Steelmaking processes generate diverse by-products. The Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy published a review paper on pyrometallurgical valorisation techniques. However, BOF sludge, as targeted in SAMEX, remains a huge challenge.

“The Dark Side of the Circular Economy” is the title of the ELFM V Symposium Aftermovie (5-2-2020). Referring to the EC’s pending Circular Economy Action Plan the video highlights one major blind spot in this plan. How will we deal with the waste of the past?

Register now for a seminar on “Green transition challenged by the metal supply chain”. The event takes place on March 12, 2020 in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels (Belgium). Various EU H2020 projects will cluster around the challenges they face.

“Inconvenient truths of the circular economy” is the title of an interview with prof. Markus Reuter for the Aurubis magazine in which the main challenges and opportunities of recycling and the circular economy are analyzed.

The Detritus Journal dedicated a special issue on resource recovery through Enhanced Landfill Mining (December 2019). It includes the results of the NEW-MINE project. These and other findings will be debated during the Fifth ELFM Symposium on February 6, 2020 in Leuven (Belgium).

Public acceptance or the ‘Social License to Operate’ is widely acknowledged as the biggest financial risk for the mining sector. Six different perspectives and recommendations coming from six different sectors were debated during a satellite event of the EU Raw Materials Week (22 Nov. 2019).

The short movie ‘Stairway to Sustainability’ reveals the results of the MSCA-ETN SOCRATES project. The researchers have found ways to transform the various metal-containing industrial process residues into recyclables and high-added value outputs. And they even made a staircase out of it!

The Science, Engineering & Technology Group of KU Leuven, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Department of Materials Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering, has a joint, full-time academic vacancy in the area of metal recovery from mineral flows. We are...

Registration for the 5th International Symposium on Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM V; Leuven (Belgium), February 6, 2020) is now open. The event will further develop the lessons learned from ELFM IV and from the 2nd seminar on ELFM in the European Parliament.

Several PhD-students of the ETN NEW-MINE project will discuss the state-of-the-art of waste management and debate the policy changes needed to foster landfill mining in Europe at the 17th International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium (Sardinia 2019) in Italy.

Recently the mid-term event of the Interreg RAWFILL project took place in Cuves (France). More than 40 participants discussed the first results on the enhanced landfill inventory structure and the decision support tool, and the use of geophysical methods to select the most profitable landfill mining projects.

The EC’s Joint Research Centre has published a milestone report on the recovery of cricial raw materials (CRMs) from mining waste and landfills. SIM² KU Leuven & EURELCO coordinator Peter Tom Jones discusses the key conclusions of the report.