Exploring for critical chromium, from the ground up (to space!)

Critical Chromium: From Field Samples to Space Technology: How Do We Secure Supply?

Exploring for critical chromium, from the ground up (to space!)

Aerospace alloys, industrial protective coatings, stainless steel - chromium is literally everywhere in critical technology and in our kitchens, yet global supplies are stretched. So how do you hunt for chromium deposits? In this episode we journey through the world of chromium and find the answer takes us from dusty fieldwork in Odisha, India, to satellites reading rocks from orbit.

We explore the chromium: from the mantle rocks of India collected during some incredible fieldwork, to the Mars rover-equivalent technology used to analyze it, to space-based remote sensing that helps us locate new deposits.

And we're doing it alongside Anwesha Nasreen, research student from Adelaide University, who ventured into Odisha to collect foundational field samples, and Dr Raphael Baumgartner from CSIRO, who's using space-age analytical techniques to understand how chromium hides in plain sight.

This is the story of how modern exploration works: starting with boots on the ground, moving to cutting-edge labs, and finishing with eyes in the sky. It's a great story of fieldwork, mentorship, and the systematic science that connects ground to orbit.

This episode:

🛡️ Infrastructure critical: Chromium has so many important uses, everything from aerospace to the coatings that protect critical infrastructure

🔬 Chromium as an oxide mineral in magmatic systems (bound with oxygen, locked in ancient rocks)

🌍 The deep mantle connection: Platinum group elements love chromite the mineral, and both are rare and precious

✈️ Anwesha's fieldwork adventures: Bollywood soundtrack included

🧪 Lab analysis meets space tech: Scanning electron microscopes, laser ablation, geochemistry we explore the same tech that powers Mars rovers being used here on Earth

📡 Reading rocks from satellites: Remote sensing to map chromium-rich goethite and iron oxides from space

✨ Real mentorship in real science: How researchers like Anwesha learn through genuine discovery

Funded by the Australian Government, the India-Australia Critical Minerals Research Partnership ran from January 2023 to 30 June 2026, advancing sustainable and environmentally responsible critical minerals development for the benefit of both nations.

We acknowledge the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains, on whose country the Wonder podcast is made.

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— Holly, Anthony & the CSIRO Minerals team