These prizes are in honour of the outstanding contributions to the mining industry of Ian Morley, Charles Marshall and Ivan Newnham. Each year, prizes are awarded to the best Year 4 Honours Thesis written by a student enrolled in the departments of geosciences, and mining engineering or extractive metallurgy (or their equivalents) in each of the three states.
In Queensland, the Ian Morley Prize is awarded for the two best theses in Geosciences and in Mining or Extractive Metallurgy. The awarding of separate, disciplinary based prizes is in recognition of the difference between the study hours allocated for the students’ work.
There are usually five theses, three in Geosciences and two in Mining and Extractive Metallurgy. A panel of industry professionals assesses the theses submitted by UQ, QUT and JCU. The adjudicators are all senior, highly respected professionals who are active in the industry. Once again, I thank them for their diligence and commitment to helping us sort out the best of the best.
Every year we comment that it is very difficult separating the applicants, since all Theses are of an extremely high academic standard. The situation is frequently exacerbated by the disparate nature of the topics addressed. Over the years, the judging panels have therefore looked for potentially useful and original contributions to the minerals industry as an aid to differentiating the work submitted.
This year, only two of the eligible Universities nominated a thesis in Earth Sciences as the Geology staff at the other University concluded that there was not one based on a suitable topic for the Award. Each of the two Theses submitted was of a very high standard and one of which, in the opinion of the adjudicators, was a more deserving piece of work.
Unfortunately, once again, there was no thesis submitted for Extractive Metallurgy this year as a result of programme changes that seem to have affected students’ choice of Courses. However, in the opinion of the adjudicator, the thesis submitted for Mining Engineering was an excellent piece of work that more than adequately fulfilled the requirements established for an award.
Therefore, the prize-winners in each category are:
CATEGORY A – Geosciences [>50% of a Semester study]
Claire A. Brandt
Bachelor of Science (Honours) in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Queensland
‘Rates of Magmatic Processes Preceding Steady-state Activity at Stromboli, Italy’
The Adjudicator was impressed with this piece of work and commented:
“This is a well-presented piece of work in which the author demonstrates a clear understanding of the issues being addressed. Claire draws appropriate conclusions from the results generated in the study and the work represents a useful contribution to the body of work in this particular area of the discipline.”
CATEGORY B – Mining or extractive metallurgy [<30% of a Semester study]
Yeonjun Kim
Bachelor of Engineering in Mining Engineering, School of Mechanical & Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland
‘Geotechnical Stability Analysis of In-situ Stopes for In-Place Mining.’
The Adjudicator’s comments included:
“This thesis provides a very useful contribution as the basis for further study of a novel mining method involving solution mining techniques. As higher grade relatively shallow orebodies are depleted, techniques such as this may provide an economic answer to the extraction of lower grade deposits at greater depth. This study is a valuable initial step on the way to a greater understanding of the factors that affect the design and efficacy of the method.”
About Ian Morley
Ian Morley graduated from the University of Melbourne with degrees in both mining and metallurgical engineering. He had a varied career in both private industry and the public sector (Mines Inspectorate) over the major mining states of Australia and overseas, and in Papua New Guinea and Fiji. He was appointed Chief Inspector of Mines for Queensland in 1940, a post that he held until 1969. During his career, Ian was closely involved with the improvement of safety and in innovation in both mining and exploration. After ‘retirement’, he established a successful mining and petroleum consultancy. Ian was appointed an AusIMM Honorary Fellow in 1982 after serving the Branches and on the Council over many years.