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.
The 4th Capacity Building Webinar of the ENICON project took place on 8 December 2025, from 14:00 to 16:00 CET. It was titled “Critical Raw Materials and Sustainable Metallurgy: Novel
On 20 November 2025, the ENICON project presented in Brussels its progress, during the annual workshop of the Cluster Hub production of raw materials for batteries from European resources. The
The International Process Metallurgy Symposium (IPMS2025) hosted by Aalto University, was held on 27–28 October 2025 in Espoo, Finland. Researchers and industry experts gathered to explore how metallurgy can serve
Nickel and cobalt are indispensable to Europe’s clean energy transition. Demand for both metals is rising sharply as electric mobility and renewable energy storage expand, with projections showing that nickel
The ENICON project has reached its 40th month, and the results so far show impressive progress. The consortium met with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environmental Agency (CINEA) for the
The ENICON consortium participated in the EIT RawMaterials Partner Day 2025, held on 10–11 September in Brussels, where over 300 partners — including more than 40 new members — gathered
ENICON was proudly represented at the EIT RawMaterials Summit 2025, held in Brussels, Belgium, from 14 to 15 May. The Summit brought together Europe’s leading innovators, industry representatives, policymakers, and
Dr. Tampouris from the ENICON partner LARCO, has published an interesting report, that gives a good overview of the Nickel market in the EU Abstract: In recent years, the huge increase
Europe’s Lithium Paradox: New documentary on Europe’s struggle to mine, refine and recycle its lithium for becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent
