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UNLOCKING THE SUPPLY OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS IN EUROPE THROUGH RESPONSIBLE, SUSTAINABLE AND DECARBONISED INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Project description

Innovative methods for rare earth elements extraction in Europe

Sustainable mineral extraction is vital for our planet. It involves addressing environmental, social, and economic impacts and developing low-impact technologies that require environmentally friendly, safe, intelligent, and resource-efficient extraction methods. The EU-funded REESOURCE project aims to establish a sustainable and decarbonised value chain for extracting Rare Earth Elements (REEs) in Europe. The project involves scientific, technical, social, and financial actions, including enhancing key technologies, developing new formulations based on environmentally friendly chemicals, and valorising tailings through a Circular Economy approach. The project also assesses the social dimension to promote early social awareness, engagement, and acceptance, aiming to support the mass adoption of UNFC and UNRMS in the raw materials sector.

Objective

Responsible, sustainable and low CO2 footprint mineral extraction is vital for the preservation of our planet. Ensuring responsible supply of minerals, involves addressing the environmental, social, and economic impacts of mineral extraction and developing technologies and know-how to minimize them. Mining within these low-impact boundaries in a world that is putting an increasing pressure on the mineral supply requires developing environmentally friendly, safe, intelligent and resource efficient extraction technologies and methods. REESOURCE will set a sustainable and decarbonized value chain basis for the extraction of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) in Europe, supporting the ambition of the continent to become self-sufficient on REEs. This target will be achieved through a set of actions (scientific, technical, social and financial) that will serve to pave the road for the development of the European mining of the future. These include i) enhancing key technologies of raise mining to foster invisible mining, with minimal socioenvironmental impact and lower CO2 emissions footprint compared to existing approaches; ii) developing novel formulations based on environmentally friendly chemicals for both, the mineral beneficiation process of REEs and the process water treatment, supporting the recirculation of this resource; iii) developing a novel stabilization technique for tailings, making them suitable for backfilling, stabilizing the mine and avoiding the need of tailing ponds; iv) valorize the tailings through a Circular Economy approach, to make them suitable for expanded value chains as geopolymers for construction applications and composite materials for catalytic and CO2 capture applications; v) assess the social dimension to maximize early social awareness, engagement and acceptance and vi) multiply the project impact through cross-fertilization with other projects and clusters, supporting the mass adoption of UNFC and UNRMS in the raw materials sector.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2023-RESILIENCE-01

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Coordinator

INSTITUTT FOR ENERGITEKNIKK
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 553 182,50
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (9)

Partners (1)

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