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.
On 27 March 2024, during the prestigious DOCVILLE film festival in Leuven, the KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals (SIM²) will be releasing a new Storyrunner documentary that investigates the status of this Mining Renaissance in Europe.
On March 27, 2024, a new documentary entitled “Europe’s Mining Renaissance”, will premiere in Leuven during the DOCVILLE film festival. After the film a high-level panel discussion will take place, featuring Ia Modin, Julia Poliscanova, Nick Meynen, Peter Tom Jones and John Vandaele.
The long-awaited mini-documentary “The Sami Perspective” is now available. The film tries to understand why the indigenous reindeer-herding Sami communities are so strongly opposed to metal mining in the North of Sweden. This joint press release provides the essential background.
Recently, Peter Tom Jones was invited to Sweden to present the SIM²/EXCEED/ENICON documentary “Made in Europe: from mine to electric vehicle” (24–30 Jan 2024). In the space of 6 days, the film was presented in three distinct locations. Here you can find Jones’ key takeaways.
In this op-ed, published in De Tijd (13 January 2024), Peter Tom Jones argues that, in a time of protectionism, Europe needs to undergo reindustrialization, including state aid. Resource nationalism is forcing us towards a mining renaissance.
“Gripping & informative. Excellently presented!” “Eye opening” “Thoroughly informed science communication with real social impact” “A wake-up call for Europe”. Here is the Debrief about the documentary “Made in Europe: from mine to electric vehicle”.
On Thursday, 16 November, during the 2023 edition of the Raw Materials Week, the twelve EU funded projects that constitute the Cluster Hub ‘Materials for batteries’ gathered for their annual event in Brussels. The proceedings of this meeting are now available.
In the documentary, SIM² manager Peter Tom Jones travels to the Far North and visits the Kiruna and Aitik mines in northern Sweden.
Iryna Makarava (Aalto University) presented results at the 244th ECS Meeting (Götenborg, Sweden) on electrochemical oxidation of cobalt that have been done at Aalto University in
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