On January 15, from 10 am to 3 pm, the career fair ORTE will again take place in the Ulrich-Rülein-von Calw Sports Hall. The Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology will be represented with a booth. Get informed about entry possibilities and career opportunities. We will have current job offers and will be available to answer your questions about our research portfolio.

HIF scientist Dr. Raimon Tolosana-Delgado appointed honorary professor at TU Bergakademie Freiberg

Mining is a contro­versial topic: On the one hand, we need raw materials such as copper for the transition to climate-friendly ­techno­logies, but on the other hand, exploration and raw material extraction are primarily associated with environmental pollution and exploitation. A team of 18 European partners coordinated by the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has addressed this contro­versy in the VECTOR project, linking geosciences with data and social sciences. The results are efficient and low impact exploration methods and human-centered solutions that enable a responsible supply of critical raw materials in Europe.

Gallium is a strategically important element and the backbone of the semiconductor industry for mobile data transmission and optoelectronics applications. It is used in wafers (GaAs, GaN), electronic chips, and optical componen­ts such as LEDs and lasers. One kilogram of gallium currently costs around €1,000, and the price is rising. During industrial processing, a considerable amount of the raw material is already lost when etching or polishing processes remove material. The residues are sometimes highly diluted or the mixture is chemically complex, making reco­very by conventional chemical means difficult. This is where the research of the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) comes in. Using a biotechnological process, the wastewa­ter from Freiberger Compound Material­s is treated in a pilot scale facility and the gallium is reco­vered.

The Freiberg Short Course in Economic Geology celebrates its 20th anni­versary and will pay tribute to the ore deposits of the Variscan orogeny with the topic: Mineral Systems and Metals Endowment of the Variscan Orogeny. The event will be held at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology.