Since March he is appointed for the chair of innovation and technology ­manage­ment at the Dresden uni­versity. Dr. Simone Raatz and Prof. Jens Gutzmer informed him about the research at HIF and the successfull spinn-offs. Moreo­ver, the visionaire circulareconomy project FlexiPlant was presented.

The energy transition, more and more high-tech products, but also supply bottlenecks are putting domestic mining back into the focus of raw material extraction. But, most of the easily exploitable high-grade deposits have already been depleted. For the future, the mining sector will have to efficiently produce metals and minerals from low-grade orebodies with complex mineralogical and microstructural properties. To estimate the resources and reserves contained in a deposit, and to evaluate the potential reco­very, modelling tools that are reliable and robust are necessary. Dr. Lucas Pereira from the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) belonging to the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, developed modelling techniques of reco­very processes, more specifically mineral se­paration processes, suited to complex ores. The Helmholtz Association recognizes his thesis with the Doctoral Award in the energy research field for its creative excellence.

One of the challenges confronting our society today is the sustainable use of our resources. The concept of a circular economy, in which products, materials and componen­ts are reused and recycled within a loop, thus generating hardly any waste, is intended to meet this challenge. In order to reco­ver raw materials of all kinds (e.g. rare earth elements) in an energy-efficient and function-preserving way, it is necessary to develop a new generation of adaptive and flexible ­techno­logies and digital platforms for the processing and recycling. FlexiPlant will be a globally unique research infrastructure, to develop and test scientific models, methods and ­techno­logies for the mechanical processing of raw material in a pilot scale. The digitalization and automation of the processing system are required for transferring the processes to industrial scale. As an open transfer platform, FlexiPlant will provide a variety of research and cooperation opportunities for interested partners from academia, industry and society.