Cluster 2: New products
In this Cluster, new technologies will be created to improve the production of the European extractive industry. Five new high value products based on nano scale raw materials will be delivered on the market. The work will go from laboratory studies through bench scale where a go/no go evaluation will determine demonstration of selected products at extractive sites, where sufficient material will be produced for testing and economic evaluation by industry. The products to be delivered are: 1) rhenium nano-powders for super alloys in aircraft and aerospace industry, 2) nano-silica for construction and catalyst industries, 3) nano-powders for coating paper, 4) nano iron oxyhydroxysulphate for ceramics and 5) metal fibres for energy applications.
Mineral processing technologies will be improved by demonstration of new (bio)hydrometallurgical techniques at selected mining sites. Characterisation, testing and validation driven by industry are central themes in the high tech research approach. Co-processing routes for production of rare and high value metals (PGM, rare metals, Co) will also be developed. The success of the demonstration will increase the diversity and volume of European resources to be exploited in the future, reducing the EU trade deficit for metals. It will also raise the revenues of the current exploitations and significantly improve the ecoefficiency of extractive methods in general. An improved recovery of the metals will reduce the metal grades in the wastes, minimizing the environmental impact of the final discharges and increasing the opportunity of transforming the wastes into new products. Particular attention will be placed on secondary resources (mining wastes). Technological development in pyrometallurgy will transform environmentally hazardous waste slags into mineral resources.
The Cluster comprises two Work Packages: WP 3 and WP 4.
WP 3: New nano-products from mineral exploitation (read more)
Specifications of the nano products to be developed and characteristics of the resources needed
Technical results of laboratory scale investigations on the obtained products
Pilot systems to manufacture the products and giving grounds for verification of laboratory scale results
Technical and operational characteristics presenting possibilities for upscaling of the processes and potential implementation of the developed technologies
Techno-economical study for industrial application
WP 4: Ecoefficient metal production methods and utilization of secondary materials (read more)
Characterisation of ProMine project resources and processes options
Technical results on bioprocessing options
Technical results from the pyrometallurgical treatment of slags
Bioleaching and mineral processing fundamentals
Techno-economic prefeasibility studies
