Advancing Mining research around the world
Mining is a truly global industry, supplying raw materials that underpin infrastructure and manufacturing, as well as affecting the lives, security and opportunities of people worldwide.
Today mining is at a crossroads: it is increasingly difficult and expensive to find new mineral deposits and there are concerns over the limited sources of critical commodities. The response to declining ore grades has been to increase the scale of mining operations and consequently produce more waste.
All of this creates unprecedented engineering, technical, training and political challenges – challenges which the Camborne School of Mines is addressing through its research and teaching.
With research covering geology, mining engineering, mineral processing, sustainability and remediation, we work across the mining value chain and lifecycle. Our alumni are to be found throughout the global industry.
We engage widely with the mining industry, governments, international agencies and the broader mining sector through collaborative research, consultancy, bespoke teaching and training aiming to reduce costs, energy consumption, emissions and waste, improve safety and encourage innovation.
Our 130 years’ heritage in mining research and education, combined with our history of working with international businesses means we are well placed to deliver global impact.
Our Research
Our research addresses some of the most fundamental questions facing the mining industry today, from energy and resource efficiency, operational innovation, improved mineral processing and recovery, to health and safety, environmental protection, corporate social responsibility and the social license to operate.
Our expertise includes:
- Mineral exploration and deposit vectoring, ore deposit formation in magmatic, porphyry copper, MVT and critical metal deposits; industrial minerals, gemstones and construction materials evaluation techniques.
- Deposit characterisation and resource estimation, mine design, resource efficiency, water and energy efficient production.
- Geotechnics, remote data acquisition techniques, rock mass characterisation and modelling.
- Slope stability and failures, underground support design, and block caving optimisation as well as assessing blast design and vibration.
- Rapid and remote surveying techniques, void detection, safety, accident prevention and reconstruction.
- Automated mining, remote control, robotics, advanced visualisation techniques, virtual and augmented reality. Operational data integration and analytics, Process and value chain optimisation.
- Geometallurgy, biohydrometallurgy, liberation, separation, processing and recovery enhancement, minerals engineering.
- Mine site pollution, microbial remediation of metal contamination, mine waste storage, reprocessing monitoring and mine closure. Climatic and climate change impact on mining operations.
- Social impacts of mining, mining education and skills, collaborative mining sector partnerships, resource nationalism, community relations and development delays.
The urgent need for investment
To meet the challenges of the future the Camborne School of Mines requires a multi-million pound investment.
As we are expanding to address critical industry issues we are seeking to develop a new home for the School – an iconic building reflecting our teaching and research mission and long tradition of industry impact. We are developing our facilities to complement a new Centre in Automated and Remote Mining – where we will help develop new concepts for mining processes. These will work in tandem with a new visualisation centre where virtual and augmented reality, and data analytics are used to harness the power of big data in the mining value chain.
Download Camborne School of Mines Campaign Brochure
Download information about our proposed new building