1. Biomining Process Development:

• Development and optimisation of biohydrometallurgy processes, including sub-processes of biohydrometallurgy, reactor systems, hydrodynamics and modelling
• Associated Unit operations, Up- and Downstream processing (including waste management) etc.

2. The Microbiology of Biomining:

• Microbial ecology and succession, both description and kinetics
• Microbial consortia and bioprospecting,
• Certain fundamental aspects.

3. Biohydrometallurgy Applications:

• Biomining (i.e. Bioleaching, Biooxidation) applications - both heap and tank
• Novel and potential resources (e.g. electronic and other metallic wastes)
• Bioremediation applications (e.g. the treatment, prevention and prediction of AMD, metal recovery from wastes etc.)
• Other biotechnologies in mining and metallurgical industries.

Sue Harrison has some 20 years experience in research in bioprocess engineering, gained in the industrial and academic arenas. She heads the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research (CeBER) at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and collaborates actively with researchers at the universities of Mumbai, Cambridge University and Imperial College London and with companies in South Africa and abroad. Since her appointment to the academic staff in 1991 more than 40 MSc and PhD students have been awarded research degrees under her supervision. She was awarded the South African DST Research Chair in Bioprocess Engineering, with effect from 2008.

Chris Bryan is a microbiologist with a PhD in molecular and environmental microbiology and is head of the Geomicrobiology and Environmental Monitoring unit at the French Geological Survey (BRGM). Prior to joining the BRGM in 2018, he was Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Mining at the Camborne School of Mines, UK. His research focuses on the application of biohydrometallurgy to the recovery of metals from sulfide ores and secondary raw materials and understanding, predicting and preventing the biogenesis of acid mine drainage.