Objective
For more than 100 years the EU mining industries have been discarding their extractive-waste residues. Estimates suggest this represents 29% of the EU-28’s current waste output. When poorly managed these residues are a significant environmental hazard. Sulfidic Cu-Zn, Zn-Pb and Cu-Zn-Pb tailings pose the largest challenge, as they are prone to acid mine drainage. However, these tailings also contain valuable metals. Recently, the EIP Raw Materials launched a “call to arms” to transform the “extractive-waste problem” into a “resource-recovery opportunity”. Additionally, the EIP has warned about the acute shortage of talent in this sector. In order to develop a highly skilled work force, to mitigate environmental risks and to economically recover valuable raw materials, the ETN for the remediation and reprocessing of sulfidic mining waste sites (SULTAN) provides the first-ever training programme dedicated to the reprocessing of tailings. SULTAN has pooled the interdisciplinary and intersectoral expertise of leading EIT RawMaterials members, world-leading mining and chemical companies, covering all links in the tailings-reprocessing value chain. SULTAN develops cutting-edge methodologies to assess the resource potential of Europe’s main tailings families (WP1) and explores eco-friendly mining chemicals for advanced metal-extraction/recovery set-ups (WP2). SULTAN not only recovers the metals but also valorises the clean(ed) tailing residues in circular-economy applications, incl. inorganic polymers, green cements and ceramics (WP3). In WP4 a novel environmental assessment methodology is developed. The 15 SULTAN ESRs benefit from a unique soft-skills training programme (WP5) and maximise the impact of their research through dissemination & exploitation (WP6). This kick-starts their careers as highly employable professionals in the EU’s tailings reprocessing/remediation sector, as well as for geological surveys, teaching and scientific organisations, and public bodies.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training NetworksCoordinator
3000 Leuven
Belgium
See on map
Participants (7)
38678 Clausthal Zellerfeld
See on map
90014 Oulu
See on map
1749 016 Lisbon
See on map
8092 Zuerich
See on map
01328 Dresden
See on map
8500 Kortrijk
See on map
2400 Mol
See on map
Partners (7)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
02151 Espoo
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2288 GK Rijswijk
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
48160 Derio (Bizkaia)
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
7780 409 Castro Verde
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
09599 Freiberg
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
33101 Tampere
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
09599 Freiberg
See on map