Signature Series - Dr Kathy Ehrig, Olympic Dam (BHP): Critical minerals, the mining industry, and career opportunities

Abstract
​“If it can’t be grown, it must be mined” should be a constant reminder to us all about the vital role the minerals industry plays in providing the materials our global society depends on. This presentation will focus on critical minerals from discovery of critical minerals through to producing refined materials, eventual mine closure, and the multitude of professions required to support the minerals industry. BHP Copper South Australia’s mining activities will be used as examples to describe the journey from discovery to metal production.

Biography

Kathy completed her BSc in Geology at the California State University, Fresno and completed her PhD in Geology at the University of California-Berkeley in 1991. She has worked for the US Navy conducting geophysical surveys for geothermal energy resources. In 1992 she joined the former Western Mining Corporation as a research geologist to work on the genesis of the Olympic Dam deposit in Australia. In 2006, she moved from Olympic Dam to Adelaide to lead the development of the Olympic Dam geometallurgy program. 

Over the past 30 years, she has remained focussed on using mineralogy to solve processing issues, predicting metallurgical performance, unravelling the complex geological history of the Olympic Dam deposit, and using deposit scale geological/​mineralogical insights as inputs into discovering new iron oxide copper gold deposits. She has co-supervised 16 PhD students and 10 postgraduate researchers working on Olympic Dam based projects. She has >125 published papers and delivered >80 national and international presentations. She also actively supported multiple Australian Research Council co-funded projects via BHP’s partnership with various Australian universities.

She has received numerous awards including: 

• Professional Excellence Award from the AusIMM
• degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa from Flinders University
• Geological Society of Australia – Bruce Webb Medal
• Society of Economic Geologists Silver Medal
• Australian Geoscience Council Roy Woodall Medal
• Australian Academy of Sciences – Haddon Forrester King Medal
• Society of Economic Geologists – International Exchange Lecturer
• US National Academy of Engineering

Did you know?
Ehrigite (pronounced air-rig-ite) is a new mineral that has been named after Dr Kathy Ehrig, as officially recognised by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Nomenclature. Associate Professor Cristiana Ciobanu and Professor Nigel Cook, scientists from the University, discovered the mineral and chose to name it after Kathy in recognition of her contributions to the fields of geology and geometallurgy.