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Project Topic
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The aim of the MINECO project is to develop new eco-innovative product solutions for mining infrastructures based on waste materials resulting from the mining operation, thus contributing sustainable development. Vast amounts of mining related materials, such as tailings and waste rock, are left behind when the mine is finally closed, thus requiring sustainable treatments which, ideally, should include very high recycling rates. Sulfidic mining waste, being generated from the production of base metals as Cu, Pb, and Zn, represents the largest volume of extractive waste in Europe (ca. 600 Mtn/yr), causing a serious potential Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) hazard. In addition, the mining and processing of oil shale (OSA) produces about 18 Mtn/yr of mostly hazardous waste, in Estonia alone, and a total average of 25 Mtn/yr or stainless-steel slags (argon oxygen decarburization and electric arc furnace, AOD/EAF) are produced in Europe, most of which is landfilled. The proposed project intends to develop alternative methods to recycle sulfidic tailings, for application in infrastructures and, also, in the construction and mining industries. The combination of the excellent mechanical properties of the tailings with sustainable binders will create integrated, technically competent and environmentally optimized materials. The binders will be generated by the alkali activation technique, forming what is currently known as ‘alkali activated cements’, or AAC.
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