Descrizione del progetto
Una formazione per ritrattare i residui minerari
I rifiuti di estrazione provenienti dall’industria mineraria dell’UE rappresentano il 29 % della produzione totale di rifiuti. Gli sterili sulfidici rame-zinco, zinco-piombo e rame-zinco-piombo sono soggetti al drenaggio acido di miniera. Tuttavia, nonostante questi sterili contengano anche metalli preziosi, mancano specialisti in questo settore. Il progetto SULTAN, finanziato dall’UE, realizzerà una formazione per 15 ricercatori in fase iniziale di carriera volta a ritrattare gli sterili e massimizzare l’impatto delle loro ricerche attraverso la divulgazione e la valorizzazione. Il progetto svilupperà metodologie pionieristiche al fine di valutare il potenziale in termini di risorse di famiglie significative di sterili e studiare sostanze chimiche di estrazione ecocompatibili per configurazioni avanzate di estrazione/recupero dei metalli. SULTAN valorizzerà inoltre i residui di sterili puliti all’interno di applicazioni dell’economia circolare e svilupperà un’innovativa metodologia di valutazione ambientale.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinatore
3000 Leuven
Belgio