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discovered_01_2016 - Processing Raw Materials in Europe: Stronger Together

WWW.HZDR.DE 20 21 RESEARCH // THE HZDR RESEARCH MAGAZINE NET-FLOT: Johanna Lippmann-Pipke and Martin Rudolph at a flotation cell in the Freiberg lab. Photo: Detlev Müller // For more than half a century, there has been a successful network on flotation, which is a processing method for metal ores and industrial minerals, spanning Australia, Canada, the USA, Brazil, Chile and South Africa – with little European involvement. A new EU project, headed by HZDR, will change this by building a similarly strong network in Europe. Since January 1st of this year, HZDR scientists have been pooling skills and infrastructures in the field of flotation with thirteen partners from France, the UK, Finland, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands in a European alliance called NetFlot. Put simply, flotation means finely grinding ores and then mixing them with water and various chemicals. This renders the desired ore particles more hydrophobic, they attach to air bubbles and float to the surface. Now, they can be separated from the other substances in the form of a metal concentrate. The NetFlot partners are universities, research institutions and corporations – among them global players in ore mining and processing. What they bring to the table are various kinds of equipment, methods and measuring techniques to study, model and perform flotation processes. Once the partners are well connected in the network, these infrastructures will be shared and made available to external interested parties, as well. "To help us build this infrastructure network, we are receiving funding for travel expenditures and a half-time staff position. We are not getting any financial support for research _TEXT . Sara Schmiedel PROCESSING RAW MATERIALS IN EUROPE: STRONGER TOGETHER

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