MEInetwork23 Seminar #4: New energy commodities and critical minerals
The Melbourne Energy Institute hosted the fourth installment of the MEInetwork23 Seminar Series on Thursday, August 10, 2023.
Hosted by Mohan Yellishetty, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Monash University, the seminar centred around new energy commodities and critical minerals, examining their impact on global energy markets.
The risk to energy security is ever present, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown just how a risk event can play out – resulting in a sharp increase in global oil and coal prices. Transitioning to renewable energy reduces exposure to global energy markets, as most renewable energy is locally produced and consumed.
However, achieving energy capacity requires a significant amount of raw materials, including basic elements such as copper, steel, and concrete, and more exotic ones such as lithium, cobalt, cadmium, indium, selenium, rare earth elements and vanadium. Many of these are considered ‘critical minerals’, signifying a high risk of supply disruption and significant impacts resulting from such disruptions.
To address the issue of supply concentration, Australia, with its vast mineral resources and mining expertise, can play a key role in supply chain diversification. One effective strategy could involve extracting critical minerals from existing processing circuits to avoid wasteful disposal in tailings storage, thereby adding value to existing commodities.
This presentation explored the geopolitical challenges of the global energy transition, Australia’s critical minerals capabilities, and Australia's role in creating economic opportunities and reliable supply chains in the Indo-Pacific.
Professor Robin Batterham AO, Emeritus Kernot Professor of Engineering. Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne moderated the discussion.
RECORDING AND SLIDES
SPEAKER
Mohan Yellishetty
Associate Professor
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Monash University
Mohan Yellishetty is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Monash University. He is an Australian Endeavour Fellow and Chartered Mining Engineer with almost three decades of research and academic work experience at Monash University and the CSIRO in Australia, Yale University in the USA and IIT Bombay in India.
A/Prof Yellishetty has teaching and research interests in the following areas:
- Resources trinity: mine rehabilitation and closure, mine tailings and waste and critical minerals
- Sustainability frameworks/tools and their application to mining industry.
- Industrial ecology, life cycle thinking, substance flow and material flow analysis.
- Critical and strategic mineral supply chains and assessment
His research group has done pioneering work in creating the world's first agent-based dynamic criticality model. A/Prof Yellishetty and his international research team have created an Australian-first geospatial database of all known active and inactive hard rock mine sites across the country.
A/Prof Yellishetty's research work has impacted both industry practice and public policy. He has reported and testified to both the Federal and State Government committees on critical minerals, mine rehabilitation, and tailings management. Moreover, he has published articles in many public periodicals, most recently in Australian Resources & Investment, the Conversation, Future Mining, Australian Mining, Innovation News Network, Future Mining, etc.
A/Prof Yellishetty co-founded the Critical Minerals Consortium at Monash University in 2020 to improve the understanding of mineral criticality and to provide advice, ideas, and expertise to assist policymakers.
MODERATOR
Robin Batterham AO
Emeritus Kernot Professor of Engineering
Department of Chemical Engineering
The University of Melbourne
Robin Batterham joined the Melbourne School of Engineering as Kernot Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2010. He is past President of the Academy of Technology and Engineering (2007-2012), former Chief Scientist of Australia (1999-2005), and for over 20 years Global Head of Innovation (and other positions) at Rio Tinto.
MEInetwork23
To transform our energy system, we first need to understand how it works. The MEInetwork Seminar Series aims to give participants a sound understanding of the current technical and economic factors that underpin the Australian energy system. Knowledge of these market factors is critical in determining the changes required to move towards a clean energy system.
Each year, the Seminar Series takes a deep dive into the complete supply and value chain of one of our primary energy vectors. In 2023, the MEInetwork23 Seminar Series will be comprised of five seminars on the topic of energy commodities, investigating operation of crude oil and product supply chains, uranium mining and refining, energy commodity trading, new energy commodities and critical minerals, and fiscal policy to support future energy commodity exports.
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