Dates: 7th, 9th, 15th March 2023, 11 am CET – WEBINAR RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE
In March 2023, the H2020 BIORECOVER project organised an online seminar series with the collaboration of the following European projects: ION4RAW, EIS, AfricaMaVal and SCRREEN.
Raw materials are key to the energy transition, a major challenge to today’s world. Global demand for raw materials is expected to more than double to 167 billion tonnes by 2060 (OECD). Therefore, reliable access to raw materials is critical for Europe to reach its climate ambition of Net Zero by 2050. It is essential that a sustainable supply of raw materials is created and maintained due to the EU’s high reliance on raw materials for its growth, competitiveness, and transition to a greener Europe. However, this is not happening at the scale needed to meet this demand. Thus, unlocking unexploited ore reserves for sustainable value chains must be developed to achieve Europe’s climate, security, and economic ambitions.
This webinar series presented innovative and transformative tools and strategies that can improve the sustainability of Europe’s raw material value chains. Leading experts shared their experiences and outline the opportunities seek through their projects to develop sustainable raw material value chains, as well as challenges faced.
The series is composed of the three following seminars :
- Establishing responsible global partnerships
- Improving the sustainability of critical raw materials extraction
- Researching unexploited European reserves
This online seminar series is intended for all types of audiences willing to discover challenges related to opportunities related to critical raw materials and discuss solutions with experts.
Seminar 1: Establishing responsible global partnerships.
7th March 2023 – 11 am CET (1 hour)
The first seminar of the series focuses on Europe’s need to diversify its supply chain and engage in strategic partnerships with resource-rich third countries. Experts shared their experiences in building such value chain networks before opening this perspective to networks members point of view.
Agenda Seminar 1:
- Welcome remarks
by Sam Whittlesey, LGI Sustainable Innovation, moderator - Pitch presentation – The AfricaMaVal project
by Zenzi Awases, AWIMA (Association of Women in Mining in Africa) - Pitch presentation – The SCRREEN Network
by Stephane Bourg, BRGM (French Geological Survey) - Panel expert discussion
- Nabeel A Mancheri, REIA (Rare Earth Industry Association)
- Stephane Bourg, BRGM
- Zenzi Awases, AWIMA
Seminar 2: Improving the sustainability of critical raw materials extraction.
9th March 2023 – 11 am CET (1 hour)
The second seminar of the series discussed necessary technical and economical improvements for sustainable CRMs extraction processes. A focus was made on BIORECOVER studied CRMs, especially REE and PGM, but examples from different raw materials were also explained and compared.
Agenda Seminar 2:
- Welcome remarks
by Mathilde Legay, LGI Sustainable Innovation, moderator - Pitch presentation – The BIORECOVER project
by Sam Whittlesey, LGI Sustainable Innovation - Pitch presentation – The ION4RAW project
by Maria Tripiana, IDENER - Panel expert discussion
Seminar 3: Researching unexploited European reserves.
15th March 2023 – 11 am CET (1 hour)
Finally, the third seminar of the series focuses on value chain sustainable opportunities within Europe and consider currently unexploited reserves. Experts illustrated systems to map unexploited by-product reserves before launching into a panel discussion to uncover the opportunities and barriers to innovating research for unexploited reserves in the context of Europe.
Agenda Seminar 3:
- Welcome remarks
by Sam Whittlesey, LGI Sustainable Innovation, moderator - Pitch presentation – The EIS project
by Vesa Nykänen, GTK (Geological Survey of Finland) - Pitch presentation – The ION4RAW project
by Blandine Gourcerol, BRGM - Panel expert discussion
- Vesa Nykänen, GTK
- Blandine Gourcerol, BRGM
- Klemen Teran, GeoZS (Geological survey of Slovenia)
The projects of the series in a snapshot:
ION4RAW proposes a new energy, material, and cost-efficient mineral processing technology to recover minerals present in waste mineral deposits. This innovative process uses an environmentally benign solvent (Deep Eutectic Solvent – DES) and electrochemical methods as an only step. ION4RAW aims at making an ambitious contribution to the EIP Raw Materials Strategic Implementation Plan unlocking the full potential of Europe’s inner wealth by converting new and currently unexploited resources into reserves.
AfricaMaVal aims to develop a EU-Africa partnership ensuring a responsible sourcing of mineral resources for the European industry while granting a sustainable local co-development in the best Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) conditions and leading to a long-terms business environment for European and African companies. The consortium gathers African and European experienced organisations, associations, and networks deeply anchored and involved in the raw material domain with specific expertise, and knowledge.
The EIS project develops innovative exploration tools to enhance the probability of finding new sources of critical raw materials for the EU’s economy, EIS will apply advanced methods, to develop new geomodels and novel, fast and cost-effective spatial data analysis tools for mineral exploration analysis, mapping, and mineral systems modeling. The project will develop the “EIS Toolkit” and the “EIS QGIS Wizard”. It also reduces exploration and mining footprints by reducing the current high exploration costs and to improve the accuracy of the early exploration phase, the tools developed by EIS aim to reduce the impact of exploration and mining on nature. Making it more sustainable. Reducing exploration footprints is key to EIS, therefore the project will make the most out of the already existing exploration data. In order to succeed in the green transition and become climate-neutral by 2050, the EU’s economy needs an increasing amount of critical raw materials. EIS will raise awareness of the importance of critical raw materials to the EU’s transition, economy, and welfare.
SCRREEN is a 36-month project to strength Europe’s Critical Raw Material Strategy. Based on the experience and background of SCRREEN, the prolongation of the project SCRREEN2 will continue to develop and animate an Expert Network which will contribute to expert advice in support of decision-making at the EU level covering all the raw materials and their value chains screened in the CRMs assessment.
BIORECOVER is a Horizon 2020 research project whose main objective is to research and develop a new sustainable and safe biotechnological process as an innovative green alternative for the selective extraction of a wide range of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) recovered in wastes and mining sites whilst also increasing purity and selectivity. BIORECOVER focuses on Rare Earth Elements, Magnesium, and Platinum Group Metals to develop the sustainable recovery of CRMs using biotechnology in a circular economy model.
