ANU scholars contribute to discussions on the future of critical materials

Professor Nick Bainton and Dr Jenna Imad Harb participated in the 2026 Copper Conference, held at Imperial College London’s White City Campus on 20–21 May.

The conference brought together researchers, partners and collaborators from across the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials to explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the responsible discovery, extraction, use and reuse of critical materials needed for the energy transition.

Alongside presentations on emerging extraction technologies, copper recovery and reuse, and digital observatories and data systems, the conference featured discussions on First Nations-led research, governance, responsible innovation and histories of extraction that shape the materials transition.

Professor Bainton presented on three papers: “Scientia Imperii: Whose Humanity?”, “Beyond the Contract: Rethinking Mining Agreements as Systems of Governance”, and on behalf of RSSS Professor Christian Barry and Dr Kirsten Mann “FPIC and Indigenous Self Determination: A Moral Interpretation with Application to Mineral Exploration.”

Professor Bainton’s address put a pointed challenge to the Centre and its researchers: that the energy transition, as currently designed, risks repeating the extractive industry's historic failure to listen. Noting that the technologies under research are “not value-neutral with respect to Indigenous self-determination,” he argued that self-determination must be treated “as a research design question before it is an ethics question” — built into the structure of projects rather than retrofitted as a compliance task. The challenge he posed was a research-design one: “Whose problem is being solved? Whose terrain is being modelled? Whose futures are being optimised for, and by what metric?” He closed by offering the Centre an alternative motto to carry into its work: Scientia cum populis — science with peoples.

Alongside senior Indigenous leaders, Jo Abraham and Shanine Ryan, Dr Harb presented a titled, “We Don’t Pay for a Smoke and a Coke: The Hidden Indigenous Labour that Sustains Mining Agreements”. This paper drew upon the team’s fieldwork in remote communities in Western Australia to examine the often overlooked regulatory, cultural, relational and emotional labour required of Indigenous communities, and how the structural effects of this labour require re-thinking agreement infrastructures.

They were joined by team members of the Building a First Nations Research Agenda to Support the Centre for Future Materials project team, including ANU colleagues Professor John Taylor and Noah Bedford from the First Nations Portfolio; Dr Mandy Yap from the Centre for Indigenous Policy Research; and Dr Faranak Hardcastle, Dr Karina Judd, Dr Rini Astuti and Professor Sujatha Raman from the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science.

The conference centred on the growing global demand for copper, driven by renewable energy technologies, electrification and other emerging industries. It provided a forum for participants to share research, exchange ideas and strengthen collaboration across disciplines and institutions.

As demand for critical materials continues to grow, the conference underscored the need for bringing diverse perspectives to inform future research and practice.