Genomics: Powering Sustainable Mining Water Futures

Date: Thursday, April 3, 2025, 12-1 PM ET

Abstract

Although mining systems are critical in industrial applications across the globe, their systems are some of the most poorly studied to date in terms of endemic microbes. In total, less than 1% of all data assessing microbes in public data bases are applicable to mining environments. Novel microbial characterization technologies are available; and provide opportunities to harness new biological understanding for water management and mine closure. In this webinar you will learn more about these knowledge gaps, how targeted characterization will improve critical knowledge of water systems, and how they can identify smart, biologically informed opportunities for more resilient water strategies through a case study examining microbially linked opportunities for improved sulfur compounds (“thiosalts”) management.

The Presenters

Professor Lesley A. WarrenUniversity of Toronto
Professor Lesley Warren is an internationally recognized, innovative researcher delivering new water management and treatment technologies for the mining sector through novel discoveries of the mining microbiome. She moved to the University of Toronto to take up the Claudette Mackay Lassonde Chair in Mineral Engineering in 2016 in the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering and became the first female Director for the Lassonde Institute of Mining in 2018 and founded the Mining Futures Initiative at UofT in 2023. She has established a pioneering, multidisciplinary research program investigating the roles of bacteria in key processes affecting mining and resource sector waste environments. Over the last ten years, Dr. Warren has brought in over $12,000,000 in energy sector and mining industrial partnered research, trained over 50 HQP and given over 40 keynote/ invited talks, including invited presentations to MPs and Senators on Parliament Hill.
Larissa Smith, MScSiREM
Larissa holds a Master of Science degree in Inorganic Chemistry from Queen’s University and is also a chartered member of the Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario. Over the last 4 years she has managed numerous bench-scale studies evaluating remediation technologies for contaminants including Cr (VI), As, Se, chlorinated solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons and other recalcitrant compounds in soil, sediment, and groundwater. She has also been involved in developing new protocols for new technologies in the laboratory. Larissa has several years of metals treatment experience and has been a lead member on several projects investigating biological treatment systems for inorganic contaminants.