Project: Integrated eco-technology for a selective recovery of base and precious metals in Cu and Pb mining by-products
| Acronym | MINTECO (Reference Number: ERA-MIN-2017_119) |
| Duration | 01/05/2018 - 30/03/2021 |
| Project Topic | Metal-bearing mining wastes are produced during the recovery and processing of nonferrous metal from ores. Mining waste can be considered as a valuable secondary resource containing base and rare metals. But one should take into consideration the presence of hazardous elements for environment with threats to air, soil and water. Most of these solid-state mining wastes have been disposed in tailing reservoirs, without active management. And large volumes are still produced. For example annually, the mining industry in Poland produces around 50 Mtons wastes, 20% representing extraction and the rest being generated by the treatment process. R&D case study projects should then be performed to allow upgrading such waste to a valuable resource by recovering base and precious metals and manage pollution. MINTECO project aims to develop an integrated innovative, efficient and ecological technology for the recovery of base (Cu, Pb, Zn) and precious (Au, Ag) metals from copper and lead bearing mining waste. The project will allow establishing a global management methodology to treat historical mining sites and reduce disposed volumes of metal-bearing waste. Lab scale experiments (TRL< 4), on well-known representative samples, will first allow establishing optimized protocols to concentrate the metals in smaller fractions and recover them by innovative mineral processing and hydrometallurgy techniques. The main steps (pre-concentration/ leaching/ high grade metal recovery) will be studied in details by academics to optimize first relevant process sequences. Then, a global coherent flow-sheet will be proposed and the developed technologies will be further validated by the industrial partners (SMEs) at TR>4. Final economic and environmental assessment will be performed. The consortium gathers 8 partners from 4 countries (France, Romania, Poland and Turkey) is composed of university, 3 research institutes, 1 public institution and 3 SMEs with complementary expertise. |
| Network | ERA-MIN 2 |
| Call | ERA-MIN Joint Call 2017 |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The French Geological Survey | Coordinator | France |
| 2 | National R&D Institute for Nonferrous and Rare Metals | Partner | Romania |
| 3 | National Institute for Research and Development in Optoelectronics INOE 2000 | Partner | Romania |
| 4 | Eskisehir Osmangazi University | Partner | Türkiye |
| 5 | Romaltyn Mining SRL | Partner | Romania |
| 6 | Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of The Polish Academy of Sciences | Partner | Poland |
| 7 | Team Group Metals Sp. z o.o. | Partner | Poland |
| 8 | AJELIS | Partner | France |