Cost-effective, sustainable and responsible extraction routes for recovering distinct critical metals and industrial minerals as by-products from key European hard-rock lithium projects

Project Information

EXCEED

Grant agreement ID: 101091543

DOI

10.3030/101091543

EC signature date 29 November 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 12 268 115,71

EU contribution

€ 11 178 103,51

Coordinated by

TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUSKESKUS VTT OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EXCEED (Cost-effective, sustainable and responsible extraction routes for recovering distinct critical metals and industrial minerals as by-products from key European hard-rock lithium projects)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, many industry sectors must undergo a radical transformation. This will see
batteries – and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in particular – acting as key enablers for decarbonising the energy and
mobility sectors. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and its report on The Role of Critical Minerals
in Clean Energy Transitions, this will see the demand for lithium (Li) increase 42 times in less than 20 years.1

EXCEED’s meta-objective is to unleash the full CRM and industrial mineral potential of Europe’s vast Li LCT-pegmatite and Rare-Metal Granite hard-rock resources. EXCEED’s multi-metal/mineral, zero-waste mining-and-refining approach adopts a mineral-centric, integrated methodology via the application of a first-of-its-kind predictive and forensic geometallurgy, supported by enhanced in-line characterisation tools and the development of digital twins. Using four premier European pegmatite and RMG case studies, EXCEED develops, upscales & demonstrates cost-effective, sustainable and responsible extraction routes for recovering the CRMs and industrial minerals as by-products from Li-bearing hard-rock ores. A suite of CRMs will be extracted and refined, while diverse industrial minerals will be refined and valorised in low-carbon building materials.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As the work is still in progress, with no formal conclusions, report consists in activities only, described per WP.

- WP1 - Participating in the process of evaluating, describing, selecting and preparing study samples, as well as in the design of the analytical programmes and tests to be carried out, and will take part in all the final processes of developing predictive tools for geometallurgy processes and methods;
- WP2 and WP3 - Participating in the physical and chemical characterisation processes of industrial minerals resulting from the metallurgical processes planned for Savannah, generating samples in pilot facilities and large-scale laboratories located in various parts of the world, including Australia and Finland.
- WP5 - Participating with experience and know-how from other types of lithium deposits around the world, supporting the optimisation of processes, preparation of test stages, and definition of planned pilots, as well as the careful preparation and selection of representative samples, without which the basis of the studies would be significantly compromised.
- WP6 - Contributing Savannah's extensive experience in all the objects of study of this task, having gone through the entire process, from the industrial side, specifically for Savannah, but which certainly has a lot of relevance for all the scopes proposed for EXCEED.
- Having only been involved as an observer in: WP7, WP8 and WP9

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Project management: ensuring timely delivery of quality project results to achieve contractual objectives and commitments.

The planed works and expected actions, both from Savannah and response from the Partners is inside the plan outlined, and at the current stage there are no risks or additional needs, found to affect Savannah's objectives.