To the core of the matter

Chris Morrissey looks at how minerals science underpins so much of the Group’s work, from exploration through to delivery.

At first thought, “mineral” sounds the most prosaic of the triad we know as “animal, vegetable, mineral”. But behind the names of all the minerals – about 3,800 in scientific use (making minerals roughly as numerous as species of mammal) – lies a fascinating world of natural variety. We get little hint of it from the names themselves. About two thirds of the 3,800 simply commemorate a person, usually an eminent scientist, or the place where the mineral was first discovered. Only a minority tell us anything about the mineral’s composition, structure or physical properties. As it happens, no mineral has exactly the same composition and properties wherever it is found.

All tend to contain elements that don’t appear in their chemical formula (which can be long and rather vague). Some behave like chemical dustbins, taking in significant amounts of elements that may be as welcome as gold or as unwelcome as arsenic. As a world leader in the industry, Rio Tinto has a big stake in applied mineralogy. It needs to understand the properties and behaviour of many minerals in a wide range of natural and artificial settings. Whether they are studies in nature, in a mine’s processing plant, or in its waste dumps, minerals can be full of information – and surprises.

Mineralogy is one aspect of a programme of external collaboration that comes under the Group’s chief technologist Robin Batterham and his office at Bundoora on the outskirts of Melbourne in Australia. Most mineralogical work of day to day relevance to the Group’s explorers and mine operators comes under Rio Tinto Technical Services and is handled at two hi-tech laboratories on opposite sides of the world – one at Bundoora, the other at Clevedon near Bristol in the west of England.