An Australian sand mining start-up has gained global recognition from the World Economic Forum for its achievements.
OreSand Inc, which is supported by the University of Queensland, works with companies to turn their waste products into useful sand by-products through its research-backed method.
“OreSand Inc works with mining companies to reduce their waste by extracting clean sand byproducts from the ore,” Professor Daniel Franks said.
“The minerals that make up sand are discarded in huge volumes during the mining of metals like copper and iron.
“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 approach gained the attention of the World Economic Forum’s Uplink Top Innovators program. Recently, OreSand was named as one of eight global winners that will gain access to networks capable of supporting and scaling it up.
Professor Franks and fellow Sustainable Minerals Institute researchers, including Dr Louise Gallagher and Dr Juliana Segura-Salazar at the Global Centre for Mineral Security, have started working with mining companies. Together, they manage to modify existing technologies so that quality sands can be captured and processed during ore extraction before they become tailings.
“Tailings are an expensive waste management issue for mining companies – often adding another degree of difficulty to an already complex project,” Dr Gallagher said.
“Poorly managed tailings are notorious for triggering some of the world’s most serious environmental disasters.
“The knowledge we are developing at OreSand Inc shows how practices can be tweaked to prevent sand from being a tailings management issue and instead a valuable byproduct.”
The Australian start-up has been supported by federal government initiatives, such as Australia’s Economic Accelerator and the Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer.
“The hope is that eventually we will see sustainable practices championed by OreSand Inc become mainstream thinking in the mining industry,” Dr Segura-Salazar said.
“We want to play a part in the paradigm shift.”
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