SULTAN - European Training Network for the Remediation and Reprocessing of Sulfidic Mining Waste Sites.
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 European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on 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 workforce, 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 the links in the tailings-reprocessing value chain.
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SULTAN Infographic:
8 Beneficiaries and 7 Partner Organisations. Network-Wide Events (8), TSF & site visits (5) and access to research materials (tailings) (3) are shown, along with the EU-wide character of SULTAN and the link with EIT RawMaterials. The infographic highlights 10 key operational and closed mines in Europe that produce(d) Cu, Zn and/or Pb. The Freiberg Mining District and the Plombières mines are also shown as these historical mining regions provides two of the three main research materials in SULTAN.

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