Dr Erick Ramanaidou

Erick Ramanaidou obtained a PhD degree from the University of Poitiers (France) in 1989 on the “Genesis of lateritic iron ore: Capanema iron ore mine (Minas Gerais, Brazil). After completing his PhD in France and Brazil, Erick joined CSIRO Exploration Geosciences in June 1989 to work on the genesis and characterisation of the so-called “Robe Pisolite” in Western Australia. In 1991, Erick renamed these iron ores to Channel Iron Deposits or CID, the currently accepted appellation. This nomenclature was then extended to the banded iron formation hosted iron ore, bedded iron deposits or BID and finally to the detrital iron deposits or DID. Inspired by the natural laboratories of the Hamersley Province in Western Australia and the Iron Quadrangle in Minas Gerais Brazil, Erick has develop genetic models for the BID and the CID.
Over the last 3 decades, Erick has been involved essentially in iron ore and lateritic nickel research. He has also managed Research Stream and Group in CSIRO Mineral Resources. At present, he is a Commodity Research Leader (Iron Ore and Lateritic Nickel) in CSIRO Mineral Resources and is recognised in Australia and overseas as an expert in iron ore and lateritic nickel exploration and characterisation. In 2008, he received the prestigious Stillwell Medal.
The development of a suite of multiscale analytical tools for the characterisation of iron ores and lateritic has been Erick’s scientific ambition using chemical mapping, Raman and Reflectance spectroscopies. Erick has also a keen interest in dating goethite and hematite using U-Th-He for CID and BID.
Characterising large volumes of iron ore and lateritic nickel has been a challenge for mining companies and the implementation of automated techniques such as the HyLogging™ and Corescan™ Systems has provided the iron ore and the lateritic nickel industries with an objective tool to measure large quantities of core and chips.
Erick has applied reflectance spectroscopy for monitoring the aboriginal petroglyphs of the Burrup Peninsula to ensure the safeguarding of our state heritage.
He is the co-chairman and editor of the acclaimed International Iron Ore Conference (2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023).
He recently (2020-2022) built and led a multi-sponsored research project also supported through the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA) and sponsored by all of the WA-based iron ore producing companies. The major outcome of this project was to provide for the first time, a detailed 4D understanding of Fe-Ore mineralisation in the Hamersley Province.
Erick also led a significant multi–Business Unit project on the thorny challenge of industrial dust that demonstrated that proximal and remote sensing and, remediation equipment at mining and port operations could improve environmental conditions by efficiently limiting iron ore dust concentrations to safe levels.
Erick is leading the 3-year, New Policy Proposal India Australia Critical Metals activity for targeting and characterising critical minerals in the most prospective regions of India.