About

COEMinerals – strengthening Australia’s mineral future

Australia’s minerals are fundamental to national prosperity, and many are critical for low‑emissions technologies, clean‑energy systems, advanced manufacturing and strategic industries

However, they are a finite resource and declining ore grades are creating new environmental, operational and economic challenges for industry.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco‑Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (COEMinerals) is a unique and world-leading national research centre which brings together a multidisciplinary team to address these challenges and to help position Australia competitively at the forefront of innovative and sustainable mineral processing.

COEMinerals’ mandate is to transform the minerals sector

The Centre’s work focuses on developing technologies that enable higher mineral recovery while reducing water and energy consumption, minimising waste and lowering the overall environmental footprint of beneficiation operations.

Science‑based innovation is urgently needed, as global demand for critical minerals accelerates, while current beneficiation methods often remain based on 40 – 100 year old practices

The Centre’s work draws from chemical and environmental engineering, computational chemistry, advanced synthetic methods and biotechnology to create entirely new approaches to mineral separation, unlocking step-change performance beyond conventional techniques.

The Centre is also resolving long‑standing mineral recovery challenges, such as the recovery of Rare Earth Elements (REE), which are essential for permanent magnets used in wind turbines, electric vehicle motors and other electrification technologies that underpin Australia’s clean‑energy ambitions.

While the Centre’s primary focus is delivering more eco‑efficient ways to recover minerals from ore, some members are also exploring how novel techniques can extract mineral resources and value from tailings and urban waste sources. As a result, we envisage a future far less reliant on tailings dams and viable circular economies to source and recycle valuable metals.

Our relationships and partnerships with organisations in the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector are central to the Centre’s translational impact

Industry collaborations allow us the ability to explore new ideas that address current problems, test new techniques with real industry samples in the lab and on-site with pilot trials that ensure our solutions address intractable challenges, are scalable and commercially relevant to industry.

The Centre is also developing future leaders for the minerals sector

COEMinerals fosters an engaged, collaborative research community across Australia and internationally. Centre members are highly connected and well informed, positioning them to contribute to the sector’s long‑term transformation and to advance Australia’s leadership in sustainable mineral processing.

Our members are based across eight leading Australian universities:

  • University of Newcastle (UON) – administering organisation
  • Curtin University (Curtin)
  • Deakin University (Deakin)
  • Monash University (Monash)
  • University of Melbourne (UOM)
  • University of New South Wales (UNSW)
  • University of Queensland (UQ)
  • Adelaide University (AU)

COEMinerals is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence scheme. 

Centre Objectives (aligned to Research Themes)

1. Early gangue (waste) rejection, achieved through technology advances in coarse particle beneficiation, to minimise energy and water consumption

2. Fast, efficient beneficiation to minimise losses of high value metals, achieved through technology advances in fine particle beneficiation, to maximise resource recovery and product grade

3. Real time removal of solids from tailings, and rejection of water from solids, achieved through the introduction of novel hydrophobic interactions and technology advances in dewatering (i.e. eliminating tailings dams)

    We invite you to join our community on LinkedIn: linkedin​.com/​c​o​m​p​a​n​y​/​c​o​e​m​i​n​e​rals/

    The Centre will transform the minerals sector by:

    Reducing energy and water use during minerals processing (beneficiation)

    Our stretch goal is to double energy and water productivity in the mining sector by 2030, maintaining the drive towards the ‘zero- emission mine’

    Increasing mineral recovery during minerals processing

    Our stretch goal is to reduce loss of high value metals during minerals processing by 90%, increasing the concentration of recovered products used in metals refining

    Training a New Generation

    Our goal is to deliver exceptional educational experiences that enable, up-skill and empower a new generation of Research, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and minerals sector leaders