Metal By-product Recovery

The European Commission’s DG GROW is organising an International Conference on ‘Exchange of good practices on metal by-products recovery –technology and policy challenges’ in Brussels on 12-13 November 2015 at the Thon EU Hotel. The Conference will tackle the technology challenges as well as the policies and regulatory framework appropriate to promote the recovery of metal by-products which are currently sub-optimally exploited.

The event will provide a unique opportunity to share experiences, exchange good practices and present existing examples across the whole raw materials value chain. It will bring together industry, academia and research entities excelling in technologies to recover metal by-products, as well as relevant public entities and policy makers from the EU and from third countries.

The conference will be highly relevant to many SusChem stakeholders interested in materials and process technologies. The SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) features access to critical raw materials in its first chapter on climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials.

Existing and emerging technologies vital for the progress of our society and the competitiveness of our economy are highly dependent on the sustainable supply of raw materials. In particular, a number of scarce or critical metals play a fundamental role on innovations in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy, telecommunications, information technology and the defence industry.

Strategic metals
Many of these strategic metals are often by-products of mining, processing and recycling: they are contained in ore bodies or complex end-of life products accompanying elements of the major metals, usually at low concentrations. Nowadays, many by-products are often not properly recovered so they finish diluted in major elements or in waste streams.

There will be a specific session of the Conference aimed to promote cooperation in the field of research and innovation. Draft versions of the Horizon 2020 work programmes for 2016-2017 have recently been published online. The session will include an overview of the topics on raw materials under Societal Challenge 5 of Horizon 2020 Programme, with particular attention to the topic SC5-13b: 'New technologies for the enhanced recovery of by-products (2016)'. These draft calls reflect some of the topics outlined in the SusChem SIRA.

Registration for the conference is free but the deadline for registration is 25 October and space is limited so register soon! You can find the link to registration here.

More information
Further information on the event can be found at the dedicated conference website or contact the conference secretariat. More information on the European Commission’s actions to ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials for the European Union can be found on the DG GROW website and the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials website. The raw materials section of the SusChem website can be found here.