Copper group

The Copper group is focusing on the ecological and human health impacts of copper in the market place, with projects related to:

• Voluntary risk assessment of copper to meet needs of forthcoming European Union regulations;
• Assessment of copper toxicity associated with sediments in lakes, rivers and streams;
• The importance of copper in the diet of aquatic organisms and resulting potential for toxicity;
• Understanding how copper is regulated by the body; what markers can be used to establish the copper level of an individual; what level of copper in drinking water causes no effect; and if some individuals are more sensitive than the majority because of their age or genetic make up.

Rio Tinto Borax

Although numerous studies have investigated the effects of boron on a range of aquatic organisms, uncertainties exist about the mechanisms of boron toxicity, the factors that mediate this toxicity, and the likelihood for boron toxicity to occur in nature. These uncertainties need to be addressed in order to determine safe concentration ranges of boron in natural systems. Parallel laboratory and field efforts will be initiated to systematically address these issues. Laboratory studies will be aimed at identifying naturally occurring factors that control boron bioavailability and toxicity in aquatic and terrestrial systems. Ideally, these studies will be used to develop predictive boron toxicity models. Field studies will be employed to validate these models.

The Technology group

Rio Tinto Technology is part of an industry team supporting current research into the "Bioavailability and tolerance to metals of selected native and exotic plant species". The project focuses on the mobility of metal forms from mining wastes into plant species and is funded in part by the Australian Government. One important aim of the project is to develop practical tools to measure the bioavailability of metals to plant in soils because it is now known that all soil metals are not always fully available for plant uptake.