Mining talks focus on history

FEDERATION University is celebrating 151 years of mining in Central Victoria.

The School of Mines Ballarat, now part of the university, was launched in 1870 and after COVID-19 put last year’s 150 celebrations on hold, three virtual talks are being hosted to mark the occasion.

The first, titled Victorian gold deposits, was held on Tuesday, 20 July by senior geochemist with Geoscience Victoria Dr Dennis Arne.

On 10 August, historian and professor Erik Eklund will host the SMB – Educating a Workforce for the World talk and on 14 September, professor in La Trobe University’s department of archaeology and history Susan Lawrence will host Sludge – disaster on the goldfields.

Associate professor of geological sciences Kim Dowling said the first talk had an audience of about 100 people and was a resounding success.

“Dennis Arne who has actually worked at the university previously talked about how you look for gold historically and how modern mining techniques are being used to find a whole lot more,” she said.

“He had a very upbeat message about how much gold there is still out there and how much there is for us to find and had some suggestions about places to look.”

A main theme of the talks according to Ms Dowling is the technological advancements that have been made in mining, including sophisticated technology to understand the chemistry of material, data analysis, and the use of satellites.

“We can now use information we gather from satellites to help us understand what’s happening on the landscape,” Ms Dowling said.

“In the past people would go walking or on horses and get material, now we can get information from satellites to get information on where to go to, this time on four-wheel-drives to collect material. There’s a great advancement for us to be able to target areas of interest.”

Ms Dowling said while not many Australian universities offer geosciences as an area of study, there is a high demand for jobs in the industry.

“We reached out to our student alumni and our students end up working in the most amazing places,” she said.

“I got an e-mail from people in Peru, people working and exploration managers in Peru, people in outback Australia, in Africa.

“The fact they might have studied here for the first degree doesn’t really limit where they end up, and I think that was true in the goldfields time too.

“We have very good demand for our graduates. It’s a cyclic industry I would say but right now demand is outstripping supply.”

To register for August’s talk and celebrate the history of mining in Central Victoria, head to bit.ly/2Wk004P.