A geology graduate of Sydney (1959) and Cambridge (1962) Universities, Dr Binns taught at the Universities of New England and of Western Australia before joining CSIRO in 1977 to lead the eastern Australian laboratories of the Division of Mineralogy and its successors. His research has focussed on rocks hosting varied Australian ore deposits including Broken Hill, Northern Territory uranium, and Yilgarn gold and nickel deposits in Western Australia. He is also an international authority on stony meteorites, and on mineral deposits of the deep ocean floor, having led marine expeditions that discovered a major copper=gold deposit near Papua New Guinea.

Dr Binns' distinguished university and CSIRO career includes pioneering geological contributions within Australian mineralised environments including Broken Hill and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Recently he led an acclaimed international investigation of active ore deposition on deep volcanic seafloor near PNG, which clarified the factors that govern location, size and richness of world class ore deposits.

The importance and relevance of his research to the Australian land-based exploration industry is strongly endorsed by senior management of sponsoring companies.

His discoveries have also created new commercial interest in the future mining of seafloor resources rich in copper and gold.