The new programme will accelerate the development of new sustainable techniques and technologies required to deliver the materials necessary for the energy transition, and has been welcomed as "a major vote of confidence in the UK" by the UK Government.
The Centre, created with an investment of $150 million from Rio Tinto over the next 10 years, will connect some of the world’s best researchers with the capability and commitment of industry to help transform the way materials are sourced, processed, used and recycled to make them more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable
Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London, said: “The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials will co-create and fund research programmes that empower diverse, interdisciplinary teams to deliver innovative and transformative solutions with environment, society, and governance at their core. This work will transform the ways we extract, process, and reuse critical resources to make them more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.”
The Centre will act as a hub for collaboration with other leading global institutions, bringing together four new academic partners: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, The University of California, Berkeley, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and The Australian National University, Canberra.
esearch will include investigating new ways to extract copper - such as from fluids in the Earth’s crust; using microorganisms to harvest metals from rocks that only contain small volumes of copper; and the optimisation of the waste from old mine workings – with a focus on ESG from the perspective of indigenous communities.
