2nd year PhD student Becca Kirk spent November and December in Ottawa, CA on placement with Canmet Mining, Natural Resources Canada under the supervision of Dr Richard Goulet. The trip involved a mixture of laboratory work alongside expert research technicians, and decision making and procedure writing alongside senior researchers to learn more about the workstream of government research in the country.
Research focuses included: DNA extractions of different mining environments, XRD/SEM and mineralogy of a range of mining wastes, and geochemistry and transformation dissolutions of different mining waste materials.
The wastes researched included samples collected by Becca from Trelavour Dryers, St Austell, Cornwall, UK and different lithium mine tailings from sample sites of the James Bay Lithium Mine Project in La Corne, Northern Quebec, CA.
The aim of the research hopes to compare and contrast different mine wastes hosting lithium to learn more about possible remediation techniques from hard rock lithium mining.
Despite a busy placement, Becca managed to visit many sites including a day trip to Montreal, the Canadian Parliament Buildings, The Museum of Nature and Ottawa Art Gallery as well as attend BCMend, an annual international workshop on Mine Drainage.
A huge thank you to Richard and everyone at Canmet for their continued support and allowing Becca to work alongside their lithium mining project!
