In April 2012, the Australian Synchrotron hosted a Geosciences Industry Workshop to explore the potential of synchrotron science for the mining and minerals sector.

Targeted specifically at industry representatives, the workshop presented a series of case studies, showcasing the facility’s research capabilities either for industry/university partnerships or for stand-alone industry projects.

The workshop sought to gain leverage from the recommendations of an Australian Government report written by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The report identifies a dedicated ‘earth sciences’ beamline as being essential to placing Australia at the cutting edge of the field globally. Such capability would provide a unique facility to underpin revolutionary earth science research for the next two decades, according to the Australian Earth Observatory – Infrastructure Roadmap (available from http://www.auscope.org.au/site/ncris.php as ‘Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure’).

Information about the outcomes of the workshop and the synchrotron’s current mining and minerals research capabilities is available from Kia Wallwork, the synchrotron’s Principal Beamline Development and Operations Advisor.