On April 1-5, 2019, the 6th Slag Valorisation Symposium took place. More than 200 persons experienced at first hand that slag valorisation has been transformed from an academic concept into an industrial success story.

A solvometallurgical route for recycling of SmCo permanent magnets was developed by researchers from the SOLVOMET Group (SIM² KU Leuven). The method is based on non-aqueous solvent extraction to minimize water consumption.

In the framework of the EU MSCA-ETN REDMUD project, the occurrence mode of selected rare earths in neutralised-leached bauxite residue was studied by KU Leuven and NTUA. The work is published in Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy.

The SOLVOMET Group (SIM² KU Leuven), which develops solvometallurgical flow sheets, has synthesized new Deep Eutectic Solvents that can selectively dissolve metal oxides from industrial residues derived from the mining industry.

Recently the use of lead is being called into question by some policy makers. To provide a firm metallurgical background on its crucial role in the Circular Economy, the EU ETN SOCRATES team has just published a new Policy Brief.

ETN DEMETER proudly presents the flagship product of this 4 year-project: the first recyclable e-motor based on recycled NdFeB magnets. Featuring two of the DEMETER Researchers, the video highlights the e-motor’s ecobenefits.

New work by SIM² KU Leuven researchers published in Resources Conservation and Recycling demonstrates that the government policies have a much larger influence on the rare-earth supply chain disruption than physical disruptions.

How is Europe going to deal with the legacy of more than 500,000 landfills? More than 50 experts debated this question during the 2nd ELFM Seminar in the European Parliament (November 20, 2018), which was hosted by Belgian MEP Hilde Vautmans (ALDE Group). A detailed analysis of this event has now been published as a ETN NEW-MINE Policy Brief, authored ...

SIM² KU Leuven researchers developed a new, selective method to recover indium from iron-rich solutions. This work, funded through EU METGROW+, was published as a golden open access paper in Separation and Purification Technology.

On 12-11-2018, NEMO, CROCODILE and DEMETER were presented at the 2nd annual Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) event, which was co-organised by the European Commission and the H2020 project SCRREEN during the Raw Materials Week.