Monthly Archives: April 2017

WASMA Alumni > Resources > News > 2017 > April
28Apr

WASM Discovers Oldest Form of Fungal Life

Author WASMA Posted on

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Researchers have discovered microfossils resembling fungi in lavas that erupted on the seafloor 2.4 billion years ago, representing the oldest evidence of fungal life.

Professor Birger Rasmussen, from the WA School of Mines, Curtin University, said he found the microfossils during a routine microscopic study of the lava in the Griquatown West Basin, South Africa.

“I was looking for minerals to date the age of the rock when my attention was drawn to a series of vesicles and when I increased the magnification of the microscope I was startled to find what appeared to be exquisitely preserved
fossilised microbes,” Professor Rasmussen said. “It quickly became apparent that cavities within the volcanic rocks were once crawling with life.”

The findings suggest that fungi not only emerged much earlier than suspected but also evolved beneath the sea rather than on land.

“The new discovery has implications for the evolution of life on Earth, representing the earliest evidence of possible fungi by 1 to 2 billion years, and the earliest evidence of eukaryotic life by at least 500 million years,” Prof Rasmussen said.

“We hope this research will help to answer fundamental questions about the evolution of life on our planet and beyond.”

You can read the full article published in Nature here

27Apr

Senior Mine Engineer

Author WASMA Posted on

Tronox are looking for their next Superintendent/Also considering geologists…

Cataby/Cooljarloo site based. Its 2hr drive in/drive out from Perth. There is single persons quarters at Cataby but some people live locally in Jurien Bay, Cervantes, Lancelin.
Roster is 9 day fortnight – so essentially 5/2 4/3 days on/off with public holidays off on top of that.

Contact

Paul Gilman
Site Manager at Tronox
Paul.gilman@tronox.com
0408 952 772

18Apr

From The Goldfields to Elphin Scotland, WASM Graduate becomes tearoom host

Author WASMA Posted on

Helen O’Keefe, who hails from Western Australia, opened the doors of the Elphin Tearooms on Thursday, just in time for the Easter weekend.

Helen is a mining engineer who graduated from the West Australian School of Mines and went on to work first at Kalgoorlie and then with a mining consulting company in Perth.

She returned to the north of Scotland for a second time in 2014 when she spent her time hill walking and meeting friends.

She said: “I got back to Australia and I thought that I did not want to be there any longer – I wanted to be in Scotland.”

At the end of March 2015, Helen achieved her dream and relocated from Australia to Scotland, staying first at Durness and then Kinlochbervie.

It was not long before she was appointed coordinator of the North West Highlands Geopark’s new Rock Stop coffee shop and exhibition at Unapool, Assynt.

But Helen had also spotted that the Elphin Tearooms were for sale and felt it would be an ideal business opportunity.

She said: “I was really keen to have some land where I could grow things and be productive. Also, I really love proper tea, loose leaf tea. so the concept of a proper tea room really appealed to me.”

However, she did not have the funds to purchase the business herself and suggested to her mum that she might like to move across the world and run the business with her.

An intrepid Ann was keen to take up the challenge and the two have bought the tea rooms, a neighbouring house and the surrounding land.

Helen said: “She was ready for a change and loves it up here. She left her home in Bridgetown, Western Australia, where she has stayed for 25 years, all her friends and her dog. She has been a real gem.”

Located in an old croft house on the main A835 running through Elphin, the tearooms have been in operation for the last 30 years, but have not always opened regularly in the last few years.

Helen and Ann have not had to do much to the spacious restaurant, which has 36 covers, aside from some cosmetic work such as repainting. They have also installed some new equipment including a coffee machine.

Customers will have the choice of teas, coffees, hot chocolate and cold drinks as well as a range of home-made cakes, scones, muffins, biscuits and sweets. Light lunches such as soup and sandwiches are also on offer.

Helen said: “Everything is fresh and made from scratch. We are starting off small and want to get the basics right. Whatever we do, we want to do well and we will work our way up.

18Apr

Why leprechauns know how mountains form.

Author WASMA Posted on

2017 Haydn Williams Fellowship Public Lecture presented by Professor Brendan Murphy

Planet Earth is unique in the Solar System. It not only sustains a remarkable diversity of life forms, but also offers scenes of stunning beauty, from majestic mountains and luxuriant tropical islands to the stark splendor of desert landscapes.

The Earth has evolved over 4.6 billion years from its tumultuous and hostile beginnings to the fertile life-sustaining planet that we live on today. This evolution has happened because the Earth’s rocky outer layers have interacted with water, air and life, as well as its deep interior over billions of years.

There is an urgent and practical reason why we need to understand this evolution. If we are to practice responsible management of our planet, it is crucial that we distinguish between the kinds of global change induced by human activity and those that are part of natural cycles.

The study of the record of Earth’s evolution offers a unique and clear perspective. The study of Earth’s evolution and mountains shows its own natural rhythms, many of which profoundly influence phenomena as all-embracing as the motion and growth of continents, and the birth and destruction of oceans.

Curtin University’s 2017 Haydn Williams Fellowship Public Lecture will be presented by Professor Brendan Murphy as he explains: “Why leprechauns know how mountains form”. Professor Murphy will examine how mountains form in response to how terrestrial factors have affected the evolution of the Earth, including its climate, life and endowment of natural resources.

About Professor Murphy

Professor Brendan Murphy is from Birr, Ireland. He has been Professor of Geology at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1982, having completed his BSc Geology at University College, Dublin, his MSc at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and PhD at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

He is now a world leader in supercontinent and orogenic (mountain-forming) research, focussing on global-scale processes related to the cyclic amalgamation and breakup of supercontinents and their relationship to the evolution of the Earth.

Professor Murphy has published more than 290 research papers. He is currently a Chief Science Editor of Geology magazine, published by Geological Society of America (GSA), the former Chief Science Editor of GSA Bulletin and Geoscience Canada, and is on several other editorial boards. He was elected fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2012, and has won national and international awards for research, service and outreach; including the prestigious Killam Research Fellowship.

Professor Murphy is currently visiting Western Australia as a Haydn Williams Fellow at Curtin University having previously had sabbaticals in Oxford, UK (1990), Berkeley, California (1996-7), UWA, Australia (2001), and Salamanca, Spain (2005).

About the Fellowship

The Haydn Williams Fellowship is offered to an academic of outstanding international reputation and broad academic interest. The appointment aims to build Curtin University’s engagement with the global academic community as well developing links between the University, industry and the community.

11Apr

Original 1899 WASM campus in Coolgardie was setting for International exhibitors

Author WASMA Posted on

Brief Reminder of where it all began!

 

The WA School of Mines was established in the Goldfields in 1902 as a result of a recommendation of a Government Committee of Inquiry.

Following the discovery of gold at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, people flocked in their thousands to this part of the State. With the difficulty of treating refractory ores and the prospect of underground mining becoming a reality there was an urgent need for a facility to train and educate people in mining related fields of study.

The School was initially set up at Coolgardie in one of the buildings erected for the International Mining and Industrial Exhibition of 1899.

However, at about the same time, the State Government released sufficient funds to build new premises at Kalgoorlie and consequently staff and students moved to this location in 1903. The original building now houses the School’s Computer Centre, Mining Geology Program and Administration.

The School was administered by the Department of Mines until 1969 when it became a branch of the Western Australian Institute of Technology, which has since become the Curtin University of Technology. Its associate-ship courses were renamed as degree courses, additional undergraduate courses were introduced, and a range of course and research postgraduate programs have been developed.

10Apr

WA School of Mines Rock Mechanics researcher receives Materials, Minerals and Mining Award

Author WASMA Posted on

Congratulations to Chris Drover, current PhD Candidate in the Curtin WA School of Mines’ Rock Mechanics Group, for being awarded the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining’s (IOM3) Mann Redmayne Medal. Chris was recognised for his paper which featured in the IMM Transactions A: Mining Technology publication, entitled: Estimation of dynamic load demand on a ground support scheme due to a large structurally controlled violent failure: A case study. The paper was co-authored by Professor Ernesto Villaescusa.

Congratulations to both Chris and Ernesto who will collect their award at a dinner in London later this year.

06Apr

WASM Alumni Review

Author WASMA Posted on

The council for the WASM Alumni is delighted to announce the release of the very first edition of it’s new magazine, WASM Alumni Review.

The magazine will be released four times a year with the next edition scheduled for the 1st of June. The WASM Alumni Review will focus on the graduates of WASM, their exploits and achievements along with news from the industry, research and from the alumni itself.

 

Enjoy the read: WASM Alumni Review

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