Australia’s new A$218m MinEx Cooperative Research Centre has been launched, with support from more than 30 organisations from the industry and research groups from a host of universities. The new centre aims to be a hub for research into new mineral exploration technologies and techniques. With most of the low-hanging fruit already plucked in Australia, how will this centre enhance exploration activities across the industry?

We also delve deeper into a new report from the Minerals Council of Australia that forecasts the demand for metallurgical coal to 2030 will increase by 2.3%, investigate the potential of mining meteor craters after the ultra-rare mineral reidite was found in what is possibly the world’s largest crater in Shark Bay in Western Australia, and find out how a new downward-looking telescope that could help identify strategic minerals works.

Finally, in the first issue of 2019, we round up the biggest and best mine rehabilitation projects across Australia, and profile the growing job market in Australia to find out which industry sectors have the most vacancies and opportunities.

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Katie Woodward, editor