The European Geosciences Union General Assembly was held (virtually!) from 19th-30th April, 2021, and 8 SULTAN ESRs presented their research work in a dedicated session, entitled “Towards an environmentally sustainable transformation of tailings and mine waste: circular economy and future vision”. The session was organized and convened by Alexandra Escobar (ESR1) and Rosie Blannin (ESR3), and co-convened by Prof. Jens Gutzmer (Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany), Prof. Eric Pirard (Université de Liège, Belgium), and Prof. Jorge Relvas (University of Lisbon, Portugal).
After a brief introduction to the session by the conveners, the presenters started their 2 minute presentations based on one slide, to explain their research succinctly. The first topic of the session was ‘Characterization’, which included presentations from all the ESRs from SULTAN WP1, Alexandra Escobar (ESR1), Srećko Bevandić (ESR2) and Rosie Blannin (ESR3). Here the 3 ESRs gave an overview about their work regarding the mapping, modelling and characterization of potential alternative raw materials (mining waste). For the ‘Re-use and valorization’ topic, Jillian Helser (ESR14) and Francisco Veiga Simão (ESR12) presented their work on environmental and health impacts (ESR14), as well as the valorization of mining waste in ceramics (ESR12). On the topic of ‘Mineral processing and recycling techniques’, Feliciana Ludovici (ESR4), Ana Luiza Carvalho (ESR6) and Tamara Schueler (ESR8), gave their view on the methods applied for the processing and recovery of metals from sulphidic mining waste materials, including bioleaching and froth flotation. The presentations by the SULTAN ESRs were combined with highly interesting and valuable contributions from members of similar projects, such as the INCO-Piles 2020, NEMO, RAWMINA, MINTECO and IMPaCT projects and the recomine-alliance. The session was concluded with a Q&A and discussion session about mining waste in a circular economy context.
Photo 1. EGU 2021 (Session ERE5.7)
This dedicated session was open to the public and counted around 30 attendees that contributed to the great success of this annual international conference in geosciences. Thank you to everyone who presented and attended!
For a general overview of the conference program and the dedicated session please follow the links below.
Conference website: https://www.egu21.eu/
Session weblink: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/38734