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A ROADMAP FOR MINERALS PROCESSING EDUCATION

the industry and noted that despite the information revolution and the
opportunities that has provided, real improvements in process have not
been realised. Trends in the industry (boom and bust cycles), trends in
tertiary education (the consolidation or cessation of metallurgy based
degrees due to enrolment numbers cycling in response to industry), and
the trend towards fly-in fly-out operations raise serious questions about
the sustainability of human capital in the industry. These fundamentals
include an understanding of the basic data requirements for managing
a mineral processing plant such as mass balances for solids, elements,
minerals and water, knowledge of how minerals impact the process and
the ability to transform data into information that can be acted on.

One of the challenges observed by undergraduate students in the
discipline is the decline in opportunities for vacation work (AusIMM, 2013)
and the increasing difficulty in finding placements for students in industry
contexts, that provide relevant experiences and skills that they will use in
their future careers. The number of students that have on-site industry
experience by the time they reach the final year of their undergraduate
course has changed dramatically from 20 years ago when the majority of
a cohort of 21 students undertaking Mineral Processing Engineering had
done vacation work in a mineral processing plant by the start of their third
year, to only one student from a cohort of 36 from third year Chemical and
Metallurgical Engineering class at the University of Queensland in 2014.

This paper seeks to highlight what is currently being done at the University
of Queensland to close the process mineralogy knowledge gap and put in
place mechanisms to maintain and sustain this capability in three spheres of
learning namely: undergraduate, graduate and professional development.
Examples from other education providers globally are also provided.
Context – The Data from Professionals

As eloquently described by Schouwstra and Smit (2011) “mineralogy in the
mining industry is not just about identifying minerals – it is the application
of the knowledge of the behaviour of the minerals and mineral phases
during processing”. Making use of the data analytics created by web-based

Developing and Sustaining Capability 183
in Process Mineralogy