Enhanced Ni/Co refining capacity in Europe to process both EU-sources and imported non-EU ores, concentrates and intermediate
The documentary investigates the challenges faced by Europe as it attempts to set up its own, fully integrated, mine-to-EV value chain.
The film acts as a wake-up call to avoid that Europe’s decarbonisation strategy leads to a nightmarish de-industrialisation. Instead, the documentary shows that Europe’s transition to climate neutrality can go hand in hand with a cleantech-based re-industrialisation. Made-in-Europe.
In this documentary Peter Tom Jones (Director KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals) searches for answers to Europe’s ambiguous relationship with primary mining of energy-transition metals. The documentary wants to trigger a more-informed debate about the three-pronged strategy of the European Commission in terms of raw materials for the climate transition and related planetary problems, i.e. (1) more and better recycling, (2) responsible sourcing from outside Europe; (3) responsible mining in Europe. The central questions tackled in the documentary are: how can Europe avoid the nightmarish scenario on becoming completely dependent on China et al. for (refined) rare earths, lithium, cobalt, nickel, tin etc. How can mining be(come) socially and environmentally responsible? How can we overcome the NIMBY syndrome?
The ENICON consortium has been set up with great care to combine complementary expertise, spanning the entire Ni/Co value chain (from mine to battery-grade Ni and Co (salts) as precursor for NMC cathodes) and covering both the Ni/Co sulphide mines/deposits/Tailings Storage Facilities (mainly in Scandinavia) and Ni(/Co) laterites (mainly in Southeast Europe) (see Fig. 1.1). Likewise, the participants have complementary and interdisciplinary expertise in the areas of ore geology; forensic geometallurgy; minerals (pre)processing; bio-, pyro-, electro- and hydrometallurgy; geochemistry and coordination chemistry; materials science; thermodynamic and process modelling; environmental and techno-economic assessment; as well as industrial production of FeNi, Ni-matte and battery-grade Ni and Co.
Seyedehmaryam Sadeghi, Brecht Dewulf, Clara Vermoere, Rayco Lommelen, Stylianos Tampouris*, Koen Binnemans of the Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven and *General Mining and Metallurgical Company,
Georgios Bartzas and Konstantinos Komnitsas of the Technical University of Crete, Greece, key partners of the KU Leuven-coordinated ENICON EU project, have published a new
Will Europe succeed in opening new mines for energy-transition metals by 2030? Or will public opposition throw a spanner in the works? These are the questions addressed in the upcoming EU clustering event in Mechelen (BE) on 9 September 2024.
Euromines has launched the first episode of its vodcast series on the topic of Europe’s raw materials conundrum. Episode 1 features SIM² KU Leuven’s Peter Tom Jones. A 40-minute conversation about responsible mining, refining and recycling.
Journeyman Pictures will be distributing an edited version of “Made in Europe: from mine to electric vehicle”. For over twenty years Journeyman has distributed and co-produced, provocative, profound and original factual content, working with the top players in the industry.
SOLVOMET/SIM² researchers have successfully demonstrated a hydrometallurgical flowsheet for upgrading ferronickel (Class-II nickel) into battery grade nickel (Class-I nickel) in a mini-pilot SX facility.
Full programme for ICHS 2024 is out (First International Symposium on Circular Hydrometallurgy, Mechelen, Belgium, 9-11 September 2024).
This publication marks a significant milestone in our ongoing quest to revolutionize hydrometallurgical processes and reduce the environmental footprint of metal recovery.
The full version of the documentary “Europe’s Mining Renaissance” has now been released. This film addresses Europe’s quest to responsibly mine the energy-transition metals that are needed to fuel the transition to climate neutrality.
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