Jennings is a postdoctoral research fellow in Mine Waste Geoscience at the W.H.Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She currently works in the Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) research group.

Elin's current research focus is on characterising legacy mine waste and Acid Mine Drainage in support to promote sustainable mining practices.

Before her PhD, Elin completed a BSc in Environmental Earth Science at Aberystwyth University. During her undergraduate years, she was awarded the Walter Idris Bursary for an independent research project on the adsorption and desorption of harmful elements on coal and ochre. Her dissertation focused on mapping potentially harmful elements around the Clydach nickel refinery in Wales, which contributed to the British Geological Survey’s urban geochemistry map of Swansea. She received the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Award, and the Rudler Exhibition Prize for her academic achievements.

She earned her PhD from the University of Exeter, Camborne School of Mines (UK), under the supervision of Prof. Karen Hudson-Edwards and Dr. Rich Crane. Her research, conducted in collaboration with the NERC-funded Legacy Waste in the Coastal Zone project, focused on the behaviour of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)-related metal(loid) contaminants such as arsenic, copper, and zinc in the Carnon River (UK) and their interactions with changing hydrological cycles and seawater in coastal zones. Elin’s thesis, Sources, Pathways, and Sinks of Metal(loid) Contaminants in an AMD-Affected River System, combined geology, geochemistry, and environmental science. Her fieldwork involved extensive sampling and hydrological measurements, and she developed expertise in advanced analytical techniques, including synchrotron-based XAS, XRF, ICP-OES, SEM-EDX, QEMSCAN, and ferrozine assays. She was awarded a Diamond Light Source grant to study arsenic transformations in river sediments using beamline I18.

After her PhD, Elin entered a role as a graduate research assistant in the PAMANA project. Project PAMANA aimed to provide a holistic understanding of the legacy, present and future environmental and ecological impacts of mining on Philippine River systems. The project also aimed to lay the foundations for a novel catchment monitoring and management infrastructure that informs sustainable mining practice through more effective Environmental Impact Assessment. Her role in this project focused on creating a geochemical profile of soils in the Agno Catchment and understanding the controls of their distribution (i.e. land use and geology).

Julia Keenan is a Research Fellow and PhD candidate at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland. With over 15 years at CSRM, her work focuses on social performance, sustainable development, and Indigenous self-determination within the extractive industries.

Julia’s research examines the relationship between mining operations and local communities, focusing on agreement-making, gender equity, economic participation, and mine closure. Her PhD investigates corporate social performance (CSP), exploring policy implementation gaps, stakeholder engagement, and social safeguards throughout the mining lifecycle.

Julia has contributed to global mineral resource governance projects, partnering with the United Nations Environment Programme to implement the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) Resolution on Mineral Resource Governance. She also worked on the Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment (SREBA) for the Beetaloo Sub-basin, profiling community concerns about resource development.

Since 2023, Julia has coordinated CSRM’s involvement in the Community Smart Consultation and Consent Project (CSCC), which focuses on improving natural resource governance through community-based consultation and FPIC. She has co-authored guidance documents for the International Council on Mining and Metals and Rio Tinto.

Julia holds a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts (Hons in Linguistics) from The University of Queensland and is nearing completion of her PhD.

Dr Ray Maher is Deputy Director (Research) at the School of Architecture Design and Planning at the University of Queensland. Ray collaborates broadly across institutions while leading research and capacity-building projects with government and industry. His work focuses on sustainable development strategy, urban development and design, Sustainable Development Goals, decision-support tools, circular economy, and addressing ‘wicked’ problems using systems, design, and futures thinking. Ray’s research is engagement-focused, interdisciplinary, and applied, which builds the capacity of stakeholders.

Ray is Lead Chief Investigator on research funding totalling over $1m, and a Chief Investigator on research funding totalling over $5m. He has 32 traditional and non-traditional research outputs with state, national, and regional impact.

Julia Loginova is a dedicated researcher passionate about sustainability and justice in the minerals and energy sectors in an era of energy transitions, climate change, and geopolitical volatility. Growing up in northern Russia (Komi Zyrian) sparked her interest in socioeconomic, environmental and political transformations in regions affected by resource extraction. She has academic qualifications in economics and law, natural resource management, and human geography, and completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne on Indigenous community responses to climate change and resource extraction in the Arctic. Julia is highly skilled in qualitative research, data science, network analysis, and spatial research, providing unique mixed-method insights on complex challenges.

Since joining the University of Queensland in 2018, she has focused her research on globalization of the resources sector, governance of energy transitions, socioeconomic redistributions, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous community participation in multiple geographies, including Australia, China, Russia, Ecuador, and the Arctic region. Julia's current research projects include Indigenous co-ownership of renewable energy projects, coal transitions in multiple geographies, and assessment of risks in resource extraction regions. She is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Discovery project that aims to improve the sustainability of copper global production networks in Australia, Zambia, and Chile, and is a collaborator on a research project on the geopolitics of critical minerals. At UQ, Julia contributes to teaching courses on global change, sustainable cities and regions, and geopolitics.

Associate Professor Mehmet Kizil is currently the mining engineering program leader in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at The University of Queensland. Mehmet received his bachelor of mining engineering from Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey in 1986. He then went to England to complete his PhD with the University of Nottingham. In 1993, he returned to Turkey where he worked as assistant professor at the University of Dokuz Eylul. Mehmet joined UQ in 1996 and since then has contributed to the education of more than 800 mining engineering graduates.

A national award-winning lecturer, Mehmet’s teaching and learning innovations have been recognised by both students and colleagues achieving numerous School, Faculty, University and National teaching awards. In 2018, Mehmet has become a Higher Education Academy Senior Fellow. He has past experience as an Engineering Researcher and Academic in universities around the world, including the United Kingdom, Turkey and Australia.

Mehmet’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of:

• Mine planning and design

• Mining systems - production analysis and improvement

• Computer applications and virtual reality in mining

• Mine ventilation

Prof. Hongbo Zheng is a geologist with main interests in the latest episode of the Earth’s history-the Cenozoic Era. He is a senior professor (Cheung Kong Scholars Programme of the Ministry of Education of China) and Director of Research Centre for Earth System Science at Yunnan University, China. He obtained his BSc in Geology at Nanjing University and MSc in Geology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by PhD in Geology from the University of Western Australia. His research interests are clustered within the fields of Cenozoic geology and paleoclimatology, tectonic geomorphology, human evolution and geo-archaeology, with career interest in the geology of Tibetan Plateau. These fields have major implications for understanding Earth history, and the history of human evolution and civilization.

Publications：Hongbo Zheng has published 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Career publications include:

Zheng, H., Clift, P., He, M., Bian Z., et al., 2020. Formation of the First Bend in Late Eocene Gave Birth to the Modern Yangtze River. Geology (https://doi.org/10.1130/G48149.1).

Zheng, H., 2016. Asia dust production ramped up since latest Oligocene driven by Tibetan Plateau uplift. National Science Review 3: 271–274. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nww028.

Zheng, H., Wei, X., Tada, R., Clift, P., et al., 2015. Late Oligocene-early Miocene Birth of the Taklimakan Desert. PNAS 112 (25), 7662-7667.

Zheng, H., Wei, X., Tada, R., Clift, P., et al., 2015. Reply to Sun et al.: Confirming the evidence for Late Oligocene−Early Miocene Birth of the Taklimakan Desert. PNAS.

Zheng H. 2015. Birth of the Yangtze River: Age and tectonic-geomorphic implications. National Science Review, 2: 438–453.

He, M.，Zheng H.，Bookhagen, B. and Clift, P, 2014. Controls on erosion intensity in the Yangtze River basin tracked by detrital U-Pb zircon dating. Earth-Science Reviews, 136, 121-140.

Zheng, H., Clift, P., Wang, P., et al., 2013. Pre-Miocene Birth of the Yangtze River. PNAS, 110 (19), 7556-7561.

Zheng, H., Jia, D., Chen, J. and Wang, P., 2010. Did incision of the Three Gorges begin in the Eocene? Geology, doi:10.1130/G31944C.1.

Zheng, H., Powell, C., An, Z., Zhou, J. and Dong, G, 2000. Pliocene uplift of the northern Tibetan Plateau. Geology 28(8), 715-718.

Zheng, H., Rolph, T., Shaw, J., and An, Z., 1995. A detailed palaeomagnetic record for the Last Interglacial period. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 133, 339-351.

After gainining his Bachelor and Master degrees in Chemical Engineering, Mehdi obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering, at The University of Queensland, Australia. He held one of Australia’s most prestigious scholarship for research higher degree (IPRS). With an extensive knowledgebase and multiple skills, he has forged a successful career that includes mining waste management, mineral processing, surface chemistry, particle technology, process engineering, separation technologies, and project management, all of which were developed and strengthened in the Academic, Resource Mining, and Oil & Gas sectors. As a highly competent research scientist and engineer in a multidisciplinary area, his work contributes to various industries by improving the traditional methods aiming for higher quality products and cleaner environment.

Liguang Wang obtained his PhD from Virginia Tech (Supervisor: Roe-Hoan Yoon). His research focus is mineral processing and metal extraction for the transition to renewable energy. He was honoured with the ACARP Research and Industry Excellence Award in 2022.

More details from the lab website.

Fully funded PhD projects:

We are seeking PhD students working on sustainable production of lithium minerals, which is supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant. Each PhD scholarship includes full tuition support and stipend of $35,000 per annum. Please send your queries to liguang.wang@uq.edu.au

Tony is an expert mining structural geologist who applies his skills to problems of deep earth mass mining, giant open pits, near-mine exploration, and the local and regional lithostructural controls on complex metalliferous mineral deposits. As a Senior Research Fellow in mining and engineering geology at the University of Queensland, Tony’s pioneering research focussed on the geological modelling and data inputs required for planning deep cave mining operations, an area that had received little previous consideration from geologists. He led the Geology and Mass Mining Project (GMM), which examined the geoscientific inputs required for exploring, defining, establishing, and mining block and sub-level caving operations that were being developed on giant porphyry copper-gold systems and IOCG deposits. While much research was being done in Australia to explore the deep earth environment, very little was being done to model the geology of large and deep mineralized systems, and then to use the new data and models to plan and extract any large discoveries made. Tony’s pioneering work was some of the first and most comprehensive to be done in this field.

• Fellow and chartered professional (geology) of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
• Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists
• Fellow of the Geological Society
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists
• Member, Geological Society of Australia
• Member, Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology

Tony is presently a Principal Structural Geologist with a Brisbane-based geophysical and geological consulting group.

Biography:

Associate Professor James Vaughan is the Chemical Engineering Metallurgy Major Lead and Leader of the Hydrometallurgy Research Group. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering at McGill University followed by Master of Applied Science and PhD degrees in Materials Engineering at The University of British Columbia in Canada. Before joining UQ, James gained industrial metallurgical process research and development experience with Glencore, Barrick and BHP. While at UQ, James served as Director of the University of Queensland Rio Tinto Bauxite & Alumina Technology Centre and has been Lead Chief Investigator of Australian Research Council Linkage and Discovery Projects. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and the Advanced Materials and Batteries Council (AMBC).

Research:

James' research focuses on the fundamental aspects of leaching, ion exchange and precipitation reactions as well as membrane separations. These projects are of interest to the base metals, precious metals and alumina refining industries as well as in the fabrication of value added materials such as lithium ion battery cathode precursors and zeolites.

Current Projects:

1. Extracting Queensland's rare earth elements sustainably (Queensland Department of Resources)
2. Copper process innovations (UniQuest)
3. New approach for producing zeolites from clay or mine tailings (Zeotech)
4. Inorganic membrane percrystallisation in hydrometallurgy (ARC Discovery)
5. Improving pressure oxidation for refractory gold (Newmont)
6. Effects of solution impurities on gold leaching (Newmont and BHP ARC Linkage)
7. Recycling vanadium catalyst (QEM Critical Minerals Trailblazer)
8. Purification of battery metal solution (Lanxess Critical Minerals Trailblazer)
9. Recycling batteries (V Resource)

Teaching and Learning:

• Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy (METL6204)
• Metal Production and Recycling (METL2201)