Mr Mick Stuckings, Technical Analyst

Thanks to the support of BHP Billiton and OZ Minerals, there is now increased capacity for analysis at the ARC Research Hub for Australian Copper-Uranium.

The Research Hub brings together a team of scientists, engineers and regulators to find new ways of making Australian copper production more economically and environmentally sustainable.

The industry support has now extended to the purchase of new state of the art equipment, and the appointment of Technical Analyst Mr Mick Stuckings.

“The focus of my role is to understand the needs of industry and the researchers, and the materials and processes they are working with. I can then suggest analyses to get the best results as efficiently as possible” Mr Stuckings said.

His role also involves managing and analysing many Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill samples between multiple laboratories across locations at the University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, Monash University and Flinders University.

The new industry support means that Research Hub scientists can analyse samples more efficiently and work with smaller samples. This is thanks to BHP Billiton which has bought two pieces of state of the art gamma spectrometry detection equipment, and upgraded the alpha spectrometry laboratory. This has made sample analysis more efficient, more prompt, and in the long run, better for industry.

The new detector with a sample vial in place in the top.