Research student profile: Karl Hemi
Project title
Characterisation and provenance of deposited dust in the vicinity of Cowal Gold Mine.
Project overview
My study involves measuring the amounts of dust deposited at various locations around the Cowal gold mine (CGM) locality and characterising various properties of captured dust particles to determine their potential origin.
Within Australia, research into dust particulates generated by mining activity is poorly substantiated. My project works to combine analytical characterisation with geochemical provenancing of dust particulates within the Lake Cowal locality over a 2.5 year period. In doing so a better understanding of the amounts and properties of dust generated by the mine relative to that sourced from local and regional sources will be gained.
Over a two year period I have been establishing parameters such as baseline metal concentrations, geochemical signatures and particle size distributions for monthly collected samples. The next step in my research is to correlate the collected data with recorded meteorological events that have occurred within the Lake Cowal region such as dust storms using satellite imagery such as the TOMS and MODIS.
It is expected that the findings of my study will assist the CGM in developing their dust management strategy by providing them a more comprehensive dust data set to work from whilst broadening the current understanding of dust generated by mining activities within a predominately agricultural area and the way in which dust can be provenanced.
Background
Originally from New Zealand, I have lived in Sydney for the past 10 years, and completed a Bachelor of Land and Water Science here at the University of Sydney in 2006.
I am studying my PhD with a FAFNR scholarship (F.H. Loxton Scholarship) as well as an industry funded scholarship from Barrick Gold Ltd (Cowal).
In the first year of my studies I had the fortune to travel to the Cairns to attend the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) Congress, where I presented a paper on the micromorphological and granulometric properties of Australasian loessic materials.
Publications
- Cattle, S.R., Hemi, K.D. (2007) Pedogenetic differences between Australian and New Zealand loess deposits, as distinguished by micromorphological analysis. In ‘Proceedings of the XXVII INQUA Congress’ (Cairns, Australia)