Associate Professor Caroline Tiddy is dedicated to developing more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to explore for essential metals, and was named a 2023 Superstar of STEM. We caught up with her to discuss her career in geosciences, geochemical targeting tools, and the global issue of decreasing metal inventory with increasing critical mineral demand.
How did you first get into your chosen field of study?
Was it something you were always interested in? I’ve always wanted to be a scientist, although through my school years I didn’t know what type of scientist I wanted to be – I just wanted to do science! Doing a science program with Museums Victoria in year ten in high school fuelled my scientific desire, and a geology course the same year perked my geoscience interest.
I then went to university wanting to be an Industrial Chemist and took Earth Science in my first year to fill a spare slot. I soon realised geoscience was a career where I could be outside on adventures, surrounded by like-minded people and do science. Field trips were the clincher!
After ten years of study, from a Bachelors to a PhD, I spent two years working for a state geological survey. Deep down though I always knew I wanted to be in universities and academia, so when presented with the opportunity to take on a Postdoctoral Researcher position, I jumped at it.
Amusingly, I always said I would not be involved in economic geology because it was ‘bad for the planet’. However, after some reflection I realised that focusing on economic geology, and particularly exploration geochemistry, was an opportunity to be part of the solution towards global issues, such as climate change. Furthermore, I started to realise that I could do applied research that has relevance to everyone, not just myself.
The recent years of your career have seen you publish a number of academic papers and received grant funding. Can you tell us about some of your career highlights?
Without a doubt, my career highlights revolve around being involved in two Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) that both aim to develop technologies that will see a paradigm shift in the way we undertake mineral exploration. The Deep Exploration Technologies CRC (DET CRC – 2010 to mid-2018) culminated in building a world-first prototype coiled tubing (CT) drill rig for hard rock mineral exploration. The compact, 15t rig has capability to drill a vertical hole to 500m depth and drill ~15m/hour in terrane that a traditional diamond rig drilled at ~3m/hour.
A research project I was involved in demonstrated the high-depth fidelity of the drilling, with a one metre zone of low-grade copper mineralisation at 400m depth being resolved through geochemical analysis of material returned from the drilling. I also led the Education & Training (E&T) program of DET CRC. E&T Programs are a major legacy of a CRC and an integral part of their research program and culture.
The $4.5 million DET CRC E&T Program was viewed as being overly ambitious; however, we achieved our goals of seeing 40 students graduate from postgraduate research studies, and influencing training of 400-plus Vocational Education and Training (VET) students just five days out from the formal end of the eight-year CRC. Following the DET CRC, I was involved in writing the successful bid for the Mineral Exploration CRC (MinEx CRC – mid-2018 to 2028).
MinEx CRC is an AU$218 million, ten-year CRC that is the world’s largest collaborative research effort into mineral exploration and involves industry, government and academia within Australia and internationally. We are expanding upon the capabilities of the DET CRC CT rig, developing sensors and software that will allow for real-time collection and interpretation of geological data within a drill hole or the drilling workflow, and testing the technologies through our National Drilling Initiative (NDI) program.
A highlight of my involvement in MinEx CRC is leading an even more ambitious AU$3.75 million E&T program where we aim to graduate 50 higher degree research students and develop platforms that will influence VET students in driller training and serve as an ongoing legacy of the CRC.
Throughout this journey, I have had the pleasure of supervising several postgraduate research students. Highlights of this experience include supervising seven PhD students through to completion, and following them as they went on and built diverse careers for themselves including as academics, geologists with state government organisations and as policy advisors for the Australian Federal Government.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered during your career?
That’s a tough question because there are so many challenges to a career! I think the biggest challenge has been work-life balance, which has become a real struggle since becoming a mum to my two gorgeous kids.
The guilt of working and being away from my family versus the guilt of not working results in a mental battle where I’m being pulled in opposite directions by forces unknown to physics. Add imposter syndrome on top of that and the niggling uncertainty about whether one belongs where they are, and it is a recipe for disaster.
Managing self (i.e. self-care) has had to become a priority so that I can be both physically and mentally present when I am with my family and can give my best self to my research and my team. I’ve not got it right and it can go so quickly wrong; however, I think awareness of the need to manage self is the first step to addressing the ongoing challenge of work-life balance.
A great deal of your recent work involves the decreasing metal inventory coupled with increasing critical mineral demand. Why is it important to address these global issues?
The decreasing global inventories of metals such as copper and gold are primarily being driven by mineral exploration being forced to move into deeper search spaces where older rocks that host undiscovered mineral deposits are buried by young, barren ‘cover’ sediments.
The increasing demand for these metals is primarily due to their requirement in building new technologies including renewable energy systems such as solar heating, wind energy and photovoltaics. Given these renewable technologies are designed to address the global issue of anthropogenic climate change, it is critical that the metals required to build them are in adequate supply.
Can you outline some of your current projects?
The research activities I undertake can be described in two categories: mineral exploration and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
The mineral exploration research centres around developing technologies that will decrease exploration risk for critical metals such as copper, thereby increasing mineral deposit discovery success rates and ensuring sustained global supply of critical metals.
Working with teams of researchers and postgraduate students within MinEx CRC, we are developing cutting-edge sensor technologies that will deliver rapid geochemical assay within the challenging environment of a drill hole.
The impact of this research will be in enabling rapid data interpretation and real-time decision-making to assist in planning for ongoing drilling campaigns, therefore increasing the chances of a drill hole successfully intersecting a mineralised system. The other part of this research involves development of geochemical targeting tools that will use data such as that generated by the sensor technologies. The aim of these tools is to increase knowledge of mineral deposit fertility and prospectivity in underexplored regions of Australia.
My EDI-related research is about investigating the barriers and enablers of women to reach leadership levels within the geosciences in academia, government and industry. This project is a multidisciplinary effort including colleagues in the University of South Australia with expertise in gender diversity and entrepreneurship. We aim to use our research to highlight gender inequality within geosciences and provide organisational and workplace strategies to remedy this imbalance and enable minority groups to have a voice.
How will developing new geochemical tools and drilling technologies for mineral exploration affect the future of the industry?
The challenge of subsurface mineral exploration is successful exploration targeting. The only way to get a rock sample from which exploration data critical to developing targets can be collected is to drill. Consider that the highest-quality rock sample is returned from diamond drilling that can cost up to $400/m. Diamond drill holes are regularly 1-2km depth, meaning the cost of a drill hole can be in the order of $0.4-0.8 million.
To add to the challenge, a diamond drill hole will produce a cylinder of rock that is commonly only around 6cm in diameter. Due to the cost, the number of diamond drill holes that produce this small amount of sample can be highly limited. For instance, less than 20 drill holes over a 300km2 exploration tenement is not uncommon. And to further add to the challenge, the ore deposits we seek are tiny compared to the search space.
The ability to drill at faster and cheaper rates and rapidly collect and interpret the vital geological data required to make informed drilling and exploration and targeting decisions will be a paradigm shift in mineral exploration. Every good explorer knows there is no ‘silver bullet’ in finding an ore deposit. Rather, you need to build up your inventory and criteria in knowing where to search for a deposit.
The geochemical exploration tools we are developing will add to that inventory and the drilling technologies will allow the tools to be applied early in the drilling campaign workflow. The combination of technologies and tools may therefore be used to identify and verify potential exploration targets during a drilling campaign.
The capability for decision-making whilst drilling will subsequently impact execution of drilling itself and whether to persist with or discard planned holes. Therefore, by using these technologies and tools, an exploration company that has allocated $5 million to their drilling campaign in any given financial year will be drilling holes with increased confidence, thereby increasing the chances of turning that $5 million of drilling expenditure into a mineral deposit discovery valued at much greater than $5 million!
What is targeting and what is the significance of trying to reduce it?
Exploration targeting is an estimate of a defined geological area to potentially host a mineral deposit of a commodity of interest. The target may be defined using multiple data sources, such as terrane to local-scale geological knowledge, geophysics, surface and drill hole geochemistry and historical drilling and data.
Exploration targets will hold a level of uncertainty from high (e.g. target developed based on no previous drilling and limited geological knowledge) through to low (e.g. target based on known mineralisation in the area, data from multiple historical drill holes and high-resolution geophysics).
Decreasing the uncertainty and size of an exploration target through employment of multiple exploration criteria and building knowledge will (hopefully!) increase the chance of turning the target into a successful discovery.
You were recently named as a Superstar of STEM. How will you use this new platform to spread the message about critical mineral technologies and increasing diversity in the field?
The Superstars of STEM program aims to create a cohort of women and non-binary people working within STEM fields who are expert communicators in all forms of media within Australia, and who will be highly visible role models and inspire young people to study and stay in STEM.
I would like to use the Superstars of STEM platform to build public trust in the geosciences. The general mistrust of geosciences is strongly fuelled by negative media portrayals of the minerals industry. I do not disagree; the geoscience industry can and needs to improve, particularly considering the environmental and equality issues that have been splashed all over the media in recent years.
However, these stories do not match the majority of geosciences and the opportunities a geoscience career can bring. I want to communicate the wonders of our planet that we learn from studying geoscience, challenge the perception of geoscientists being environmental vandals and to reconcile the public disconnect between mining and the supply of metals critical in building green technologies crucial for Earth’s longevity.
With respect to diversity, I have particular interest in appeasing the frustrations of gender equality that I regularly hear. I want to challenge public and media perceptions of geoscience being a place for ‘white, bearded men’ and inspire young people that anyone can do science using the learnings from my gender equality in geosciences research.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to start their career in your field?
The advice I would give someone who is looking to start a career in geoscience is what I consider the best advice I have been given, and this is the concept of ‘above the line’ thinking. Instead of casting blame, take responsibility; instead of only seeing problems, think of solutions; instead of making excuses, find results.
Truly taking this concept on board and switching my thinking to a positive, explorer mindset has opened opportunities and given me freedom of choice where previously I would have seen nothing. This concept is not new and is relevant to anyone no matter their career stage. I believe that if I had taken this advice on board earlier in my career, then my path may still have led to the happy place I am at now, but there would have been more enjoyment, satisfaction and sense of achievement along the way.
Did you have someone you looked up to when you were starting your career? Do you think you would have done anything differently if you had?
Unfortunately, my answer to this question is no. Reflecting on my journey through my early career, days as a university student and even my high school years, I think that if I had someone to look up to from an early stage then my path would have been significantly different.
The reason I believe that is that I have a role model now. My role model is not a single person, rather it is traits from several people combined into one person I would like to be, and with patience and hard work I can see how to get there. This role model gives me direction.
So yes, I think I would have approached not only my early career, but also my time at university differently had I had a role model from early on. The other aspect of support that I consider lacking for geoscientists (or any early careerist) is mentoring. I have never had a formal mentor but have purposefully identified various people at different times throughout my career as mentors without ever telling them what I was doing.
I have found this highly beneficial in seeking guidance or solutions to specific problems over short or long timelines. I also don’t think that anyone is ever too young to have a mentor. Life is full of challenges and there is always someone we might connect with who has more experience in addressing that challenge than we do, so why not seek them out.
Furthermore, now that I have mentor roles myself, I see the benefits of it and find that engaging in mentoring is a continual learning experience on the challenges being faced by others, their perspectives and how to improve in my own communication and leadership skills.
The collective efforts of the DET CRC team are highlighted in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv1vXoGRv4g.
