Key points
- Dr Gareth Kennedy leads our Sustainable Mining Technologies research program.
- Gareth has a background in engineering, mine safety and resource management leadership.
- Our sustainable mining research develops technologies and innovations to make mining safer, more environmentally sensitive and productive throughout its lifecycle.
Dr Gareth Kennedy, CSIRO's new research director for sustainable mining technologies, has come a long way from the sheep farm he grew up on in North Wales.
While it may not seem obvious at first, he credits his farming background with preparing him for his role at CSIRO.
“Every farmer is a problem solver and engineer who has to deal with unpredictable events and conditions,” said Gareth.
“It’s the same mindset with mining. It’s about knowing the environment, relying on teamwork and having resilience when dealing with change and challenge.”
From police surveillance to mining engineering
Gareth began his career as an electronic engineer, developing small-form electronics for audio surveillance devices for the UK Police Scientific Development Branch. While rewarding, he was keen to ‘mine’ new opportunities.
A PhD in mining engineering opened the door to academia and research, and relocation to Australia.
A strong theme throughout his time in the UK and now in Australia is innovation for mine safety and worker health.
He has developed wireless network technology to accurately track personnel and vehicles underground, led emergency response research projects for UK Mines Rescue Service, and various mine safety, automation, energy and emissions related research projects for the European coal mining industry.
Prior to joining CSIRO, Gareth was Director of the Mine Safety Technology Research Centre (Simtars) at Resources Safety & Health Queensland (RSHQ). Here he led initiatives to improve mine safety and health outcomes, tackling hazards like respiratory dust inhalation, managing explosive gas and emergency response.
He also has extensive experience in incident investigation, providing emergency technical support for critical mining incidents and developing LiDAR visualisation tools for post-incident investigation.
Driving industry-relevant innovation
Gareth now leads a team of 90 researchers, focussed on transformative innovation to make mining safer, productive and more environmentally sensitive throughout the life of the mine and beyond.
“Our research program has three pillars: increased extraction efficiency, especially around critical minerals, advanced environmental sustainability, including healthy and safe mining environments, and connecting the mining ecosystem” said Gareth.
Research around extraction efficiency includes advancing mining automation, like the award-winning LASC longwall mining automation, deeper and extreme mining and in-situ resource recovery.
“Our work is leading us into new frontiers on Earth and in Space and inspiring us to take new approaches to the way we extract resources. Our goal is more efficient extraction that is less wasteful and maximises waste re-use.”
Mining is highly energy and resource intensive, so decarbonisation and initiatives around emissions reductions and water management remains a strong focus.
“We are working on technologies to capture methane emissions, to treat mine wastewater so water can be re-used, and minimise and manage other waste by-products of mining.”
Gareth said the team takes a whole mining ecosystem approach.
“There are so many opportunities yet to explore, and so many ways science and technology can support a prosperous and responsible industry.”
While Gareth’s team have some exciting projects and new facilities in the pipeline, he is always keen to hear directly from the industry.
“I want to hear what challenges our industry partners face and understand how we can work together to find innovative workable solutions.”
Gareth is based in Brisbane at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies.