From minerals to the moon - mining the future at Birmingham

Powering the workshop of the world

At the turn of the 20th century, Birmingham was the thriving centre of UK trade and manufacturing, famously known as the 'city of a thousand trades'. Under Herbert Austin's direction, the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company Limited manufactured early cars and machine tools at its Adderley Park factory, and the British General Electric Company chose Birmingham for its first purpose-built factory, the Witton Engineering Works. Across the city, large factories became increasingly common as engineering industries became increasingly important - all reliant on plentiful access to fossil fuels to power the workshop of the world.

Reflecting the University's civic mission to train those at the forefront of industry in the region, Mining was among the earliest subjects taught at the Edgbaston campus following the Royal Charter in 1900. The course focused on applying new scientific research to traditional industrial practices and promised to meet the needs of local business owners in the West Midlands while also attracting international students to Birmingham. As was typical for the time, the exclusively male cohorts were often the sons of business owners or mature students with industrial experience.

From its earliest days, the University was innovating. The mining course was delivered in a purpose-built 'model mine'. Constructed below campus in 1905, this unique educational environment comprised over a mile of galleries set at different levels, emulating the conditions of a real working mine. Here, students could train in coal winning, ventilation, and surveying in what was surely an early example of a 'living lab'. The Mining degree also provided practical instruction for mining students in underground colliery management, which exempted them from additional statutory training. Thus, they were ready for employment immediately upon graduation.

The earliest years of the Mining degree were overseen by Professor Richard Augustine Studdert Redmayne, Professor of Mining and Chair in Mining Engineering between 1902 - 1908. During his tenure, Redmayne sought to promote universities as a means of training engineers over the apprenticeship system and under his direction, the university became the first in the country to house an ore dressing laboratory and, of course, the model underground coal mine. Redmayne was also a passionate advocate for enhanced safety procedures and improved working conditions in the hazardous environment of the coal mine and sat on several committees and inquiries, including the implementation of the Eight Hour Act in 1906 and the Royal Commission into Accidents. In recognition of his work improving mine safety, Redmayne was invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1914 Birthday Honours.

Mining at Birmingham diversified after the appointment of Professor John Cadman in 1908. As Professor of Petroleum Engineering, he added oil mining to the syllabus, with oilfield drilling rigs installed in 1912 between what is now the Chemical Engineering building and University station. After the First World War, research continued to develop, and the focus shifted from oil production to petroleum refining, ultimately leading to the subject we now recognise as Chemical Engineering. In 1946, the Oil Engineering Department and the Coal Utilisation section of Mining merged to form the Department of Chemical Engineering. Although closed in the 1960s, the model mine has not been filled in and still sits below campus today.

Life on Mars

Just under 200 miles from the Edgbaston campus, University of Birmingham researchers are again working in a mine deep underground—this time in a 3,000m3 tunnel network built through 250-million-year-old rock salt deposits consisting of Permian evaporite layers left over from the Zechstein Sea. Led by Birmingham, in partnership with the Boulby Underground Laboratory, the Bio-SPHERE project team are using this unique geological environment to study how humans might one day function in similar conditions in space, on the Moon and Mars.

With its remoteness, limited access to new materials and challenges moving heavy equipment, the environment of the Boulby mine allows for the simulation of various space mission scenarios while conducting cutting-edge, interdisciplinary science, ranging from the effects of extreme environments on medical infrastructure to how resources such as ambient pressure, temperature and geology can be used for habitat construction.

At the same time, thanks to the ultra-low radiation environment provided by the depth, the location has also enabled the investigation of how effective underground habitats might be in protecting space crews from deep-space radiation, a significant risk in space exploration, as well as other hazards, such as falling debris from meteorites.

The road to exploring habitats for humankind beyond that of Earth will be long and filled with challenges, but projects like Bio-SPHERE may hold the key to answering significant questions about sustainable living in remote and subterranean environments along the way.

'Through great efforts, to the depths'

The Bio-SPHERE project is just one way in which researchers at Birmingham are continuing a legacy of addressing the most pressing challenges of our time, from supporting life on other planets to accessing limitless clean energy on Earth; focus is now firmly fixed on meeting essential goals for a sustainable future. Priorities have shifted over 125 years, but the ambition to change society through our available resources has not.

Birmingham's civic roots are a vital reminder of our purpose in this time of climate emergency. Where once we sought to bolster the industrial revolution through access to a plentiful supply of fossil fuels, we must now address the impact of those actions to secure the future of our planet (and beyond) through research and education, which makes a significant contribution to the UK Sustainable Development Goals and to meet a commitment to achieving an operational net zero carbon campus by 2045.